Tonight was the anything unpredictable could happen, and not much really did. Ricky Gervais started out the evening with a lot of laughs, which included jokes at the expense of Jodie Foster and her beaver, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. To me this show is not always about host, while Gervais does add to evening. This award show is about the celebrities being able to drink and giving entertaining speeches. Gervais hosting does add to that mentality.
On to why I watch these shows, the awards themselves. My friend Keith and I decided to do shots every time we did not predict the right winner, I only had to do 5 shots (most of them because of the TV categories). While the game was not as much fun, partly because I did not have to drink as much. I wish the show provided a few more surprises in the film categories. It seems as though the Weinstein company is putting a lot of weight behind its films, especially The Artist for Best Picture.
Ricky Gervais may have been right all along about the HFPA taking bribes or being crooked because the Weinstein Company has seemed to have a hold on the winners for the last two years. This year the Weinstein Company had six major wins in the film categories. The Weinstein's swept the Comedy/Musical category with The Artist taking Best Comedy/Musical and its star Jean Dujardin winning Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, and the film won for Best Original Score. The Artist won the most trophies for the night. Michelle Williams took home the trophy for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical. Williams was not the only person who benefited from the Weinstein name, Meryl Streep beat out her tight competitor Viola Davis for Best Actress in a Drama. I am predicting Davis will still win the SAG thus making predicting the best Actress category incredibly difficult. The Weinstein's did also help cause another upset in the Best Song category, Madonna won the prize for her film W.E., the song is ruled ineligible for the Oscars.
While The Artist was a solid film and it is the clear front runner with its win tonight, I can not see mainstream movie audiences embracing a silent film. With a lack of popular audience appeal (this influences voters to an extent) I have a hard time believing this film will win the Best Picture award, btu I could be wrong. I also have a hard time believing The Descendants can win. The Descendants won the award for Best Film (Drama) and Best Actor in Drama. While I think Clooney will win, I also think Brad Pitt has a strong shot. Clooney and Pitt seemed to show more affection for each other than I have ever seen two actors show. Clooney has his Oscar and may champion for his friend to get his first win.
The biggest surprise came in the Best Director category, although I predicted it, Martin Scorsese won for Hugo. This will help Hugo a lot! This film could be a major spoiler. Midnight in Paris also could be a spoiler, it wont Best Screenplay Award. The reason why I do not think Paris will win is because its director just does not show up to award shows. Meanwhile the winners in supporting categories were cemented tonight and they will be Christopher Plummer for Beginners and Octavia Spencer from The Help. The only thing I predicted wrong was the Best Song winner.
In the TV world the Globes stuck to mainly honoring new shows. In the Drama categories the brilliant new Showtime show, Homeland won Best Drama Series and Claire Danes won for Best Actress. Meanwhile Kelsey Grammer won Best Drama Actor for the Starz show Boss. The comedy categories picked two winners from shows in their first year on HBO and Showtime. Laura Dern won for Enlightened which was the only show picked up by HBO recently because of their Globe nominations. Matt LeBlanc won for basically playing himself in the Showtime show Episodes. Modern Family was the only returning show that won a prize at the Globes, it won Best Comedy Series.
In the movie/miniseries category, Downton Abbey won the top prize. Kate Winslet won the trophy for Lead Actress in a movie/miniseries for Mildred Pierce, and Idris Elba won the Lead Actor Prize for Luther.
My one pet peeve about the Globes is that they lump the supporting actors from everything in one category, mainly in order to cutdown on awards to present. I would not have them do this in the film categories, but the TV and movie/mini-series awards should be separate. In recent years the stars of TV series have dominated. This year continued that pattern Peter Dinklage won for Game of Thrones and Jessica Lange won for American Horror Story. I did not predict Dern, Lange, Grammer, or Homeland to win.
Overall the show and the winners were predictable, but it was worth a drinking game. I have to start getting worse at picking or my friend and I need to come up with a better game while watching this show.
My one pet
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