Bill is militantly atheist, idealistically liberal to a fault, has true TDS, and doesn't really get life for anyone born after 1980, but he approaches it all with good humor and an independent mind. Which makes for a good comedy news show.

Those iconic reaction shots of his guests during his monologues tell you much of what you need to know about Bill Maher's narcissistic style of talk-show. I'm not even mad at his ultra-centrist libertarianism; it's oblivious to every real problem, but at least it's not as grating as the woke pandering of "The Daily Show" or downright evil like whatever is on Fox. I agree with him on a bunch of things, he's just off-puttingly stuck up.

Decent discussions with smart guests, but Bill always puts a downer spin on everything.

No matter what I think of it, really, it's still one of my favorite shows to watch

I watch it every Friday. I don't agree with everything Bill or his guests say, but that's exactly the point.

Fucking Liberals

only watched one episode. didn't agree with half the stuff he said but that's ok, the real problem is that it didn't cause a single laugh.

He is rightfully called out on his smugness, but I find he errs just on the side of watchability compared to other liberal pundits. Isn't afraid to piss off either side of the aisle, which makes him just about stand alone.

I think Maher provides one of the truly open forums for political discussion. I do think he sometimes can get too aggressive, but his guests can almost always hold their own anyway. Maher himself can be annoying, too, but he also can be very funny.

Too much self-indulgence. The role of the crowd is a bit weird, adding to a circlejerky atmosphere and enabling said indulgence.

Some episodes are terrific, but others get really uncomfortable in the panel discussion where Bill often sets the wrong precedent and makes things unnecessarily ugly. I felt terrible for John Cleese when he was on the other day and became obviously distressed and confused. You will not find better political punditry around though, which I guess says more about political punditry than anything else.

Despite Maher's smugness, I will always credit him with speaking his piece and going beyond the one line catchphrase most of the pundits stop at. He is wrong often, but it remains one of the few fairly open forums (conservatives are always invited).

Back in the Bush era Real Time was interesting to watch; the war on drugs/terror, taking religion seriously etc. were all contested. Most of the score comes from remembering that plus the occasional brilliant guest. Maher himself is terrible though, possibly the smuggest man alive on top of being unfunny. Stopped watching years ago due to that as well as his Bari Weiss/Andrew Sullivan-esque "centrism" (i.e. woke ideology is as bad as literal fascism) which got very noticeable around 2015/2016.