Monday, January 15, 2007

Golden Globes will be blogged, apparently

8:00--The only thing for you to know this award season is this:

You can't stop Jennifer Hudson, you can only hope to contain her. I'll put it down right now that she is the only dead certain lock of this year's Oscar broadcast. Her unstoppable train just started rolling down the tracks, snagging her the first award of the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.

The other thing that I'll say while I try to understand why Prince's song just won Best Song from the movie Happy Feet is that I like how the Golden Globes just kicks into the awards without apology. The broadcast is only eight minutes old, just went to its first commercial, and has already given out two awards. In that amount of time the Oscars wouldn't even be done with its self congratulatory film montage and host monologue.

But, back to the Prince song . . . Justin Timberlake was the award presenter and when it became clear that Prince wasn't going to be there to accept the award (and why would he since he's Prince!), JT made a visible crack at the Purple One's lack of height by bending his knees to drop below the microphone to "accept the award on Prince's behalf."

I wouldn't piss of Prince, but then I didn't singlehandedly Bring the Sexy Back.

. . .

8:19--And then I had to go upstairs to calm down Grace. She has been sleeping with Sarah more and more lately, but tonight Sarah wasn't interested. That upset Grace, so I had to distract her and calm her down while trying to get her to stay in her bed. Since she suddenly decided she wants another birthday party, I got her talking about what sort of cake she wanted, who she wanted to invite, etc, etc. We'll see if she stays in her room now. But I still here some walking around upstairs, so I'm not currently optimistic.

8:22--And, in my absence from the TV, Lynda has taken control of the remote and the prospects of me keeping up with the newest awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is getting slimmer. But, I probably won't be too upset if I can't see that Dreamgirls is growing more and more popular and award-worthy by the minute.

8:32--The Golden Globes can't compete with Gay, Straight, or Taken, the show that is currently airing under Lynda's supervision. The set up? A girl goes on dates with three guys, each of which fits the titular categories. If she picks the available straight guy they go on a paid vacation. If she picks either the gay guy or the taken guy, she gets nothing except slight humiliation and television exposure and they get to go on her vacation with their actual spouse.

8:38--While I sit around wondering what's going to happen to the television, I have to talk about what I perceive have been occurring on LOST during the hiatus. Everyone knows that the show decided to divide the show into two pods, a 6-episode mini arc stretching from late September through Halloween and then disappearing into holiday hiatus, not to return until February 7. I've said before that I understand why this was done--to avoid breaking up the story development with random weeks of reruns. But, the affect that this has had on LOST's momentum has been dangerously crippling in this a critical third season.

Season 1 was a tour de force, a juggernaut of water cooler buzz and excitement. Season 2 was solid, but disappointed when measured against the unreasonable expectations of Season 1's super success. But, the end of Season 2 caught me again and got me excited. And the LOST Experience web promotions during the summer did a fair job of keeping the mythology in the public eye. Plus, the media was still drinking the LOST Kool-Aid and was supporting the show with lots of articles.

Season 3 has been hard to judge because it hasn't been on that much, but it is definitely getting beaten in the media's eyes by Heroes. But even more worrisome is that the extended multi-month hiatus has moved the show out of people's consciousness and the media has seemingly given up on pushing for it.

For instance, a few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly published its Winter TV Preview issue, focusing on new shows that are premiering in this new segment of the year. And while its not surprising that LOST wasn't mentioned because it's not a NEW show, it also wasn't mentioned in the returning shows article. That REALLY got me worried, since EW has been one of the show's most vocal supporters in the past.

And then today, I saw this story. Once you read it, it doesn't seem as dire as the headline, but it's clear that even Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof are (maybe?) seeing the writing on the wall and trying to wrap things up before ratings plummet. It just makes me sad; so much potential lost--no pun intended.

All this so that Daybreak could be a big flop.

Thanks, ABC.

8:54--It looks like blogging the Golden Globes isn't going to happen tonight after all. Lynda's rule of the remote hasn't flagged and she doesn't seem interested in finding out if Babel will be an unexpected winner.



9:27--We've settled on Super Nanny, the show on ABC that I really haven't watched more than ten minutes of prior to tonight. It's a show that must be propped up by parents, because I don't understand why anyone without kids would watch it. The premise is that out of control kids prompt a family to call in the Super Nanny (a British Mary Poppins wanna-be named Jo) who observed exactly how out of control the kids are and then helps teach the parents how to be parents. Predictably, the kids are usually the worst imaginable and the parents are as hapless about what to do as is necessary to make the show dramatic.

I think parents watch the show because it must make them feel better about their own kids and how their parental styles and problems compare.

Come to think of it, Andy Rooney might watch this show. Heck, he's so famously curmudgeonly that he might produce the program.

10:01--Tom Hanks is congratulating Cecil B. DeMille award honoree Warren Beatty. But that's the last I'm saying about it. I'm done for the night, as this blog ends with a whimper, not a bang of any kind.

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