The Weekly Ringer

The University of Mary Washington Student Newspaper

Editorial: Why The Golden Globes Sucked This Year

3 min read

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You know that joke that your one awkward friend loves but the rest of your friends find to be annoying and pointless? That’s what the Golden Globes are to awards shows.

You see the same predictable nominees and winners and come to the realization that you have not seen half the movies that the critics deem as amazing.

With the exception of host Ricky Gervais and his few hilariously off-color jokes the Golden Globes were a complete waste of three hours.

The Golden Globes are somewhat of a joke. Many nominees were better suited to be nominated for a Razzie (which does awards for the worst movies of the year) than for a big, respected awards show.

Which movies are these? For one, “Burlesque.” The movie which was widely ridiculed by critics for being a hot mess was nominated three times and won “Best Original Song” for “You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me,” written by Diane Warren, known for writing cheesy pop songs that are most often heard covered in karaoke bars, like Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” and Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart.”

Speaking of karaoke, “Glee” won “Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musicals.” The sometimes overly annoying show about a bunch of singing high schoolers who look to be nearing 30 is apparently still a critical favorite. It earned Jane Lynch, who plays “Sue Sylvester,” the “Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical” trophy.

Apparently the voters like to play favorites seeing as “The Social Network,” the overhyped and critically loved story of the creation of Facebook was a big winner. Winning “Best Director,” “Best Screen Play,” “Best Motion Picture-Drama” and “Best Soundtrack,” it dominated the night.

Adding to the absurdity, “The Kids Are Alright,” my personal favorite movie of 2010, won “Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical,” proving that a few of the voters had some common sense, seeing as it beat out “The Tourist,” “Burlesque,” “Red,” and “Alice In Wonderland.”

Proving things could not get any worse, Batman beat out Spider-Man when Christian Bale won “Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” for his role in “The Fighter” beating out the next Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, for his role in “The Social Network.”

Despite the show being mostly absolute crap, a few awards were handed out to well deserving winners. Among those was 20-year old Chris Colfer, aka “Kurt” on “Glee,” won. He was clearly shocked despite his strong performance on the show, but managed to pull it together onstage and delivered a powerful acceptance speech, which among other things included a thank you to “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy for being his “fairy godfather.”

“Toy Story 3,” was the winner of the “Best Animated Picture,” something the first two movies did not achieve due the award not being in existence when they were released.

Also great was Jim Parson’s win for his role as Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory.” It was not just that he won “Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical,” but that his co-star Kaley Cuoco announced the winner of his category and was visibly excited on stage when announcing his name.

With the beginning of the 2011 awards season off and running, one can only wonder if the rest of the big awards shows will be as much of a shit show as the Golden Globes were. If I had to guess I would say probably not.