Telecast Discussion

[Big Magilla]

This is nitpicking I know, but regarding Costner's rambling, he couldn't have seen How the West Was Won in an L.A. theater in 1962 when he was seven. The November 1962 release date was for the U.K. Costner could not have seen it in L.A. until February 1963, a month after his 8th birthday, 39, not 40, years ago.

Don't they have fact checkers for these speeches?

[Sabin]

Maybe I was a little too early in my praise of the show. This certainly wasn't a very good show but I stand by the statement that it had a good energy to it. I'll say that I think it overcorrected too much from previous ceremonies. Obviously, we should all be grateful for the return of the clips and the return of showcases for the nominated films (although more could have been done in that department). One benefit to the pre-recorded clips was how much it helped the pace of the show and afforded time for the winners to finish their speeches, like Troy Kotsur. Only one person got cut off: Hamaguchi, but I chalk that up to him unfortunately giving every cue in the world that he was done talking.

But obviously, the show still ran terribly long, because they overcorrected with needless crap throughout, like those twitter polls (bye bye!) and desperate ratings ploys. It would've been nice if that (awful) Godfather montage brought those three out to give out the award for Best Director, or integrate it a little bit more. If Disney wanted to show "We Don't Talk About Bruno," they should've nominated it. We missed out on two nominated songs... but to be honest, I'm not sad they were cut. They weren't going to win. Maybe finding another way to acknowledge their existence would be nice. I also didn't hate the Academy Museum segment because, y'know, it actually had something to do with the show and the industry. It just went a little long and was too hacky. "Too long and too hacky" wouldn't be a bad way to describe the show which -- by every commercial cue -- was practically begging audiences not to turn away in a way that felt self-parodic.

And yet, I didn't hate it. There's a potentially good ceremony to be made from this material. It felt like a dry run. Dial in the importance of these specific movies a little bit more and I could see it really working. But the show didn't really feel like it was about any of these specific movies. That's where a host really could come in to tie it all together by talking about the individual films, but Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes (whatever their strengths or weaknesses) didn't really do that: tell you why the show is important. Amy Schumer probably came the closest. I still don't think she has quite the right touch. She's too irreverent to make you think that anything of any importance is happening. Her joke about wishing she was home really summed up the feel of the night. Nobody is going to the movies like they used to anymore. They just want to stay home.

The film that felt like it captured the mood of the ceremony was Encanto. Had Liza Minnelli (so sweet) read its name in an upset, it wouldn't have been the most surprising thing in the world. Early on, I said to my friends "It does not feel like a Power of the Dog kind of night." It didn't. CODA and King Richard fit the mood of the night a little more, films about family, diversity, and togetherness. The best speech of the night for me was probably given by Troy Kotsur. The best presenter might have been Kevin Costner, with his a bit too-rambling, but sincere speech about the power of the movies. The audience laughed when he talked about going to his first "adult movie" thinking that he was talking about a nudie film. That sort of spoke to the divide of the evening and it's biggest needle to thread: the Academy Awards at its best is about that ineffable, spiritual power of the movies, and the producers have no idea how to sell that to an audience that they're not even sure wants it anymore.

I kept thinking about Nicole Kidman's promo that runs before every movie ("Heartbreak feels better in here") and how much people love it un-ironically. If I was the producers, I would encourage them to begin and end every meeting with that thing.

Worst Acceptance Speech: Watching Jeanny Beavan, I thought to myself "What got cut so she could go on and on?" but I think it has to be Will Smith's speech. Regardless of what he was saying or not saying, the entirety of the speech, all one could focus on was whether or not he was going to lose it again for what felt like a small eternity. He wasn't helped by this dreadful camera angel that they put on the actors. I felt like I was watching an interrogation scene.

[Sabin]

Sonic Youth wrote
Anecdotal observation that I acknowledge is in no way scientific:

Today, people in my Facebook feed are talking all about last night's "slap".

Almost no one mentioned it last night.

Meaning: this broadcast may have been another ratings disaster.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv ... %20Nielsen.

Still, the early figures put Sunday’s show well ahead of the final numbers from last year’s scaled-down ceremony, which had all-time lows of 10.4 million viewers and a 2.12 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The early figures show a 32 percent jump in total viewers and a 37 percent bump in adults 18-49.

Despite the year to year improvements, though, Sunday’s Oscars will go down as the second least watched since Nielsen began tracking total viewers in the mid-1970s. Prior last year the audience had never fallen below 20 million viewers.

Sounds like a mixed bag. It's the second least watched ever but it's a pretty solid bump in ratings.

[Sonic Youth]

Anecdotal observation that I acknowledge is in no way scientific:

Today, people in my Facebook feed are talking all about last night's "slap".

Almost no one mentioned it last night.

Meaning: this broadcast may have been another ratings disaster.

