I watched Barbara Walters’ Oscar special today, having recorded it in favor of watching the live red carpet programming. It was her last one, and I’ve enjoyed watching them over the years. For her last special she interview Monique and Sandra Bullock, and looked back at her previous shows.

Monique is a strange character. There’s just something about her that strikes me as insincere. She was really great in Precious and deserved the Academy Award, but during her interview with Barbara Walters, I couldn’t help but…dislike her.

There’s the way she talks. When she’s a comedian she’s too over the top, and when she’s “serious” she comes across as a bit self-important.

There’s the open-marriage thing, which I just can’t understand. It’s not that she has one – she can do whatever she wants. It’s just that she way she talked about it was a little too “This is why an open marriage is better than normal marriage” and not enough “It’s just what works for me”. I was surprised to hear that this marriage is Monique’s third marriage, and they’ve only been together since 2006. Sure, she’s known him all her life. But they’ve only been together four years, and I’m not sure that’s long enough to laud the benefits of open marriage just yet.

Then there’s the unshaven legs thing. Sorry, but I can’t get past it. Apparently she shaved her legs once and the hair grew back more and thicker. That’s a myth – the hair just looks like that because it grows back all the same length. And how did she fall under the impression that the hair wouldn’t return after shaving it? Did she think it was permanent? Did she take a razor to her legs once and then look at them a week later and go “Damn, really?”? Besides, now Monique has a lot of money. She could get regular waxes, or laser hair removal. Can’t she even get rid of the hair for the freakin’ Oscars? Seriously, who wants Sasquatch legs while receiving their Academy Award?

I would have much preferred watching Barbara Waters interview Gabourey Sidibe, though I guess since we all knew she wouldn’t win, she wouldn’t bring the same star power as the Monique/Sandra combo. Still, where Monique is affected and pompous, Gabby is jubilant and natural. I think her story would have been more interesting, and she would have better represented Precious.

I liked Barbara Walters’ description of why she was “sick of” doing her Oscars special. She showed the same humor she did in her autobiography and reminded me why I enjoy her. It was nice seeing all the clips of former shows, even the ones before my time. Obviously, though, the show became more relevant once Barbara was allowed to interview nominees.

The clip of Barbara interviewing Warren Beatty was brutal. I forgot how uncomfortable that was. Almost worse though, was her interview with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s nice that Barbara herself acknowledges what the mistakes are though; not everyone at her level will do that.

I didn’t remember the Oscar Special that wasn’t, or was but a few weeks late. Maybe because it featured two of my least favorite actors – Renee Zellweger and Nicolas Cage.

I did remember the show where she interviewed Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Hudson, Helen Mirren and Eddie Murphy. Those were great interviews. I loved her interview the following year with my hometown girl, Ellen Page. And though I didn’t mind the Miley Cyrus interview, I hated the one with the Jonas brothers. Other good, recent interviews were with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

Barbara Walters has done a great job over the years; I’ll miss these specials.

The interview wasn’t groundbreaking or revealing, but it was 100% Sandra Bullock. It was funny and honest, it held my interest and it made me want to see Sandra in a lot more movies.

The bit at the end about the crappy champagne and the toast to Meryl was hilarious.