The Golden Globe nominations for television, released this morning, are a typical mixed bag, that may be, on second thought, more mixed up than ever.
It is the stately, old fashion productions of “Downton Abbey” and “Mildred Pierce” up for the most awards – four.
But there are also a slew of awards for shows that had been on nobody’s best of TV list.
“Homeland” is the most nominated series, with nods for best drama, Damian Lewis and Claire Daines in actng. With just as many nominations, though is the BBC import “The Hour” and the HBO movies “Too Big to Fail” and“Cinema Verite.”
Altogether, HBO is up for 18 nominations, but Showtime is a strong second with eight. (PBS has five, ABC ties with BBC America with four, the other broadcast networks Fox, and NBC could only aage three nominations each; CBS just 2, the same as FX and former cable king AMC.
It was the drama “Boss” that earned Starz its two nominations, for best drama and best actor in Kelsey Grammer.
Also up for best drama: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Game of Thrones,” and, surprisingly, “American Horror Story.”
The best comedy nominations went to HBO’s “Enlightened,” Showtime’s “Episodes,” and the popular network shows “Glee,” “Modern Family” and “New Girl.”
Up for best actress in a comedy are Laura Dern of “Enlightened,” Zooey Deschanel in “New Girl,” Tina Fey of “30 Rock,” Laura Linney in “The Big C” and Amy Poehler in “Parks and Recreation.”
Best actor in a comedy are Alec Baldwin of “30 Rock,” David Duchovny of “Californication,” Thomas Jane in “Hung,” Matt LeBlanc in “Episodes” and Johnny Galecki (but not Jim Parsons) from “The Big Bang Theory.”
On the drama side, Mireille Enos of AMC’s “The Killing” is up for best actress alongside Danes in “Homeland,” Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife,” and a couple of surprises: Madeleine Stowe in “Revenge” and Callie Thorne in USA’s “Necessary Roughness.”
Among actors, Steve Buscemi is up again for “Boardwalk Empire” alongside Lewis of “Homeland,” Jeremy Irons of “The Borgias,” Grammer in “Boss” and Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad,” which received no other nominations.
Among movies and miniseries, “The Hour” and “Downton Abbey” were nominated along with the HBO movies “Cinema Verite,” “Mildred Pierce” and “Too Big to Fail.”
Best actress nominees for actress in that category were: Diane Lane for “Cinema Verite,” Elizabeth McGovern for “Downton Abbey,” Emily Watson in “Appropriate Adult,” Kate Winslet for “Mildred Pierce” and Romola Garai for “The Hour.”
Among actors in the category nominees were Hugh Bonneville for “Downtown,” Idris Elba for “Luther,” William Hurt for “Too Big to Fail” Dominic West in “The Hour” and Bill Nighy for “Page Eight,” which aired on PBS’ “Masterpiece.”
Supporting role categories are made up of cast members from series, movies and minie series. So the actress category has Jessica Lange of “American Horror Story,” Kelly MacDonald of “Boardwalk Empire,” Maggie Smith of “Downton Abbey,” Sofia Vergara of “Modern Family” and Evan Rachel Wood for “Mildred Pierce.”
Supporting actor nominees were Peter Dinklage of “Game of Thrones,” Paul Giamatti for “Too Big to Fail,” Guy Pierce for “Mildred Pierce,” Tim Robbins of “Cinema Verite” and Eric Stonestreet of “Modern Family.”