I asked our contributors to write up brief explorations of the Oscars now that it’s over. Peter and I were able to put together some thoughts. Here they are. I’ll start with Peter and finish with mine.

Peter J. Patrick

If this year’s Oscars have taught us anything, it should be to tune out the extraneous nonsense coming from the self-proclaimed Oscar experts who this year tripped all over themselves predicting that 12 Years a Slave couldn’t win the Best Picture Oscar because the “typical” Oscar voter couldn’t bring himself or herself to watch the film. While you can always find a fringe voter to say the most outrageous things to support your theory, the “typical” Oscar voter takes their Oscar duty seriously and at the very least watches all the nominated films or excuses themselves from voting in a category where they haven’t.

12 Years a Slave was always going to win the big one because it was far and away the year’s most prestigious film. Gravity was a great popcorn movie and would have been a good choice had there not been as prestigious a choice as 12 Years a Slave in the running, but after two years in which the highly entertaining Argo and The Artist took top honors it was time to award a more traditional Oscar movie, i.e. a good old-fashioned message movie that doesn’t stint on emotionally riveting entertainment.

The acting winners were set earlier in the season by the sweeps of Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o at the major televised precursors, the Golden Globes, Broadcast Critics and SAG awards. My predictions for Chiwetel Ejoifor and Judi Dench were more wishful thinking than anything else. I thought an Ejiofor win was possible, but Dench didn’t really have a chance against Blanchett whose performance I thought was good, but a bit too mannered for my taste.

I thought Gravity would take a total of 6 Oscars but to make the numbers come out I hedged a bit on Best Score, throwing my prediction to Philomena. Still, as I thought all along, it was a reprise of the 1972 awards when Cabaret won the majority of awards (8) to Best Picture winner The Godfather‘s 3.

It was a pretty decent Oscar year all around.

Wesley Lovell

Building off Peter’s “what we learned” theme, my learning experience was to never let last-minute second-guessing change predictions you were certain of until that point. Typically, your gut instinct, which is what pushes your initial support of questionable contenders, is the best way to go. This year, I went from having a potential 23 of 24 predictions correct to having only 19 of 24. That’s still a great total, one of my very best, but you have to feel regret that you changed too many choices and found yourself losing and not gaining ground. The four I missed were all changed within the last few days before the Oscars. I will try not to make that mistake again.

I might have made different choices in several categories, but as a set of winners can be, this is one of the best the Academy has ever selected. If their nominations were a little more interesting, I might say this year’s Oscars were the overall best. Unfortunately, there were a few of the year’s greats that were ignored for more common (and familiar) fair. I think the 12 Years a Slave choice is the Academy’s best in a decade and will go down as one of their top selections ever. Lupita Nyongo’s win was spectacular, as was her speech. Gravity was the best nominated score and deserved most of its technical citations.

As for the show? It was a great deal of fun. My personal favorite of the last two decades of hosts is Whoopi Goldberg, though Ellen DeGeneres may be edging her out. If she does another smashing job the next time out, I may have to give her the crown. I’ve never been a fan of the ham-fisted, self-referential routine of Billy Crystal. His schtick was funny the first couple of years, but got tired and dated quickly. Jon Stewart was funny, but wasn’t much of an overall entertainer. DeGeneres made things work I never thought would: The selfie-to-start-a-trend and the pizza delivery were astonishingly fun and funny. They gave some levity to a broadcast that was sometimes light on it. She kept the show moving and even though it was a fairly long program, it felt like it breezed by. Producers rightly slated more competitive categories for later in the broadcast to keep suspense alive and their musical numbers recalled the days of Oscar’s past, days that are hopefully back to stay.

In addition to the welcome performance of songs nominated for the Oscar, I had hoped for more from The Wizard of Oz tribute. Pink killed her performance even if there was a scant trace of nervousness. Idina Menzel didn’t fare much better, her nerves clearly keeping her from reaching her sustained notes with the ferocity she typically employs. Bette Midler delivered one of the most screechy, painful performances in recent memory. She reminds me of those faded ’70s singers trotted out by American Idol each year because they can’t find enough top shelf talent to broadcast. Instead, they try to make a moment out of something that ends up illiciting pity for the singer more so than admiration.

Next year, we’ll see if the producers can keep momentum going with the broadcast. I’m certain the Academy will keep Neil Meron and Craig Zadan around if they will return. While the show could use some tweaks here and there, it was a far better overall production than some recent outings. I would suggest, though, that producers reconsider the 90-minute pre-show. It was clunky, distracting and seemed to avoid what most of us watch the Oscars for: the movies. Ditch the fashion critiques, it’s not your thing. Focus on the stars and talking to them about their work. This pre-show has been done better in the past. The first one seemed more interesting than anything they’ve done since. I know people watching the red carpet arrivals would prefer fluff to substance, but that’s probably because they haven’t had enough of it (substance) in the past. Leave the “you look fantastic” stuff to the E!’s out there. You can bring back Hollywood glamor without fawning over everyone who shows up. Learn from the late Army Archerd and Roger Ebert before it’s too late.