Another award show!

We're watching the Emmy awards tonight. This year, they're hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and he is definitely doing a great job! He's funny, he's personable, and he can sing - it was obvious to me that he's done Broadway. I know he's doing some stuff from a script but I'm sure he had a hand in decided what would be said. There have been a few Kanye West jokes, of course :)  There are also some funny running jokes: one about a prize-winner's seats in the venue, and the other about what an honour it is to be nominated.

Award shows have a tendency to be sort of stuffy, stilted, and pompous. The Emmys this year are the opposite of that; they're funny and much more casual. Part of that easy feeling is due to the host but I think everyone there is feeling that sort of energy. For example, all but one of the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy nominees wore some type of eyewear. Apparently they'd arranged this themselves, as a joke.

One other difference between this award show and others we've seen is that the orchestra and control room are right onstage, so attendees and viewers both can see some of the "behind the scenes" stuff. Plus, the viewer can sometimes hear the control room instructions as we come back from commercial. And of course the announcer is John Hodgman, the PC from the Mac commercials. He's been funny, too, and has helped keep the show light.

This is the way award shows should be: fun, funny, and a little bit irreverent. Once I started watching, I didn't want to stop. Even though we would normally have switched to another program partway through, I chose to stay with the award show. Wouldn't it be nice if all award shows were like this?

No one aired any pre-shows showing the red carpet, which is sort of sad because I like to see the dresses the ladies wear on the red carpet. I guess we'll have to wait to see pictures of most of them. I did notice that, colourwise, many women were wearing long dresses with neutral skin tones and jewel tones, both with and without sparkly embellishment. One award-winner wore an above-the-knee shift and looked like it was covered in broken mirror pieces. It was kind of odd might have looked better had it fit her closer because it was kind of shapeless.

I also noticed more women wearing dresses with straps, which was a pleasant surprise. The shoulder straps on the dresses were also thick enough to cover bra straps. Only one of these dresses (so far) was completely over-the-top: it had poufy things on the shoulders that looked like pillows on which its wearer could take a nap. I can't wait to see all of the dress pictures. :)