Golden Globe Noms Shine Light On Worthy Programs

by John P. Hanlon

The Golden Globe nominations were released last week. As usual, many of the television categories were dominated with long-running programs. However, a few new shows received welcome nominations, a boost that could lend more credibility to these freshmen programs. 

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“Glee” was one of the new major nominees for the Globes, earning a nomination in the “Best Television Series: Musical or Comedy” category.  As I noted in a review of the program, “Glee”  revolves around a high school glee club.  Even though the show has stumbled a bit throughout this season, it has still emerged as as a entertaining and worthy hit. I was glad it got some attention from the Globes. The most obvious nomination for the program went to Jane Lynch, whose role as cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester is one of the highlights of the program. Other nominations for the show went to Matthew Morrison, who plays the glee coach, Will Schuester, and Lea Michele, who plays the overzealous singer Rachel.

Additionally, I was excited to see Julianna Marguiles nominated for the lead role on “The Good Wife.” For some critics, “The Good Wife” could be written off as another lawyer show with a strong female lead. However, the material for this program is much stronger than that and Marguiles continues to stand out on the show. As I wrote about the show a few weeks ago, the lead character is “a strong woman who, when forced to emerge from the shadow of her husband, fights to prove herself inside the courtroom and outside of it where people often know her because of her husband’s well-publicized misdeeds.” Marguiles has done a good job in capturing that character and if the show continues on its present route, this will not be her only nomination for this program in the years to come.

Also, Courtney Cox was nominated for her role on the show “Cougar Town.” When I watched the show a few weeks ago, I noted its crude and crass content. However, even though I did not like the show, I did appreciate Cox in the lead role. I just wish the rest of the show lived up to Cox’s potential. Cox has had some solid roles in the past including her work as Monica Gellar on the show “Friends” and her turn as Gale Weathers in the “Scream” trilogy but “Cougar Town” often wastes her potential and the potential of the supporting characters on the show.

Because I have not seen all of the television programs or movies that were nominated, I can not say if the nominees listed above are worthy of the prizes they were nominated for (Although, admittedly, it would be hard to top Jane Lynch’s performance on “Glee” in her category.) Regardless, it was exciting to see a lot of the new shows nominated this year. This may not be their year at the award show but I hope that nominations for shows like “Glee” and “The Good Wife” bring more of an audience to these programs and I hope that “Cougar Town” does more to fulfill the potential of its nominated lead actress and the strong secondary characters on the show.


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Posted Dec 29th 2009 at 1:24 pm in Culture, Television | 29 Comments