Detectives Miller and Hardy are back! Broadchurch was one of my favorite shows of last year and is returning for it's second season nearly two years after the first one ended. I didn't even know this was coming back so soon, and even though David Tennant is also currently starring in the American version, Gracepoint, he's back in this one to resume his partnership with Olivia Colman for what looks like a new mystery in the same town. I can't wait. It's coming back January 5th on ITV in the UK.
New Shows Nodded by the Globes include 'Transparent,' 'The Affair,' 'The Missing'
The TV nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press are always a bit of a joke, because it's sometimes hard to tell if these people even watch much television or not. They seat the TV actors way in the back and seem to mostly try their hardest to keep up with which new shows have "buzz" this year more than anything else. The new stuff they liked (or at least took note of) this time were Showtime's The Affair, Amazon's Transparent and Starz's The Missing, all of which are actually really good, so I'm happy to see them recognized, along with many returning favorites- for some reason, the HFPA is the one organization that refuses to let go of Girls, but let's face it, it's gotta be time to pull the plug on that one, right? Please?
TV Drama
The Affair
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards
Best TV Comedy
Girls
Jane the Virgin
Orange is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Best TV Miniseries or Movie
Fargo
The Missing
True Detective
The Normal Heart
Olive Kitteridge
Best Actress – TV Comedy or Musical
Lena Dunham – Girls
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin
Julia Louis Dreyfuss – Veep
Taylor Schilling - Orange is the New Black
Best Actor – TV Comedy
Don Cheadle – House of Lies
Ricky Gervais – Derek
Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent
Louis C.K. – Louie
William H. Macy – Shameless
Best Performance by an Actress – TV Drama
Claire Danes – Homeland
Viola Davis – How to Get Away with Murder
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Ruth Wilson – The Affair
Robin Wright – House of Cards
Best Actor in a TV Drama
Clive Owen - The Knick
Live Schreiber - Ray Donovan
Kevin Spacey - House of Cards
James Spader - The Black List
Dominic West - The Affair
Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Honorable Woman
Jessica Lange - American Horror Story: Freak Show
Frances McDormand - Olive Kitteridge
Frances O’Connor - The Missing
Allison Tolman - Fargo
Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Martin Freeman - Fargo
Woody Harrelson - True Detective
Matthew McConaughey - True Detective
Mark Ruffalo - The Normal Heart
Billy Bob Thornton - Fargo
Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie
Uzo Aduba – Orange is the New Black
Kathy Bates – AHS: Freak Show
Joanne Froggat – Downton Abbey
Allison Janney – Mom
Michelle Monaghan – True Detective
Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie
Matt Bomer - The Normal Heart
Colin Hanks - Fargo
Alan Cumming - The Good Wife
Bill Murray - Olive Kitteridge
Jon Voight - Ray Donovan
I would expect True Detective and Fargo to likely pull off some wins, although the big movie star power of Bill Murray and Frances McDormand in Olive Kitteridge could give it some competition, especially since it seems like "old news" at this point. If there's anything the Globes hate, it's being labeled old news or behind the curve, so they may actually embrace a show like The Missing (below- which is set in Europe, another appealing factor to Globes voters). I also think Jeffrey Tambor has got to walk away with the award for Lead Actor in a TV Comedy for Transparent- he's great and he's Jeffrey Tambor. That one is probably the only flat out guarantee of these nominees.
2014 SAG TV Nominations
Almost forgot these happened today too, but the Screen Actors Guild also bestows nominations for television. A good morning overall for Benedict Cumberbatch, who got three nominations in one day after being nodded for Sherlock here too. These are mostly the same old contenders, but I am glad to see a couple of final nominations for Boardwalk Empire and Steve Buscemi, along with Tatiana Maslany (!!!).
