The Year So Far: Best/Worst Awards Show Moments
Before we dive into the highlights and lowlights of 2022 so far, allow us to begin with a disclaimer: we here at The Couch understand that over half a year has passed by now, and mid-August might be a strange time to do a status check on the pulse of the year. But between the happiness of summer dayz, big life changes for some of us, busy work, we got a little behind. So sue us! It may just about be the end of #hotgirlsummer, but it's not quite #thotumn, so I think a mid-year check in is still in order.
Besides, in case you haven't heard, COVID isn't reeeallly over. We're all still pretty much operating on pandemic time, right?
With the foremost awards for Film, Music, Theatre and Sports behind us already, and the list of nominees already announced for the Television equivalent, there is no shortage of "awards show 2022" content to analyze. I have mentioned before, I am a massive sucker for awards shows, and do my best to watch every minute of every major one, even if I know it's going to end in disappointment. Awards shows in 2022 have, as you might expect, looked incredibly different than last year's severely COVID-altered ceremonies, and yet found themselves in a weird
Here is my rundown of the the premier awards this year:
Best Awards Show Moment:
History-Makers at the Oscars
You might guess that singling out a film that won no trophies and two supporting actor winners as the "awards show highlight of the year" speaks to how little there has been to celebrate from awards ceremonies this year. And you know what? You would be absolutely right. I'll spare you the full rundown, because this article will devote time to the less-glowing moments from this year as well, but let's just say the positives from the likes of the Grammys, Oscars, Tonys, Globes, etc. were easily outnumbered in 2022 by the negatives.
However, that does not make those that I am about to single out any less deserving of acclaim. Two individuals, and two films made up of many talented individuals made history at this year's Academy Awards, and I could not have been happier that they did. Flee became the first movie in Oscar history to be nominated across the three separate categories of Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Film. Sadly, it lost in all 3 categories, but given the universal acclaim of the films they lost to (Questlove's Summer Of Soul, Encanto and Drive My Car, respectively), that is nothing to be ashamed about.
One record-breaking winner was Ariana DeBose, who actually represented the only win on the night for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. In her win for Best Supporting Actress, DeBose became the first Afro-Latina woman AND first openly queer woman of color to win an acting award at the Oscars, and lest you think this was strictly a token win for diversity, she wholly deserved it, turning in an electric performance as the new-age 'Anita.' And finally, we can't talk about history at these Academy Awards and not discuss CODA. The little indie film that came out of nowhere to take the awards circuit by storm became the first-ever Best Picture winner to come via a streaming platform (who could have predicted that Apple+ would beat Netflix and Hulu to the punch?), and the first to feature a predominantly deaf cast. One of those cast members, Troy Kotsur, added to their already glorious night by becoming the first male deaf actor to win an acting Oscar as he took home Best Supporting Actor. Just like DeBose, it was a win that was oh-so-sweet not just because of the historical impact, but because of how wonderfully deserved it was.
Honorable Mentions: Jon Batiste's Grammys performance, The Power Of The Dog hilariously only winning 1 Oscar, prominent athletes use the ESPYs stage to call attention to Brittney Griner's incarceration, a successful boycott of the Golden Globes due to the HFPA's lack of diversity action, Will Smith's long-deserved Academy Award, Jon Batiste's surprise Album of the Year win and delightful acceptance speech, Ariana DeBose's hosting stint at the Tony's, almost everything about the 2022 Emmy nominations
Worst Awards Show Moment:
That other Oscars moment
I won't spend too much time talking about this; there's nothing I can say about The Slap Heard Around The World that hasn't already been said, thought, joked about, memed, or digested ad nauseum. But, one of the more stunning moments in Academy Award history was, at least for fools like me that actually care about this ceremony, a tragic event for exactly two reasons.
One is the more cynical reason: how annoying everybody was about it. Of course it was a buzzy moment, we'd never seen anything remotely close to this happening in any of the typically celebratory, typically staid awards ceremonies, let alone THE award ceremony to rule them all. But still... the fact that one couldn't talk to anybody or log into Twitter for days afterward without someone having something to say about it got so old so fast. Comedians saw the opportunity to leap to Chris Rock's defense and make the slap all about them, and how this is the very real "scary new 'cancel culture' world for brave stand-up comics." Twitterheads took the opportunity to rush to Will Smith's defense and castigate Chris Rock for committing the unforgivable sin of making a fairly innocuous joke about a woman whose medical history he didn't know. Lawyers chomped at the bit to explain to everyone why what Smith had done was, in fact, assault and he could be arrested. Bloggers and writers everywhere felt convicted to thinkpiece everyone into oblivion. It just felt like it would never end.
But the second, the more substantive 'tragedy' is how much the slap overshadowed the rest of the ceremony and remaining winners. To be sure, you couldn't blame the live Dolby Theatre audience for being shellshocked nor the television/online audience for having this at the forefront of their mind. But still... so many exciting winners, including Questlove for Best Documentary, including Billie Eilish for Best Original Song, including CODA for Best Picture, and oh yeah, including WILL SMITH HIMSELF FOR HIS FIRST-EVER BEST ACTOR WIN, deserved their moment to shine and be celebrated. Instead they were met with muted, bemused reactions and a triumph that was buried in the headlines the next day.
Dishonorable Mentions: Several history-making Golden Globe winners not getting their time in the spotlight thanks to a boycott due to the HFPA's lack of diversity action, The Oscars' weird set design, The Oscars cutting categories from airtime, a bizarre and forgettable Grammys ceremony, Li'l Nas X conspicuously not being invited to the BET Awards, UNC-Duke in the Final 4 not being nominated for the ESPYs' "Game of the Year," Bruno Mars once again winning far more Grammys than necessary
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