Golden Globe Awards reveal surprising TV wins


Well, Ricky Gervais might not be working in Hollywood again any time soon.

Within the first five minutes of his hosting gig at the 68th annual Golden Globe Awards, the British comedian managed to not so-subtly imply that Tom Cruise is gay, accuse the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of taking bribes, call out Charlie Sheen for his hooker-related exploits and completely eviscerate The Tourist.

Ricky Gervais | Creative Commons

But besides the palpably awkward atmosphere created by Gervais’s obvious (and humorous) disdain for Hollywood, the Globes broadcast was fairly lackluster, with a few unexpected wins in the TV categories but no surprises amongst the film wins.

Glee and Boardwalk Empire were the big TV winners of the night. Glee took home Best Series Comedy or Musical, and Chris Colfer and Jane Lynch won Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Colfer, who plays Kurt, a gay high school student dealing with bullying and homophobia, seemed genuinely shocked at the win and gave a heartfelt speech, speaking to the kids who are “told they can’t be who they are,” and advising them, “Screw that, kids.”

HBO newcomer Boardwalk Empire won Best Series Drama, beating out the seemingly infallible Mad MenEmpire’s Steve Buscemi took Best Actor in a Drama Series, a surprise because of his illustrious competition: Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall, Hugh Laurie, and Bryan Cranston – all critical darlings. Katey Sagal garnered some attention for the little-noticed FX series Sons of Anarchy with her win for Best Actress in a TV Drama.

Laura Linney took home Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance as a woman diagnosed with cancer in Showtime’s new series The Big C. The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons’ win for Best Actor in a Comedy Series was one of the bigger surprises of the night, considering the show has never gained much award season attention.

Al Pacino’s win for TV movie You Don’t Know Jack and Clare Danes’ for Temple Grandin were no surprise after their success at the Emmy awards last summer, but few people have even heard of Carlos, the Globe winner for Best Miniseries or TV Movie. The French-produced miniseries about a notorious Venezuelan terrorist, which aired on the Sundance channel, managed to beat out three nominees from HBO including the critically lauded The Pacific.

On the film side, everything played out as expected. While there were no obvious frontrunners in the Supporting Actor and Actress races, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo’s wins for The Fighter came as no surprise.

Annette Bening took home Best Actress in a Comedy as most critics predicted, and she is a frontrunner for the Oscar as well. But she is expected to lose that award to Black Swan’s Natalie Portman, who won tonight in the Drama category. Paul Giammatti won Best Actor in a Comedy for the little-seen Barney’s Version, and, every critics’ pick for Best Actor, Colin Firth won for The King’s Speech.

Diane Warren won Best Song for “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” in Burlesque, while Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor took home Best Original Score for The Social Network.  Pixar continued its long tradition of award season success with Toy Story 3’s win for Best Animated Feature, and the Danish film In a Better World took best Foreign Film.

The Kids Are All Right thankfully beat its far inferior competitors in the Best Comedy or Musical category. And as expected, The Social Network swept the major categories of Best Screenplay, Director, and Picture Drama.

So the Hollywood Foreign Press Association may not have embarrassed itself with any bad wins this time, but it might need to reconsider its choice of host next year if it wants to keep celebrities happy.