Acting Up on the Awards Circuit
I guess actors don't watch
The Wire, either.
Today's announcement of the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were a bit, well, "SAG"-gy with usual suspects (not to beat up on a woman whose talk show just got mercifully canceled, but one last nod for Megan Mullally for
Will & Grace seems like such ancient history). The most aggravating snub, as it has been in the list of Producers Guild and Writers Guild nominations, is a complete shut-out for HBO's
The Wire. Tied for most disappointing is a lack of recognition by many of these artistic branches for NBC's
Friday Night Lights, a show that could really use this kind of spotlight. NBC's small-town drama did earn a slot among the WGA's new-series contenders. Another puzzling omission: It's as if FX (most notably
Rescue Me and
The Shield) didn't even exist this year.
Maybe because
The Wire is filmed in Baltimore, and
Friday Night Lights in Texas, these shows fall off the Hollywood radar. A real pity, because both of these excellent ensembles of naturalistic actors, boasting some remarkable performances by young unknowns, are far more deserving than, say, the broadly cartoonish mugging on display in David E. Kelley's childish legal farce
Boston Legal. That's the odd show out in an otherwise distinguished list of ensemble nominees including
24, Deadwood, Grey's Anatomy and
The Sopranos. (Including
Lost in here would have been nice as well, but I'm glad SAG didn't rush to honor the spotty ensemble of NBC's overrated
Heroes or succumb to the glamour of Aaron Sorkin's woefully uneven
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.)
The comedy ensemble nominees again betray the industry's favoritism toward single-camera comedy. With
Will & Grace finally having outlived its welcome, and CBS's comedies (including the enjoyable ensemble work of How I Met Your Mother) perhaps unfairly ignored, we're left with an intriguing list including
Desperate Housewives (too bad Marcia Cross wasn't singled out in the comedy-actress list),
Entourage, The Office, Ugly Betty (yay!) and
Weeds.
Among the fresh faces worth celebrating in the individual actor categories:
Dexter's mesmerizing Michael C. Hall,
30 Rock's hilariously deadpan Alec Baldwin,
Grey's Anatomy's spectacular Chandra Wilson,
Ugly Betty's adorable America Ferrera and
The New Adventures of Old Christine's feisty Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
In the movie/miniseries sweepstakes, only Robert Duvall of AMC's majestic
Broken Trail and Helen Mirren of HBO's
Elizabeth I need show up. (And where's her dual nomination for
Prime Suspect: The Final Act? Fear of overkill?)
Overall, the SAG nominations earn maybe a C grade. Coulda been worse. Coulda been better.
