Full frontal with Samantha Bee S01E03

Full frontal with Samantha Bee S01E03

Samantha Bee ( veteran Daily Show correspondent) is the first female late night host in American television, and her show Full Frontal, takes a detailed look into issues dealing with current events and women's issues.

In this weeks episode, she discusses how Donald Trump has managed to gain the support of evangelicals all over South Carolina, even though the Pope dismissed him as non christian and his stance on issues is extremely radical . He said he would ban and shoot Muslims with pork dipped bullets, which is beyond horrendous and yet the populace of South Carolina still Voted for him!?! She also reveals how Gov. John Kasich isn't the moderate he claims himself to be, and has had the most measurably damaging legislative effects on Abortion rights & womens freedom than any other Republican candidate still running for president.

Samantha then seg-ways into sexual assault on women, stating how female park rangers & cruise line workers are regularly propositioned for sex as well as threatened and raped on a constant basis. Afraid to lose their jobs and lively hood, many women have their dignities taken from them and forced to remain silent about these incidents under fear and guilt.In the words of one of Samantha's interview guests, "Cruise ships are like Rape town USA" Samantha does a great job in showing how sexual assaults and harassment of women occurs in every facet of the work force and needs to be dealt with. If you think your not affected by this, think about your kids and what they may have to go through one day if this culture of taking advantage of the vulnerable isn't changed.

After  a brief commercial break, Samantha moves on to the Syrian refugee crisis and how 4.6 million people have been displaced from their homes. States like Arizona are passing bills to completely ban immigration of Syrians to their state, and Samantha succinctly informs the audience that only 2200 ( less than 1/4th of 1% of the displaced population) even make it to the United states. To shun them away now, only brings to light the hypocrisy, fear and lack of empathy that lies in the hearts of these state officials, who have wavered from the ideals of what America was founded upon.

Samantha then becomes a guest Teacher at an American culture class for immigrants and does a hilariously awesome job in conveying the sincerity of theses immigrants to simply find a peaceful and fulfilling life for themselves and their family. These survivors of torture and tragedy are only looking for a place to realize their potentials and have the opportunity to become productive members of society, which has always been the promise of America.

She ends the show, with John Kasich's government cancelling all funding to planned parenthood!

Till next week.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver S03E02

Last week tonight with John Oliver S03E02

After a wonderful tenure at The Daily Show, John Oliver has finally found his unique space with Last Week Tonight on HBO. Following in the steps of The Daily Show's comedic approach to current events, Last Week Tonight lends a very credible and humorous voice to issues that should be of concern to all of us, no matter which part of the globe we reside in, even though they may fly under the radar of mainstream news.

In this weeks episode, John starts out with the Pope VS Donald Trump, the infallible force against the illogical object. Even after the Pope's statement of Trumps non-christian-ness, The logic & common sense defying Donald resoundingly won over South Carolina voters, just as he has been winning the rest of America's republican voters. At this point, it really seems that he could go out and literally shoot someone and still win the republican vote.

He then moves on to the supreme court nomination debacle. Constitutionally, it is completely within president Obama's pervue to nominate a new supreme court justice, even though he is on the last leg of his presidency. Ted Cruz and the republican camp have been campaigning heavily against this with claims of precedents and "facts" (in the republican sense, facts may as well read as - self serving lies to further their agenda's. ) But none of this gets by the Last Week Tonights's amazing research team, as they debunk, rather humorously, each one of the republicans moves to gather public support to prevent Obama's nomination of a new supreme court justice. He disproves their "facts" and lays waste to the republicans ad campaign, which are so disingenuous & lazy in representing the true voters that they had resorted to using stock images and videos to half-ass-edly push their agenda. Bravo Last Week team for cutting through the republican BS.

In a brief interlude, Oliver ( or rather the voice over guy with the awesome voice) takes a stab at the recent "Oscars is so white" issue and the ever enduring Hollywood whitewashing of non-white characters. There is no denying that white privilege exists in Hollywood (or rather the entire United States), and Hollywood takes huge leaps of liberties in portrayals of exotic characters. Giving .multiple examples and succinctly pointing out this glaring fact, Last Week Tonight bring this uncomfortable truth out to the audience in a funnily palatable way.
 Moving on to the main topic for tonight's show - Breast implants.
 No wait... Abortion Laws

 Oliver starts with how the states of  North & South Dakota, Mississippi and Missouri have only one abortion clinic for the entire state thanks to the primary legal case of precedent being "Planned Parenthood Vs Casey , 1991" instead of "Roe V. Wade, 1973", as most would have believed. The caveat of the Planned Parenthood Vs Casey ruling allows for Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers, which is so vaguely described that it allows Republicans to use almost any form of misleading rhetoric, to serve their Anti-abortion agenda.
The way the republican establishment disguises their oxymoronic agenda under the sentence " safety and well being of women" is quite a disturbing trend and raises more questions than answers. The "TRAP" caveat makes it increasingly difficult for abortion facilities to setup or even operate, which Oliver's delves into, in his own witty, sharp and eye opening manner. The republican establishments strongest excuse to continue on this path of anti abortion has and continues to be " protecting womens health" which both the AMA & American institute of Gynecologist have explained is in no way connected to abortions. Consider this,  Legal abortions have a mortality rate of 0.00073% which is 10 times less than the mortality rate from a routine colonoscopy!(0.007%)

Another issue Oliver points out is the States requirements of a disclaimer from the physician which is completely untrue and non-factual. Dr. Willy Parker, lays it out straight, that even though his state forces him to claim higher risk of breast cancer from abortions, there is ZERO medical & scientific evidence to back it up. The state requires him to actively spread mis-information, which one can find to be quite sinister & insincere of the State and the people running it and their agenda. John Oliver sums it up perfectly when he says, " It must be weird for a women to witness her medical professional playing a game of good doctor bad doctor."
The laws have grown so in-considerate that women are forced to see & hear the fetal heartbeat and image before abortion, and if she chooses not too, she must close her eyes and ears, rather than simply have the monitor turned off. The republicans continue to play on their most un-educated & backward strategy of fear and guilt, to try to get their way. Oliver highlights the plight of an Alabama clinic, Alabama's Women Center ( from the documentary Trapped, 2016) where even after establishing a new clinic, which met all the requirements of the new abortion law,found no respite as the State began proposing new laws to specifically target them - more specifically to treat them commiserate to Sex offenders!

