In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« Roush Dispatch
The TV Weekend: Oscars and SNL
It was Oscar's 80th birthday, but it only felt like Sunday night's show went on for 70 years. (Official count: three hours, 20 minutes.) It’s an annual ritual, beating up on the annual Academy Awards broadcast for being too long, bloated, boring. That can especially be a problem when the show is as free of surprise as this year's was — true, Marion Cotillard's victory over Julie Christie for best actress was unexpected (though well earned), and I loved her gracious and giddy speech (one of the night's few truly memorable and spontaneous moments), but seriously, how many people saw either of their movies?
In a year when most of the major film contenders fell something short of cultural phenomena, it's up to the host to make the show relevant and dynamic. Jon Stewart had his work cut out for him, with precious little prep time thanks to the writers’ strike, not to mention the preoccupation of an ongoing, historic presidential campaign that inspired some of his best jokes in a hit-or-miss monologue. My favorite: “Normally when you see a black man or woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty.”
Maybe this wasn’t the best year to enlist Stewart, who like most comics is only as good as the material he’s given to work with. (On politics, he’s a master; on movies, not so much. The Atonement/Yom Kippur joke a case in point.) At the risk of disagreeing with my distinguished Cheers & Jeers colleague, I felt Stewart’s brand of aloof, self-mocking irony — “Let’s take a moment to congratulate ourselves” — fell a bit flat in the cavernous Kodak. I found myself missing the warmth and spontaneity of last year’s host, Ellen DeGeneres. Or, as is often the case, the irrepressible showmanship of a Billy Crystal, the gold standard of modern-day Oscar hosts.
Stewart opened the show by acknowledging how tough the last few months had been in Hollywood: “The fight is over, so tonight, welcome to the makeup sex.” Was it good for him? For them? For us? I wish. Instead, we got lots of montages (and even send-ups of montages) intended to pay homage to 80 years of Oscar movie love. But many of those only reminded us how much more exciting the speeches, the hosts — and, honestly, the caliber of movie star — were back in the day.
The bigger surprise this weekend was how refreshed much of Saturday Night Live looked upon its long-awaited return from strike hiatus. The highlight: one of the best Weekend Updates since the Tina Fey/Jimmy Fallon heyday. First there was Mike Huckabee’s good-sport self-mockery, laughingly uttering an “uh-oh” when anchor Seth Meyers informed him he couldn’t count on super-delegates. Then, after declaring that “Mike Huckabee does not overstay his welcome,” Huckabee refused to leave the stage. This funny bit was followed by guest host Tina Fey (excellent throughout) presenting a “women’s news” segment that turned into a spirited analysis of why women are abandoning Hillary Clinton in recent primaries: “Women today feel perfectly free to make whatever choice Oprah tells them to.” Ouch. After slamming Rush Limbaugh as “the Jeff Conaway of right-wing radio,” Fey concluded, “Bitch is the new black” as the audience roared. Maybe Hillary should take Tina, Amy Poehler and gang on the road with her.
Fred Armisen is probably a good choice to play Barack Obama through this campaign season, but in the opening debate sketch (which spoofed the media fawning over Obama at Clinton’s expense), his impersonation was stiff, nailing the candidate’s earnestness without finding the humor in Obama’s humorlessness. Amy Poehler’s frustrated Hillary Clinton was, as usual, spot-on. And the Obama Girl cameo? Genius.
There were the usual groaners: another asinine game-show spoof (“What’s That Bitch Talking About?”) and a surprisingly weak digital short. But Steve Martin’s cameo in Tina Fey’s monologue was a hoot, and the impersonations of Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem in the otherwise iffy “I Drink Your Milkshake” sketch were inspired curtain-raisers to Sunday’s moribund Oscars.
On the other hand, I can’t imagine anything about this year’s Oscars being remembered, or (heaven help us) excerpted in a montage, a year from now.
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 1:19 AM
|
On the other hand, I can’t imagine anything about this year’s Oscars being remembered, or (heaven help us) excerpted in a montage, a year from now.
Well you mentioned the beautiful speech by Marion Cotillard. And then there's MY favorite moment of tonight's Oscar... when Jon Stewart brought back the delightful Marketa Irglova to give her speech after the orchestra rudely cut her off. Plus her performance with the talented Glen Hansard were one for the ages. Stunning.
Overall, I liked it. Jon Stewart started the show saying Hollywood needed a hug, well the Oscars definitely hugged a lot of movies tonight with 17 films receiving the 24 awards and all of the Best Picture nominees did not go home empty handed. Way to share the wealth which I thought was very appropriate considering this year was one of the best cinematic year that I can remember.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 1:39 AM
|
Matt -
Thanks for the spot on reviews of the Oscars and Saturday Night Live. You found youself missing Billy Crystal and Ellen DeGeneres. I found myself re-living the glory days of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. Where have all the good Oscar hosts and their writers gone?
I have not watched Saturday Night Live in years but watched this past weekend. Tina Fey is a force to reckon with in comedy. Let's hope she can mentor the rest of the cast and any newcomers to follow in her footsteps.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 3:23 AM
|
I liked Stewart and thought he was fine, especially considering how little prep time he and his writers had. The biggest problem is that most of the movies were seen by so few people.
I love Stewart's off-the-cuff comment about the guy who won the Best Song Oscar..."That guy is sooo arrogant".
And I realize Katherine Heigl, Dwayne Jonhson, Patrick Dempsey and Miley Cyrus were all in hit movies, but they should have been passing out programs or validating parking, not on stage presenting Oscars or songs or montages.
