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"Real Time with Bill Maher" More at IMDbPro »

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27 reviews in total

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25 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Unstable mix of Politics and Comedy., 12 March 2005
Author: Son_of_Mansfield from Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

Of course, some people are attracted to the unstable. I have to watch this show whenever I notice it is on, even when I find it to be an episode that I have already seen. You are never sure if you should laugh or wince as Bill takes aim at everything ridiculous about America. He even lets himself be ridiculed, which is the mark of a fair commentator. The guests on his shows frequently disagree with him and the show is more fun when they disagree. The first time I really took to Bill's style was watching a show where one of the guests(Andrew Sullivan, I think) slammed a comment of Bill's that they then discussed for a few minutes. The only thing I don't like about the show is that it is too short. Bill frequently has to cut discussions off to make way for other topics, which gives it the feel in pace of PTI. An important show with a perfect home in HBO, where you can actually say what you want to say.

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23 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
Finally, something intelligent, 11 March 2003
Author: neophoenix from United States

It has been a long time, a very long time, before I have seen something intelligent on TV. I never watched "Politically Incorrect"; I just never got into that show. But I do like the political nature of Bill Maher's comedy and prose, and while I do not agree on all his points, I do deeply respect his true representation of them; he doesn't mollify his points because others may not want hear them. This is something truly refreshing. If you don't like flagrant intellectualism and polar politics, this show isn't for you. However, if you have an open mind and want to hear some of the questions people don't want you to ask, this IS for you.

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13 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Outspoken and raw, well done it informs and educates us about politics. Bill Maher your doing a good job., 27 March 2006
Author: Danny Blankenship from Petersburg, Virginia

One of the best reasons to watch HBO, is "Real Time with Bill Maher" a 60-minute program that is no holds barred and pulls no punches back. Comedian Bill Maher is your host starting the show off with stand-up jokes, then his program becomes real as he and selected guest talk about real issues in the world from political, social, entertainment, and environmental you name it. Unlike other news host Maher always comments on issues with a unique and bitchy comic twist, which being on a network like HBO lets him do that, making him much better from when he hosted "Politically Incorrect" on ABC. Even though Maher is a liberal democrat a fact that he doesn't hide he always includes a priceless panel of pairings of liberals, moderates, and even always at least one republican or conservative guest each week so that way you get to hear both sides of the story on the most hot-button political issues in discussion format. So don't miss it when it runs on HBO on Fridays at 11PM, check your listing though like most HBO series this is a program that starts each season at a different month. Watch you'll be sorry if you don't.

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16 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
Bill Maher is back and better than ever. Even fans of "PI" may find the off-the-leash Maher too strong, raw and abrasive., 15 October 2006
Author: liquidcelluloid-1 from www.liquidcelluloid.blog.com

Network: HBO; Genre: News Analysis, Comedy; Content Rating: TV-MA (profanity, sexual humor); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series

As a more conservative-minded person (70% of the IMDb readers just skipped to another review) I've always found Bill Maher to be a social guilty pleasure and an intellectual workout. The late-night roundtable series "Politically Incorrect" was network TV's first and last introduction to the silver-tongued comedian, not to mention a regular time-slot favorite of mine. Whether telling us that pregnancy isn't "sexy" or that all Christians are brainwashed bigots, Maher is a true original who challenges the audience and their safe notions that the First Amendment only protects speech that they like. I say this because HBO's "Real Time" is so free; your likeness of it will directly relate to how much you like Maher and, in a time when everybody wants to listen to ideological parrots, your likeness of him may relate to your own politics.

I defended Maher on his supposedly controversial post-9/11 comments on "PI", though in retrospect being kicked off ABC and onto HBO was the best thing that could have happened to Maher. "Real Time" allows Maher to be his clever, acerbic and deeply iconoclastic best. It is a fully open venue to speak his mind, shape it into riotous laughs and rip into the hot button issues of the week, his own annoyances and his own personal enemies without commercials to break the momentum and network TV channel changers flipping by and catching his comments out of context. Even fans of "PI" might find a now off-the-leash Maher too strong, raw or abrasive.

It all works like dynamite because the guy is funnier, smarter and a better interviewer than Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and David Letterman combined. He really asks the tough questions and pins down the guest to answer them. In the final New Rules segment Maher's rapid-fire wit is shown to be in top form. At any point, his off-the-cuff improvisations are laugh-out-loud funny. He's also more out in the open about his angry liberalism than Letterman (I'm afraid Letterman is really going to explode one day). From one angle you could say that its anger holds it back from really reaching the comic heavens. Maher hates President George W. Bush and the way he twists every joke back to the "Bush is an Idiot" punch-line becomes repetitive and tiresome. The show has a one-track mind. Bush and the Republicans only get a brief break when Maher goes after the ding-bat celebrity of the moment.

