Women Sweep the DGA-TV Awards

I'm a bit late on the curve for this, but it is worth mentioning that at last weekend's DGA awards, while the big press was focused on the film side, with Alejandro Inarritu winning for Birdman, over on the TV side, women swept the categories for directing in television for episodes of Transparent, Homeland and Olive Kitteridge.

• DRAMA: Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland
• COMEDY: Jill Soloway, Transparent
• MOVIE/MINISERIES: Lisa Cholodenko, Olive Kitteridge

This is very cool, and very significant. I noticed back at the Golden Globes, when Soloway's Transparent and Sarah Tream's The Affair won the top prizes for television, that both shows were created and run by women as well, further speaking to the notion of women's increasing power behind the scenes in television. Of course, none of that translates to film, where women are routinely snubbed for their work, the biggest this year being the exclusion of Ava DuVernay for directing Selma, and even more shockingly, Gillian Flynn's screenplay for Gone Girl, which had won dozens of critics prizes. Some would say you could throw Angelina Jolie in there too for Unbroken's shutout, but in that case the movie sucked, so we're talking about talented people producing quality here, and going ignored for it. It's a shame that women's increased recognition and power in television isn't translating over to film, but it's a good thing for everyone who appreciates good TV- you could include the powerhouse that is Shonda Rimes, and Jenji Kohan's Orange is the New Black and it's clear that TV's moving into what could be a golden age for female storytellers.

Jon Stewart to Leave 'The Daily Show' After 17 Years

Wow. I have to admit, I haven't watched The Daily Show religiously in the last two years (more like once a week or so), but having watched it nightly for about eight straight years before that, I'm sort of gutpunched by this news today. When Stewart left for a months long break a couple years ago to film his movie Rosewater, I had a feeling that signaled his imminent departure. But given the fact that Colbert just signed off, I was kind of counting on Jon to make it through the next election, and had in fact, started to get back into watching it on a daily basis just recently. I really didn't think he'd bow out before the 2016 election. And now that it's really happening, it's sinking in what a dramatic "end of an era" this really is. Jon Stewart is the one who changed the format for late night television, for political satire, and his show (and the comedians and spin-offs he helped launch) set a new kind of standard for comedy and politics. It was a necessary and absolutely essential service that he provided (and it still is). I don't know what he's leaving to do, but I know that with him, and presumably the show gone (I don't honestly see how they replace him at the desk, given how associated with him the brand has become), it's going to leave a massive gap in the landscape of television comedy and frankly, news media itself. You've heard it before, but it was true- he was better news than the actual news, and he changed everything.

TEASER: "Happyish"

Showtime's new dramedy series was originally supposed to star Philip Seymour Hoffman- they had even filmed a well received pilot with him in the lead, but obviously the show was put on hold following his death. Steve Coogan now takes it on, sans an American accent, which I find refreshing. With all the British actors invading American TV shows lately, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting to the point where I can always tell if the person is American or not by the way they speak. Does everyone have to fake the accent? Especially if they suck at it- why not just be a Brit living in America? They do exist, right?

TRAILER: "Bloodline"

Netflix's new series premiering (or dropping, as all 13 episodes come out at once) on March 20th, grabs my attention because of its cast, and because it's from the creators of Damages, which I loved and thought was always a terrific and very underrated show all the way through its run. Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, Lina Cardellini, Sam Shepard and Ben Mendelsohn star in this one, which is apparently going to be structured similar to how Damages was, with flashbacks and flashforwards of a mystery adding up to a whole by the season's end. The trailer itself doesn't necessarily look that great, but with the talent involved, I'll definitely be trying this one out.

'Black-ish' and 'How to Get Away With Murder' Top the NAACP Awards in TV

I didn't realize the NAACP gave out so many TV awards, but apparently they go all in for it, giving out everything from writing to directing, even voice over performance. ABC was the big winner here, with both Black-ish and How to Get Away With Murder dominating in their respective categories.

