I typically pay only scant attention to these awards shows for reasons that include the people whom I think should win never do. But I can't say that about the 2012 edition of the Golden Globe Awards, which decorated actors from my two favorite new shows of the past year -- Peter Dinklage/"Game of Thrones" and Jessica Lange/"American Horror Story" -- not to mention giving a well-deserved award to Claire Danes' performance in another new show ("Homeland," in which Danes stole the show) and Kelsey Grammer on a fourth one ("Boss," my third-favorite new TV show of the last 12 months).When Dinklage's midget "Tyrion Lannister" character wasn't cursing or whoring up a storm, or giving his pathetic full-size nephew Joffrey a good beatdown, or showing surprising spontaneous compassion for those he called "cripples, bastards and broken things," then he was taking a hooker to the King's court against his powerful old man's wishes or was being told to make sure to "stay low" during an upcoming battle with enemy forces. The Tyrion character was the most complex, interesting and entertaining character on a show full of them, and Dinklage pulled it off like it a master. He didn't get this award because he's a midget. Rather, he got it because he was that good.
Jessica Lange was nearly equally masterful on F/X's creepy new "American Horror Story," in which she played the demented Southern Belle next-door neighbor who -- when she's not sleeping with much younger males, delivering seriously poisoned pastries to the neighbors, or whacking out her hubby and his maid lover -- seems to most enjoy herself dressing down and berating the various maniacal "ghosts" (including poor said maid) who inhabit the joint next-door. And kudos to film-star Lange being willing to mix it up on the small screen, where I recall her saying that a cable TV series like AHS (with its shorter cable season) worked perfectly for a more time-strapped schedule.
I didn't like Showtime's "Homeland" nearly as much as GOT or AHS, but I watched the entire first season largely due to Claire Danes and her show-stealing performance as the ultra-psychotic US intelligence agent who constantly seems just one step away from having a complete mental breakdown (know the damn feeling!). Hope this performance and award help propel her to more big screen roles in the years to come. We could use better and improved psychos in American film!Kelsey Grammer finally broke away from that damn pesky Frazier. And in a big way. His Starz show "Boss" never mentioned the democrat party or the republic partisan party, and it didn't need to. That world is a world of slimeballs regardless of party, and Grammer played the Mayor of Chicago as if he was the ultimate King of the political sleazebuckets. No funny lines, no quips, no light moments. Just scuz. I never even once thought of Frazier Crane when watching that show -- a tribute to Grammer's ability to step into a whole different kind of role and kick ass. I'm just surprised Rahm Emanuel, the Daley Dynasty and the individual we currently have as president haven't yet sued Grammer and "Boss" for divulging some of their best dirty tricks with neither proper attribution nor compensation.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46007126/ns/today-entertainment/t/michelle-williams-peter-dinklage-tintin-win-golden-globes/#.TxOc54EU_fQ
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