Here we have the "BET Awards 2016" and you can read in the title that this is an awards show, what kind of awards show and also the year when this was held. To be more precise, this was in summer 2016, in late June, but you do not really find out about that because it was an indoor ceremony. The director is once more Glenn Weiss, a true icon when it comes to awards show, but it must also be said that with all the stuff he was in charge with, there is also a lot that did not reach the greatest quality. This one here is one example and that is already a really gentle way to put it. Also not a rarity that really many people are credited as writers. With awards shows in general, but also with this one here in particular. I have seen older editions and it is also the case there that there were five writers or something. Still kinda shocking they had so many people come up with the material and the outcome is this disappointing honestly. Talk about too many cooks spoiling the broth. This show here went for no less than 2 hours and 45 minutes, so easily over 150 minutes and this does not even include commercial breaks, but it means that this is basically Oscar length. But sadly the entire thing here is not even close to being half interesting as the Academy Awards. Probably rather somewhere around 10%. Alright, the hosts were Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, the lead duo from comedy series "Black-ish". I must say I kinda liked Anderson early in his career. His little role on Scorsese's "The Departed", his turn on L&O etc. Bsck then, he was not really too exposed. Now he is. Cannot say I am a fan anymore. Admittedly, he is nowhere near as bad as TER. She is just free of talent from what I have seen. She is not funny, not an entertainer, has no real acting versatility in terms of what I have seen, but media sure do their best to convince you differently. I mean here she is nominated in the acting category with Oscar-nominated big screen actresses. Enough said. She also was the more dominant force in terms of hosting here compared to Anderson. And this made it even more unwatchable. At least he was mildly funny in his little sketches and moments when he was in command of the show. He does have solid comedic timing as he proved with his Beyoncé bathtub joke, which I also liked because it was politically incorrect, but still the sucking-up aspect was not too amazing. His material and career choices do not always allow him to shine, but he is not untalented I would say, especially compared to Tracee Ellis Ross. So much for the hosts here. The following may be a bit more of a general statement than particularly fitting for this show we got here, but it needs to be said. In my opinion, it is really wrong to make a(n awards) show that is all about people with the same skin color, ethnicity, religion whatever. It is never okay to shut out people because of what defines them, especially if it is something that they did not choose themselves. Strangely ennough, this is the key argument by the group who made this event happen, makes it happen every year, but it seems as if they forget their own principle very quickly when it comes to exclusing other groups, putting other groups down. Alright, I am generally somebody who does not want political stuff included in awards show, so I shall not go any further into detail. All I can say is that if they stopped coming up with new editions of the BET Awards, Black Reel Awards whatever, then I would not see it as a negative sign. Of course, if you take a look at the year here, you also see that this was 2016 and America was close to electing Trump. I am actually not sure if in late June the two nominees were already safe, but you could see people promoting Hillary already (I think it was Ross, another failure). I mean at least the others still had the decency to only tell people to vote and not tell them who they should vote for, but I cannot say I am surprised with Ross. I still would have preferred for them to keep the election and every other political tendency out of this show. Not entirely sure, I think another one who elaborated on politics at least briefly was Taraji P. Henson. She is not a great actress, but much better than Ross, so okay she won the category. Watched her host another awards show not too long ago and this one I also did not like. She is pretty annoying in my eyes. Just my personal and subjective opinion though and not a statement on her work as an actress. On the contrary, especially early on in her career I think I liked her quite a bit. Certainly more than I do today.
Honestly, in the middle of the show I wondered why they have all these very forgettable and not particularly talented artists (or "artists") as part of the show and that they should get the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, Dezel Washington etc. instead and boom SLJ happened right away. He elevated the material for a brief while, even if his speech did not blow me awway either, but it was a positive surprise for sure to see him there. There are so many great Black actors, but either they are not interested in those or this show is below them and honestly, if the latter is true, I could not blame them at all. As a consequence, their absence also makes it difficult for me to watch this show, let alone appreciate it. There are other isues too though. One big issue would be the same that almost every (music) awards show has these days: It is packed from beginning to end with music and "live" performances. This may be fine for those there in the room in the audience, but for me at home I go for a concert DVD if I want that. The awards element seems to be a minor factor at best. This is already visible because they do not even make an effort to put in every category during the broadcast. Highly disrespectful to all the nominees and winners from those categories that are left out. Instead music, music, music. Just a complete no-go. What is even worse is that the majority of music is so generic, so forgettable, so uninspired. I mean look at Beyoncé early on. I think she was massively talented during her Destiny's Child days, also still okay during her early years as a solo artist, but by now she has turned into the epitome of generic pop music really. And still she is 20 times better than Alicia Keys for example and it is so ridiculous how they are still trying to convince us she is a defining pop artist or great singer. She was always more about screaming, but over the last years it has gotten worse than ever. Okay, what else can I say about this never-ending 2016 event here? Of course, in retrospective it is pretty nice to see Ross manipulate people into voing against Trump, but this cannot save the show. And this factor was not even included when you watched the show live back then because you would not know about the outcome. Okay, if I counted correctly here, we have no less than 15(!) songs performed. Ridiculously exaggerated. This awards show also included tribute. Prince died not too long ago before it took place and I think he would have deserved better than what we got to see here. Pity really. I respect him as an artist, even if I was never as big on his shenanigans and also feel he was slightly overrated. If Muhammad Ali was overrated or not, is up to you to decide. I personally would not say he was the greatest boxer of all time. His ego and political background probably contributed to many people thinking this way. But this is not the place to discuss. He also died not too long before this show and received a little tribute. His daughter was there. She was a successful boxer herself