Golden Globes 2011 . . . Live Blogging

I'll be live blogging the Golden Globes tonight, rooting for all things Mad Men and Modern Family.

Please feel free to join in on the commentary and, if you're reading this AFTER the Globes have aired, I'd love for you to weigh in on the results.

I'm wondering how many times they'll have to bleep out Ricky Gervais' commentary . . .

UPDATE: Ricky Gervais had a glass of beer (or what is supposed to look like beer) waiting for him on the podium. Wonder if that'll be the standard for every person who arrives at the podium?

UPDATE: BRUTALLY going after The Tourist, Sheen, Cruise . . . Sex & the City 2 stars' ages. I'm waiting for them to throw tomatoes.

UPDATE: My son just asked, "Touched what?" I rolled my eyes.

UPDATE: A show of hands, who thinks that Gervais will NOT be asked back as host? (*hand raised*)

UPDATE: Christian Bale won for supporting actor in The Fighter. I was rooting for Jeremy Renner from The Town. But, to be honest, I haven't seen The Fighter.

UPDATE: Oooh, best actress in TV drama series . . . I wanted Margulies . . . but it's Katie Sagal for Sons of Anarchy . . . Can you say UP-set?! She was seated in Orange County, obviously she wasn't expected to win . . .  (Don't like how they cut her off! Better not be a trend for the evening.)

UPDATE: Best mini-series or TV movie. *yawn*

UPDATE: "He's a mean person," my daughter just said when Gervais appeared . . . Ashton Kutcher's dad?! Ouch!

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Parenthood,' 'Shameless' & My TV Golden Globe Picks

Parenthood: Feelin’ the Guilt

The current Adam and Kristina Braverman storyline on Parenthood -- they banned their 16-year-old daughter Haddie from seeing a 19-year-old recovering alcoholic who has his own apartment and was emancipated when he was 16 -- is playing out in interesting ways.

This week, Kristina was trying to assuage her guilt about making Haddie break up with her boyfriend Alex by making her pancakes and offering to give Haddie's room a make-over. Little does Kristina know that Haddie is continuing to see Alex behind her back.

When Haddie's parents eventually learn that she’s lying to them, I’ll be curious to see what they’ll do to their class president daughter who gets good grades and is otherwise a model citizen, except that she lies to her parents about boys (and has done so in the past). Given that stern, strict parenting isn’t all that in vogue these days, where Parenthood will go with this is an open question.

My review of the latest episode on CliqueClack TV can be found here.

Speaking of Parenthood, I dedicated my pop culture column on Mommy Tracked this week to how Parenthood and other primetime TV shows are depicting the raising of teenagers as a harrowing proposition.



Shameless, Surprisingly NOT a Downer

Take an alcoholic single father of six, Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), who was abandoned by his wife and is on disability and who drinks all the disability checks at a local pub, and the new Showtime drama Shameless has the makings for one, damned depressing show, especially when Frank is frequently brought home by the cops with urine-saturated pants and left to sleep it off on the floor.

Frank's oldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) is the only reason why the Gallagher family functions at all and why the children haven't been taken away by child protective services yet. And Fiona's a reckless twentysomething who likes to party hard. Fiona, who totes her baby brother to work with her where she cleans motel rooms, does the family's laundry, cooks and makes sure everyone, even the 8-year-old, contributes money so they can pay their electric bill when Frank's blown his monthly disability check.

So why did the pilot episode of this show surprise me? By the time I got to the end of it, I was smiling. It was actually uplifting to see that children, who are living in poverty and in awful circumstances, are somehow soldiering on, together, as a family trying to care for its own. The Gallaghers, Frank notwithstanding, have a whole lot more heart than, say, the Gavins on Rescue Me.

Golden Globe Nominees a Mixed Bag, Cable Dominates TV Dramas

Image credit: Focus Features

Of the films nominated for Golden Globes, I’ve seen a grand total of one of them in both the comedy and drama categories: The Kids are All Right. (Drama noms: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech and The Social Network, two of which are on my "must see" list. Comedy noms: Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids are All Right, Red and The Tourist.)

What does THAT say about me, or, conversely, about the nominations?

Maybe it means – HELLO?! – I should somehow find the time to go see more movies . . . or, perhaps, it's an indication that the movies I have seen in theaters aren't ones the Golden Globe voters find worthy, such as The Town. (Though Jeremy Hurt Locker Renner received a nod for supporting dramatic actor for The Town.) Then again, a lot of the acting and best picture nominations went mostly to people and films which have not yet been released or in limited release smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season, when I don't have a heck of a lot of time to go see them because of all that Christmas stuff I've got to do.

Overall, in addition to Renner's nomination, I was very happy to see that both Annette Bening and Julianne Moore were nominated for lead actresses in a comedy for The Kids are All Right; they were believable and relatable as a middle couple whose family of four was upended after their son tracked down the man who had donated his sperm to the couple. (I reviewed it here.)

When it came to the animated feature films, however, I've seen three of the five nominees – Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 – which is an indication that yeah, I’ve got kids, and I take them to see kid movies more often than I go to see flicks of my choosing.

Image credit: Michael Yarish/AMC

On the TV side, it was somewhat shocking to see that of the best TV drama nominees, only ONE is a network show. Mad Men was, of course, on the list alongside the really solid, though not nearly as nuanced, The Good Wife. The other three nominees are shows I don’t watch: Boardwalk Empire (though I think I SHOULD be watching this one, anyone care to make that argument to me?), Dexter and The Walking Dead.

Best dramatic actress and actor nominations mirrored the TV drama trend, as the sole network nomination went to Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife. Margulies is up against Elisabeth Moss, who really deserves this award after her great fourth season as Peggy Olson, was nominated for Mad Men. The other dramatic actress nominees are: Piper Perabo from Covert Affairs, Katey Sagal from Sons of Anarchy and Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer.

The only network best dramatic actor nominee went to Hugh Laurie for House, but if Jon Hamm doesn’t get it, particularly for that episode of “The Suitcase,” then the Golden Globe voters are seriously off their rockers. Their competitors are: Steve Buscemi from Boardwalk Empire, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad and Michael C. Hall, Dexter.

Image credit: Eric McCandless/ABC

Comedy-wise, the networks fared better, fielding four out of the six nominees for 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Glee and Modern Family. (Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and The Big C were also nominated.) Modern Family -- specifically the “Manny Get Your Gun” episode – should walk away with this, without question. Of the female members of the Modern Family cast, only Sofia Vergara received a nomination, while Eric Stonestreet was the only male cast member nominated. What about Ty Burrell? Rico Rodriguez? What, are they blind to their comic genius?

What did you think about the Golden Globe nominations?
Image credits: Focus Features, Michael Yarish/AMC and Eric McCandless/ABC.