All told, this seemed like a pretty good Oscars. I thought Jimmy Kimmel was sharp, and not smug; he knew how to poke fun without belittling anyone; he docked the ship five minutes early; he honored the crew and the Teamsters and their hard work and support of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, especially meaningful as their deals come up in June and a strike is widely anticipated in August; and his writers did a good job with amusing bits for the presenter teams, all of which felt like they landed (unless I’m forgetting something?).
Generally, I prefer seeing clips of the nominated work to speeches about each actor from a bunch of other actors, but I also do get that the Oscars are the last in a LONG line and too often the clips they would use are the same ones we’ve gotten all along. But some of those intros were deeply personal, and some felt like no one had watched the movie; nearly ALL of them were dripping in hyperbole. But even with all that, the show didn’t run long, and it DID feel like a celebration of the industry, at least more so than usual. So it goes in the win column for me, no matter what the ratings are.
PS: We also went deep into the highs and lows of last night over at Drinks With Broads!
