As we're about to say good bye to February, it occured to me that this month had four exciting Sundays in a row. Now, when March first rolls around, there will still be things that will interest certain people, like the return of Once Upon A Time or new episodes of The Walking Dead.
Make no mistake, though, the past four Sundays had events that most people wanted to see. They were all curious about what would happen, and they also featured red carpet events. Yes, that included the Super Bowl. In fact, the Super Bowl and the Oscars almost had the same amount of pre-show coverage.
Super Bowl XLIX--Even though most people thought a slightly off Left Shark was the most memorable character from the game, people will forever recall Tm Brady leading the New England Patriots back from a ten-point defecit to beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24. They'll also forever wonder why Seattle coach Pete Carroll didn't give the ball to Marshawn Lynch from the 1 yard line.
Grammys 2015--While this show had its moments, the structure was rather odd. Why would you have a long talk about copyright law after Record of the Year was announced,thus making people decide to tune out before Beyonce took the stage. At least we had Sam Smith dominate the show, along with a surprising performance by Kristen Wiig dancing to Sia's Chandelier. There was also great performances by Madonna, Common, John Legend and Annie Lennox, while Kanye West almost tried to grab Beck's Album of the Year and give it to Beyonce (who already won in the pre-show)
Saturday Night Live Turns 40--This was a supersized version of the show, filled with jokes that worked and those that didn't. There was plenty of nostalgia, like the remake of the Super Bass-O-Matic, the ultimate Weekend Update, and the excellent return of Wayne's World. Some didn't quite work, like The Californians (despite Bradley Cooper and Betty White locking lips, and Total Bastard Airways telling the cast, "buh-bye", and actually making it the perfect ending), and Eddie Murphy just showing up. True, he didn't want to do a skecth where he'd mock Bill Cosby, but he could have done something else. People were glad to see Paul McCarney and Paul Simon there, and some seemed to be surprised Miley Cyrus did a cool job with "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". That would be topped a week later. Kanye and Sia came back for this, and they did fine.
The best part of the night, according to Jimmy Fallon, may have been the after-party...
At least we have this on YouTube:
Maybe Taylor can recreate that if and when she's back on the show.
Academy Awards--People were hoping that Neil Patrick Harris would conquer the daunting task of hosting the show, but, just like SNL, some of his jokes worked and some didn't. I still suspect Bad Horse wrote the script. It would have been better if Neil didn't include that magic trick.
People tuned in to see if Boyhood or Birdman would win best picture because that was the only suspense left in awards season, There were great acceptance speeches from Patricia Arquette, J.K. Simmons, Eddie Redmayne, and Graham Moore. There was also the director of Ida outlasting the "play-out music".
Two music performances wound up being the highlight: John Legend and Common's performance of "Glory", and Lady Gaga's stunning performance of songs from The Sound of Music, followed by getting Julie Andrews' endorsement. Gaga may be built for Broadway, but first she's got an American Horror Story to tell this fall.
Then there's Sean Penn's ill-advised joke before he declared Birdman as best picture. Even though the director laughed it off, many movie fans wouldn't. It was the same story when Giuliana Rancic criticized Zendaya's hairstyle in an unfortunate way. That led to two apologies, but Zendaya let it go.
It was a fabulous February, but don't think it will be a "meh March". While Sundays may not be as exciting as they have been, there's still a lot to anticipate: the return of Agents of SHIELD, spring training, NCAA March Madness, Cinderella starring Cate Blanchett (can you name who is playing Cinderella? You could do that in the TV versions), Chappie, Insurgent,..
and some of these events can be enjoyed on a Sunday.
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