BEST TV DRAMA ENSEMBLE
"Boardwalk Empire"
"Downton Abbey"
"Game of Thrones"
"Homeland"
"House of Cards"
BEST TV DRAMA ACTOR
Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire"
Peter Dinklage, "Game of Thrones"
Woody Harrelson, "True Detective"
Matthew McConaughey, "True Detective"
Kevin Spacey, "House of Cards"
BEST TV DRAMA ACTRESS
Claire Danes, "Homeland"
Viola Davis, "How to Get Away with Murder"
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"
Tatiana Maslany, "Orphan Black"
Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"
Robin Wright, "House of Cards"
BEST TV COMEDY ENSEMBLE
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine"
"Modern Family"
"Orange is the New Black"
"Veep"
BEST TV COMEDY ACTOR
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"
Louis C.K.", "Louie"
William H. Macy, "Shamless"
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory"
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"
BEST TV COMEDY ACTRESS
Uzo Aduba, "Orange is the New Black"
Julie Bowen, "Modern Family"
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"
Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation"
BEST TV MOVIE/MINI ACTOR
Adrien Brody, "Houdini"
Bendict Cumberbatch, "Sherlock: His Last Vow"
Richard Jenkins, "Olive Kittredge"
Mark Ruffalo, "The Normal Heart"
Billy Bob Thornton, "Fargo"
BEST TV MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS
Ellen Burstyn, "Flowers in the Attic"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Honourable Woman"
Frances McDormand, "Olive Kittredge"
Julia Roberts, "The Normal Heart"
Cicely Tyson, "The Trip to Bountiful"
AFI Top 10 TV Shows of 2014
AFI's top ten list for the year includes three shows that will be high on my own top ten, Transparent, The Knick, and Orange is the New Black, so yay for those! Also, good on the AFI for not ditching Mad Men, which is still one of the very best shows on television, deep into its run as it may be.
- THE AMERICANS
- FARGO
- GAME OF THRONES
- HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
- JANE THE VIRGIN
- THE KNICK
- MAD MEN
- ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
- SILICON VALLEY
- TRANSPARENT
RECAP: SNL 12/06 "James Franco"
Congratulations SNL. You made me dish out the very first F I've ever given you guys. No more passes, people. The writing sucks, the sketches are awful, and this was a painful prison sentence to sit through tonight. You need to do some serious work.
COLD OPEN: Kenan is Al Sharpton on MSNBC to cover the Eric Garner grand jury decision, but it's not as funny as usual (or maybe only the first time ever he did it). It's actually pretty boring, and the one joke, that Al Sharpton can't read a teleprompter, has gotten stale.
MONOLOGUE: James Franco (with a newly shaved head) does a very short bit about the Sony hacking, and buddy Seth Rogen comes out to join him in making fun of their leaked 'nude photos' together. Meh. What's weird is how short the monologue is here.
PETER PAN: God. Awful. What should have been a super easy parody of NBC's weak Peter Pan Live production turns into a bit for Unfunny Aidy's 'Tonker Bell' character, which has never made anyone laugh, ever. Add to that James's pretty bad Christopher Walken impression and this is a dire sketch indeed.
STAR WARS: A spoof of the new Star Wars teaser, but it basically makes fun of the fact that the original characters are all old now, with Taran's Harrison Ford showcased. It's mediocre but short at least.
MTV JINGLE BALLERZ: A skit for celebrity impressions doing Christmas raps, basically. No one's particularly impressive in this, but the worst part is that we only get five seconds of Kate's awesome Justin Bieber. How do the people running this show not value her more, and seem unable to recognize her best stuff? That continues to baffle me.
GROW A GUY: A pre-taped bit from Mike O'Brien of all people (who was demoted from cast member to writer only last year), who comes back to do an odd sketch about a guy with no friends who grows a pod person (James). I don't know. I didn't laugh really, but I've never gotten his humor.
TROLL: Wow. Seriously one of the worst sketches I think the show has ever done. I don't even know what to say about it. James is a troll under a bridge and Cecily is his weird old lady friend- this thing is just dead in the water and it goes on SO long! WTF? How the hell did this get into the top of the show?
