Golden Globes Report: A Big Year for Amazon, Netflix, Showtime and The CW – Ed Martin

NBC will telecast The Golden Globe Awards live on January 11 at 8 p.m. ET.

The enduring power and popularity of the annual Golden Globe Awards continues to amaze and amuse. Do they really mean anything in the grand scheme of things? Generally speaking, and in hindsight, the nominations and the awards themselves often seem scattershot, and given the randomness of some of the recipients over the years they remain unproven as a predictor of honors to come, including the Oscars and the Emmys.

But – more than any other Hollywood awards presentation – the Globes continue to delight as one of the most entertaining live television events of the year. Their arrival in January heralds the beginning of what is known as Awards Season – even though it feels as if some entertainment-focused organization somewhere is always giving awards of some kind to someone or something throughout the year. It doesn’t hurt that the producers of the Globes have an uncanny knack for finding perfect hosts (Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler) who always manage to entertain the home audience throughout the entire telecast, something that continues to elude the craftsmen behind the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards.

Heaven knows the actual nominations are not the reason for the staying power of the Globes. Every year, without fail, they offer a mixed bag of the expected, the exasperating and the egregiously overlooked. The nominations in the television categories for the 2015 Globes, announced this morning, are no exception.

In fact, two of the categories are as maddening as any nomination exclusions could possibly be. Year after year the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the mighty overseers of the Globes) insist on lumping together supporting performers from Movies, Miniseries, Drama Series and Comedy Series into two categories. How difficult would it be to separate them into three – even if they couldn’t fit in the three-hour Globes telecast (which is somewhat inconceivable) and had to be handed out before or after the show? Then they would avoid the kind of lunacy evident from the cobbling together this year of the following:

Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series, Miniseries or Movie: Matt Bomer of “The Normal Heart” (HBO), Alan Cumming of “The Good Wife” (CBS), Colin Hanks of “Fargo” (FX), Bill Murray of “Olive Kitteridge” (HBO) and Jon Voight of “Ray Donovan” (Showtime).

Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or Movie: Uzo Aduba of “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix), Kathy Bates of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” (FX), Joanne Froggatt of “Downton Abbey” (PBS), Allison Janney of “Mom” (CBS) and Michelle Monaghan of “True Detective” (HBO).

Fortunately, the other nine television categories are processed and presented in a more civilized fashion. All we have to complain about in those are the obvious oversights.

The nominees for Best Drama Series are Showtime's "The Affair” (pictured below), “Downton Abbey” (PBS), “Game of Thrones” (HBO), “The Good Wife” (CBS) and “House of Cards” (Netflix). I would have preferred to see Netflix’s “The Killing” and Showtime’s “Homeland” in place of the latter two, and one could argue that AMC’s half-season of “Mad Men” offered more greatness than the downbeat fourth season of “Downton.” But there is no way that any awards show anywhere can properly recognize all of the great drama series on television today.

The nominees for Best Actor in a Drama Series are Clive Owen of “The Knick” (Cinemax), Liev Schreiber of “Ray Donovan” (Showtime), Kevin Spacey of “House of Cards” (Netflix), James Spader of “The Blacklist” (NBC) and Dominic West of “The Affair” (Showtime). Charlie Hunnam of FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” Joel Kinnaman of Netflix’s “The Killing” and the perennially passed-over Jon Hamm of AMC’s “Mad Men” were robbed.

The nominees for Best Actress in a Drama Series are Claire Danes of “Homeland” (Showtime), Viola Davis of “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC), Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife” (CBS), Ruth Wilson of “The Affair” (Showtime) and Robin Wright of “House of Cards” (Netflix). I’m sorry room wasn’t made for Tatiana Maslany of "Orphan Black" (BBC America), Mireille Enos of “The Killing” (Netflix) and Eva Green of “Penny Dreadful” (Showtime) but having two actresses in the running from broadcast series is pretty great.

The nominees for Best Comedy Series are “Girls” (HBO), “Jane the Virgin” (The CW), “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix), “Silicon Valley” (HBO) and “Transparent” (Amazon). CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and “Mom,” ABC’s “Modern Family” and “The Middle,” Fox’s “Enlisted,” FX’s “Louie” and “You’re the Worst,” Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” and HBO’s “Veep” were all more deserving than “Girls,” but otherwise I’m good with this one. (Come to think of it, 2014 was a great year for comedy.)

The nominees for Best Actor in a Comedy Series are Louis C.K. of “Louie” (FX), Don Cheadle of “House of Cards” (Showtime), Ricky Gervais of “Derek” (Netflix), William H. Macy of “Shameless” (Showtime) and Jeffrey Tambor of “Transparent” (Amazon). I would complain about the lack of recognition for last year’s winner, Andy Samberg of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox), and Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS), but why bother? Jeffrey Tambor gave the performance of the year in “Transparent” and should skate home with this one.

The nominees for Best Actress in a Comedy Series are Lena Dunham of “Girls” (HBO), Edie Falco of “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime), Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Veep” (HBO), Gina Rodriguez of “Jane the Virgin” (The CW) and Taylor Schilling of “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix). Room should have been made for Emmy Rossum of “Shameless” (Showtime), who had an outstanding season. I’m happy that Falco made the cut for her similarly overlooked work this year in “Nurse Jackie.”

The nominees for Best Movie or Miniseries are FX’s “Fargo,” Starz’ “The Missing,” HBO’s “The Normal Heart,” HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge” and HBO’s “True Detective.” The nominees for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries are Martin Freeman of “Fargo” (FX), Woody Harrelson of “True Detective” (HBO), Matthew McConaughey of “True Detective” (HBO), Mark Ruffalo of “The Normal Heart” (HBO) and Billy Bob Thornton of “Fargo” (FX). The nominees for Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries are Maggie Gyllenhaal of “The Honorable Woman” (Sundance), Jessica Lange of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” (FX), Frances McDormand of “Olive Kitteridge” (HBO), Frances O’Connor of “The Missing” (Starz) and Allison Tollman of “Fargo” (FX). In those three categories the Globes got it right.

Ed Martin is the Editor of MediaBizBloggers and the television and video critic for the MyersBusiness Network. Follow him on Twitter at @PlanetEd.

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