by Lynn Lee
Andy & Sandra at their private after-party last night
That’s it?”
-My reaction to the final Golden Globes signoff by Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg.
Don’t get me wrong: one thing I love about the Globes – besides the glorious coming together of movies and TV and everyone in the room getting shitfaced – is how efficiently it runs its course, at least compared to our favorite bloated yearly Hollywood telecast. But damned if it didn’t feel like this year’s Globes, in hurrying things along, gave short shrift to its hosts. Which is a shame, since they showed potential that was never fully realized...
What we did see of the odd but likable pairing of former SNL star / current lead of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine Samberg and Sideways breakout and Grey’s Anatomy alum Oh, who’s currently killing it on Killing Eve, was mostly charming, if a bit awkward. Their opening shtick – lobbing compliments at the audience members in the tone of sick burns – set a gently amusing contrast to the mean-spiritedness of some of their hosting predecessors (*cough* Ricky Gervais), even if no one joke was especially funny. Their routine got a little more bite once they moved on to the dominance of Crazy Rich Asians, with the obligatory swipe at the whitewashing of Asian protagonists in Ghost in the Shell and Aloha boosted by Oh’s dry delivery. As the show went on and they started taking good-natured swipes at both the Oscars and the Globes, they picked up more momentum
…until they lost it by being largely absent from the later part of the ceremony.
But not, at least, before Oh got her shining moment in her win for Killing Eve, and her lovely, lovely tribute to her parents. The sight of her dad, beaming from ear to ear with pride, the more restrained demeanor of her mom, and her telling them “I love you” in Korean just killed me, as a fellow Korean American with a similar parental dynamic. It was particularly perfect on a night when Crazy Rich Asians, that ultimate paean to the Asian mother, was also recognized, even if it didn’t win anything. Even though I was rooting for Keri Russell (The Americans), Oh’s win was worth it, both for that moment and the one directly afterwards of her back in hosting mode but clutching her Globe and admitting she had no idea what was happening. It did not, however, make up for the fact that we barely saw her – or Samberg – from that point on!
Ah well. Maybe less is more, especially when you’re trying to distinguish yourself from big sister Oscar.
BEST LINE: “One lucky audience member will host the Oscars!”
WORST LINE: “First…man!” A game but failed effort by Oh at rolling with the corniness while still being topical. (Her later masturbation joke about the This is Us cast also felt like a misfire, but at least she delivered that one with a lot more conviction.)
BEST GAG: The Jim Carrey bit was a little disjointed, but it did get a good dig in at the pecking order of movies vs. TV…especially when the movie in question is Sonic the Hedgehog.
WORST GAG: The flu shots. Yes, the “everyman” interludes at the Oscars are a silly waste of time. So is a parody of them.
OVERALL GRADE: B-, but an “A” for Oh’s non-hosting moments.
What did you think of Oh and Samberg as hosts?
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