If the State of the State was the Oscars, Governor Cooper won Best Performance, Democratic women legislators won Best Costume and Phil Berger was hands-down Best Villain.

Once derided as dry and wooden, Cooper has transformed himself into an animated, engaging speaker. He’s got a bit of Andy Griffith in him.

Berger was more like Darth Vader with a wino’s whiskers. His visage was angry, and his voice, raspy. He looked like he was going to make a Marco Rubio lunge for the water bottle.

Cooper’s speech combined a velvet glove of bipartisanship with an iron fist on teacher pay and health care. Berger’s message was red-meat, partisan rhetoric about socialism, radicals, abortion on demand and activist judges. He did everything but hold up a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The takeaway for 2020? Cooper will be hard to beat, Berger should stay where he is and the Republican nominee needs a better message than “things are undeniably great – thanks to Republican legislative leadership!”

Like the Oscars, these speeches have become predictable performance art. There are the ritual introductions of hometown heroes in the galleries, dueling standing ovations by both parties and, of course, made-for-TV outfits.

By wearing white (Republican women legislators wore red), Democratic women did more than honor suffragettes. They showed how many of them there are. They showed how heavily male the legislature still is, especially the Republicans. And they showed the boys in both parties that the women are a force to be reckoned with.

Berger bragged that voters have elected Republican majorities in five consecutive elections. (He didn’t brag about the gerrymandering.) But Monday night made clear that this legislature will be different from the last four.