Golden Globes TV nominations: EW's critics weigh in (and vent)

This morning, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced nominations for this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, airing on Sunday, Jan. 6, on NBC. Entertainment Weekly TV Critics Kristen Baldwin and Darren Franich are ready to discuss the deeper meanings of this year’s nominations.

DARREN: Happy Golden Globes morning, Kristen! I hope the sun looks nice out east. I awoke before dawn here in California to catch the nominations live, so I thought I was dreaming when they didn’t mention Atlanta in the Best Musical/Comedy category. The show produced a perfect season of television this year, say nothing of the fact that it won two big Globe awards in its first year.

The glamour-loving Hollywood Foreign Press Association stacked the Comedy category with inside-showbiz sagas: the acting wannabes of Barry, the ascendant stand-ups of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and a couple “movie star does TV” sitcoms (Kidding and Kominsky Method). Put that way, the category looks disappointingly same-y compared to last year, when sheer force of will (and Showtime’s awards campaign) placed the playfully scuzzy SMILF on the ballot. Of course, Atlanta’s a showbiz story, too (Paper Boi’s rap career is skyrocketing!), but I guess its wondrous charm eluded the HFPA this year. Is this a problem I should be worrying about, Kristen? What’s the value of a Globes nom for a TV show?

KRISTEN: Morning, Darren! I’m on my fourth cup of coffee so forgive me if I forget to use sentence structure or punctuation. While the Globes pride themselves on being an important prognosticator for the all-important Oscar nominations — a Globes movie nomination is the first step in the long climb to Academy recognition — when it comes to TV, the Emmys are too far off for these nominations to make a difference.

What a Globe nomination can do for a TV show is raise its visibility from less than zero (how many of you out there had heard of Netflix’s The Kominsky Method before this morning? Anyone?) to “hey, maybe I’ll check that out next time I’m looking for something to binge” level. Look for today’s nominations to provide a buzz bump for shows like Netflix’s Kominsky and Bodyguard, Amazon’s A Very English Scandal, and (God willing) FX’s wonderful ’80s drama Pose. What a delight to see Pose land best drama and a well-deserved acting nomination for star Billy Porter. Were there any pleasant surprises for you among the nominations, Darren?

DARREN: I almost woke the neighbors when I screamgasped at the Pose nominations, Kristen! I like that show a lot and know it’s one of your favorites. And I’m triumphantly stoked that Keri Russell got nominated for the final season of The Americans. You’re right on with the visibility point. And I love the Globes’ willful damn-the-torpedoes ability to pluck a deserving winner out of the great mass of televised content. I’m hopeful that will happen this year in the Drama category with Homecoming, a heavily-nominated show I love and badly need more people to watch.

And will the Globes shine its golden spotlight upon Russell come January 6? As I’ve written about elsewhere, this year’s Globes is the actress’ last chance to win a big prize for her brilliant Americans role on a major awards show. This nomination is one psychic step toward the existential rescue of our species! Okay, I have to go drown myself in a barrel of chai latte. Did this nominations lineup hold any unpleasant surprises for you, Kristen?

KRISTEN: Two words: Jodie Mother-Effing Comer. (Okay, that was three words.) As Killing Eve‘s crazy-brilliant assassin Villanelle, Comer gave perhaps the best television performance in any category this year. And yet she was snubbed by the Emmys (both she and costar Sandra Oh were submitted in the Lead Actress category, which may have hurt Comer’s chances) and now the Globes. It’s great to see the show recognized with a Best Drama nomination, and Sandra Oh definitely deserves her nod too, but Killing Eve wouldn’t be the wonder that it is without Comer. Sigh. I suppose there’s always season two. Thanks for letting me vent, Darren. (For more venting, see our list of TV snubs and surprises here.)

But let’s end things on a happy note: The Globes also announced a new Lifetime Achievement award for television, a sort of counterpart to their Cecil B. DeMille Award for film. Here’s hoping this means the HFPA will create even more TV categories in the future. I’ve got some suggestions right here.

Related content:

• Golden Globes 2019 nominations: See the full list
• 18 takeaways from the 2019 Golden Globes TV Nominations
• The best (and worst) TV shows of the year