Sunday night television

Yes, the internet is breaking with the number of opinions regarding the Oscar broadcast last night. So what the hell, I used to write entertainment for a living. I found the broadcast kind of dull. Cathy was bored out of her trees (or whatever you can be bored out of when there are no trees for thousands of miles) and lamented that there weren't even any interesting dresses. Ellen was a mediocre host who had a few good bits. The joke about Al Gore was good, but then again, last night Al might as well have started taking campaign donations, such was the love being thrown at him last night. The Oscar carrying bag was funny. And getting Steven Spielberg to take a picture of you and Clint Eastwood on a $200 digital camera is pretty damn funny.

But other than that, she didn't do much for me. It didn't help when Jerry Seinfeld came out and did a three minute bit introducing documentaries and was funnier than she was all night. More than one person has suggested he host the show next year. I still think it should be George Clooney, but that's just me.

As for my picks, I think I was seven for 12, which certainly isn't one of my better years. I should have known better on Peter O'Toole and in retrospect Little Miss Sunshine winning Best Original Screenplay was fairly obvious. But I'm not certain how many people were picking Alan Arkin in Best Supporting Actor over Murphy and I don't think anyone was picking that German film to beat Pan's Labyrinth in Best Foreign Film.

I was glad to see Scorsese win Best Director and The Departed get best movie. Yeah, some people moan that isn't Scorsese's best movie. And it's not. But, you know, until they invent a time machine so we can go back and rip the Best Director award from Kevin Costner's hands and give to Scorsese for Goodfellas, that's all we can do. It is a great film and certainly one of his better ones. And I would just as soon he win for The Departed than The Aviator, which was a mediocre movie at best.

Anyway, good for him. He was due.

When not watching the Oscars last night I was flipping over to The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Because I love this show, one of the very few reality programs I can stomach (I will die before I understand the appeal of Dancing with the Stars. I also have another rant about Canadian Idol, but that one is still a week or so away). The household has also taken the opinion that we want Rob/Amber to win.

Yes, they are hated in many quarters, but I respect them because they play the game very well. They very rarely make stupid mistakes and when they get behind it's often because a strategic gamble didn't pay off. Like the one on Sunday where they got another flight that would have gotten them in 30 minutes earlier than most of the other teams. But it meant one more airport stop, always risky. Doubly so when traveling in South America.

And didn't pay off and they arrived later than the other teams. But you know what, they still finished first for that leg. Barring a catastrophe, they should be in it to the finish.

You can also see the wheat from the chaff in the show. Several teams already have the doomed taint on them. Team Alabama have the look of the doomed on them, although I've underestimated them before. Charla and Mirna look very much doomed, and not too soon. Christ, they're annoying. And I certainly wouldn't mourn the loss of the beauty queens either.

But I guess we shall see. I'm enjoying this season so far, although I wonder how much that mining company paid to get that kind of publicity on the show.