Outstanding Comedy Series: Black-ish
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series: Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series: Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Laurence Fishburne, Black-ish
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Yara Shahidi, Black-ish
Outstanding Drama Series: How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series: Shemar Moore, Criminal Minds
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Joe Morton, Scandal
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Khandi Alexander, Scandal
Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Blair Underwood, The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding News/ Information (Series or Special): Unsung
Outstanding Talk Series: Steve Harvey
Outstanding Reality Series: Iyanla: Fix My Life
Outstanding Variety (Series or Special): Oprah’s Master Class
Outstanding Children’s Program: Doc McStuffins
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance: Loretta Devine, Doc McStuffins
Outstanding Performance by a Youth in a Youth/Children’s Program (Series or Special): Fatima Ptacek, Dora and Friends: Into The City!
Outstanding Host: Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey
Outstanding Documentary (Television): Bad Boys
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: Orange is the New Black
Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series: How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Television): A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series: Parks and Recreation
Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series: House of Cards
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television): Gun Hill

PROMO: "Silicon Valley" Season 2

Even though it's a very dude-oriented show, I thought the first season of Mike Judge's Silicon Valley was pretty funny, and it got better as it went along, which is promising for the second season. Here's a tease for Season 2, which premieres on April 12th (same night as Game of Thrones and Veep). TJ Miller is still the scene-stealer, as you can see.

TEASER: "Daredevil" Season 1

The first teaser for Netflix's Daredevil series actually has a lot going for it. What I was curious about was whether or not Marvel would embrace the freedom being on Netflix allows for their content, in ways that ABC and the strictly PG-13 movies do not. That is to say, whether or not they'd allow for some actual, darker, maybe more violent and/or sexual content to seep through here. And it looks like it might, which would be a good thing, at least to help some of their material differ in having a more adult appeal (which many comic books often do, even if the movies wouldn't have you believe that). The whole first season drops on April 10th.

RECAP: SNL 1/31 "J.K. Simmons"

Ok, so tonight was basically an inoffensively unfunny SNL episode, which is a lot easier to sit through than on their worst days. I'll take it.

COLD OPEN: Super Bowl jokes! Kenan and Jay are Seahawk stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, who are hosting their own talk show. I gotta say, as a resident of the Pacific Northwest, it's just cool that we're getting all this attention now (although there is a dig at Seattle fans only being fans since 2013- not cool, man. This town's been desperate for a good sports team for decades, trust me). Anyway, Taran plays the awkward white boy Pete Carroll, and the opening is mostly boring.

MONOLOGUE: J.K. Simmons comes out to do a spoof of his movie Whiplash, which I can guarantee about 99% of this audience (in the studio and at home) has not seen. I don't even know if they get these jokes, where he yells at people on the drums, except Leslie, who yells back at him. Couldn't have happened in the movie of course, because the movie was too afraid to put any female students in his class.

SUPER BOWL ACTIVITY PACK: An ad for a Super Bowl party where J.K. give his dimwitted wife a condescending pack of puzzles and games to play while the guys watch the game. It's a decent jab at those kinds of commercials.

MISS TRASH: J.K. hosts a beauty pageant where the contestants are competing for Miss Trash USA. It's too forgettable to bother with- no big laughs.

CINEMA CLASSICS: An alternate ending to Casablanca with J.K. as Rick and Kate as Ilsa. This is just a chance for Kate to do her Ingrid Bergman impression, as Ilsa really wants to get on that plane- Kate's pretty funny here, so I like it.

TEACHER SNOW DAY: A rap video about teachers taking over the school on a snow day and bringing the house down. There are some people who really like these videos- I never laugh at them, but they're not bad, just not laugh out loud funny.

UPDATE: Michael is still flubbing his lines- dude, you have got to get that down. There's a couple of decent jokes tonight, but they bring back Cecily's one-dimensional movie woman character, who I hate. I can't stand most of Cecily's Update characters, I never understand why anyone likes them. On the bright side, Taran's Jebediah Atkinson is back to diss the Grammy nominees! I do love me some Jebediah.

PUSHPIN: Ugh. Worst sketch of the night. Bobby is the annoying push pin on J.K.'s computer who harasses him as he tries to write a letter on Word. Bobby is really annoying here though and this bit is way too long.

THE JAY-Z STORY: Mike O'Brien does a video about Jay-Z's life, where he plays Jay-Z and a bunch of other white guys are rappers he meets on the way. Weird, like most of Mike's humor, although I guess it's a little bit amusing in that way.

