It’s easy to understand why someone might not bet on Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Charismatic as its host may be, the series airs on Netflix—which has never been able to make a late-night show work.

The good news? If anyone can turn that around, it’s Hasan Minhaj.

With Patriot Act, Minhaj has given Netflix its first truly topical talk program. The premise is simple: Minhaj concentrates entirely on a single topic in each weekly, sub-30-minute episode, explaining its nuances while standing before a wall of L.E.D. screens rather than sitting at a desk. As Minjah explained in an interview conducted before its debut, his show is also personal in ways that are both quickly apparent and more subtle. Everything about Patriot Act seems careful and intentional, giving it a refreshing momentum—even if it might strike viewers at first as simply a millennial version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

“We have the TLC and the level of care that you put into a Drake concert,” Minhaj said during our interview, “but you’re also learning!”

Minhaj self-deprecatingly refers to the show as a “woke TED Talk” in the second episode—and even if there’s truth to that assessment, his work is compelling. From the very beginning, Minhaj is sure-footed as he breaks down, in episodes 1 and 2, the role Asian-Americans are playing in a battle to end affirmative action and America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, as well as his own conflicted relationship with the country as a Muslim. Savvy viewers might notice that Minhaj has a personal stake in both those stories—and that’s a conscious choice.

“That, to me, is interesting,” Minhaj said. “That, to me, is a lot more than just ‘Hey let’s play the clip and make fun of the clip.’ I’m trying to do everything that I can to put myself into the driver’s seat of the narrative, of like, ‘Hey, I understand why this is such a complicated and sticky issue.’ And, sometimes, admit if I’ve been on the wrong side of things, too.”

There is really no other show within the late-night genre quite like Patriot Act—even John Oliver’s. The hosts share a general format and a wonk-like zeal for numbers and deep reporting, but Minhaj’s tone and approach render such comparisons limited, even reductive. Where most hosts wear a suit, Minhaj wears a sweater and slacks. Where many default to snark, Minhaj seems less guarded—and is quick to mine his own life for illustrative anecdotes, even when they’re not flattering. “I thought I wasn’t going to get into Stanford because some black kid was going to take my spot,” he says at one point in episode 1. “But I didn’t get into Stanford because I was dumb.”

Still, the list of stars who have tried and failed to launch similar shows on Netflix contains no shortage of talent. Perhaps the deck is stacked against the streaming service: the extemporaneous nature of this format is completely at odds with its ethos as a platform, even at a time when so many people consume TV—especially late night—after it airs.

Unless, of course, it isn’t. “Netflix is a place where the medium is the message,” Minhaj said. “It’s timely, but also it’s timeless. People go to Netflix to escape time.” And so, rather than bashing the latest crazy news story to come out of Trumpland, Patriot Act focuses on more evergreen topics, with an eye toward making a finished product that ages better than a more procedural late-night program. Being on Netflix also presents another intriguing opportunity to Minhaj: an international audience.