The Oscars are always my favorite TV special of the year, regardless of how good or bad the ceremony is. It makes me feel connected to the golden age of Hollywood — although this has been less so in the last 15 years, as icons have passed away and we’ve lost our living links to that time. (There are so few of those icons left: Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rooney, Kirk Douglas, Doris Day…) I always enjoy the historical film montages by Chuck Workman, such as this one from 1994, called 100 Years at the Movies:

As for last night’s show — it had its moments, but the directing sucked. In no particular order:

— Terrible camera angles. The camera shot kept changing at exactly the wrong moment. Someone would be making a presentation or a speech, and suddenly the camera would cut to a sideways shot of the person. I want to see the speaker’s eyes — I don’t need to see him or her from the side. And when several actors came out to pay tribute to John Hughes, the camera stayed on a wide shot from an overhead angle so we couldn’t see anyone’s faces.

— The “In Memoriam” segment: for the second year in a row, we missed the first few people in the montage because the camera lingered on the screen in the auditorium rather than cutting to the actual feed of the montage. Really — after screwing this up last year, it happened again? And I don’t like seeing someone perform during the montage; just use instrumental music so I can think about the people who have died instead of about James Taylor.

— Terrible pacing; a winner would be walking off the stage, and there would be a full four or five seconds of music before the announcer said the name of the next person coming out. Four or five seconds is a long time on a TV show. I kept thinking they were having technical difficulties.

— Worst of all: the god-awful individual tributes to each of the Best Actor/Best Actress nominees. It takes forever, and we’ve already been watching for more than three hours. I know who these people are — just show film clips and hand out the awards! As a commenter elsewhere said, “Take the most uncomfortable, fawning, vapid wedding toast you’ve ever endured, and multiply by 1000.” They did this last year and it didn’t work then, either. It needs to go.

There were some good things about the show. Although Neil Patrick Harris’s song wasn’t memorable and he seemed to be struggling with it (I think he stepped in at the last minute for Martin Short?), and although the original score/dance montage was just… bizarre, an Oscar telecast just isn’t an Oscar telecast without cheesy production numbers. They seemed like throwbacks to the Debbie Allen days, and I liked them.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what was up with the woman who pulled a Kanye during the short-documentary speech, here’s an explanation.

Now to add some stuff to my Netflix queue. Among other things, I’m going to give The Hurt Locker another try.