Homeland the critics’ pick
Cable series won four Television Critics Association nominations
This year’s Television Critics Association nominations focus on both the old and the new, an accurate reflection of a 2011- 12 season that was alternatively ordinary and extraordinary.
Homeland, the first- year Showtime drama starring Claire Danes as a bipolar anti- terrorism analyst and Damian Lewis as a repatriated PoW suspected of being a sleeper agent, led the field with four nominations, including nods for outstanding drama, new series and program of the year. Danes was nominated for individual achievement in drama.
Emmy perennial and last year’s TCA drama winner Mad Men was close behind with three nominations, equalling the mark set by HBO’s Game of Thrones and AMC’s Breaking Bad. Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Game of Thrones’ Emmy winner Peter Dinklage were all nominated for individual achievement in drama, where they join Danes and American Horror Story’s Jessica Lange.
The TCA Awards are unique in that there are relatively few categories, and male and female actors compete in the same categories in both comedy and drama. Comedy nominees included Emmy perennial and last
year’s winner Modern Family, along with Community, Louie, The Big Bang Theory and Parks and Recreation.
Nominees for individual achievement in comedy included Louis C. K., for Louie; Jim Parsons, for The Big Bang Theory; Amy Poehler, for Parks and Recreation; Julia Louis- Dreyfus, for Veep; and first- time nominee Lena Dunham, for Girls.
Girls was also nominated for best new series, along with Homeland, New Girl, Revenge and Smash.
No comedies made the shortlist for program of the year.
Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Homeland and Mad Men were nominated instead, along with PBS’s Downton Abbey.
Cheers made the shortlist for the organization’s Heritage Award, along with Saturday Night Live, Lost, Twin Peaks and the original Star Trek.
The TV Critics Association represents some 200 newspaper, magazine and online critics from across the U. S. and Canada.
The TCA Awards will be given out July 28 in Beverly Hills, Calif.