The thing that makes the Golden Globes television categories excellent is also the thing that makes them awful. While Emmys voters hand out awards to the same shows and stars year after year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the shadowy group of journalists which votes on the Globes – loves to award new talent, including shows by smaller networks or that are flying under the radar.
Aside from Jon Hamm, who won a Golden Globe for Mad Men’s first season (back when no one was watching it) and won again last night for its final season, all of this year’s winners were first-time nominees, and almost all the shows – other than Mad Men, American Horror Story, and The Affair – were newcomer series.
This is great for someone like Rachel Bloom, who won best actress in a comedy or musical for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the only show of the night that is both a comedy and a musical. As she noted in her acceptance speech, her program barely even got made, but The CW took a chance and landed one of the most subversively brilliant things on the tube – although fewer than a million people watch it each week. Thanks to this award, the series might get renewed for another season. (And I will plead with everyone, once again, to watch this damn show.)
However, the HFPA’s penchant for off-the-wall awards isn’t so great when it hands out two trophies to Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon’s viciously mediocre original series. It won for both best comedy series, and best actor in a comedy or musical for Gael García Bernal. When it comes to this show, about the inner workings of a New York symphony, both “best” and “comedy” are highly subjective terms.
But then again, Mr Robot won for best drama. Mr Robot was one of the most original series that aired last year and, although a critical hit, it wasn’t a smashing success in America, better known for its “blue sky” procedurals than moody thrillers about mentally unstable hackers. Christian Slater, who revived his sagging career with this show, was also rewarded with the best supporting actor nod.
The wins for Mr Robot could be prognostications of what will happen at the Emmys this September, since many freshman shows are eligible for the Globes before they are eligible for the Emmys. The HFPA loves to crown a show first, but it also loves to vindicate Emmy oversights. That is what it seemed to be doing for Empire’s Taraji P Henson, who won for best actress in a drama, and Wolf Hall, which won for best limited series, both of which were unsuccessful in the fall.
Again, those choices are a mixed bag. Henson, the best thing on Empire, truly deserved the recognition, and didn’t disappoint by handing out cookies (in honour of her character, Cookie Lyon) on the way up to the podium. Wolf Hall was good, though a typical BBC-by-way-of-PBS offering. Its category was packed with some of the best shows of the year, including the absolutely phenomenal Fargo and American Crime, which needed some Emmy vindication of its own.
As for winners such as Lady Gaga and Oscar Issacs, who were named the best actress and actor in a limited series respectively, I’m just happy to see excellent performances rewarded, whatever the rationale. They both brought an understated elegance to their roles – though one played a vampire lording over a hotel of freaks in American Horror Story: Hotel, and the other a housing rights crusader fighting for equality in Show Me a Hero. You know, totally the same kind of thing.
It’s clear that there are shows the HFPA just absolutely loves. Last year it handed out two surprise wins to The Affair, which it crowned again this year, giving Maura Tierney a much deserved gong for best supporting actress, the only nomination the show got for its second season. This year the favorites were Mr Robot and Mozart in the Jungle, but there were other of the organisation’s picks that were the big losers. Starz’s drama Outlander was eligible for three awards, and Starz’s Flesh and Bone and Netflix’s Narcos were both eligible in two categories. All three were shut out.
Last night’s wins also point to a love affair with Amazon, which took home the best comedy and best actor in a comedy awards last year for Transparent, and was the only streaming service to prevail during Sunday night’s telecast. Broadcast television did surprisingly well, with The CW, Fox, and PBS each scoring one nod. While HBO reigned at the Emmys last year, Isaacs’s gold was the only piece of hardware the cable network walked away with this year.
These stats just go to prove the Golden Globes’ unsteady track record. It’s great that the awards are on the frontier of how people watch television today, but if we’re going to be giving out statues for streaming services, did it have to be to Mozart in the Jungle?
One good thing about the Globes, though, is that it has a short memory. Next year we’ll have a whole new set of decisions to be outraged by, and a whole slew of new favourites to debate.
