Once again, more entertaining than important
We’ve had our fun at the expense of the Golden Globe Awards. It’s easy to knock the alcohol-infused star party, a night of unpredictable and not particularly respected awards, salty language and plunging necklines, all in service to the audience’s craving for celebrities.
This year, the Golden Globes will again be more entertaining than important, more fun than meaningful or predictive.
The 73rd annual gala airs 7-10 p.m. Sunday on KUSA-Channel 9, and it’s preceded by an “arrivals” gawking hour.
As awards season gets underway, we are again advised against reading too much into the winners list in terms of what the Globes means for Emmy and Oscar. Remember, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the
group handing out the honors, sounds grander and mightier than it is. The small membership is less powerful than the show’s ability to draw ratings with glimpses of glammed stars in a hotel ballroom.
Unfortunately, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler won’t be hosting/deflating the assembled Hollywood egos as they did in confident feminist style in 2013, 2014 and 2015. (Their riff on Bill Cosby last year was priceless.)
Instead, Ricky Gervais will return to the gig he hosted in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He’s known for pushing envelopes past the paper-cut zone. He has already expressed joy that Mel Gibson has been an- nounced as a presenter. (Gibson’s sexist and antiSemitic outbursts count as gifts to comedians.)
On the TV side, the HFPA stayed true to the Globes’ tendency to highlight the new and offbeat, the smaller gems that Emmy won’t deem worthy. Hence, “Mr. Robot” and “Outlander,” rather than “Downton Abbey” and “Homeland.” “Narcos,” not “Mad Men.”
The fun, funny and musical Rachel Bloom (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) will probably be bypassed by Emmy voters, so it’s nice to see her in the running at the Globes. Ditto Gael García Bernal as the gifted and hyper conductor Rodrigo in “Mozart in the Jungle.”
All of the supporting actresses in limited series deserve the nod, one category the Globes covered well — Regina King for “American Crime,” Joanne Froggatt for “Downton Abbey,” Uzo Aduba for “Orange Is the New Black,” Maura Tierney for “The Affair” and Judith Light for “Transparent.” They missed Jean Smart in “Fargo,” but so it goes.
With “American Crime,” “Fargo,” “Flesh and Bone” and “Wolf Hall,” the Globes actually made respectable nominations this year.
Then again, nominating Lady Gaga for “American Horror Story: Hotel” seems merely a bid to put her on camera for the awards show. Her performance owed more to makeup, wardrobe and editing than acting. And “Empire” seems more a popular call than an exemplar of quality drama.
This year’s nominees don’t break the mold. As in the past, they favor Europeans and hold streaming services nearer and dearer than most network fare.
But they do seem somewhat more sophisticated than in years past.
Consider the series with the most nominations (three apiece): USA Network’s “Mr. Robot,” Starz’s “Outlander,” Amazon’s “Transparent,” ABC’s “American Crime,” FX’s tragicomedy “Fargo” and PBS’s historical miniseries “Wolf Hall.” That’s a solid list.
One sure calculation in advance: The snub of the night is NBC, the network that owns the broadcast rights and will carry the telecast but didn’t get a single nomination.