John Oliver of ‘Last Week Tonight’ uses ‘Veep,’ ‘The Wire’ to plug HBO NOW service

For those of you who have longed for HBO but hated the idea of having to spend tons of money for it, a cable package, and a variety of other things, HBO NOW may be right up your alley. This is a service where you can stream and watch a variety of programs from the network from the comfort of your computer (provided you have the right broadband provider; more are coming), laptop, or smartphone. It’s a brilliant idea for the network to try given how many people don’t watch TV on their TV anymore, and also how robust of a programming library they have. Basically, $15 a month gives you streaming access to the network, and also a wide array of movies, original programming, and sporting events. It may cost more than Netflix, but you get to see things the moment that they happen.

In the video below, you can see that the network has enlisted a rather smart pitchman in John Oliver, who is riding high off of that brilliant Edward Snowden interview on “Last Week Tonight.” Here, he gives a reasonably-funny commercial spot for the product, name-dropping some great shows like “Veep” and “The Wire.”

We have already seen some people out there complaining about Oliver actually promoting something that he was probably hired by the network to do, and that’s somewhat insane. What do you not want John to do something that the network is offering him out of respect? HBO doesn’t mess around; they want the right person to do the job. Clearly, they think so highly of Oliver that he can sell this without looking like a salesman.