Correction: Ok, I totally messed up my initial comment about the Best Supporting Actor in TV category. Alec Baldwin was NOT nominated in the category, which means he wasn't robbed by the overabundance of miniseries actors nominated. But the comment still applies to NPH. But wait, oh my god...
9:28 Renee Zellwegger totally got her hair done in the same wind tunnel as Drew Barrymore! I sincerely hope someone gets a picture of the two of them together at some point tonight. Though at least Drew's dress (pale blue, one shoulder, ethereal) was lovely. Renee's is terrifying, or maybe it's just that she looks like a pale wiry bug. Perhaps she'd like my tip about the Edward's individual pie slices? On second thought, Renee should be eating entire pies at this point.
9:31 Paul Giamatti wins for
John Adams. I don't have anything else to say about this, obviously.
9:32 Oh, except to add that Kiefer Sutherland was nominated in this category for his performance in the "24" movie that came out in November or December. And sat on my Tivo for 6 weeks before I finally decided I wasn't going to watch it. I'm going to give the show a try again this season, but it has gotten so thin in the past few years.
9:33 Best TV Series Comedy or Musical. Nominees are
30 Rock,
Californication,
Entourage,
The Office, and
Weeds.
30 Rock should win, and.... does. This is an easy one. Ha, Tracy Jordan accepts for the show, based on an agreement he made with Tina Fey if Barack Obama won the election. This is a political statement I can get behind because it's goofy and hilarious. Alec can't resist getting in on it, reminding Tracy to thank Jeff Zucker.
To explain why any other result here would have been absurd:
Entourage and
Weeds just aren't as good as they once were. They both skate on reputation and the fact that they appear on pay cable (again, an arbitrary distinction that really matters to the HFPA).
Entourage, in particular, has become really thin. Sometimes I watch that show and I don't even know what it's about anymore. It's passed the point of self-referential and come out the other side. So it's kind of like the poo of the entertainment industry. There are a lot of not terribly interesting characters played by only mildly interesting actors who take up a LOT of camera time. Even the Ari Gould character, who was always the core of the show, has gotten stale. Most criminally, the show often has not a single laugh-out-loud funny moment in an entire episode. That's not Best Comedy material.
Weeds has different problems. I applaud the decision to take the show out of Agrestic and push Nancy into a much more questionable and less suburban drug world. But the show hasn't figured out what it is now that it's lost the suburban-mom-as-small-time-dealer schtick. It could come back. But it doesn't deserve to be applauded at this moment.
Californication is great, I love David Duchovny, and I'm glad the show has found an audience. But it's a niche show, and doesn't rise to the level of
30 Rock. The latter manages to be hilarious within the constricts of network television, commercial breaks, and broadcast standards. In fact, it is often hilarious because of those things. The show makes the medium work in its favor, which is a much better way to handle making a TV show than constantly bitching about how hard it is to work in network TV. It is what it is.
Californication is often very funny, but also sometimes gets overly repetitive or rests on the ability to say fuck and show simulated sex. Sometimes creativity flourishes best when it's forced to overcome a set structure or other restrictions. So though
Californication is great, it doesn't earn the award as much as
30 Rock does.
The Office is
biggest competition for the win
, and the show is still good and worth watching. It's got some growing pains right now with the Jim/Pam relationship, but is handling them better than expected.
30 Rock is still better right now. But that doesn't mean
The Office is bad. It's nice to have a couple heavyweights battling it out.
