To look purely at the winners, last night’s Golden Globes proceeded exactly as expected. Adolescence swept the board, because of course it did, for all the reasons you already know off by heart by now. The Studio was similarly successful, on the basis that it is simultaneously funny, about the entertainment industry and one episode was literally about the Golden Globes. All deserving winners.
But when you dig into the nominations, things become less clearcut. The White Lotus went into the ceremony with six nods, and came away empty-handed. Five of those nominations were bundled into just two categories – best supporting male actor and best supporting female actor – which meant that the maximum awards it could have won was three. But, still, to come away with none isn’t great.
There are a few potential reasons for this. The first is that, now that the show is an ongoing concern with a fourth season already in production, it no longer qualifies as a limited series. Instead, every nomination The White Lotus received this year was in the drama series field, which is much harder to break into.
But also, in terms of quality, this was by far the weakest season of The White Lotus. The scripting was especially off, with plots either outstaying their welcome (the robbery) or vanishing without resolution (that weird scene between Leslie Bibb and Parker Posey). Also, you get the sense that this was the year where the off-screen drama outpaced the show itself. Thinking about a fleet of isolated actors losing their minds in the tropical heat was far more fascinating than whatever their characters got up to.
Similarly, Severance was probably expecting a much better night. Nominated for best drama, best actor, best actress and best supporting actor, the show also benefited from being a critical darling. Few things were quite as anticipated as Severance’s second season, but then few things disappointed quite as much as it. What began life as a biting piece of social commentary – surely we all hate work enough to want to switch our brains off during office hours – mutated into screensaver territory, as it attempted to paper over its lack of momentum with needlessly showy direction.
In terms of surprises, you could argue that Jean Smart was lucky to receive another award for Hacks, given that the show has just given us its least enjoyable season so far. There has always been a question over exactly how funny Smart’s character Deborah Vance is meant to be, but the late night talkshow format of this season gave her nowhere to hide. As such, the whole season was essentially a lot of people telling Vance that she’s brilliant, then Vance being dismally unfunny in return. Not even an actor of Smart’s quality can sell that.
However, given that Smart’s competitors included Ayo Edebiri, Natasha Lyonne and Jenna Ortega – all of whom star in shows that aren’t really comedies – perhaps her win was inevitable. In fact, let’s blame the Golden Globes themselves for this. Maybe this whole mess could have been avoided if it widened its gaze to look at shows that prioritise comedy over anything else.
However, one snub looms above all other snubs this year. And, if you’re reading this in the UK, it’s you. The Pitt won two awards last night – best drama and best actor – just as it has won pretty much everything else. The show can add this haul to its five Emmys, four Television Critics Association awards and three Astra TV awards.
The show has been such a runaway success that it is literally changing how television is being made. Last March, HBO Max CEO Casey Bloys gleefully pointed at how quick and cheap it was to make in comparison with big lumbering beasts like House of the Dragon, and noted that it was a model he’d like to replicate.
So, from any angle, The Pitt is an absolute juggernaut of a series. Except none of us would know that, because it isn’t available to watch in the UK. Even though the second season of The Pitt is already showing in the US, and pretty much the rest of the world, we’re left in the wilderness. Apparently we might be getting it in March, when HBO Max arrives here, but that feels too long to keep us from the hottest show of the moment. As such, if there’s one loser to emerge from last night, it’s definitely us.
