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It's the Biggest Night in Hollywood, or whatever they're calling it this year.

That's really nice. Really, really peachy. Neil Patrick Harris is the host. Woo-hoo! If I could get excited, I would. No, really I would. I've tried. Not working.

No, I'm not excited about the Academy Awards. Not that you asked, but it needs to be said. It's your party, not mine. In my line of work, most of the nominated movies have passed me by while I was dwelling upon Mad Men, The Americans, Fargo, Rectify, True Detective, Olive Kitteridge and The Leftovers. I see movies occasionally, but on TV. I see what needs to be seen in terms of trends and storytelling related to television.

The Academy Awards as a broadcast event is, after the red-carpet hoopla, a dreary three hours of bombast, insincere sentimentality, drivel and self-aggrandizement. No thanks. And it is diminishing in importance. Kids today, they don't care. Time was, nobody aired much of anything against the Oscars. This Sunday, as usual, AMC has a new episode of The Walking Dead (9 p.m.) and HBO airs a new Girls (HBO Canada, 9 p.m.), followed by Togetherness and then the remarkable true-crime series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, at 10 p.m.

Listen, I understand the import of a decision on the best movie of 2014. I know that the energy at the event is one of celebration. I know it is fun for many people there, a rare moment of elation and recognition. I know it features some deliriously happy people. Recently, the Irish Times asked some Irish film people who've been to the Oscars to describe the experience. Tim Fleming, a cinematographer, was there in 2010 for The Door, which was nominated for best live-action short film. Fleming and cronies "got a stretch limo to the venue, where their first encounter was with the annual protesters enraged by the sacrilege of the entertainment industry. 'You get to the barricades and you've got these guys with posters saying, "You're all going to hell." We were just like, 'This is f***ing gas, man.'" Way to go.

So it's your party and here's the gist – The Academy Awards air live Sunday (ABC, CTV, 8:30 p.m. ET). Red Carpet coverage on E! Canada starts at 6 p.m. with Ryan Seacrest babbling and Giuliana Rancic looking so thin you could get upset watching her. At 6:30 p.m. on CTV, along comes the Canadian angle with eTalk at the Oscars, featuring Ben Mulroney on the red carpet, and Danielle Graham and Lainey Lui reporting "from the exclusive balcony position above." The official Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live from the Red Carpet starts at 7 p.m. (ABC, CTV). According to the press release, "The 90-minute special highlights the incredible journey many of the nominees have taken to get to Hollywood's most prestigious night." No, it's about the frocks.

Also airing this weekend

Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (Saturday, HBO Canada, 8 p.m.) is a repeat but a gem if you've missed it. Made by Alex Gibney, with Mick Jagger as a producer, it is long on James Brown's early life – the archival footage is astonishing – and later gets into the utter strangeness, greed and ego of Brown. A voyage through half a century of American pop culture, it's two terrific hours.

Return to Ukraine (Sunday, CBC NN, 8 p.m.) is lovely and a unique insight into the situation in Ukraine today. It's made by Alex Shprintsen, a producer with the CBC's The National for 20 years, who was born in the Soviet Union – that is, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. That's near the centre of the bloody battle that's ongoing now. Last year he went back, to meet former classmates and distant relatives. In searching for his roots he uncovers much that illuminates a great deal about the country, its tensions and the shackles that undermine it. The footage of the protests in Kiev in February, 2014, is astounding. Terence McKenna, for whom Shprintsen has often been the producer, reversed roles and co-directed this with him.

Cocaine Wars: Drug Speedboats (Saturday, CBC NN on The Passionate Eye, 10 p.m.) is a wild ride, literally. Made for the National Geographic Channel, it takes us inside a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration team, as it tackles "40-foot cigarette boats speeding through Caribbean waters in the dead of night packed with up to two tons of Colombian cocaine" and, often, a great deal of cash. It's not just footage of cops chasing fast boats in their planes and helicopters. It's about the DEA team itself, which believes it has a mole, and about what happens when overworked and underpaid officers discover they have their hands on a vast quantity of drugs and a lot of cash.

All times ET. Check local listings.

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