The most wonderful time of the year

No, not Christmas. (Though my deepest Christmas wishes were fulfilled early - see #5)

It's awards season.

I'm aware that...

a. this is primarily a TV blog

b. the Emmys were way back in September, and

c. "awards season" is really just Oscar season

...so the subject of this post may seem irrelevant.

However, because I love awards shows, the Oscars in particular, I'm being indulgent. But perhaps most importantly, the little old Golden Globes are kind of the beginning of awards season (Oscar-lite/practice Oscars) and they happen to include awards for excellence in television. So although I could go on and on about many of the film nominees (the fact that I haven't even seen Up in the Air yet but am already totally behind it, the question of the deserved/undeserved hype surrounding Avatar and James Cameron in general and whether or not it/he deserved a nom) we're going to stick to more familiar territory for now, the television categories. If that wasn't enough explanation for you, feel free to depart. Moving on.

In case you've been living under a rock and haven't had a chance to glance over the nominations, or read one of the many nominee-by-nominee rundowns somewhere in the past week, the entire list can be found here.

Let's start from the top with Best Television Series - Drama. If you look closely at this one, I believe you'll find that "one of these things is not like the other things", if you know what I mean. It's been at least a year, if not two, since I stopped watching House, but I don't see any scenario where it belongs in a category with shows of this caliber (or one with Best at the beginning). Don't get me wrong, I love Hugh Laurie, and he's well-cast and entertaining in this role, but I have a hard time believing in that the year or so since I've watched, the show has gotten any less formulaic (Lupus? Sarcoidosis?), and thus, any better. Maybe the Best Actor nomination is deserved, I don't know. The rest of this category is pretty straight-forward, obvious, and accurate. And though Mad Men is basically the odds-on favorite for everything, I think Dexter may be on its heels in this case with a season that was initially uncertain, but taken as a whole, may be its best yet. So possibly some excitement here.

As for the Best Actor/Actress nominations for Drama, again mostly accurate. From the 1 1/2 episodes of CBS' semi-predictable The Mentalist I've watched with my grandparents I still don't know much about Simon Baker, but he seems to do well enough. And interesting to note in the Actress category, 3 of the 5 have already received this award. Perhaps it will be someone new this time around (fingers crossed for January Jones?)

Best Comedy Series, Actor/Actress and Supporting Actor/Actress after the jump...


Next up, Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy. Hard to judge since I've committed the cardinal sin of not having watched any 30 Rock whatsoever-- please forgive me. As for the other nominees, there are two newcomers, the wildly-popular Glee (something that just might nab it this prize) and a Curly & Mo favorite, Modern Family. This is, surprisingly, only the third nomination for The Office, but I don't think it can take this category at this point in it's life. Finally, this is the sixth consecutive nomination for Entourage (with three Emmy nominations), and no wins so far. The most recent season may not have been the best, and though I don't see this happening, I personally think it deserves at least one win.

For the Best Actor/Actress in a Comedy, the "House" award goes to Courtney Cox in Cougar Town--not exactly sure how that one managed to slip through the cracks. Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison are both recognized for Glee, which would be an exciting win for either (or both) 0f them. Including Lea Michele, all but Tina Fey are newcomers in the Actress category, while three of the five nominated actors are practically old hats.

Last, but not least, the mouthful, Best Supporting Actor/Actress in a Series, Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television.  At this point the film-centric Golden Globes really just get lazy and jumble all the comedy and drama people in together.  This is how you end up with curious pairs like Jane Lynch (Glee) and Chloë Sevigny (Big Love) in the same category.  As for the actors, all is well and good, except when it comes to Jeremy Piven.  I will readily admit that Ari Gold is one of the best, and personally, one of my favorite television characters of all time.  But as discussed before, the sixth season of Entourage didn't really stand out.  Plus, the man's already won three consecutive Emmys and a Golden Globe.  Time to give it a rest.  My vote is for John Lithgow, who did a most excellent job as creepy old guy/serial killer on Dexter this season.


So stay tuned, we'll be sure to have the recap of the award ceremony and winners for you once they roll around, a post that will be mercifully shorter.  I hope.