Waking up the morning after the Golden Globes is a little like waking up the morning after Christmas. All the excitement leading up to this momentous event– all the red carpet anticipation, the hours spent trying to guess the winners, the money bartered once you’re convinced of said winners– has, at once, come to an end. But, alas, the Golden Globes has one saving grace that ol’ Christmas does not: the Golden Globes are a precursor to the Academy Awards, a dry-run for the real reason award season happens. And with that, all the excitement that has come and gone with the passing of the Golden Globes has become instantly worth it. It’s the Golden Globes, after all, which serve as the only real form of prediction for the Oscars. A review, then, of the Golden Globes become necessary, if only to increase the excitement and anticipation of the impending Oscars.

After looking again at a list of winners, there are a few things that immediately stand out. Yes, many awards went to the obvious choices– no one was really that surprised that Jean Dujarin took home the best actor award in a comedy or musical for his silent performance in The Artist, or that Meryl Streep was the top pick for best actress in a drama for her role in The Iron Lady, or even that The Artist was chosen as the best comedy or musical film (God, was Harvey Weinstein having his heyday).

But then, like any good award show, there were the shocks that let us all eagerly anticipating the Oscars know that we have a real race ahead of us. For example, is George Clooney really the top pick for the Best Actor category for his lead performance in The Descendants over his friend, Brad Pitt’s role (and higher-praised at that) in Moneyball? Or what about the best director award? It came as a shock to me (and I’m sure to many) that given as many awards The Artist was slated to take home, its director, Michel Hazanavicius, lost it to Martin Scorsese for his animated Hugo. Will The Artist actually win all the Oscars its slated to? (I not-so-secretly hope not).

Shocks aside, you also have to wonder if the obvious choice-wins were the Awards Season’s way of throwing us off our game for the Oscars. For example, will Meryl Streep actually take home the Best Actress Oscar, or, in a (probably deserving upset) will the award go to Rooney Mara for her amazing performance in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or even Viola Davis in The Help? And with Octavia Spencer winning the Best Supporting Actress Globe, does that mean that Jessica Chastain has a better chance of winning any Oscar she may be nominated for (after all, she was in a staggering number of well-received films this year)?

I guess there is no way to tell until first, the Oscar nominations are released, and second, until the actual Oscars happen. But let me tell you, if Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life is snubbed the way it was at the more viewer-friendly Golden Globes, the award show is going to have some ‘splaining to do.

Overall, I thought the Golden Globes were great this year (due in large part to its three-year-running great host Ricky Gervais). Hopefully, the Oscars will learn a thing or two from this event. Until this can be discerned, I thank the Golden Globes (and the Hollywood Foreign Press) for a good night full of some expected awards and some shocks.