and I respect her a lot. With actors sometimes you can say they are only famous because of their parents, but athletes have to provem themselves and she sure did with her many great wins and titles. So I believe Laila Ali was one big highlight here, maybe the best thing about the show altogether. Not because she was great though, but because everything else was either forgettable or just terrible at times even. It is probably, due to personal interest and dedication, easier for me to comment on the sports awards than on the music. Stephen Curry I kinda like, good for him. Serena no words. She should not be seen as an icon or role model by anybody. Gotta admit I am not familiar with just one of the five nominees for Best New Artist. I kinda feel they will not be having long careers in the industry to be honest. A music video director calling himself "Director X" is about as edgy as Nicki Minaj winning awrads for her talent. But the more dominant winner that night was once again Beyoncé. I made myself very clear about her earlier. As long as she will not be back to her earlier years quality-wise, she is not deserving of awards recognition either. But hey, with this competition I am not surprised she is still racking up trophies. Tough to dig for good things here. Maybe it's easier to talk about stuff that was not included in this sense, like how Obama was not a part of this show, which would have made it even more unbearably political. Also I cannot appreciate the commercialization here one bit. Disgusting. Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award? Seriously? I think this summarizes the show in a nutshell. Great talent or vocal range or quality entertainment are not what this is about. It's not even about the awards. It feels as if the target here was nothing except the intention to make simple minds even more simple and in the process of it get through a political mainstream agenda to as many as possible. Absolutely not recommended. This awards show was a travesty. Avoid at all cost. By the way, the "Grey's Anatomy" actors is also seriously overrated. No idea why they are acting as if he was an icon or so. But he got these pseudo important words off his chest and then he was gone. Good. All make-believe like the rest of this show. That is really it now.
Honestly, in the middle of the show I wondered why they have all these very forgettable and not particularly talented artists (or "artists") as part of the show and that they should get the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, Dezel Washington etc. instead and boom SLJ happened right away. He elevated the material for a brief while, even if his speech did not blow me awway either, but it was a positive surprise for sure to see him there. There are so many great Black actors, but either they are not interested in those or this show is below them and honestly, if the latter is true, I could not blame them at all. As a consequence, their absence also makes it difficult for me to watch this show, let alone appreciate it. There are other isues too though. One big issue would be the same that almost every (music) awards show has these days: It is packed from beginning to end with music and "live" performances. This may be fine for those there in the room in the audience, but for me at home I go for a concert DVD if I want that. The awards element seems to be a minor factor at best. This is already visible because they do not even make an effort to put in every category during the broadcast. Highly disrespectful to all the nominees and winners from those categories that are left out. Instead music, music, music. Just a complete no-go. What is even worse is that the majority of music is so generic, so forgettable, so uninspired. I mean look at Beyoncé early on. I think she was massively talented during her Destiny's Child days, also still okay during her early years as a solo artist, but by now she has turned into the epitome of generic pop music really. And still she is 20 times better than Alicia Keys for example and it is so ridiculous how they are still trying to convince us she is a defining pop artist or great singer. She was always more about screaming, but over the last years it has gotten worse than ever. Okay, what else can I say about this never-ending 2016 event here? Of course, in retrospective it is pretty nice to see Ross manipulate people into voing against Trump, but this cannot save the show. And this factor was not even included when you watched the show live back then because you would not know about the outcome. Okay, if I counted correctly here, we have no less than 15(!) songs performed. Ridiculously exaggerated. This awards show also included tribute. Prince died not too long ago before it took place and I think he would have deserved better than what we got to see here. Pity really. I respect him as an artist, even if I was never as big on his shenanigans and also feel he was slightly overrated. If Muhammad Ali was overrated or not, is up to you to decide. I personally would not say he was the greatest boxer of all time. His ego and political background probably contributed to many people thinking this way. But this is not the place to discuss. He also died not too long before this show and received a little tribute. His daughter was there. She was a successful boxer herself and I respect her a lot. With actors sometimes you can say they are only famous because of their parents, but athletes have to provem themselves and she sure did with her many great wins and titles. So I believe Laila Ali was one big highlight here, maybe the best thing about the show altogether. Not because she was great though, but because everything else was either forgettable or just terrible at times even. It is probably, due to personal interest and dedication, easier for me to comment on the sports awards than on the music. Stephen Curry I kinda like, good for him. Serena no words. She should not be seen as an icon or role model by anybody. Gotta admit I am not familiar with just one of the five nominees for Best New Artist. I kinda feel they will not be having long careers in the industry to be honest. A music video director calling himself "Director X" is about as edgy as Nicki Minaj winning awrads for her talent. But the more dominant winner that night was once again Beyoncé. I made myself very clear about her earlier. As long as she will not be back to her earlier years quality-wise, she is not deserving of awards recognition either. But hey, with this competition I am not surprised she is still racking up trophies. Tough to dig for good things here. Maybe it's easier to talk about stuff that was not included in this sense, like how Obama was not a part of this show, which would have made it even more unbearably political. Also I cannot appreciate the commercialization here one bit. Disgusting. Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award? Seriously? I think this summarizes the show in a nutshell. Great talent or vocal range or quality entertainment are not what this is about. It's not even about the awards. It feels as if the target here was nothing except the intention to make simple minds even more simple and in the process of it get through a political mainstream agenda to as many as possible. Absolutely not recommended. This awards show was a travesty. Avoid at all cost. By the way, the "Grey's Anatomy" actors is also seriously overrated. No idea why they are acting as if he was an icon or so. But he got these pseudo important words off his chest and then he was gone. Good. All make-believe like the rest of this show. That is really it now.
