The 2017 Golden Globe Awards nominations will be announced in under two months. Awards Daily TV takes a first crack at predicting what comedies will come out on top.
For the past year, fans have been obsessed with every drama from Stranger Things to Game of Thrones. So much so, in fact, that no one focused on the fact that the 2017 crop of comedies underwheled. According to Emmy voters the only two comedies worth watching are Veep and Saturday Night Live. This means that the Golden Globes have the opportunity to steer the conversation in a completely different direction.
But what comedies will the Hollywood Foreign Press Association put their support behind? Besides Glow and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel the majority of this year’s contenders are past nominees or shows in their second or third season. Either way there is bound to be little overlap between this year’s Emmys and Golden Globes which has the potential to lead to a wide open comedy race in an upcoming Emmy race without Veep and Atlanta.
These are the thirteen comedies that might appeal to the Hollywood Foreign Press:
Returning Favorites
Will & Grace The original run of Will & Grace was one of the most nominated TV shows in the history of the Golden Globes with 27 nominations without ever winning a single award. Everyone has been talking about the return of Will & Grace. The show feels exactly the same while covering modern topics from the Trump presidency to gay dating apps like Grindr. The reboot craze has struggled to gain critical and awards success, and that might tarnish Will & Grace’s chances. Still, there is no denying that out of all the contenders this year it is the one that is bound to make voters the happiest.
Veep For whatever reason Veep has never been a favorite of HFPA voters. They only started nominating the show when it started winning the top award at the Emmys. Even though Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been nominated every year she has never won. When the show is nominated, it feels more like obligation than adoration. This year Veep had its most successful Emmy season to date which makes it an automatic contender at the Globes, but there is also a strong chance voters take the opportunity to honor something new.
Black-ish Tracee Ellis Ross won a Golden Globe last year marking the first and only major award for the show. Her win may be more of a testament to her than the show. The buzz around the show seems to be diminishing, in large part because instead of focusing on what people love the show chooses to amp up the Anthony Anderson voice-overs and workplace scenes. Even if the excitement around the show isn’t as strong, it’s still the most popular family sitcom on TV and because of that it remains part of the conversation.
Curb Your Enthusiasm After a six year hiatus Larry David’s hit comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm is back but this time existing in a very different TV landscape. Now David has to compete against an onslaught of critically acclaimed auteur-driven comedies in a sub-genre he helped popularize. It’s still too early to tell if guild groups and Emmy voters will find room to welcome back the comedy, but Golden Globes voters haven’t warmed up to David since the fifth season making it hard to imagine they’ll all of a sudden nominate it again.
Transparent The HFPA takes a lot of pride in the fact that they played a key role in putting Transparent and Amazon on the map. They were the first awards group to award Transparent and since that historic win the show has been consistently nominated. That three year streak might be broken this year after the fourth season came and went with little excitement in large part because the season felt incomplete. Even if Transparent’s awards chances are nearly over Globes voters might feel compelled to keep it around after a season that primarily took place in Israel.
Mozart in the Jungle Mozart in the Jungle is a perfect example of a show that encapsulates the television sensibilities of the HFPA. It’s about the high arts. It takes place in New York City but has a very European feel and has an A-List roster of names attached like Gael Garcia Bernal, Malcolm McDowell, and even a Coppola producer. The fourth season doesn’t premiere until December and unless it has an absolutely stellar season it risks losing out to another Amazon show that premieres just a couple weeks beforehand.
New Frontrunners
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel After the collapse of two major shows, Amazon is desperate for a new hit and their best bet is with the November premiere of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Amazon premiered the show during their unique pilot season to tremendous results with thousands of fans voting in support of the show in large part because of the massive following of showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino. The backbone of the show is the breakout performance of Rachel Brosnahan as a 50s housewife who purses a career in comedy after being left by her husband. On top of her performance, the show has the potential to resonate across the industry right now and become Amazon’s best show since Transparent.
Glow Of all the untested new comedies this year, Glow has the best chance at becoming an awards player. The 80s wrestling comedy premiered this summer to broad critical support and is bound to do well at the guild awards (especially SAG and WGA). Plus, the plot about actresses on the outskirts of Hollywood manipulating the system has the potential to feel timely. The only thing stopping Glow from becoming the Golden Globe front runner is that a show about wrestling doesn’t necessarily seem up their alley.
Get Shorty The Golden Globes is notorious for awarding obscure networks trying to break into the awards conversation. After last year’s nomination for Nick Nolte in Graves, Epix is looking to break into a series race with Get Shorty. The comedy about a mobster trying to get into Hollywood is loosely based off of a Golden Globe-winning film and even premiered to minor critical success. With no new comedy standing out as a clear favorite something surprising like Get Shorty might be able to sneak in.
Comedies Looking to Finally Break in to the Race
Insecure Issa Rae is having a standout year. The second season of Insecure premiered with 3x the ratings it had last year. She is signed on to countless new projects including an HBO drama, and she has appeared on countless magazines and talk shows. On top of all that Insecure has some of the best ratings of any HBO show this year with the obvious exception of Game of Thrones. HBO may not have a shiny new comedy in the mix this year, but Insecure has all the buzz of one and omitting it would be a shame.
Master of None In its second season Master of None has become one of the most beloved comedies on TV. HFPA voters treated the first season as a simple vehicle for Aziz Ansari, but after the second season developed so much excitement and respect, it has the possibility of breaking through for the top award at the Golden Globes. The “Thanksgiving” episode was one of the most talked about of the year, and the season begins with multiple episodes taking place in a luxurious almost dream-like Italian setting.
The Good Place After the first season of The Good Place became available to stream on Netflix the show went from a modestly seen network sitcom to a show with a massive online presence. Podcasts are covering the show. Twitter won’t stop mentioning the various food puns. There were a surprising amount of Janet costumes for Halloween this year, and most importantly, ratings are up. Of the various major comedies this year, The Good Place is one of the most original options, and the show has the potential to have a major breakout moment at this year’s Golden Globes.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend It’s rare for a show in its third season to break into a series race at the Golden Globes, but in such a wide-open year, this might be Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s chance to finally break through. Rachel Bloom has been nominated twice and even won for the first season, so we know they are watching the show. We also know they have a soft spot for musicals.
Early Predictions
- Master of None
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Will & Grace
- Insecure
- GLOW
Spoilers: Veep, The Good Place, Transparent
Readers, what five comedies are you predicting will be nominated at this year’s Golden Globe Awards? Will the HFPA embrace returning classics like Will & Grace and Curb Your Enthusiasm or will they go out of their way to bring in first-time nominees like Insecure and Master of None? Are there any comedies we’re underestimating?
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