John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight' May Have Produced the Best Episode of TV This Year

By Emily Cutler | Videos | April 6, 2015 |

By Emily Cutler | Videos | April 6, 2015 |

I don’t want to argue that Last Week Tonight should become an hour- long show. Part of the reason the show works so well is because they’ve got an entire week to put a show together and research it properly. Requiring more material could degrade the quality of the show, force them to make stories where there are no stories, and no one wants that.

But, holy shit, guys. Anytime you want an extra 15 or 20 minutes, you go ahead and take it.

Last night’s episode on Edward Snowden, the leaked documents regarding the NSA’s surveillance programs, and the resulting fallout might have been the best 45 minutes of TV this year. And it might be the best treatment of the Snowden scandal ever produced. Granted I haven’t yet seen the Oscar winning documentary Citizen Four, but I can’t imagine at any point the documentary producers asked Snowden to explain the NSA programs as they relate to dick pics. Sadly, but to Oliver’s credit, that might be the most compelling argument for most Americans.

Thirty-three minutes is long for a TV “clip,” but take the time and watch it. It’s beginning-to-end amazing.