The Golden Globes used to contain a predictable type of chaos. The awards themselves have been voted on by the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation, a small and notoriously corrupt group with a transparent set of biases. (In brief: the extra well-known, the higher.) Maybe because of this, the televised broadcast has all the time been looser, drunker, and fewer self-serious than extra prestigious occasions just like the Oscars. What lacks authority additionally lacks pretense, and the Globes at their greatest — see: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s three-year internet hosting reign within the mid-2010s — have made essentially the most of their relative absence of stakes. 

However after years of scandals, a pandemic, strikes and pivots, together with a pressured hiatus from TV after which a break with NBC, the Globes spent the run-up to this Sunday’s ceremony (now on CBS) indicating that the establishment had modified. For one factor, the HFPA itself isn’t any extra, changed by a for-profit enterprise with an expanded, diversified voting physique. A few of these changes have been welcome, even overdue; Hollywood has sufficient alternatives for nepotism with out the title previously often called Miss Golden Globe. But the Globes additionally risked throwing out the infant with the bathwater — or relatively, Jennifer Lawrence’s lukewarm chardonnay. If the Golden Globes, the group, received its act collectively, might the Golden Globes, the annual movie star extravaganza, nonetheless be enjoyable?

It seems this yr’s Globes have been nonetheless a trainwreck — simply not the type one likes to observe. At only a hair over three hours, the ceremony was environment friendly on paper, however felt interminable in follow. With pressured banter, ill-conceived staging and a woefully unqualified MC, this yr’s present was hardly a triumphant return, not to mention a showcase for a brand new and improved Golden Globes.

Host Jo Koy took the job lower than two weeks in the past, after greater names like eventual winner Ali Wong had publicly handed on the gig. Koy’s efficiency didn’t seize the highlight, as an alternative making for an inauspicious starting to the Globes’ tried rebrand. Relatively than endearing the stand-up to a brand new viewers, Koy’s monologue was full of cringe-worthy jokes about “Barbie” breasts and bitter jabs at a crowd that was audibly not on his wavelength. Earlier hosts like Jerrod Carmichael and Ricky Gervais have gleefully turned their satiric blades on the Globes itself. (Sadly for Koy, Gervais’ shadow solely turned extra distinguished when his fellow comedian received a prize in absentia.) The kindest praise one might pay Koy’s efficiency, not less than from the present’s standpoint, is that it was sufficient of a boondoggle to distract from his employer’s personal struggles. In contrast to in years previous, the Globes’ troubles went largely unmentioned till Robert Downey Jr.’s wry acceptance speech for Finest Supporting Actor.

The previous Marvel star introduced the identical sarcastic allure that enlivened his erstwhile character Tony Stark. (“It’s so enjoyable proving brokers proper!”) However the night was in any other case dominated by rushed, perfunctory speeches by honorees who hardly appeared comfortable to be there. Highlights, like Ayo Edebiri’s shoutout to her reps’ assistants or Greta Gerwig’s shoutout to Noah Baumbach’s internal Barbie woman, got here and went shortly, a tempo inspired by an unseen, although incessantly commented on, countdown clock. Nor did the presenters appear any extra enthusiastic, with the notable exception of Jon Batiste and Andra Day. Onlookers out and in of the room appeared to grab on the pair’s simple chemistry like an oasis in a charisma desert, as a lot a testomony to their very own enchantment as the dearth of highlights earlier than and after their look.

The Globes did pull off the coup of getting Taylor Swift within the room by handing her a nomination for Cinematic and Field Workplace Achievement, an award all however made as much as lure megawatt stars to the Beverly Hilton. However Koy shortly squandered that win, alienating the pop star with an affordable shot about her presence at NFL video games. Swift, an knowledgeable at taking advantage of wordless TV cutaways, telegraphed her displeasure with a single swig of her drink. The evening was surprisingly gentle on distinguished no-shows, in addition to former Gervais and the workforce behind “The Boy and the Heron.” However given what greeted those that did attend, producers could have issue luring in stars of Swift’s caliber once more. Lesser-known nominees like Christine Vachon, producer of “Might December,” publicly complained about horrible seats on the room’s margins, including to the impression {that a} present that payments itself as one large get together was failing to fulfill its friends. For viewers, the dampened vibe was each palpable and contagious. 

Attendees have been pushed to the margins by a stage that jutted into the middle of the room, competing for house with an expanded pool of nominees. (Every class this yr had six candidates in lieu of the standard 5.) The format was one in every of a number of awkward decisions within the design of the present, together with a conspicuous lack of efficiency clips with the puzzling exception of stand-up comedy. At one level, Elizabeth Debicki was visibly startled when a voiceover interrupted some awkward banter between Julia Garner and Jonathan Bailey. After six months of labor stoppages, Hollywood is out of form relating to celebrating itself. Whereas that pent-up demand gave the Globes a theoretical edge, the present as an alternative turned an train in clumsy execution. 

“The Golden Globes have not modified!” joked presenter Will Ferrell, once more invoking the elephant within the room the place Koy pointedly wouldn’t. The road landed, partially, as a result of it wasn’t true. The precise awards have been gentle on surprises — a mirrored image of respectable middlebrow style, not simply bribed eccentricity. Attendees dined on Nobu sushi — precise meals, not simply an countless stream of booze. And the published was lacking what the Globes have historically needed to supply — the good type of chaos, not the unhealthy.

Selection father or mother firm PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a three way partnership with Eldridge.