Weekend roundup, part 2: The Oscar show

EVERY year, people have complaints about the Oscar host. The host isn't funny enough, the host is too edgy, the host is too tame, the host is too boring... basically, the host can't do anything right. Seth MacFarlane last night? Not that bad. Were his jokes off color? Sure, but what did you expect? Some people took his jokes as being mean-spirited, but I didn't see it that way. I find Family Guy to be mean-spirited at times, and MacFarlane was much tamer than that last night.

I mean, yes, he did have a musical number about breasts, he made a joke about women not being able to let anything go, he made a Chris Brown/Rhianna joke. Oooh shocking. Except, not really. It's as if people are waiting to be offended at the start of a show. If MacFarlane didn't try to make off color jokes, people would be complaining that he was too soft, not edgy enough. I thought his jokes were right in the middle. That doesn't mean they were perfect and the opening act was way too damn long. At first, it was funny to see him interact with Captain Kirk but it got old after awhile. Plus, the musical numbers he did to "make up" for the bad show were so... lame? Still, it was nice to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe dance with him. Plus Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron.

One thing I found irritating was MacFarlane's penchant for singing. He's not that great of a singer, passable at best, but he loves his voice. He showcases it all the time on his TV shows and he's a voice actor. So, clearly, the man loves his voice. He loves hearing himself talk. I'm surprised he didn't do Stewie during his act. Seth MacFarlane has a bit of an ego and is kind of a jackass, but he didn't do that bad last night. It was passable. He was better than Billy Crystal and James Franco/Anne Hathaway. He was better than Alec Baldwin/Steve Martin. Honestly, he wasn't that bad.

Were there bad moments in the show? For sure. Namely...

The lame 007 tribute. It was nice to see Shirley Bassey sing "Goldfinger," but that was it? That's all we got? A montage and one song? Seemed lame to me.

Why was the orchestra in another fucking building?

And why were they playing the Jaws theme music to play people off, how rude is that? I'll say this once: while we all like to say "hey, shorten your speeches, Oscar winners!" I still don't think it's right to play people off and cut their mics off unless they go completely insane in their speech. When they're trying to pay tribute to their colleagues, like during the Best Visual Effects' winner's speech, it's just obnoxious and unnecessary. You can bet they won't be doing that next year.

I heard they closed the show with a closing number, but I changed the channel by then.

Having said all that, it wasn't the worst Oscar telecast by any means. You know what I missed though? They did this for two years then they stopped. I know it took a long time to get through the nominees, but I thought it was awesome in the '08 and '09 ceremonies when they brought out five actors who paid tribute to the five nominees for best actor and best actress. I know it was kind of a waste of time and the show is already self-congratulatory enough, but I used to think that was pretty cool. Oh well.

Also, Barbra Streisand singing "Memories" in a tribute to Marvin Hamlisch? That was actually pretty neat even though I'm not a fan. 

As far as the winners are concerned, no big deal to me. Argo won Best Picture, which I have zero problem with. I got 18 out of 24 correct, which is a good year for me. My only issues were Roger Deakins getting snubbed yet again for Best Cinematography and I thought Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor was kinda strange. I liked him in Django Unchained, but he didn't even have the best performance in the movie. Other than that though, no complaints.

Lastly, I can't end this post without mentioning Michelle Obama. What was that? I like Michelle Obama, but the whole time she was doing the presentation and announced the Best Picture winner, I couldn't help but think "what is happening?" It was easily the biggest WTF moment in the entire show. I still think it was strange, but pretty cool.

The only memorable Oscar moments in Oscar history are the excruciatingly bad moments, like Snow White and Rob Lowe singing at the 1989 Oscars or James Franco acting stoned during the whole show. There were none of those moments, which basically means this telecast will be as forgettable as others.

People will always complain about the results of the Oscars. How it went with a movie that wasn't serious enough. How they picked the wrong actor. It's endless with the complaints, but the Oscars are gonna do their thing. They've been doing it for 85 years this way, and they won't stop. Rarely will they pick your favorite movie as Best Picture so it's not a big deal.

What I learned overall this year is that you could have 10 great movies come out in a year and people will still bitch about 80% of them. What I hate about the Oscars are the pundits who speak fondly of one movie while shitting on the others. I hate that people treat it like a real competition. For me, it's more like "who do I think the Academy will go for" not "who I wish they would pick." This year was especially egregious. I used to love following the awards season because there'd always be surprises coming out of left field or some weird controversy. It's fun. But this year? Thanks to twitter, I just can't stand following the Oscars anymore. People who follow the Oscars all year don't really give a shit about the movies involved, it's really just about their own ego. It's disappointing, but that's something I came to realize this year. So, screw them. I'll watch the Oscars next year, like any other. I'll occasionally speculate on who'll win next year. I'll post predictions. But it ends there. And you can bet I won't throw a little hissy fit when my favorite movie doesn't win. I wish others could do the same. Oh well. It won't happen.