Being Bored With The 81st Oscars

The 81st Annual Academy Awards are now over. Or as I often referred to the program: A celebration of films no one but critics and, apparently, the Academy actually saw. It was possibly the most boring night of television I can remember enduring, and it was compounded with only one sort of surprise win. I never thought I’d be thankful for Sean Penn to win over Mickey Rourke at this year’s Oscars, but at least it was something new. Not that it was a huge deal as Rourke was only talked about more than Penn, but I'm sure Sean's portrayal had him as a favorite. You can't go full retard, but clearly you can go full homo.

The droll telecast was hosted by Hugh Jackman, and I’m going to give him a passing grade for his work. He did exactly what we expected – which fit nicely with the theme of no surprises – and was charming in his role. This was definitely a year where the show wanted to revert back to tradition, rather than trying to drum up excitement with a controversial or outspoken host. In that aspect Jackman was perfect for the role. Plus his singing and dancing was spot on as I imagine thousands of geeks the world over asking, “Wolverine sings and dances?”

It was a combination of the nominees and the way the telecast was put together that left me constantly putting an effort into staying awake. In order to keep time down it was decided for the acting categories we’d have to listen to five former winners give their own mini-speeches, and yet the winners were supposed to keep it under forty-five seconds. That hardly seems fair, or logical. Granted there were moments during these extended presentation sessions where you got the effect of the celebration of actors. I’m certain that was the intent, but in general it just dragged the show along more than necessary.

A few presenters had funny or touching moments, as you’d expect. But there’s only one set that really deserves to be noted: Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Yes I put Tina’s name first because she’s more relevant and funny now, but Steve was right there with her. Their banter was Oscar typical with a bit of extra bite until Tina Fey uttered the greatest phrase in recent Oscar memory: “They don’t want to hear about our religion…that we made up.”

Leaving out action and comic films like Iron Man and Dark Knight is a mistake that needs to be rectified. I’ll leave our movie team to discuss the merits of fixing this wrong, but for us TV folk we’re bored by an award ceremony celebrating films we don’t know or care about. Did you notice the amount of WALL-E love during the show? TV Section Editor Kelly West and I both believe that is because people at home know WALL-E, and the Oscars needed something for us to care about between musical numbers.

You can check out our coverage of the Oscars here for a full list of the winners and commentary on the show itself.