The Golden Globe Awards

Meyers did a good job, setting a high bar for hosting in a time of tricky comedy. He freely named names, throwing out early mentions of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. The laughter could be nervous, but Meyers was borderline whimsical in his fury. ... Everyone got their minute at the 2018 Golden Globes. And even the imperfections left me blissful.

An evening that balanced the completely expected with a few moments that were refreshingly unpredictable, starting with the symbolic sartorial blackout for the Globes red carpet and ending with Natalie Portman’s sucker punch to the nads in the wake of Winfrey’s speech.

A Golden Globes that seemed put together with real and meaningful thought.

It was Winfrey’s speech, delivered after she became the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Globes equivalent of a lifetime-achievement honor, that instantly established itself as the most memorable moment of the night. ... The late-night host struck the right tone more often than not, and to those who think he didn’t, I ask you to imagine what this night would have been like with Ricky Gervais holding a microphone in his hand.

[Seth Meyers] proved to be the right steward for what was, laughs and personal attacks aside, a more earnest than usual evening for the Globes, a show known for its almost-anything-could-happen vibe.

In a cultural moment as fraught as this one, an awards show can't be everything to everyone. But as a host, Meyers did his best to make it work, with some help from the winners. His performance wasn't perfect, but it set a high bar for the rest of awards season, and repeat Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel.

Meyers delivered a carefully crafted monologue that took well-phrased shots at Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Woody Allen, while also making room for Poehler, talking from her seat, to deliver the biggest laughs of the segment with a couple of raucous, mansplaining jabs. ...Sure, some of the chatter was a little bit tedious because of sheer repetition, but it was a higher class of tedium — nobler and more heartfelt, and effective in its fervor and sincerity. Later in the evening, Oprah Winfrey turned her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award into a stirring talk about race and class and history. It was a world-class speech.

Oprah Winfrey brought the house down with a speech calling for the day when no woman would have to say “Me too.” ... Though many award recipients wanted to show solidarity, not all were as comfortable or animated in speaking, and at times the stream of “Up with Women” sentiments were as monochromatic as all those black dresses. Though seemingly well intended, it felt more perfunctory than a sign of some bigger shift. And then there were the poor, uncomfortable men who didn’t know what to do in this new world of truth-speak. ... During the ceremony, Meyers half entertained, half challenged the audience to take a good hard look at their own industry.

Irony is Mr. Meyers’s thing, and he was deftly funny pointing it out. ... And Oprah Winfrey, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, took the audience to church with a fervent, personal speech dedicated to abused women inside and outside Hollywood. ... For much of the night, though, it was a surprisingly ordinary Golden Globes. It wasn’t quite a celebration; it wasn’t entirely a protest.

After a long buildup to the awards, and a successful opening monologue, the awards just kind of... kept going, without much fanfare or pizzazz. It seemed as if the energy of the preamble couldn’t quite match with what is a pretty boring format of handing out awards and listing nominees. ... It turns out, the #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #WhyWeWearBlack soundbites on the carpet and onstage were just the canapés preparing the audience for the main course: Oprah Winfrey accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award and delivering a rousing speech that seemed to reach every remaining doubt and fear, boiling down to nothing less than a mission statement for the future.