Golden Globe Nominations

This morning, the HFPA announced the nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, the most well known film and TV awards outside of the Oscars and the Emmys. If you want to see the full list of nominations, check their site. Typically, the Globes' movie choices tend to be a bit safer than the Oscars (Atonement and Babel won Best Drama the last two years) with a few oddball choices to pander to celebrities (Nicole Kidman for Birth?). For TV, they tend to keep ahead of the Emmys by honoring fresh new shows over aging veterans. How'd it turn out this year? I'll go movies first, then TV.

Movies

With the exception of Slumdog Millionaire, the best drama selections all seem to give a boost to movies largely ignored by the critics groups, with Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Revolutionary Road. The latter two in particular could use it after repeated critical snubs. Since three out of five haven't been released yet, I can't much comment on if they're better picks than snubbed films Milk and The Dark Knight. But those snubs won't mean much for Oscar, as they've been rewarded elsewhere (Milk won the New York Film Critics' prize, The Dark Knight's was LA's runner up).

The musical/comedy category is a bit more interesting, as for the first time in awhile no likely Best Picture nominee will come from this category. Mamma Mia, Vicky Christina Barcelona, and Happy-Go-Lucky were pretty expected, but that still left two slots. Would the Globes actually acknowledge an Apatow film? Not so much. I'm glad to see Burn After Reading in there, which probably got in as much from the Coens' name as for the movie. But then there's In Bruges. If someone can explain why people like this movie I would love to hear it, cause I was bored out of my mind watching it.

In both drama and comedy, the acting nominations were all fairly expected. Everyone in drama is on the Oscar shortlist. The comedy nominees were mainly the leads in the nominated films. The most pleasant surprise was James Franco for Pineapple Express, an excellent performance I'm glad to see acknowledged. Biggest surprise was Tom Cruise's supporting nomination for Tropic Thunder. Awards worthy? Probably not, but it's the kind of wacky pick that keeps the Globes interesting.

TV

The TV categories usually stick with as many new shows as possible. But with the writer's strike and the weakest fall season in recent memory, there weren't many new shows to pick from. That led True Blood to the drama section, as the only new show anyone seemed to like. I'm happy to see Dexter and Mad Men back, and hope one of them wins. Less so In Treatment, which critics love but I couldn't get into. Most confusing pick was House. If the Globes want to reward a show in its 4th season, why not go for the best TV show ever, Lost? Outside of Lost, only notable snubs were The Wire and The Shield, and the Globes tend not to go for swan songs.

The comedy category was far worse, echoing the recent Emmy picks. Here the Globes were perfectly happy to reward aging, past-their-prime shows like Entourage, Weeds, and The Office, none of which had their strongest year. 30 Rock has become a fixture at awards shows, so the only interesting pick is Californication, which didn't quite do it for me. I'm guessing Pushing Daisies is MIA because the Globes don't like to honor canceled shows, but there's still no excuse for snubbing How I Met Your Mother.

Nothing too interesting in the acting categories either. Anna Paquin for True Blood and Debra Messing for The Starter Wife are at least different. I'm happy to see January Jones of Mad Men get some notice after a shut-out for the women of Mad Men at the Emmys. And it's interesting to see the Globes give Kevin Connolley of Entourage some attention in probably his least showy year. Other than that, it's pretty much the same old contenders. But what else can you expect in a pretty weak year?