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Time again for 'As the Globes Turn'
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published January 16, 2005
Let the awards season begin, and let it begin tonight with the Golden Globes. New shows, new stars, same question: Who hands these things out, anyway?
The West Wing and Six Feet Under are gone from the best dramatic television series list. Enter Lost and Deadwood (a.k.a. "Cussin' in the Old West").
Martin Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland give way to James Spader from Boston Legal and Julian McMahon from Nip/Tuck for actor in a drama series.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's party isn't as stuffy or long winded as the Academy Awards, which pay no attention to television. So tonight, the TV nation eagerly awaits the voice of the global village, because the association is composed of critics writing for publications from Europe to Singapore to the United Arab Emirates.
As St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall explained on Friday, the association and its wacky collection of members operate by their own rules and reasons. But stars come for the party, and viewers tune in for the show.
The results are anyone's guess. But here's who would get my votes in selected television categories, if only I wrote for a paper in Europe or Singapore or the United Arab Emirates.
DRAMA SERIES : LostB> (ABC). It's like Gilligan's Island with a monster, and a killer, and a kidnapper, and a thief, and a knife-throwing, mystical commando guy. And a secret that's tougher to crack than the Da Vinci Code. It easily beats scruffy, profane Deadwood on HBO (which does score points for feeding dead people to ravenous hogs.) Nominee 24 (Fox) is too complicated, and The Sopranos (HBO) has become too inconsistent, fuggedaboudit.
MUSICAL OR COMEDY SERIES: Arrested Development (Fox). It's an old formula - the responsible guy plays to a cast of crackpots - and it works. Remember Soap? Desperate Housewives (ABC) is innovative, but is it a comedy? Hard to tell (and it makes me uneasy). Sex and the City (HBO) is sooo over. Will & Grace (NBC)? Well, no accounting for taste.
MINISERIES OR TELEVISION MOVIE: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (HBO). He might have been a hair-triggered, unstable, kid-terrorizing psycho, but he was funny (yeah, yeah, and a tortured soul, too). As for HBO's suffrage snorefest Iron Jawed Angels - how did it escape the History Channel?
ACTOR, DRAMA: James Spader. Boston Legal ABC is just a great surprise. Drama that's fun to watch, an L.A. Law that's not preachy, and Spader is so smug. He gets it. Sorry, Ian McShane's Deadwood character doesn't do it for me. What's that Mr. McShane? Well #@$%! to you, too!
ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDY: Larry David. His Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) is the class of the bunch. Hey, I like Charlie Sheen as much as the next Hollywood madam, but Two and a Half Men (CBS)? And if Tony Shalhoub is as good as some people think, why is his show, Monk, buried on cable's USA?
ACTRESS, DRAMA: Edie Falco. Still the best mob boss wife ever. I guarantee she won't win in the role next year (no new Sopranos due until the next ice age). Christine Lahti does a nice job in the seldom seen, and surprisingly not bad, Jack & Bobby. Lots of people seem to love Jennifer Garner and Alias, but I don't get it.
ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDY: It's a lock for someone from Desperate Housewives (Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman are nominated). As for another nominee - Sarah Jessica who?
SUPPORTING ACTOR : William Shatner (Boston Legal). It's just fun to hear him say "Denny Crane."
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emily Watson. She was nice opposite Geoffrey Rush's manic performance in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Besides, fellow nominee and castmate Charlize Theron got a Globe last year. A nod to Drea de Matteo for taking a bullet in the Sopranos. I'll miss her squalling "Christuffuh!"
[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:32:15]
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