Golden Globes: Strong star turnout, edgy host restore some glitter to troubled awards show

“I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here because I’m Black. I’ll catch everyone in the room up. … This show … did not air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single Black member until George Floyd died.” – Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael, immediately addressing the White Elephant in the room in his opening monologue.

The Golden Globes were a sketchy proposition long before the series of scandals that nearly obliterated the Hollywood Foreign Press Association a couple of years ago — but they returned in a big way to network television on Tuesday night in a star-studded ceremony that featured some of the biggest names in movies and television celebrating their art and saluting one another.

Are the Globes “relevant” once again? In the grand scheme of things, no awards show should be taken too seriously — but whether we believe the HFPA has truly redeemed itself, the fact that so many stars and name directors showed up, and that NBC has given the ceremony a mulligan, at least for this year, means the Golden Globes do matter once again, at least in the business we call show.

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So yes, the acting wins for Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) solidify their standing as co-favorites for best actress at the Oscars, and “The Banshees of Inisherin” had a great night with wins for best musical or comedy picture, best actor (Colin Farrell) and best screenplay (writer/director Martin McDonagh), and the victories for “Abbott Elementary” and stars Quinton Brunson (who created the series) and Tyler James Williams are a triumph for a relatively traditional network sitcom, and it’s a big thing for rising stars such as Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Jeremy Allen White (for the Chicago-made buzz hit “The Bear”) to win a Golden Globe, and good for them.

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To his credit, host Jerrod Carmichael pulled back the curtain and gave us the inside story on how he was asked to host the Golden Globes, how much he was paid and why he decided to take the job, whether the Hollywood Foreign Press had really changed or not. (Spoiler alert: The half-million dollars didn’t hurt.)

“One minute you’re making a mint tea at home, the next you’re invited to be the Black face of an embattled white organization,” cracked Carmichael, who literally took a seat on the steps of the stage at one point, as if he were chatting up a room of old friends and not performing in front of an illustrious audience that laughed, at times uneasily, at Carmichael’s relatively somber opening monologue.

As for the ceremony itself, it played out largely like virtually every other awards show in TV history: The host tells jokes and then acts as a glorified traffic cop for the duration of the proceedings. The winners gush with genuine emotion, thank a laundry list of important people in their lives and wave off the musical cue to wrap it up. Lifetime Achievement Awards are handed out. (Raise your hand if you expected Eddie Murphy to close out his Cecil B. DeMille speech with a dig at Will and Jada.) By the third hour, we’ve settled into the comfortable and not altogether scintillating and quite cyclical nature of it all.

Carmichael kept up the edgy factor by slipping in a joke about finding Tom Cruise’s returned Globes backstage that turned into a shot at Scientology via a reference to Shelly Miscavige, who is married to the church’s leader and hasn’t been seen in public for 15 years. He later told Steven Spielberg he watched best drama film winner “The Fabelmans” with Kanye and “it changed everything for him, so that’s how good you are. You changed Kanye West’s mind.”

From the get-go, it was clear Carmichael figured this was a one-off hosting gig, and he wasn’t going to worry about ruffling feathers. Cheers to that.

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

One nice touch: the pianist who played us back from commercials with samplings of classic TV and movie themes, from “Hill Street Blues” to “Sex and the City” to “Tubular Bells” from “The Exorcist.”

In the first of many terrific acceptance speeches of the night, Ke Huy Quan of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” thanked his “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” director Spielberg, who blew a kiss to the former child star.

Angela Bassett won for her supporting role in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” drawing a standing ovation from the audience in the crowded ballroom at the Beverly Hilton and delivering a heartfelt, inspirational speech as presenter Jennifer Hudson looked on with tears in her eyes and Bassett’s husband, Courtney B. Vance, recorded the speech on his iPhone like a proud hubby at the local talent show.

Next up was Jennifer Coolidge, who sounded EXACTLY like Tanya from “The White Lotus” (or perhaps it’s the other way around) in a hilarious, rambling routine while presenting an award. Nomination: Jennifer Coolidge to host the Globes next year! (Sidebar: Coolidge went on to a well-deserved win for “The White Lotus.”)

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

The parade was on, with the HFPA making solid choices and the Globes going to deserving winners, from Paul Walter Hauser’s indelible work in “Black Bird” to Julia Garner’s brilliant performance in the final season of “Ozark” to Zendaya winning yet another trophy for “Euphoria.”

So yes, the Golden Globes have returned to network television.

For now.

Without a long-term commitment.

We’ll see how long it goes. My guess is the relationship will continue for years to come.