I learned to stop trusting the Academy Awards after the year that "Crash," a film that was essentially "Love Actually" but with racism

Colin Firth (Creative Commons)

This year's Academy Awards weren't quite as frustrating as the 2005 show. Best Picture winner "The King's Speech" was a great film. It had interesting, relatable characters. At first, they wanted normal lives, but at the end (spoiler), when the king gave his speech without stuttering, everyone seemed to realize how awesome it is to have power.  

But this is the same reason why "The King's Speech" didn't really deserve the "Best Picture" award; it didn't teach us anything new. The characters were too relatable, and they didn't have much say in their destiny.  

The characters in "The Social Network" paved their own way. And the nicest characters didn't win at the end. Everyone in the Facebook world is meaner, more petty, manipulative and passive-aggressive. There's some of that in "The King's Speech" too, but the difference is, at the end of "The King's Speech" the nice, victimized hero still prevails.

Outside of the tightly controlled world of royalty, however, life is much more complicated. "The Social Network" characters don't get rewarded for following orders and reading their speeches correctly. Instead, Zuckerberg broke the rules, hurt everyone around him and got kicked out of school.

Perhaps this is why "The Social Network" wasn't very popular at an organized affair like The Oscars. "The King's Speech" tells the story of a nice, rich man who did his job well and finally gave a good speech, while "The Social Network" tells the revolutionary story of a moody loser who did his job better than everyone else.