The Bests, Worsts, Mosts, and Leasts of the Oscars

Plus a deeply scientific poll.

Friends, our Season of Seasons officially concluded last night with an Oscars ceremony that, as is tradition, dragged a bit in the middle and ran long by about half an hour. But it also did a bang-up job of being, well, Oscars-y, in the right ways, after a few years of deviations.

Not from this year, but applicable forever.

We had no folks at weird banks of cocktail tables or in overlarge armchairs, as with last year. No one accepting via Zoom, a la 2020, and no steeply pared-down guests in an echo-y room that felt repurposed, because it was, like 2021 (although the pandemic venue, Los Angeles’s Union Station, looked gorgeous; shout-out to a landmark!). Jimmy Kimmel was relaxed and congenial, making assured jokes about Matt Damon in front of an audience of people in regular old amphitheater you-can’t-slap-anyone-without-clambering-over-Michelle-Yeoh-first-style seating. No one said anything markedly terrible, and one of the winners sang his acceptance speech to the tune of a Carpenters…