It was the best of tv, it was the worst of tv. Saturday night at 8:00 I sat down to watch what I thought was going to be greatness, but instead it was disaster. Sunday night at 8:00 I sat down to watch what I thought was going to be a disaster, but instead turned out to be greatness. Tom Brady and the Pats let me down; Ricky Gervais and the Golden Globes lifted me back up. You've heard enough about the former, let's talk about the latter.
I almost didn't watch the Golden Globes. But the late Sunday football game went long, and I remembered that Ricky Gervais was hosting the show for the last time, so "why not?" I decided. Five minutes in and I knew I'd made a good decision. After a series of blistering quips aimed at actors in the room (Leonardo Dicaprio, Joe Pesci, Dame Judi Dench to name a few), Gervais delivered a speech that rivals anything Herb Brooks or General Patton ever said. Right before he was to introduce the first award, Gervais said the following:
So if you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech. You're in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your award, thank your agent and your God, and then bleep off, ok?
Pure brilliance, and it was exactly what I needed to snap me out of my Pats funk. And how do I know Gervais' speech was brilliant? Because the next day the tv critic for the LA Times tweeted the following:
The Golden Globes mood was already sober thanks to an impeachment, threat of war with Iran, and Australia bush fires. The last thing anyone needed was Ricky Gervais there telling them they sucked.
Oh those poor Hollywood celebs! I don't care what "they" needed, the speech was what I needed! It was a blistering dose of reality aimed at the heart of La La Land, and it was fantastic. It was everything the Patriots were not the previous night. I only wish Gervais had been there for postgame analysis Saturday night, I would have loved to have heard his thoughts on Brady, Belichick, and Kraft.
-VB