BLOGS

Golden Globes 2012: Our Gut Reactions to the TV Nominations

It's awards season again, which means that we're mostly flummoxed by the people who come up with nominations for the various prizes. Yesterday, we were scratching our heads over the fact that the SAG Awards had picked Suits' Patrick J. Adams for a Best Actor nom instead of Homeland's Damian Lewis, while today we're wondering how anyone could think Boss had a better season than Breaking Bad. But hey, at least the Hollywood Foreign Press Ass gave the gut-wrenching and brilliantly performed Homeland its due, along with showering Downton Abbey with four nominations. But how did Community and Parks & Recreation get overlooked in the comedy nominations? And how is Alec Baldwin nominated again? And who thinks Mireille Enos is a good actress on The Killing? Anyway, for our initial thoughts on the Globe noms, read on. Fair warning, there's a lot of Community outrage coming your way.

Best Television Series - Drama
American Horror Story
Boardwalk Empire
Boss
Game of Thrones
Homeland
It's not a terrible list! Breaking Bad deserved to be on here more than almost any other nominee, but we're glad to see Game of Thrones get recognized, even though it's more of a genre show than awards bodies normally honor. And have we mentioned how excited we are about Homeland? Well, we are.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Jeremy Irons (The Borgias)
Kelsey Grammer (Boss)
Damian Lewis (Homeland)
We would have griped about Buscemi, but after last week's finale, we're fine with him being on here. Actually, we're pretty fine with this entire list, though we're going to have a hard time picking who we're rooting for between Cranston and Lewis come Globes night. Maybe we would have swapped Irons for Sons of Anarchy's Ron Perlman, but Irons was pretty damned creepy on The Borgias.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Claire Danes (Homeland)
Mirelle Enos (The Killing)
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Madeline Stowe (Revenge)
Callie Thorne (Necessary Roughness)
Mirelle Enos? Is someone messing with us? Were voters entranced by her gum-chewing, inscrutable expressions and flip-phone handling? She's one of the worst things about that show, which is saying a lot. We actively root for her to get killed off. Where is last year's winner Katey Sagal for Sons of Anarchy? The other nominations we're surprisingly fine with. We're happy to see Revenge get some attention (and for Stowe's career renaissance to continue), Claire Danes is pretty damned awesome on Homeland as a crazy genius and while we were initially mixed on Roughness, it grew on us as the season went along.

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Enlightened
Episodes
Glee
Modern Family
New Girl
Enlightened is neither a musical nor a comedy, and is largely irritating to watch. How did that land in this category? And while LeBlanc was great, Episodes as a whole was not. And Glee? We can't even remember a time when this show was worthy of any kind of nomination. It should have been Community, Parks & Recreation and either Louie or Wilfred in those spots instead. And really, why not show love for Community, a show that could actually use the help and attention that a big award nomination would bring. We're about ready to go door to door to the HFPA members and force them to watch "Remedial Chaos Theory." And while New Girl is still finding its footing, it's a given that the Globes picks one shiny new show. At least The Office was deservedly overlooked.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Laura Dern (Enlightened)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Laura Linney (The Big C)
Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation)
Zooey Deschanel (New Girl)
We're happy about Poehler. We're okay with Deschanel and Fey. But Dern and Linney aren't in comedies. We would have been more interested in a Melissa McCarthy nod, or Kat Dennings, or you know, people who were funny.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
David Duchovny (Californication)
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)
Thomas Jane (Hung)
Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)
So we're down with Matt LeBlanc for Episodes, because while the show as a whole didn't work, he was great (he even made our MVP list). Duchovny and Jane are passable on their shows, but we'd rather have seen Louis CK or Joel McHale or Elijah Wood or Ty Burrell on here instead. We're over Alec Baldwin, especially given last season's lackluster 30 Rock. We'd rather have seen Steve Carell get a nod for his final Office season. And while we're surprised to admit it, we're glad that Galecki got the nod over Jim Parsons. Parsons' character is in a bit of a rut and predictable, where Galecki's Leonard has been wryly funny this season.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
Paul Giamatti (Too Big to Fail)
Guy Pearce (Mildred Pierce)
Tim Robbins (Cinema Verite)
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)
Ah, the upsetting mish-mosh of the supporting characters. Where voters are forced to choose between Dinklage being a badass, Pearce being slimy and Stonestreet being a wacky goofball. It's actually impossible to judge those performances against each other, and mixing serialized shows with stand-alone movies or miniseries is unfair to everyone involved. So, here's hoping Dinklage pulls out a win in this convoluted category and brings more gold home to Casterly Rock.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jessica Lange (American Horror Story)
Kelly MacDonald (Boardwalk Empire)
Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Evan Rachel Wood (Mildred Pierce)
Again, confusing, and weird, but we guess everyone on here deserves some sort of recognition. Going out on a limb that naked Evan Rachel Wood will take the prize, though.

Click here to read our reactions to the Golden Globes movie nominations.

Click here to read our reactions to the Golden Globes movie nominations and look back at the biggest Golden Globe nomination gaffes.

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