Every film site will be talking about the Oscars. They will be fighting over whether Sandra Bullock should have won and celebrating that Avatar didn’t. So instead I am going to just talk briefly about the show itself.

For the first time in a great many years I watched the Oscars. I didn’t really care who won. Although, I was pleased that Avatar did not get best picture. I watched the Oscars primarily for Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. If you’re a fan of comedy, or live action versions of radio shows, then you have to be in love with the work of both of these men. So I started watching with the hope that they would bring a new dimension to the program. I was disappointed.

It wasn’t that they weren’t funny. The jokes they told were fairly well written and delivered. The issue was that they didn’t seem to add anything. It felt like their entire involvement was a publicity stunt for It’s Complicated and then they were surprised when they actually had to host the show several months later.

What I was hoping for was what they did when Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmys. They created a show around him, one that highlighted his talents. They even spiced it up with color commentary by John Hodgman(which I loved). The Emmys felt like a show that people had put thought and effort into. It felt like something with a vision.  What we got for the Oscars was two famous actors phoning it in.

I’m not saying that each individual part wasn’t good, but there was no unique style. Just a hodgepodge of different elements all trying to appeal to a certain demographic. It is possible to do a show like that, it may even be fun to do a show like that. But, there has to be something to bring all the elements together. That is the hosts job and Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin failed miserably at it. Instead of guiding the show, they just seemed like a side act, paraded out between acceptance speeches and video tribute to the best picture nominees.

With a little bit of effort the show could have been something fun and interesting. It is a chance for people who take themselves so seriously to be able to let their hair down and make fun of themselves a little bit. It could have been one of the rare instances left in television where the viewer is treated to a spectacle. Instead, it was yet another chance for Hollywood to put out a mediocre product that people watch because there isn’t anything else to do.