There are only two good things about the month of January: the potential of snow days, and the fact that award season has (finally) begun.

On Jan. 8, the 74th Golden Globe Awards ceremony kicked off the highly-anticipated 2017 award season at The Beverly Hilton in California, just a short ways away from Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world.  Comedian Jimmy Fallon hosted the annual event, naturally cracking jokes all evening.

In the opening performance, the host and many of the night’s honorees put on a colorful musical performance on the red carpet, followed by Fallon playing a slow song of the piano.  He was visited by stars such as Ryan Reynolds, Tina Fey, and Justin Timberlake before finally making it to the stage, where he was met with a roar of applause.

Since at least one thing has to go wrong at every Hollywood event, the teleprompter broke in the first moments of the show, and Fallon was left to wing his performance.

He touched on the universal joke that the year 2016 was absolutely horrible, and still had enough time to squeeze in a joke about the American popular vote.

The Golden Globes is traditionally the only high profile award ceremony that honors the best of both television and film, while the majority of the other shows address only one or the other, or another type of art.

This year, the ceremony honored the best of the small and big screens that debuted or continued in 2016.

This year, the film La La Land and the British television show The Night Manager were honored the most.

La La Land, an endearing musical drama rom-com starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, won each of its seven nominations, including Best Actor, Actress, and Motion Picture in the musical and comedy genre.

This makes La La Land the most honored film in Golden Globe history, as there has never been a film to win seven awards.  It also makes the film one of four to win all of its nominations.

The Night Manager earned three of its four nominations, which included Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.

Amid the winners for highest honors at the Golden Globes was Moonlight for Best Picture, Drama, Zootopia for Best Animated Picture, and Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress in a film.

The People v. OJ Simpson, Atlanta, and Crown also won two awards each in the television category.

Aside from honoring the best of the best in Hollywood, the 74th Golden Globes also addressed several controversial topics in the country.

Amongst these were immigration, diversity, and the results of the election. The winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is a lifetime achievement award, was Meryl Streep.  Streep utilized the platform of her speech to express her thoughts on several of these contentious manners.

Streep specifically expressed discontent regarding an incident that occurred last year between President Elect Donald Trump and a disabled reporter.  Without actually saying Trump’s name, she said the “performance stunned” her.

“The person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back.  It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was real life.  This instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public … by someone powerful, it filters down into everyone’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,” said Streep in her speech.

“Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big,” tweeted Trump in response to the incident.

Streep was not the only star to get political, however. Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross won Best Actress in a Television Series (musical or comedy).  She dedicated her acceptance speech to women of color.

“This is for all the women, women of color and colorful people whose stories, ideas, thoughts are not always considered worthy and valid and important,” said Ross in her speech.  “But I want you to know that I see you. We see you.”

Aside from being the first award ceremony of the year, the Golden Globes is also the first fashion outing.  The trend most exhibited by the celebrities this year was the plunging neckline.  Priyanka Chopra, Emma Stone, Mandy Moore, Gal Godot, Kristen Bell, and many other stars sported the look.

Additionally, the beard trend was one so prevalent at the Golden Globes this year that it would be unfair to label the event as anything other than the “Beard Parade.”  Jon Hamm, while presenting the award for Best TV Drama Actress, created this nickname.  Hamm, Casey and Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Chris Pine, Chris Hemsworth, and Jake Gyllenhaal were some that grew out their facial hair for the ceremony.

All in all, the 74th Golden Globes proved that Hollywood can be more than glitz and glamour, despite that being its appeal; it helped proved that the entertainment capital can be a political, smart, witty congregation of amazing beards.