Monday, February 27, 2012

Throwing In the Towel on the Oscars

After watching the annual Academy Awards show every year of my life, I am hereby done. Throwing in the towel. For good.

Why, you ask? Did you see last night's show? All the things that have always been "wrong" were in evidence and then some:

- Poor judgement for shunting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to another night.

- Cowardice for not allowing performance comic Sacha Baron Cohen to play his merry pranks on camera. What would have been the highlight of the night was completely shut out.

- Taking the easy way out with host Billy Crystal who, though he is sweet and easy to take, is no Ricky Gervais.

- So much self-congratulating it makes you sick.

- Huge production numbers that do nothing but hurt the flow of the show and reduce the time available for acceptance speeches.

There were a few bright spots including wins by Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer, a comic focus group (from the Christopher Guest Ensemble featuring the wonderfully daffy Fred Willard), and a beautiful rendition of "It's A Wonderful World" by jazz singer Esperanza Spalding.

A few weeks back, I declared that I was not going to watch. Then, I ended up watching. Old habits die hard.

But last night's snooze fest was the clincher.

Goodbye, Oscar! I will be watching the Golden Globes and the Independent Spirit Awards. Anything but you.

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