Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Dull as Dirt Squared

As anyone that knows me, knows, I love an awards show.  I use to watch them all, but as time marches on they are becoming far too predictable and unexciting. The only Awards show that has never been dull in all its television airings is The Golden Globes.  The MTV Music Awards are supposed to be risqué, cutting edge, down and dirty, but this year...dull for the most part.  Hard to surpass the buzz of Miley Cyrus last year twerking on Robin Thicke.  That had legs for days.  Nothing like Beyonce cleverly announcing her pregnancy to the world, two years ago. This year nada.  No shocking or surprising moment. Okay, well maybe one.  Miley Cyrus won best video of the year and had Jessie, a homeless young man, accept the award on her behalf, while she teared up 20 feet away.  It was a beautiful moment and shined the light on a problem that is not singularly Los Angeles, but focussed on the L.A. boulevard of broken dreams.  Beyonce received the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award and performed a 16 minute show.  She was fantastic.  She looked amazing, sounded amazing, and had the audience at the first note.  Topped off by Jay Z, her rumored estranged husband, and her baby girl, Blue Ivy coming on stage and giving her the award.  It was a beautiful moment.  They did a magnificent job of squelching any marital woe rumors.  They were the picture perfect family.  It ended with no goodnight, that's all folks, thanks for watching, nothing.  It was weird television and then just started re-airing from the beginning.  

As a dear friend of mine pointed out, no one acknowledges that they give out best video awards and MTV and VH1 hardly air videos anymore.  How do they decide on the winner?  Is it how many hits the video gets? No mention of the accounting firm of Price/Waterhouse. It's really a bizarre phenomenon and we just all watch and ignore the oddity of it all.  Though if the show continues to be boring next year, they may have a problem.  

Okay, now the next night we are graced with another Red Carpet event and the Emmys hosted by Seth Meyers. His opening was funny and safe.  He did point out how few network shows are nominated and how many nominations HBO and Netflix received.  I had discussed that earlier and still think they may have a problem in future years doing an Emmy show on primetime networks.  Maybe it will have to move to HBO or Netflix to gain viewers and traction.  

Okay, so now a few observations of the evening.  Very disappointed not to see Lena Dunham's dress on stage.  She never fails to dress so expensively and unattractive.  Stunningly ugly couture.  Stephen Colbert bombed so badly, I wondered if CBS got nervous about hiring him to take over for David Letterman.  You could hear a pin drop. Gail Mancuso had by far one of the best speeches of the night and she won for best director for a comedy series. 

I seriously can't stand how many repeat winners for the same role and the same show occurred.  The talent pool is ridiculously great and to keep giving awards to Jim Parsons, Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and others makes it boring.  I'm not saying that these people or shows aren't worthy, but there are others just as worthy these days, and they should spread the statues around. The categories were filled with stellar talent and not a bad or undeserving actor in the bunch.  The repeat winners have always occurred but in today's television market, the quality is incomparable to days gone by.  Also, can someone please give me the definition of a mini-series?  There seems to be no clearcut differentiation from a series.  In the olden days, when we had mini-series events, there was no question. Holocaust, Roots, Rich Man Poor Man, would begin and end within two weeks and glue viewers to their TVs.  Now, series like Fargo and American Horror Story return for new seasons are called mini-series.  Clarification, please.  Thrilled that Joe Morton won for Scandal, though he didn't get to accept his award on primetime, and the beautiful Julia Roberts pronouncing the "t" in "often" almost put me away.  WTF?  You are a girl from small town Georgia, when did you start that?  That is a new affectation.  Ugh!  Julia, stop it.

In memoriam was fitting and moving.  Up first, Sara Bareilles singing Smile as the photos of some of our favorites flash upon the screen.  It's always shocking and sad to remember who died since last year.  And then, what kept most people watching...Billy Crystal's heartfelt and very touching tribute to Robin Williams.  It was just right. Perfection.  I am still just so sorry for the gravity of the loss, and I'm just a fan.  

Overall, the Emmys couldn't have been more dull.  I ran to watch Bachelor in Paradise after Billy Crystal.  I couldn't bear to sit through another 5 minutes of commercials.  I don't know about you, but it was incredibly commercial heavy.  I can't remember feeling like that before.  They presented an Award, then 5 minutes of ads, and award, then 5 minutes of ads.  It's not the Super Bowl. These commercials have been seen a ton of times.  Not clever or new.  Just commercial after commercial after commercial.  If the networks are having a tough time paying for the Emmys, maybe it's time to go to cable.  This can't continue in its current form.  Time to shake the trees up more.  

Sidebars:  The news has continued to be bleak, so very happy to have some light fare to distract.  Tonight is America's Got Talent again.  Still, if you aren't watching with your family, there's still time.  It's NBC's answer to Ed Sullivan, but with judges.  The San Francisco Giants are just killing their fans again.  They have had the lead in so many of the past week's games, and then lost.  The Yankees still have some hope.  Here's to my friend, Dave Sims, and the Mariners on a fantastic run.  Still rooting for the A's too.  Can't believe the amount of damage done by the most recent earthquake in Northern California.  Very surprising.  As the light of day happened, the reality set in.  Very lucky that it occurred in the middle of the night.  There would have been far more injuries if the streets were crowded in downtown Napa.   The poor vineyard owners.  First, dealing with a severe drought, and now many have lost valuable wine stock.  Hope there's no more shaking for another 25 years.  

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@Diana Podolsky

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