The biggest night in the entertainment industry happened this past weekend. On Sunday, the 91st Academy Awards was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Many outstanding pieces of work, from “Roma” to “Green Book” to “A Star Is Born,” were recognized in excellence at the awards ceremony. With the many forms of backlash and controversies surrounding this year’s show, many didn’t know what to expect going in. Now, with the ceremony over and the winners announced, did the show deliver? Were there any surprises or snubs? Let’s talk about it.

Before getting into discussing the winners, let’s first discuss the show itself. As previously mentioned, many people, including myself, were very concerned with how the quality of the show would be due to the surrounding controversies and backlash amongst those in the industry. So, the big and obvious question is simply this: Did this show deliver as a show? The answer is yes and no.  

The show ran very smoothly and didn’t feel as rushed as many people feared it would. You never feel the absence of a host at all throughout the show. You also didn’t feel that the presenters were simply presenting as they were trying to entertain at the same time. Most of the “Original Song” performances were very solid and the singers themselves presented and sang naturally. The duet between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga felt raw and emotional in presentation (and no, they’re not dating). Also, as always, the memoriam was wonderful and beautifully done.

The biggest positive this show earns is that this is one of the most surprising Oscars shows in recent years. One of the biggest problems this show has had is its predictability in winners. However, this was one of the more unpredictable years and the show delivered on all sorts of surprises.

You may notice that I kept using words like “most” or “trying.” That is because some of the presenters, particularly the ones at the beginning, felt very unnatural and were forcing down humor that never hit. The other obvious out-of-place presenters were the singers; particularly Queen themselves. They opened the show and unfortunately fell apart and didn’t deliver.

The biggest point of criticism that I have from the show comes from technological levels. There were times where award winners’ speeches were cut off; most notably the Best Picture winners. There was also some odd background sounds that bothered me throughout. It’s made obvious that the technological parts of the show were not as well rehearsed and prepared as others.

As a show overall, I found myself more entertained than expected. For anyone who had worries about the show feeling host-less and drawn out, you will not be disappointed with this year’s show. With the exception of a couple of issues from the technological parts and a couple of singers and presenters, the show surprisingly held itself together and ended up being a solid Oscars in the end; especially with the added amount of pressure it had with the controversies that followed beforehand.

Now, let’s discuss the winners.

As previously mentioned, this was one of the more unpredictable shows in recent years. There were many forms of surprises that shocked both the viewers and winners themselves.

The biggest surprise of the night, for me, came in the category for Best Actress. For everyone I spoke to and follow, all of them going in had predicted that Glenn Close would take home the prize for her performance in “The Wife.” With the huge amount of love she has received this awards season, it seemed like a no-brainer. However, the underdog of this category and the surprising winner was Olivia Coleman for her performance in “The Favourite.” The win was such a surprise that Olivia herself looked shocked when her name was called. It was easily the most shocking moment at the awards show.