[Cinemanolis]

Very disappointed with this years show

BAD
- The total predictability of the winners
- The three hosts were mostly forgettable. Certainly didn't have chemistry. Schumer came off the best. Hall and Sykes' humour didn't work for me.
- I didn't know half the presenters. And that says a lot. They were 17 people at my oscar party (ages 32 to 45) and they didn't either.
- In the first hour the pacing seemed to be good and there was a feeling that the new changes could work. But the rest 2 hours and 40 minutes starting dragging again and there was no reason that those 8 categories were not live. I could see the reasoning that this could work with the 3 shorts categories, but i hope that next year the 5 other categories will return to the Oscar telecast.
- The biggest drawback of the 8 pre-taped categories was its effect on Oscar Parties. Every year we have a Predictions competition and we correct our ballots throughout the night as each award is presented. This year, some were waiting for the pre taped categories to be presented on the show, while others were already aware of the results from social media. It kinda killed the fun out the Oscar Party.
- What a hilarious In Memoriam segment!
- The whole Will Smith thing. Like it wasn't enough that we had to endure the fact that his mediocrity would win an Oscar, we also had to witness his stupidity and vanity in full display. At one point i was hoping the whole thing was staged, just to prove that Will Smith had some acting talent. They should have thrown him out.
- The standing ovation after Smith's win, after the incident that had happened... shameful...and his acceptance speech... ridiculous
- I loved how the social media trolled the Academy and their Popular film initiative. The producers "handed" the celebration of film to random social media users. Well played.
- The kitsch staging of the musical numbers. Especially of that ridiculous "We Don't Talk about Bruno" number. It was an eligible hit song that was eligible, they snubbed it, and still they made it part of the night. Uncomfortable...

GOOD
- The fact that 4 of the 5 song nominees had "live" performances.
- Billie Ellish
- The oscar clips were back!
- The film reunions was a great idea.

[danfrank]

"this is why we watch the Oscars, because you never know what'll happen"

I suppose I generally enjoy it when surprising things happen at the Oscars, but not that. That was just ugly, and disturbing, and overshadowed everything else that happened. I would be pissed if I were one of last night’s winners. This will now be what Will Smith is remembered for, and that’s sad.

Question: The sound was censored during that episode in the US broadcast for obvious reasons. During Smith’s speech there was a section where there was no video. Was that a technical problem or was snot running down his nose and they wanted to save him the (further) embarrassment, or what?

[mlrg]

The three-host thing didn't quite work. Sykes got to do no standup, which is a shame. Hall didn't do much except the one bit. Schumer was terrific and I think would be a great solo host. She knew how to tell jokes without hurting anyone and honestly, I think she may have had one of those post-streaker David Niven moments when she came out and noted the atmosphere had changed and wondered what was going on. It was a strong moment.

I agree with you. Schumer could easily host solo in the future.

[OscarGuy]

The three-host thing didn't quite work. Sykes got to do no standup, which is a shame. Hall didn't do much except the one bit. Schumer was terrific and I think would be a great solo host. She knew how to tell jokes without hurting anyone and honestly, I think she may have had one of those post-streaker David Niven moments when she came out and noted the atmosphere had changed and wondered what was going on. It was a strong moment.

[Big Magilla]

Regarding the presenters and winners.

Yuh-jung Youn was the best presenter. Very classing announcing Kotsur's name in sign language before articulating it for everyone else.

No real worsts.

Best acceptance speeches - Chastain, DeBose, Campion, Branagh and most of Kotsur's.

Worst, all those CODA people rambling on and on. Kotsur was stirring when talking about his long career and his father at the end, but did we have to hear about his not dropping f-bombs in his meetings with "President Joe" and "Dr. Jill"?

[Big Magilla]

It was more awkward than anything else even before the Smith-Rock incident.

The hosts weren't at fault. They were mostly funny, but the presentations were odd.

Starting the show with Byonce might have been OK if they gave her the opening spot on stage, but not the way they did it.

The clips from the Bond films and later the Godfather trilogy were uninspired. Having a tribute to Bond without any of the Bond actors was kind of crazy. Having De Niro and Pacino accompany Coppola made sense, but De Niro only opened his mouth to support Coppola's rallying for Ukraine and Pacino said nothing at all.

Poor Liza Minnelli. She looked and acted like death warmed over. Her attention span was down to zero. Good thing Gaga was there to correct her if she read the wrong name on the ballot.

And what were also those "favorite" moments about? We were expecting two and got too many to count. It was ridiculous.

[Uri]

For me, a huge factor, judging an Oscar show, is how much the outcomes fit my persona preferences, so this one was rather a bad one.

And yes, these unscripted incidents are highlights, alas, in real time, not being that invested in the proceedings, I dismissed the Smith/Rock debacle as a badly written sketch in the fashion of last year Glenn Close’s twerking. And then, after the show ended, I went online and found out I missed all the fun…

A true highlight, as far as acceptance speeches go, by far was the one given by Jenny Beavan, who was really lovely.

[anonymous1980]

So apparently, despite cutting out the eight categories, the show STILL ran longer than the last three telecasts.

[Mister Tee]

As usual, I'm too tired to speak at length (finishing cleaning up after our gathering). But my general feeling is, the Will Smith psychodrama 1) was the only interesting thing that happened the entire night and 2) joins the "this is why we watch the Oscars, because you never know what'll happen" Hall of Fame, along with the streaker, Princess Littlefeather, and the La La Land/Moonlight mix-up.

[Reza]

It was a weird reaction and outburst. When Rock makes the joke the camera pans Smith and he is laughing. But the camera catches Jada and she looks disturbed. And then suddenly Smith begins his walk towards Rock. Almost like first accepting the joke and then maybe he saw that his wife was not amused so he decided to play Rambo.

[anonymous1980]

Jeez, if I was Smith, I would have waited until I won and praised my wife for facing her medical condition with dignity.

This.