UPDATE: Another cringeworthy Update from the wonderless and chemistry free duo that is Colin and Michael. They go on for quite a bit with a rant over the Garner decision, but it's extremely awkward with the non-rapport between the two guys (especially over an issue like this). And frankly, the audience wasn't having it either, remaining noticeably quiet during this thing. As for guests, Bobby's Anthony comes back for secondhand news (a couple good lines), but Leslie Jones is also back for more stand-up (which I simply can't stand). Then Nicky Minaj comes on as Kim Kardashian but the punchlines are horrible. Damn. What a disaster this show has become.
JEREMY'S BRAIN: A sketch about clearing old thoughts out of 20 year old Pete's brain- which means this is nothing but a setup for 1990's nostalgia. They do realize when they do this that there's no actual joke about these references, right? We all remember them, but what's supposed to be funny about it?
SMALL TOWN MAYOR: A political ad that has James running against a 4-year-old mayor and yelling at the TV. I'm in such a bad mood at this point that I can't even foster much interest. It's lame.
PORN STARS: So, ordinarily this would be one of the better things of any show, but this one has gotten to the point where's they've overused it. I liked it at first, but now it's totally predictable and repetitive. Time to retire it, guys.
Well, that was a chore. The sketches were both bad and painful tonight, so I've got to give it an F. I'm pretty sure that's the first one I've ever bestowed, despite how terrible some of the recent episodes have been, but this show is in utter crisis mode right now. And frankly, the fact that Update is so bad is making everything worse- even in the Seth Meyers years, the center of the show could more or less be counted on to deliver, but when it's this far gone it's time to retool. Try Beck Bennett out, Lorne. Please, give him a shot. He seems suited to it, you can certainly afford to lose him in the sketches, and I have a hard time imagining he'd be worse than what you've got now. Come back next week for Martin Freeman's first hosting stint (with an appearance from Cumberbatch, perhaps?). See you then.
2014 WGA TV Nominations
The Writer's Guild follows suit with the producer's guild in announcing their nominees for TV writing this past year. I'm excited to see several of my new favorite shows (Transparent, Last Week Tonight, The Knick, Rectify) make it in here, along with a couple of nominations for Boardwalk Empire's excellent final season:
DRAMA SERIES:
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards
Mad Men
True Detective
EPISODIC DRAMA:
"A Day's Work" - Mad Men
"Devil You Know" - Boardwalk Empire
"Donald the Normal" - Rectify
"Friendless Child" - Boardwalk Empire
"The Last Call" - The Good Wife
"The Lion and the Rose" - Game of Thrones
COMEDY SERIES:
Louie
Orange Is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep
EPISODIC COMEDY:
"The Cold" - Modern Family
"Landline" - New Girl
"Low Self Esteem City" - Orange Is the New Black
"So Did the Fat Lady" - Louie
"Three Dinners" - Modern Family
"The Wilderness" - Transparent
NEW SERIES:
The Affair
The Knick
Silicon Valley
Transparent
True Detective
COMEDY/VARIETY SERIES:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Inside Amy Schumer
The Colbert Report
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Saturday Night Live
Real Time with Bill Maher
REVIEW: "Boardwalk Empire" Season 5
Fans of Boardwalk Empire who were committed enough to stick with it until the end should be happy that their devotion paid off in spades. The show always had a knack for wrapping things up in satisfying fashion during each individual year- it only makes sense that this would be a handy talent for a final, truncated season of just eight episodes that took its time to give meaningful ends for almost every one of the characters that viewers have followed for five years now.
The approach in this final year was to go at it Godfather II-style, meaning of course that the present day storylines were intercut with the rise of young Nucky in the late 1800's, from poverty to power, wealth and control. It played out a bit slow at first, but as with all Boardwalk seasons, the setup led to an inevitable and dramatic payoff, where after it's over you can think back to and recognize all the pieces that were so carefully put in place for the final showdown. The casting was especially brilliant for this particular part of the story- in flashbacks, Nolan Lyons plays adolescent Nucky with appropriate wide eyed ambition, but then Marc Pickering as young man Nucky is so spot on mimicking Steve Buscemi's voice and mannerisms (no easy feat) that I became entirely involved in the backstory and completely believed that he simply was the Nucky Thompson I've grown so used to all these years. Young versions of Dabney Coleman's Commodore and Gretchen Mol's Gillian were also inspired and utterly believable characters, which fueled the drama of Thompson's early life, as it informed the present.