The really accented problem with "Real Time" is the audience. For one of TV's smartest infotainment shows it has TV's dumbest audience. Listen as they clap and cheer at the mention of faile US foreign policy or soldiers who come back from war missing limbs in a twisted backward celebration of something they think legitimizes their view. You have to admire anybody remotely conservative who braves this lion's den, gets the back of their ears flicked all night by Maher and the 2 other guests ganging up on them and still maintains their composure. Often the show gets me heated and occasionally Maher's jokes even go off the edge and into tacky, but that is the razor's edge of iconoclastic comedy. It doesn't work if someone isn't offended. A knee-jerk reaction would be to wish that Maher balance it out, but that would be disingenuous wouldn't it? That wouldn't be Bill Maher.

"Real Time" is a red-hot ideological spit wad show. Nobody is able to or given the time on TV to lay out a linear-logical liberal case the way that Maher can on this show. Conversley, the arguments many of the guests are making feel either insightful or clueless and circle, which is another reason the show is such an addicting watch. Conservatives should be listening to Maher the way liberals should be listening to Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh. There is also something special about it, tucked away on HBO. "Real Time" is like looking through the keyhole and in on a private New York cocktail party where politicians, pundits, actors, salon.com writers, musicians and other pseudo-intellectuals get together, sit around, complain about middle America, pontificate about the world going to hell, pretend that Maureen Dowd is funny and generally pat themselves on the back making themselves feel like geniuses and think their rants are accomplishing something - except on "Real Time" there is probably more smiling and laughing.

Freedom, baby, freedom. To debate and freedom to be heard in your entirety. "Real Time" is the greatest testament to it on American television. A work that becomes great because HBO (a network that craps quality) simply lets the inmates run the asylum. This is an addictive hour of TV that I only wish it was on more regularly. It is great to have Bill Maher back and better than ever. Unequivically, this show is awesome.

* * * * / 4

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
All those who see the show have something to say, 25 April 2009

Author: batudingin from Indonesia

I am a Podcaster and listener, and this show is never far away from my mp3 player or computer. I needed more insight about what is going on, but it is hard in this time, at least it is hard to find the "right" information because of all the "right." The show is often criticized by the way bill makes his way to his point, which is often cruel, direct and very blunt. But this is a little price to pay for engaging in a conversation so damn controversial even David Letterman himself would say: "I don't think that I have ever done that before." Looking forward for more Maher and new rules. I do think that the show should be more often that it is, but that being said we do not want bill to get fired for anything anywhere anymore.

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10 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
one of the best topical shows, certainly one of the funniest, on TV now, 14 August 2005
Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

In an time when the pundits and talking heads on the "news" networks, or what constitutes as them, bring on guests with usually partisan sides, and making wisecracks that aren't funny, there's Bill Maher. While his counterpart, Jon Stewart, has perhaps the best overall program of political/social satire on cable, Maher's program follows very close behind. The show starts off often with a great opening joke of the week, with Maher sometimes in costume (I think I once saw him as the Pope), or with actors playing some strange, hilarious part. Then he moves into the typical news of the week. But then come the guests, and this is where the goods come in. Often news shows try and make things "fair and balanced" (and the station that professes this the most does it the least), but Maher keeps it real. While his audience is sometimes more leaning to the left, he doesn't shy away from having on the right wing or conservatives, and then it brings about intelligent, sometimes cringe-worthy, discussions. Finally the show ends with "New Rules", that vary from small laughs to the biggest Maher gives on the show. There's something about Real Time- not just that Maher is funny and is on the ball with current events- that makes it a solid, thought provoking hour of television, especially in times like these. We need people to really be discussing the issues, even if its for laughs.

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11 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
A very cool political round table, 28 March 2003
Author: Slopmaster4001 from Phoenix, AZ

Like another reviewer I never really got into PI or "Politically Incorrect" either. I think mainly because it was to short on top of commercials. Also I really felt like Bill Maher had to hold back because he was on network Television. However he is truly at home on HBO where he and his guests can curse what ever they like with out those nasty censors saying no.

I have to say I in addition to the usually very good round table discussion I really like new rules, the comedy bits. I think this show is very well balanced. The idea that now Bill Maher gets to have what guests he wants is great and to have some of them as semi-regular guests is a great consistency.

Honestly I really can't say enough about this show because during the week leading up to Friday and there is big news I just can't wait to see what Bill Maher and his guests are going to say. You know it will make you mad, sad or just plain apathetic.

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8 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Engaging and funny for those on the left but even then Maher himself can be extreme and disruptive at times, 5 May 2008
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

This political comedy and discussion show has run on HBO for the many years now but it is only last year that I started getting into it because my brother, who lives in North America, mentioned he prefers it to The Daily Show. This was enough to make it catch my eye shortly after when I was surfing iTunes and saw that this was available as a free podcast. As a result I'm afraid I cannot comment on the design and appearance of this as a television show, but if I had to guess I'd say its layout is pretty much the same as Leno etc but with some of it spent at an oval shaped table. That's a guess and really it doesn't matter so much because what makes me keep coming back to this is the audio.

