Have the Oscars become so overhyped and overtly political that they’re no longer worth caring about? Chris Vognar thinks so: “I’m dumbfounded at the exalted place the Oscars hold in the public (and especially the media) imagination… The Oscars now stand at the peak of what you might call an entertainment-industrial complex. They are the ultimate self-generating content machine, a mix of old lore and new fluff, little of it consequential in any except as a cash cow on par with the Super Bowl.”