65th Golden Globe Nominations

I love awards season. Held in January, the Golden Globes officially kicks off the awards season (minus the various Critics' choices, which happen at the end of December). I like the Golden Globes because it brings the two worlds of film and tv together.

However, I don't like the Golden Globes because it is a misguided and outdated system of lumping categories together. And there are only 80 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press (they're like part time journalists who are affiliated with the media outside of the US) who are voting on the winners, and whose tastes aren't the best reflectors of current trends.

The nominations for the 65th GGs were announced today, and there were some glaring omissions and surprises as usual. I have to admit, at the moment, I don't really care about the film nominations as much. But I think people are pretty surprised Russell Crowe didn't receive a nomination for American Gangster, nor were the summer comedy favorites Knocked Up and Superbad even recognized. But Juno and its star Ellen Page was recognized, and I'm satisfied with that.

TV is where the most surprises happened, most notably in the comedy/musical category. Don't even get me started on why comedy is lumped in with musical. How can the Office, a critically acclaimed, modest ratings hit, not be nominated in the Best Comedy category? Desperate Housewives, which is on a creative upswing, was missing from the awards hooplah. Last year's winner Ugly Betty? Nope. Even Two and a Half Men, which is not my favorite show by any means, but is a giant ratings grabber, was passed over.

I'm happy for 30 Rock, which I think is the funniest show on air, but Entourage again? Californication? Really?? The GG were generous to the new show Pushing Daisies, awarding the show and its two leads with nominations. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan, but it still has a lot to prove.

In the drama category, no love for the final season of the Sopranos or its star James Gandolfini, or Lost, or Heroes or Friday Night Lights. But Grey's Anatomy, which is definitely going through a creative slump, got a Best Drama nod. And can people STOP nominating Katharine Heigl's annoying, uninspired performance on that show already? I don't know why Ellen Pompeo always gets overlooked; she's really come a long way since the beginning of the series. And why they lump together series with miniseries in the same category is beyond me. They're two different things, and it seems a bit unfair to judge a performance in a mini series with that of a performance in a long running series. Whatever.

I'll still be watching anyway. Here is the complete list of nominations.