East Coast Musings 01.18.09: Golden Globe Fallout
Posted by James Craig on 01.18.2009
It is a mixed bag this week, as thoughts are offered on Slumdog Millionaire's momentum heading into the Oscars as well as a look a two returning television series.
In this column, I will explore various facets of the film and television worlds and offer my views on why things are they way they are and where I feel the subject of each topic in heading in the future by weighing both the pros and the cons each is facing. Nothing is safe and no one is safe as from my focus.
This week I want to take the time to look at a number of things. First I will address the Golden Globes on the films side of things, as that is where I made my predictions. Boy, was I off. Also I'd like to address the idea that a win at the Golden Globes leads to a win at the Oscars. After that, I would like to take a look at a couple of shows that have debuted last week and seem to be off to strong starts in Scrubs and The Real World: Brooklyn.
SPOILER ALERT : Some Details of the latest Episodes of Scrubs will be revealed, read on if you want to know. SPOILER ALERT.
Golden Globe Fallout
Now that we are a week removed from the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscar nominations are just under a week away, the Hollywood hype machine is starting to kick into top gear. First let me be the first to offer congrats to Rob and Amy who left their own predictions and calling the Slumdog Millionaire sweep. I can honestly say that while I felt that it would be a darkhorse in some of the categories, I in no way imagined that even with the Foreign Press voting that it would still have as big a night as it did. Momentum seems to have swung in favor of Slumdog now, heading into this Thursday's Oscar nominations being announced. The question is, however, does Golden Globe momentum really mean a damned thing when it comes to the Academy voters? As I've said before, I don't buy into the notion that Golden Globe success leads to Oscar gold, if recent history is an indicator.
Using the example of the Winner selected for Best Film at the Oscar's in comparison to the winners from the Golden Globes, you'd have to go back to 2004's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King before you would find a film that both voting bodies were able to agree upon. It is this trend that has has many, including myself, holding the belief that winning the Golden Globe doesn't translate into success with Academy voters. The flip side of the argument is that from 2000 - 2004 one of the Best Film winners did actually win the Oscar. In fact, going back to 1991 and Dances With Wolves and moving to the 2004 awards, a winner from the Globes managed to win 11 times out of a possible 18 times. Of course the argument to be made is that there are 36 possible contenders once you factor in the 2 winners from each year.
Ultimately, this comes down to a case where either argument can be made using the numbers and the facts. Either you see the overwhelming numbers that confirm that since 1991, 11 times has a Golden Globes winner taken away the award. If you want to say that the award doesn't build to too much, you can point out that while 11/18 times a winner has come from the Globes, there were also 36 films to choose from out of the 2 categories, Drama and Musical/Comedy. Having looked over the trends, I am still of the belief that there is no certainty to come from a Globes win. I will say that this seems to be a year much like 2007, when Babel seemed to be the picture that had a whole lot of momentum. It was a Foreign Press darling and looked good going into the Oscars ceremony. The Academy voters went for The Daparted. I see this year shaping up very much like that as the Academy will ,more often than not go with the hometown Hollywood picture. Looking at those numbers in terms of wins is an entirely different thing though.
Two Triumphant Returns of Two Favorites?
Last week saw the return of two programs to the airwaves in the form of Scrubs and The Real World : Brooklyn. Scrubs is coming back this season on ABC after its' netowork home, NBC did not renew the show last year after the seventh season. I will admit that I was happy that Scrubs was going to get an eighth season, as last year's seventh, shortened due to the writer's strike, seemed rushed and didn't offer any sort of suitable resolution to any story threads. This season, so far is shaping into what could be on of the finest for Scrub since probably the fifth season.
The first episode of the new season wasn't anything to too worked up about, it did manage to introduce Courtney Cox as Scared Heart's new Chief of Medicine, Dr. Taylor Maddox, for a three episode arc. While no longer than most of the other guest spots the series has had in the past, these three episodes opened up for one of the more memorable scenes in the series' history, with Dr. Cox having to admit to Kelso that he missed him. An action born from the desire to get rid of the Dr. Maddox, a person Cox saw as even more undesirable than Kelso was during his tenure as Chief of Medicine. Also, as part of the Dr. Maddox experiment, The season's opener saw her fire Janitor for not revealing his name when asked. This sparked a bit of concern as there was no sign of Janitor for the second episode at all. As far as being a long time fan of the show, this was a moment that actually managed to get a real reaction as it seemed, even for a moment, as if a beloved character was seemingly gone, and with little warning.
The second episode of the season, My Last Words was one of those episodes that makes you remember that Scrubs can be one of the best comedies on television while still offering some real, hear felt moments. This very well may have been the best, most touching episode since, My Long Good Bye in season 6, where the Sacred Heart crew had to deal with the death of Nurse Roberts as well as the birth of Dr. Cox's daughter. Glynn Turman's performance as dieing patient George was nothing short of great and the interaction he had with Braff and Faison's Turk was great. For me, at the very least, it seemed as if there was some sort of real growth for both Doctors, as they were able to get past their own "bromance" and come to the side of a man who needed it. The episode wasn't all gloom as there were some funny moments, with new intern Denise trying out her take on good bedside manner and sharing her story of her hook-up with a "fatty". Going along with the "Steak Dance" this episode almost perfectly combined comedy and a touch of seriousness and it worked very, very well.
The third episode had the above mentioned admission by Dr. Cox, but the fourth episode is where I think the main plotline of the season will come from. It seems as if Elliot and Jd are again partnering down the path towards a relationship. The groundwork for this had been laid in last season's My Waste of Time and carried on through My Jerks but it is here where it finally comes to some sort of fruition. I can understand why some may groan and say that the series has "been there, done that" before. This is in and around the fourth go at it for these two. The thing to remember here is that in other tries at a relationship between these two have been short and to the point with one party or the other sabotaging the relationship. I think that this time, the two characters have matured enough to the point where we can see a real, longer than 3 or 4 episode thing evolve. Here's hoping that we're not let down, as I'm encouraged by the sense of character growth and maturity being shown so far.
I'm only going to talk briefly on The Real World: Brooklyn as part of a follow up to my first article of the year dealing with Reality TV. This is the series' 21 installment, and after having seen the first two episodes, I can say that while there seems to be the requisite drunken partying and obnoxiousness we've come to expect of The Real World, I think that this season is going to follow up from last season in Hollywood in trying to at least address something more than how the roommates will deal with getting arrested and sleeping with each other. As some of you may know, or have heard, there is a transgendered person in the cast this season to go along with the Gay and Bi-sexual roommates as well as a Mormon cast member and an Iraq War vet. While this screams of the producers trying to place as many opposites into the house as possible, this cast, so far seems to be at least level headed enough to deal with things in a somewhat mature manner. Yes there has been the expected quibbling amongst the roommates, but the show is at least painting the picture of acceptance. I'm not going to count on this show to be as forward thinking as it was once in the past, but I hope that it will tackle issues like sexuality and being a war vet in a very real fashion. This may be too much to ask, but I will be watching with some interest to see how things develop. so far is showing every sign that it might have the right cast and the right social climate to go back to its' roots and talk about relevant things once again.
That's it for this week, but next week, as I've said, the Oscar nominations will be out and I plan on talking about them, and dropping the Awards talk until after the Oscars themselves. Also, Lost will be back starting a new season and that may be worth looking at. Until then, thanks for reading and see you next week.