OK so we have the odd visual gag but mostly the podcast is just as good as it would be if it was on television – perhaps better because the lack of images means you end up focusing on the words. Each week I find the panel discussion mostly lively and engaging, the stand-up routine funny and the interview sections interesting. However I am a liberal and as such I am the choir for the majority of the comments made in this show and I totally understand why, given the partisan nature of US politics, that as many people hate it as love it. The reason for this is Maher himself and ironically he is a weakness to the show.

This is the first time I really have had a lot of experience with him and it says a lot that, even as a left-leaner, I find him very extreme at times. I'm not saying that I am right but I think that it does help to step back and look at the media in the US. As was recently discussed on this show, the Right clearly have the talk-radio sown up and this is where the "nuts" (from a Left point of view) reside, spitting out far-right opinions unchallenged. To me Maher is on the other extreme even if the show itself offers a bit of balance by having a mix of political views represented. However while others get their say, the show is ultimately Maher's and he does tend to dominate. Although it is unlikely that even-handed discussion will ever come out when opposites sides of the spectrum are together, it does often happen that both sides make good points in their favour – only for Maher to steam across the conservative view with his opinion. Of course the audience applauds but it takes away from the balanced and intellectual appeal of parts of the show and does make it feel a bit like a show for liberal "nuts".

I'm not aligning the two extremes though because the show does at least have a bit of balance in there and, with Maher a bit more restrained in the panel bits, it could be a lot more valuable as a political discussion show. I have no issue with him in the intro or the "new rules" because this is all him and he can lean heavily to the left without harm; it is just the panel where he needs to lean back more, focus on being a bit less involved and just prevent things getting out of control. Instead he tends to let it get out of control and then boom across everyone with his view, take the applause and then move on. Indeed it was only a few weeks ago that one of his guests did say to him "you always have to be one step away from madness don't you?".

Real Time is good though, don't get me wrong, if it wasn't I would not keep coming back to it. It is not as funny as The Daily Show but it is funny. It is not as balanced and interesting as the This Week with George Stephanopoulos discussions but yet it is still engaging as a political discussion show. I suppose it works somewhere in the middle of the two although even liberals will find Maher's inability to hold back a bit grating and disruptive at times – those on the right probably don't need to be told that they'll be upset!

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10 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
One of the best political commentators on T.V., 6 March 2003
Author: rochambeau83 from Lacey, Washington

It is really good to see Bill Maher back on T.V. I have loved his cleverly inserted analogies of everything that happens in the world and he always does so in a way that makes you laugh and think in the issue he uses that on. He always has some very good discussions in his trademark round table panel in which he brings in interesting people from fellow political commentators to comedians to celebrities, and this time he avoids having carrot top on. Of course one would have to agree with him on many issues and that is hard for most to do being he is a very liberal voice. however if you actually listen you learn that what he does best is make you question what is happening instead of being fed the answer like some commentators.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Smart, Funny, and Important., 15 August 2009

Author: tokyostreetkiller from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I don't usually wright reviews so I'll be short: Real Time with Bill Maher is a 1 hour show on HBO based around a "roundtable" discussion and debate that addresses US politics, policies, foreign affairs and domestic issues with honesty, humor and a slightly liberal bias. Despite that bias, the show and it's host Bill Maher remain objective throughout but with a tendency to lean left in a humorous way.

Since I'm not tied to any political party I tend to really enjoy the whole essence of this show. Nothing Bill says will offend me, although he tends to offend a lot of people who are mostly conservatives. That said, he is also critical of liberals as well. He's not afraid to critique or question either side.

The show is filmed in front of a live audience which, in my opinion takes away from the show. The audience is almost 100% liberal and will applaud everything negative towards conservatives and they tend to gang up on Republican guests of the show. That to me is a drawback. Audience participation is the reason why I can't stand The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. While I respect Jon Stewart, his audience is very annoying and it takes away credibility from the show's claim to be news. It seems that The Daily Show is more-so entertainment and caters to a less mature demographic. Not to sound snobby, but I'm just saying. Real Time's audience doesn't go that far nor does the show stick so faithfully to entertaining it's audience. While the show does make you laugh, it remains a poignant piece of political news and satire without being too goofy.

Towards the end of the show Bill Maher does his "New Rules" segment which is basically just a taste of his stand up routine. The segment consists of about 5 or 6 "New Rules". The last "New Rule" however is not a joke, it is a heartfelt and passionate commentary on the state of American culture, politics and overall standing in the world. It is sometimes alarming, other times it's depressing but it's always important. It is with this finale that we see Maher's true passion for his country. He may be a pot smoking, snobby, liberal douche bag but he's still an American. And it's obvious that he truly cares about his country and where it's headed. It's important to see through the facade and understand the point he is trying to make, it maybe funny and satirical but it's something we all need to hear. Whether we agree with it or not, it's a step forward in attaining a greater understanding with which we could help ourselves and our country for the future.

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