Last Week tonight with John Oliver: Homeschooling, Taylor Swift

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver faced a lot of challenges over the course of the October 8 episode. What do you focus on? There was everything that happened in the Middle East, and there is were the events in Congress over the past several days involving Kevin McCarthy.

Now, here is the real surprise to us: There really was not much on the Middle East at all within this episode. Oliver has covered the specific conflict in question in the past, and it also happened at such a point before the show recorded that there may not have been time to add in a lot. We tend to think that there will be more said about it next week.

The main focus of the episode tonight was a lengthy segment about homeschooling, including both the benefits and downsides that can come along with it. For some children, it could be a lifeline at a desperate time. For others, it could be a nightmare. If the idea for Oliver and his writers here was to provide some additional context, then mission accomplished.

Will this change anyone’s minds about the issue? Well, that’s an entirely different story. The real issue with homeschooling is that often, the people who most need the advice are the ones least inclined to listen. That has always been one of the more challenging aspects of these sort of segments. However, we will say that there were still some surprises that we did not expect here, including a presentation about textbooks and some of the controversial information that they could contain.

The best part of the episode

It has to be some of the ridiculous conspiracy theories that have come out of Taylor Swife and Travis Kelce’s relationship. More than anything, we saw this as Oliver and the producers openly mocking just how obsessed some people were on focusing on this story for the sake of news coverage.

What did you think about the October 8 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver?

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(Photo: HBO.)