The Return of Jon Stewart
Last night, the new series, The Problem with Jon Stewart premiered on Apple TV+. I thought the show was inconsistent, with flaws though overall good, and at times wonderful. It's NOT "The Daily Show" and isn't trying to be. Anyone expecting a comedy program will be disappointed, and if that's your mind-set going in, it might take a while to adjust. It's far more serious, delving into a single issue. But it's still funny, at times very funny, and includes comedy bits, some which worked, some that didn't.
I found it a sort of cross between The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Real Time with Bill Maher and 60 Minutes. The topic this week was on a major health issue with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the result of toxic fumes from burning pits getting rid of dangerous waste. The panel discussion was a bit dry as TV fare, but what was being said was fascinating and galling. For me, I thought the best part of the show was when Stewart went to Washington to interview the Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough. It was all very polite and thoughtful, but what began low-key built into a tough, challenging discussion -- never confrontational, since the McDonough tended to agree with Stewart, but informative and showed Stewart's grasp of the issue and skill.
(My favorite moment of the interview, indicative of the sensibility, was when Stewart said that he believed that Secretary McDonough truly did want to solve the problems -- to which McDonough very politely interrupted, "I don't give a shit," explaining that he really didn't care what Stewart thought of him, the only people whose reaction he cared about were veterans.)
More to the point, judging the show with any "finality" on only its first episode (or even first few) misses how a show like this will change and develop as it learns its "voice." A lot too will depend on what the subject is for the week. But above all, every show needs to find its footing, what it wants to do and how best to do, what works -- and a show like this needs to find that more than most since, at its start, it's somewhat unstructured.
Mainly, it's great to have him back.
After a bit of behind-the-scenes footage on preparation discussions for the show, here's the first segment -- which is the one part closest to The Daily Show.
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