Latest list of Golden Globe TV nominees again out-classes Screen Actors Guild choices
12/12/13 08:59 AM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Since when did the much-ridiculed Hollywood Foreign Press Association become savvier and more forward-looking with their TV nominations than the comparatively sainted Screen Actors Guild?
This has been going on for a few years actually. And it was underscored again this week when the HFPA announced its Golden Globe finalists and SAG came up with its latest groupings.
Let’s first note that SAG entirely omitted Season 1 of Showtime’s Homeland from its 2011 roster of nominees. In contrast, the series won the Globe as best TV drama in that otherwise universally acclaimed first season while co-star Claire Danes also was honored in the best actress category.
The latest batch of Golden Globe nominees, released Thursday morning, includes recognition for Showtime’s Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan; Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black; BBC America’s Orphan Black, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine Nine and Starz’s Dancing on the Edge. None of these generally praised new series is in the SAG mix. Unfortunately, FX can’t seem to break through with either organization. This time around there’s no recognition at all for The Americans.
Here’s another telling disparity in the two lists. Rob Lowe was nominated by each body. But the Golden Globes nod is for his delicious performance as a plastic surgeon in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra while SAG has recognized Lowe for his rather robotic John F. Kennedy in National Geographic Channel’s recent Killing Kennedy.
NBC’s 30 Rock, already drenched with wins and nominations from numerous awards-givers, received three SAG nominations for its final season. Globe voters decided enough was enough and skunked 30 Rock this year. It’s not that the series isn’t deserving. It’s just that other, newer comedies deserve a shot, too.
Both bodies nominated Netflix’s House of Cards. But SAG’s voting body inexplicably left the series off its list of finalists for “Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble in a Drama Series.” Instead, series star Kevin Spacey is included among the best actor nominees.
The Globes showered House of Cards with a best drama series nomination and acting nods for Spacey, Robin Wright and the very deserving Corey Stoll in a supporting category. The likewise under-recognized Tatiana Maslany also has a Globe nomination for her breakout multi-character role in Orphan Black.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association remains a smallish, secretive organization whose members “would cross the Alps for a (free) hot dog,” an anonymous studio executive once famously said. But their TV nominations are several cuts above the Screen Actors Guild’s. And that no longer should be a surprise.
The complete Golden Globe list of nominees is here. And SAG’s is here.
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