From the outside, awards season has always looked very intense, so I can't imagine what dealing with it professionally must have been like! I'm glad you've reached a point where you could watch and enjoy some of this. I think that the consensus was that it went pretty well, if not spectacularly, with Stone's win being the only surprise, and an actress from a minority losing out to a white actress who already has an Oscar not being too great. Oppenheimer had become quite the cert to sweep the boards.

I dislike the opening monologues for most award shows since they get long, tedious and usually end up not being as funny as the host planned for it to be.

True! You have to set the tone somehow, but even this got rambly, and I was a tad cynical (perhaps too much so) about ending Kimmel's by bringing on unionised crew and getting the audience to applaud. I wonder if starting an hour earlier will stick.