CAREER DAY: Last random, odd sketch of the night has J.K. explaining to his son's class on Career Day his job as a Japanese "messy boy" who eats like a pig in front of Japanese women for their amusement. Yeah- very weird, but J.K. kind of sells it as a totally committed salesman.

So, that's it for tonight- nothing great, but nothing totally awful, a couple of funny little bits...I'll give it a C+. J.K. Simmons was pretty game and professional, even though I still wonder how many people know who he is. Next up, it's the big SNL 40th anniversary special taking place on Sunday, February 15th. This is where we'll get lots of cameos from many former cast members, including, drumroll please....Eddie Murphy! Yup, that's right everyone, Eddie Murphy will be coming back for the first time since he left the show in 1984- just for that I'm sure the special will grab a bunch of eyeballs. I for one hope he revives Buckwheat, but that's probably too much to hope for. I'll be recapping as usual, so see you then!

TRAILER: "Game of Thrones" Season 5

Game of Thrones is coming back! This show has always been remarkably consistent, with no one season any better or worse than the other, at least in my opinion. In that sense it's probably the most dependable show on TV, and if you don't like it by now you never will. It premieres April 12th on HBO.

RECAP: SNL 1/24 "Blake Shelton"

Sorry I was so late on this recap everyone! But, it looks like I didn't miss much, as this turned out to be just another, generically dreadful episode, although Blake Shelton did about as well as he could, given that he's not an actor or anything.

COLD OPEN: We start off immediately with technical problems, as we can't hear anything but the audience for the first minute or so, but eventually we get a spoof of A Few Good Men with reporters yelling at Taran's Tom Brady over the "deflategate" scandal. Meh. Go Seahawks! That's all I have to say about this.

MONOLOGUE: Blake Shelton comes out and sings of course, doing a Hee-Haw bit about country jokes. Eh- I don't like this either. It falls flat despite Blake's efforts.

FARM HUNK: Premise starts off promising, with Blake spoofing the Bachelor and all the girls as idiot contestants, but it goes on way, way, WAY too long, and amazingly none of the jokes about the girls are funny at all. That should have been a softball right down the middle, shouldn't it?

WISHING BOOT: This is a music video with Kate, Aidy and Blake singing a country song, but it's not funny. Although I'm not quite sure it's supposed to be either- it actually sounds like a real country song, so maybe that was the angle of it. Which makes it boring.

FAMILY FEUD: Kenan's Steve Harvey hosts Celebrity Family Feud, with the contestants doing impressions of the American Idol versus The Voice judges, but they all suck today. Taran's Adam Levine is best, but Kenan's one-liners are terrible.

UPDATE: A really bad one, with many of Colin and Michael's State of the Union/football jokes going over like total duds, to an audience who's just not having it. A new character comes on in the form of Bobby as Michael's friend "Riblet" from high school who wants to steal his job, and then his ex-girlfriend. Didn't work for me though- did you guys laugh at that? I do have to say I'd prefer to see Riblet anchor Update over Michael Che. Pete also comes in with another stand-up bit about gay anxiety, but it's just okay. Man, this show is struggling.

PAROLE BOARD: Kenan does a Shawshank spoof of Morgan Freeman's last speech about redemption, but he's a cannibal who doesn't want to stop eating people. This one's okay, I guess. Not painful, but not hilarious either.

MORNING SHOW: Another Blake singing sketch (we've seen quite a bit of that tonight) as he's hired to sing a tribute song to an old man's dead wife- it turns out to be a roast. This one is mildly funny, and probably a better sketch of the night.

MAGIC SHOW: Blake heckle's Taran's magic show and begs for him to give him the power to "go down on himself." Okay, so that was maybe a bit chuckle-worthy, only because Blake really kind of went for it with the enthusiasm there.

So this was a very bad episode, but Blake tried and I kind of feel some sympathy for hosts who aren't actors or comedians. But the writing wasn't there, although the worst stuff was at the top of the show and got less painful in the second half. I still have to give it a D, because nothing made me laugh tonight. Next week it's J.K. Simmons- I sort of have to wonder if they're struggling to get guests right now- no offense to him, but is there anyone who watches this show that knows J.K. Simmons by name? See you next time!