Golden Globe nominations may bring a changing of the comedy guard

The nominations for the 2010 Golden Globes will be announced on Tuesday (Dec. 15) morning. They'll be announced aggressively bright-and-early and the entire HitFix team will be up and atom, as Radioactive Man would say.

 

For my colleague Greg, the Golden Globe nominations are a key piece of the pre-Oscar season and they'll allow him to calibrate his nomination predictions with a specificity that he didn't have previously. The Golden Globes don't necessarily predict the Oscars, but as roadblocks along the way go, they'll important.

 

On the TV side, the Golden Globes are less important. They're nine months from the Emmys and therefore, they don't usually predict or prefigure much of anything. The Globe voters have their specific proclivities when it comes to voting, so you can usually assume that just because a Keri Russell or a Jennifer Garner or an Anna Paquin won a Globe won't necessarily mean that they should make a place on their mantle for an Emmy.

 

But that doesn't mean that the Golden Globes aren't fun in their own way, as we look to see which shows from the second half of the year appear to have momentum.

 

On the drama side, there are fewer options for new faces. Will the Globes recognize "The Good Wife"? Star Julianna Margulies seems plausible. But what else might sneak in? Might "Sons of Anarchy" get its first real awards recognition? Unlikely, but possible. Might "FlashForward" or "V" get a couple nominations? Probably not, but they'll be in the mix. Will the Golden Globes go "True Blood" crazy and nominate supporting actors and all sorts of random bloodsucking stars? Nobody would be surprised.

 

The excitement will come in the comedy categories, which shows us just how far we've come since two or three years ago when reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour all seemed to be writing the same Comedy Is Dead trend pieces.

 

Since the last Golden Globes ceremony, the number of newly eligible comedies-of-pedigree may be at an all-time high. Sure to get nominations are "Nurse Jackie" and "Glee," plus "The United States of Tara," which was already eligible at Emmy time and won a trophy for star Toni Collette. Those are three easy and obvious powerhouses, but what about "Modern Family" and "Community," the two most adored comedies of the fall? What about "The Middle" and "Cougar Town," two comedies whose stars -- Patricia Heaton and Courteney Cox -- should never be ruled out of any awards discussion? What about "Parks and Recreation," which went from a spring disappointment to possibly the best comedy on network TV in the fall? And what about comedies like "Party Down" and "Better Off Ted" and even HBO's "Hung," which may lack the mainstream adoration, but could certainly have powerful pockets of support within the tiny Hollywood Foreign Press?

 

If the Globes nominate two or three of these new comedies, what will happen to old stalwarts like "Weeds"? And while only some viewers would lament a well-deserved shunning for "Entourage," might this influx prove an obstacle for "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which delivered one of its very best seasons and, in my opinion, deserves to make its way back into the field more than several of the new shows deserve that first exposure. Might these new shows stop the awards momentum of a "How I Met Your Mother," coming off its first Outstanding Comedy Emmy nomination? Might the new shows be fresher and shinier than "The Big Bang Theory," probably TV's hottest comedy of the moment?

 

With an impressive number of these comedies sporting female leads, the Lead Actress in a Comedy Series race may be positioned to surpass Lead Actor in a Drama as the most competitive. Collette and "Nurse Jackie" star Edie Falco can count on nominations, but is Lea Michele the "Glee" lead? Can Amy Poehler break in for "Parks and Recreation"? And will all of these fresh faces force out an America Ferrera? Or even a Mary-Louise Parker? There's only so much room.

 

Because the Golden Globes stupidly combine comedy, drama and movie/mini supporting performers into single categories, we may not be able to judge the supporting might of the "Glee" cast or whether Chevy Chase is an Emmy favorite for "Community" or even which members of "Modern Family" are being considered leads and which are supporting. This is a piece of idiocy the Globes may want to reconsider if they want to remain relevant as bellwethers in the future.

 

In any case, take a look at my Golden Globes nomination contender overview. And check back tomorrow when HitFix covers the heck out of the Golden Globe nominations.