The Oscars are boring — and there's no way to save them

A self-congratulatory evening for a small Hollywood subset just can't entertain millions and millions of people

Host Neil Patrick Harris.
(Image credit: (John Shearer/Invision/AP))

With 24 awards to parcel out in three-plus hours, the Academy Awards should feel rushed — but as anyone who actually stuck with last night's telecast can attest, a brisk pace wasn't exactly the problem. Last night's 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony was one of the dullest in recent memory, packed with dead-end gags, interminable musical numbers, and a surprisingly flat performance from host Neil Patrick Harris. Once again, the Oscars failed to deliver a show that anyone beyond Hollywood diehards should bother watching — and if that surprises you, you haven't been paying attention.

There are some factors that can play a modest role in livening up an Oscar telecast. Producers, who dictate the structure and flow of the ceremony, play the largest role in shaping the overall flow of the evening. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced last night's ceremony (and the previous two), are notable mainly for their annoying insistence in shoehorning tributes to Hollywood musicals into an already bloated ceremony. Last night, it was Lady Gaga belting out a medley of songs from The Sound of Music — a show-stopping performance in every sense, its relative quality offset by its poor timing, as the clock ticked toward midnight on the East Coast with seven major awards left to present.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.