New Apple TV + series from Jon Stewart: the old man screams at the cloud, but he hits the point

In Jon Stewart’s very first conversation with an Apple TV + studio audience, he offers a curious farewell – in fact, that defeats the best interests of his new multi-million dollar hosting deal. “You’re probably just going to watch aggregate clips from” that first episode of The problem with Jon Stewart, he says, instead of subscribing to Apple TV +. It’s a little twisty, followed by a joke about hacking episodes of Ted lasso.

If anyone can show up to a new streaming service and make a joke at the expense of subscriptions, it’s probably Stewart. Video sharing online – and we’re talking the renegade genre, uploaded by fans and shared freely – has gone a long way towards The daily showStewart’s massive cultural imprint before Stewart left this show in 2015. And as you may have noticed, the television landscape has changed dramatically since then. These days, every major player throws stuff at the video streaming wall to see what sticks (or, in the case of Quibi last year, what absolutely doesn’t).

So, after six years away from the “fake news” office, what direction is Stewart and Apple’s new production taking? His aforementioned joke may suggest a series meant to be shared and remixed into smaller clips, but The problem comes with a different modus operandi: empathy, not sound bites, and patience, not spray. You can arguably choose bespoke zingers for quick swipes on a service like TikTok, but Stewart seems more invested in savoring the full 44 minutes of each episode. As a result, this fake news innovator is spending the runtime of his new series eliminating the “fake” from his reputation, damn expectations.

Gentle framing of busy conversations

At some point today, if not already, the pilot episode of the series will go live, and it revolves around American veterans. In particular, it tackles squarely the aggravating problem of “fireplaces” and how the United States’ decision to dispose of war waste via burn sites spanning acres (apparently a mixture of human flesh, toxic waste and other waste) appears to have caused cancer in veterinarians who had traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq. The second episode of the series, which arrives in two weeks but which I have also seen, focuses on the general topic of “freedom” and goes in several directions, ranging from the American anti-vaccines to the way the freedom of expression is threatened around the world.

Neither begins with a topical monologue filled with headlines, and neither includes discussions with comedians posing as “senior penpals.” Although both episodes open with a handful of jokes, often at Stewart’s expense, it doesn’t take long for him to settle into his seemingly dreamy role: a Dan Rather news anchor who runs a TV show. information at the local dive bar. F-bombs and sharp drops of “Are you kidding me” punctuate his analyzes filled with reporting on any topic, and he’s happy to let the anger spill over when he talks about aggrieved veterans – a subject on which it has been touched upon. and the center of public attention since testifying on Capitol Hill about the 9/11 first responders bill.

Both episodes include a similar formula: Stewart opens alone at his desk to break down a story, comment on news clips, and alternate between jokes and rants. Then pre-filmed sketches emerge during one or two mock commercials. And finally, Stewart hosts a roundtable with at least three interviewees, where he takes care to differentiate between letting guests talk about their expertise and interrupting to move the conversation forward. The latter is easily the best part of this gestation period of the first series, and it plays out almost exactly as one would expect from someone who has criticized before. Crossfire and Fox News an extracurricular hobby. Any American who’s ever logged on to overseas cable newsgroup chats and thought, “Oh, that isn’t great” will appreciate Stewart’s sweet flow of those charged conversations.