There were, however several things I liked about this year’s award show. In no particular order, they are:

1. Ricky Gervais. The British actor won for his work in “Extras” last year and wasn’t at the ceremony to accept his award, so presenters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert “gave” it to Steve Carrell. This year, Gervais repeatedly appealed to Carrell to return the award, saying “I bet you haven’t even seen ‘Ghost Town.’ I sat through ‘Evan Almighty’; give me my Emmy.” Will the Academy please hire Gervais to host next year?

2. Fashion of the over-40 crowd. Until I looked her up on IMDB, I had no idea Jean Smart, at 57, is only a year younger than my mom. She looked frakkin unbelievable in a long, sparkly black dress topped with a layer of sheer black fabric. Also looking gorgeous were Felicity Huffman (45), Mariska Hargitay (44), Laura Linney (44), Kyra Sedgwick (43) and Julia Louis Dreyfus (47).

3. Josh Groban. Yes, a lot of people think it was weird and a fail, but I was super impressed by his vocal impressions. Plus, he did the ‘Fresh Prince’ theme song — only the best TV intro ever.

4. Bryan Cranston finally won. The “Breaking Bad” star never took home an Emmy for his amazing work on “Malcolm in the Middle,” and I don’t think anyone was more surprised than he was when his named was called for Best Actor in a Drama. I would have been thrilled had the Emmy gone to Hugh Laurie of “House,” and wouldn’t have been surprised had James Spader or Jon Hamm. But how nice was it to see Bryan Cranston finally get his time to shine?

And just for fun, here are some things I hated.

1. The painful, stilted, awkward, just plain un-funny banter between hosts Jeff Probst, Heidi Klum, Ryan Seacrest, Howie Mandel and Tom Bergeron made an already bland ceremony 10 times worse.

2. Neil Patrick Harris loses. I like Jeremy Piven. He’s great in ‘Entourage.’ But again? Neil Patrick Harris is amazing as Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother,” and he did some of his best work this season. It’s the role of his career, and I was really hoping he would be recognized by the academy.

3. David Boreanaz/Lauren Conrad. I love me some Agent Seely Booth (and I guess L.C. is okay) but who thought to put these two together? Both were stiff and uncomfortable-looking, and couldn’t you just see the life go out of him when she chided him for taking her line?