The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is in every way a less legitimate organization than the Screen Actors Guild, yet the Golden Globe TV nominations list is always so much more interesting than whatever SAG puts out the day before. The HFPA shares the SAG voters love of famous movie actors deigning to do television, but they couple that with a love of all things new and shiny that can sometimes be ridiculous and other times be awesome.
So where yesterday’s SAG nominations were predictable and dull in the extreme, this morning’s list of Golden Globe TV nominees has plenty of unexpected stuff on it – some terrific, some just odd.
So, yes, there are tons of famous names on there, particularly since the HFPA decided to treat “True Detective” as a miniseries, which therefore created some breathing room for “The Knick” star Clive Owen to join the drama actors list, along with usual suspects Kevin Space, Liev Schreiber and James Spader, plus Dominic West for “The Affair.” (“The Affair” essentially took all the “Masters of Sex” nominations from a year ago, with Ruth Wilson and the show itself also getting nods.)
But there’s also plenty of new stuff – so much, in fact, that some of last year’s new stuff had to be tossed aside to make room. A year ago, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was a surprise winner for comedy series, and Andy Samberg for comedy actor; this year, the show and Samberg have been significantly better, but neither was nominated. Still, a comedy series list that includes “Girls,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Silicon Valley” and “Transparent” is pretty impressive, and Gina Rodriguez is one of the best and most justifiable examples in recent memory of the HFPA’s rush to crown a pretty young actress new to stardom. (I wrote earlier in the week about how good both “Jane” and Rodriguez have been.)
In the era of Too Much Good TV, there are obviously some shows and performances I love not here, though some were always Globe longshots (“The Leftovers” is too depressing, and “The Americans” was hurt by the HFPA’s historical lack of interest in non-Ryan Murphy FX shows), while others suffered for being old news (“Mad Men” with yet another awards show goose egg).
The Golden Globes in general are meaningless, and the TV categories doubly so, but at least they’re more fun to talk about than the SAGgies. What does everybody else think of this year’s nominees? You more excited about what was included, or annoyed with what was left out?