Oscars 2021 Review: 8 Ups & 8 Downs

Ups...

8. The Shorter Runtime & Fast-Paced Show

At "only" 3 hours and 19 minutes in length, this was the shortest Oscars broadcast in almost a decade, ensuring the typically torturously bloated broadcast was a little easier to sit through than usual.

This was in part due to the sound categories being combined, meaning there was one less Oscar to give out, and the five musical performances for the Best Original Song category being relegated to the pre-show.

Though it was still a relatively lengthy ceremony for the standards of most pandemic-era awards shows, the fact that it spent less time on guff skits - apart from the aforementioned trivia round - while giving winners seemingly unlimited time to make their speeches was a major improvement.

Nobody needs this thing to creep close to four hours as it has in previous years.