My Oscars experience was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I was forced to watch the majority of the show on Twitch and Periscope streams of questionable quality that featured people speaking loudly in Spanish, a very annoying woman insisting aggressively that I like her rapper boyfriend’s Instagram account while waving it theatrically in front of the screen, and another stream worryingly entitled “I Watch the Oscars from Inside My Cage” which featured a scantily clad lady called Julie watching the Oscars from inside a cage. Between the bizarre viewing habits of my hosts and the streams inevitably getting shut down, I was left with very little time to actually consider the Oscars ceremony itself. The lack of a host this year did little to improve the quality of the jokes and monologues, which, every year without fail, manage to account for some of the most unfunny, contrived and oppressively safe drivel I’ve had the misfortune to experience – although it did at least save me the even greater torture of having to sit through four hours of Kevin Hart. Still, the awards themselves are entertaining enough and Queen opening the show was a nice touch that set the tone appropriately. Overall, I was very happy with the winners. Mahershala Ali and Regina King thoroughly deserved their respective Best-Supporting Oscars. Rami Malek was a popular, if a little safe, choice for Best Actor although one cannot fault his dedication to the role of Freddie Mercury. Best of all, Black Panther, A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody did not win Best Picture, the award instead going to the excellent and thoroughly deserving Green Book, which has since garnered a negative reaction online but trust me, it is a humorous but thought-provoking film with star turns from Viggo Mortensen and the aforementioned Ali. The real winner of the night, however, was undoubtedly Olivia Colman, who picked up the Best-Actress gong for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, which had, up until that point, been snubbed for several awards. Her speech was the most genuine, lovable and funny thing about the entire show and cemented her place as both a national and international treasure.
