Set design didn't seem to help the festive mood of the Oscars

I respect David Rockwell tremendously. His architecture and interior designs have been fresh and inspiration for many years. But he seems to have created a dark chamber of sobriety that didn't really help the festive mood that the Oscars is supposed to evoke. I'm sure it looked beautiful in person as his restaurant spaces always does. But on TV, it looked dim and cold. And it's not really the fault of the Production designer. All sorts of forces must have clashed to create a more somber mood this year, especially the idea that this is a "throw back to the depression era."

Top half of the stage looked like some Fritz Lang vision of a future ballroom, the stage floor inspired by the movie Tron. And did they not have the budget to light everything? Every scene looked dim.

The show seemed to be filled with these well meaning tributes like this but the cold, impersonal stage made it look more like the high court of Romulus making a judgement via holographic projections.

The only non-drowsy moment of the show was A.R. Rahman perfoming songs from Slumdog Millionaire. You could feel the energy of the performers and unlike a lot of the other scenes where people were reminiscing, it felt very much in the moment.

Photos via NYT