Whats surprising though, is how even the staunchest pro-life supporters still believe that abortion is acceptable in certain situations, yet still allow Anti-abortion laws to grow to such an un-comfortably extreme level.
This episode lays out so much detail about the critical situation of abortion laws and the suffering they have caused women ( including rape victims as young as 13 years old!) in the United States, I highly recommend you check it out and grow a heart, for those who still don't get It and fail to empathize with others.
To end this HEAVY post, I will take a page out of Oliver's book, with some "sloths in a bucket". Till next week.

Vikings Season 4 so far...

Vikings season 4 so far... Episode 1

The history channels answer to Game of Thrones is back - Vikings! An utterly wonderful re-imagining of the Norse king Ragnar's conquest, Vikings has been a surprisingly entertaining and unique TV show which deserves all the praise it gets. Extremely well produced and with intense acting, the story line serves well to bring the adventures of the battle-born northerners to the the casual TV watcher. Filled with plenty of twists, blood-gore-violence, sex and the expected-unexpected deus ex machina at then end of every season, it is a definite HIT for the History channel. Now running into its 4th season, one wonders how the story of Ragnar and his Nordic empire will proceed. If my history lessons serve right, Ragnar's demise is imminent (as the introduction to Vikings season 4 suggests) but i wouldn't begrudge the show writers for any liberties they may take to prolong the entertaining journey Ragnar has taken us on in the Vikings TV show. More of my views on the show later...

In this seasons opener, we find Ragnar in a dream trying to attain the gates of Valhalla, where he openly hopes to find his eternal peace, but alas he survives the mortal wounds he suffered in the last season and is weak but alive. His wife meanwhile is planning strategies for her ascension to the throne, of which more is expected to come as the season progresses.

Lagartha returns to her village and with the aid of the new earl deals with those her "haters" in the most gruesome and satisfying way. Bjorn meets his daughter but shows no interest in taking care of her. Understanding now the profound affect Athelstein had on his father and that Athelstein was truly a friend to their cause, calls for the arrest of Loki for Athelsteins murder. Ragnar, much weaker than before, bemoans Bjorn's decision to have Loki arrested, since it interferes with his own agenda to Kill him discretely and satisfy his revenge lust for the murder of Athelstein.

Meanwhile in Paris, Rollo is betroth to the Parisian princess( who hates every moment of it.) He turns on the remaining Viking troops that had stayed behind in wait for Ragnar to return, and ambushes them ( with the aid of the army of Paris) and betrays Ragnar's cause once again.

There were many great moments in this return to the Viking franchise which I would suggest you check out and experience for yourself rather than me spoiling too much of it for you.
Welcome back Vikings, and expect more weekly vikings updates from The TV Show Reviewer. 

Arrow Season 4 So Far

Arrow season 04 so far... up to Episode 14

Arrow has been one of my favorite TV shows for the last couple of years. Initially I dismissed its premise,as another stereotypical superhero rehash TV show, but once I actually started watching it, I was pleasantly surprised by what it had to offer. It wasn't just another run of the mill hero show as I had assumed it would be. This show had depth.It had two stories running simultaneously ( Starling City and the island) as well as a realistic ordinary protagonist whose journey & transformation was believable and understandable. His hardships on the island transformed the playboy Oliver Queen through pain and the suffering of loss to became better more responsible person.The evolution of Oliver queen from a selfish trust fund baby to the green arrow, whose only desire was to help his city, was one that was compelling and a blast to watch.

Not afraid to kill off characters, advancing the story line every episode and delivering an A grade performance from most of the cast, it had quickly become a staple diet in my weekly TV show routine. The Arrow's season 1, 2 & 3 have by far been one of the finest hours television programming in recent years.

Jump to Season 4 and the Arrow has taken leaps and bounds in what can be considered believable in its story line and progression.  With season 1 starting out to be a great mix of real world believability with a pinch a super hero fantasy, the season to come has dived in head first into un-believability and the only fabric holding it together is the emotional drama between the characters and the casts stellar performances. It appears that The Arrow has morphed their characters into stereotypical caricatures of whom they once were, and simply adding a few moments of endearment in an attempt to make them more believable to the viewer. They built these one wonderful characters with depth in season 1 and then inflated them, like a helium balloon as the seasons progress. More on this later.

Shoot Idiot!

 In this episode,  Team Arrow discovers that Damien Dark's wife has been the elusive rival to Oliver's run at mayor. Thea finds out about William ( Oliver's illegitimate son) Lance seems to have become a regular at the Arrow lair, replacing his alcohol bottle with what appears to be coffee. Hive plans to bomb the mayoral debate but are thwarted. Curtis gifts felicity a bio stimulus implant, that could allow her to walk again. The episode ends with Dark having taken William and keeps him as an inevitable hostage to get an edge over the green arrow.