Oscars: Boring Television

At one time I actually would watch and even cared about the Academy Awards show, but I think it was in the early 90's when I grew increasingly bored and tired of the Oscars. At first I began to sour on the Oscars because it seemed as if none of the movies I felt should win would win...or even get nominated...and then came the show itself, which after only a couple of years worth of watching had extinguished any desire for me to watch it again. It is an award show that seems to get longer and drag on and on until a person finally gets to see what they've waited for 3+ hours to see...some rich director/actor/film folks win a prize given to them by other rich directors/actors/film folks. I was long asleep before the Oscars even concluded last night and I don't think I had seen a single movie that was nominated for any of the awards but reading the write-up this morning details much of my sentiment about the Oscars each year...which is funny, because the write-up for the Academy Awards have all been very similar in the past few years...a stuffy, unfunny, stiff and extremely long (and boring) awards show...not sure how much longer it will continue to garner large audiences, but I would guess that is more dependent on the quality of the films more then this boring award show.

There is probably nothing on television right now that a person rightly needs to host a 'party' to make something on television enjoyable. The Oscars will cleverly place a "worthy" award about every half hour or so during it's ceremony because if the awards were simply handed out at the end of the show no one would watch any of the rest of their program. And that's why one of the new 'popular' things to do on the evening of the Academy Awards is to host or go to a 'party' to enjoy the show with others. I have yet to attend such a party but I would love to be invited just to observe what people are actually doing during the show... I'm willing to bet that for 90% or more of the show people, attending these parties, aren't paying attention to the show...but when the one person that is actually watching the show calls out that the best actor, movie, director or any of the big categories are coming up, everyone scurries from the snacks and drinks area to huddle around the television...as soon as a winner is announced many will stand up and resume whatever else they were doing and the others will quickly join. Several of these parties, to try and add any entertainment value to the program, will have a pick'em game or something that resembles gambling to try and keep people interested but it really doesn't help...most people don't know or don't care about who is nominated for the best make-up assistant for a documentary adapted for screenplay based on a novel shot in black and white. When the party-goers see that they are just randomly selecting answers it quickly loses any value it had.

Another reason I have grown tired of the Academy Awards is all the extra coverage that goes along with it...there are pre-award shows, red carpet shows and of course post-show shows...all of which go over every second of an almost 4 hour evening ... strike that because actually most of these shows dissect everything surrounding the show and very little of what happened at the show...it's more about what expensive clothes is someone wearing and where did they go to party afterwards then anything that happened on the stage...which really does reveal how much of the actual 'pageant' is relevant in the minds of the people that 'cover' Hollywood. Doesn't every "Hollywood Story" regarding the Oscars start out with so and so just won the best actor award and after accepting the award headed to so and so's party on the strip where they partied the night away...