Anybody see Gary Busey on the preshow? He interrupted Seascrest interviewing Jennifer Garner and somebody else...what the hell is he doing their anyway? He is clearly mentally ill. Still it was funny to watch Seacrest squirm. I went back and forth between E! and TV Guide channel and it was soooo boring. Bring back Joan Rivers or Kathy Griffin. Lisa Rinna, Joey Fatone, Guiliana Rancic, Seacrest-all dreadful.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 7:58 AM
|
|
Patrick Dempsey introduced a song from "Enchanted" which he starred in. Therefore, it is perfectly logical that he be on stage and not "validating parking" or "passing out programs."
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 8:23 AM
|
I felt Stewart was not at his best yesterday and you can't fault him for that. I still feel he did a lot better than Ellen who was playing softball with the Oscars last year. With all the montages that were played I was suprised they never used the Matt Stone and Trey Parker song "Were gonna need a montage" from Team America. Oh and the Jonah Hill Seth Rogan bit was awesome. I'm the real halle berry.
SNL needs to focus more on Bill Hader. That guy is amazing. Did you see his Daniel Day Lewis? He is the breakthrough star SNL has been looking for since Ferrel left.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 8:32 AM
|
I thought the Oscars moved along. I agree with the "Cheers", Jon Stewart did a great job and much better than 2 years ago. Matt, you're starting to sound a little like, "back in the old days".... there were great movies nominated and if people didn't see them, it is their loss.
SNL was back on track in a big way. LOVE Tina Fey.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 8:49 AM
|
Matt-
First off, as long as the high ratings remain the Oscars are going to stay as long as they have been. More air time equals more advertising equals more money. So why complain about something that isn't going to change for a good while.
I read your reviews after every award show and they are always negative. You are not the only one. Every TV and movie critic does the same thing every year.
Why don't you and your colleagues try setting lower standards for the ceremony. It sure worked for me this year(then again I watched Breaking Bad from 10-11.) I also muted all the speeched for people that I didn't know. It's a really effective strategy when it comes to enjoying the show.
Did you as least enjoy the performances by Kristen Chenoweth and Amy Adams. Afterall, you spent the latter half of 2007 praising both of them.
I am only 20 years old so I am not lucky enough to remember the days when the Oscars weren't boring. But I have a feeling that all of you people have just forgotten that they were boring and they just seem better now. Besides having a better host, how could they be that much better? Did they not include the costume and Documentary short awards back then?
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 8:56 AM
|
Usually I'm with you, Matt, but I gotta disagree on the Oscars. I found the montages pretty endless, but I thought Jon did a snappy job and the night flowed really well. The speeches were mostly brief and heartfelt (Jon getting Marketa Irglova back on stage was just wonderful - and made up for Bill Conti ruining the performance of the song by drowning out the guitar, piano and voices with his overwrought orchestra).
I'll seriously take Jon over Billy Crystal any day. If Jon and Ellen traded off years, that'd be golden in my book.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 10:03 AM
|
Regarding Oscars- I was so bored I tuned out after an hour
Regarding SNL - It had it's moments. Agree about the Tina Fey on Weekend Update segment, but disagree regarding the humor on the Digital Short. That whole movie thing for old people was hysterical! Perhaps because we know old people who can use this, made it more relatable for us than you. I laughed more during that segment I think than any other.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 11:36 AM
|
|
I liked Stewart. I always prefer a host who plays to the audience at home rather than the theater, who only laugh at jokes about how brilliant they are anyway.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 12:20 PM
|
There was a story recently in Time magazine that made a very valid point:
It's time for the Oscars to reward good films people actually go to see. The writer said a lot more, and did so quite well, but that was the basic point.
Jumping on the bemoaning bandwagon or no, the Oscars are BORING and 9 out of 10 folks I know not only hadn't seen the nominated films, they'd never heard of them either.
I missed SNL - darn. It sounds like it was a good one!
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 12:26 PM
|
Right, so the Oscars should just have awarded the campfest that was the over-the-top Enchanted songs over the amazing song of Once, just because people know that. Maybe Transformers should be awarded Best Picture then, never mind that No Country and Blood are two of the greatest movies of the decade.
But yeah, who cares right? The audience isn't smart enough to have discovered them, so the whole process should be dumbed down as usual, with awards given to silly movies like A Beautiful Mind and Chicago and whatever else has won over the last 15 years, since 1992 when it was the last time a true masterpiece won the big one.
For once (no pun intended) the Oscars were surprising, fun, and fair. But some people will just pan them because they don't know any other way. Lovely.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 12:35 PM
|
I didn't watch SNL but I agree with your take on the Oscars, Matt, it was overly long - but it always is so I expect it and this time was watching Big Brother so only caught it "live" from 9PM instead of 8:30. I didn't think Stewart was that good nor that right-on, and so much of his "humor" fell flat. Think the audience agreed with that as well. Oh for the fun of Crystal. I mean this is supposed to be ENTERTAINMENT at it's best.
Maybe I liked it better "before" (as you did) because I saw more movies then - felt there were more worth seeing - and there were so many GREAT "movie stars". But then, I'm not 25, and maybe that makes all the difference in the world!
Liked watching the clothes though gads some of the outfits were awful. And Clooney was a sight to my eyes. He to me is one of the bright lights in movies, so I guess I still think there are some stars out there!!
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 12:35 PM
|
|
I'm not 25 either and I can recognize the brilliance of No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. I don't think it is fair to discount a movie as not worthy of praise just because some people haven't heard of it. I think the Oscars are to reward the best movie making and not the most popular. Oh well, I enjoyed the show, and I always do.
|
|
Feb 25, 2008 12:51 PM
|
|
|