In the present, eight years had passed since the last season, which unfortunately necessitated some early and offscreen deaths of fan favorite historical characters (we hardly knew ye, Arnold Rothstein), but Terence Winter made sure that certain others, like Michael Shannon's crazed Nelson Van Alden and Michael Kenneth Williams' doomed Chalky White, received satisfying and very final sendoffs. Van Alden's run as a hired goon for Al Capone could only have ended badly for him, as you'd expect, but the show finally made the most use they ever have out of Michael Shannon's particularly nutty sense of humor and cynicism, which actually led to this being one of the funniest and most entertaining arcs Boardwalk has ever done.
Capone himself also played out his date with history, leading the excellent Stephen Graham (who seriously could have starred in his own spinoff show all about Capone) to revel in the alternately horrifying, comedic, violent and drug fueled nature of one of America's most famous gangsters as we meet up with him at the height of his powers, before he's brought down by the feds for tax evasion. Other storylines followed Lucky Luciano as he fulfilled his own rise to power with associate Meyer Lansky, and the sturdy Kelly MacDonald's Margaret finally came into her own as a scheming and cheating Wall Street broker who shares a final farewell with her husband to put closure on a relationship left lingering in a kind of limbo for the past couple of years.
Performances were excellent as always, but the way Boardwalk Empire played itself out in such style and commitment to the truth of the characters made me sad that it had to end here, as there was clearly story enough for at least two more seasons (what I wouldn't give to see more shenanigans with Van Alden and Eli as the bumbling Capone cronies, or Margaret's dealings with the late Rothstein that apparently turned her into such a high class crook). But they did the best they could with what they were given, and their best was good enough to place the show in the pantheon of HBO series that will hopefully live on for years, because as underrated as it was for most of its run, Boardwalk Empire remained a damn good show until the very end. I'm just glad I got to be one of the few who stuck with it.
Grade: A
PROMO: Golden Globes 2015 with Tina and Amy
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are back for the third (and supposedly final) time to host the Globes this year, and I have to admit I'm getting a little sick of them and I'm glad this is it. Like Ricky Gervais, they started out fresh and unexpected the first time, were kinda getting old by the second time, and probably will now just be totally stale. And I'm going to keep saying this, the Globes do NOT NEED A HOST. They went without one just fine for what, 50 years or so? Not every one of these shows needs an emcee. The Golden Globes are airing Sunday, Jan 11th on NBC.
2014 Producer's Guild TV Nominations
For some reason, the PGA TV nominations are announced way ahead of the film nominees, which aren't revealed until Jan 5th. Their choices for television this year aren't all that interesting- it's a bunch of the same old, same old (I don't get how Breaking Bad is on this list- I could have sworn the last season was over months before last year's PGA awards), so the coolest nomination for me is to see John Oliver make it in for the first season of Last Week Tonight, which was truly one of the best shows of the year. The PGA awards ceremony (for film and TV) will be held in late January.
Drama
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
House of Cards
True Detective
Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
Louie
Modern Family
Orange is the New Black
Veep
Non-Fiction Television
30 For 30
American Masters
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Shark Tank
Live Entertainment & Talk
The Colbert Report
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Real Time with Bill Maher
The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon
Sports Program
24/7
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Atlanta Falcons
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals
Inside: U.S. Soccer's March to Brazil
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Children's Program
Dora the Explorer
Sesame Street
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Toy Story of TERROR!
Wynton Marsalis: A Young Arts Masterclass
Digital Series
30 For 30 Shorts
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Cosmos: A National Geographic Deeper Dive
Epic Rap Battles of History
Video Game High School Season 3
SNEAK PEEK: "Better Call Saul"
Here's a look at a scene from Better Call Saul, which is premiering on AMC Feb 8th, in the hopes that the network can recapture some of the Breaking Bad buzz before it has no other shows on the air that anyone watches (besides The Walking Dead). Looks like they're bringing Jonathan Banks back too, as this looks to be the first time Saul met Mike. Will you be checking this out in February?
