Cartoons, X-Files and Golden Globes New on the small screen

The important distinction between the Oscars and the Golden Globes for viewers is that alcohol is served at the Globes ceremony, so the acceptance speeches tend to be more relaxed and funnier.

By HANNAH BROWN
Updated: JANUARY 6, 2016 13:14
Golden Globes (photo credit: REUTERS)
Golden Globes
(photo credit: REUTERS)
When your kids are too old for Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer but still enjoy cartoons, that’s the time for the Cartoon Network, which just started airing on HOT VOD Young for free. It features the various Ben 10 series, We Bare Bears, Adventure Time, Gumball, The Powerpuff Girls, Clarence and many other shows.
Most of these shows link to games that are available for free on the Cartoon Network website, but most of them also link to a shop where you can purchase more sophisticated versions of the games, so be forewarned.
Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, was in Tel Aviv recently and spoke – only half-jokingly – about trying to get his own kids to stop playing video games and watch television, which was the biggest treat for him growing up.
If you feel a similar urge, the best way to draw your kids back to watching television is the Cartoon Network.
They’re back! FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are returning with the miniseries The X-Files, starting January 25 on Mondays at 5 a.m. and Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on YES Action.
These two agents – the openminded Mulder and the skeptical, scientifically inclined Scully – became famous in the 1990s investigating paranormal phenomena in a TV series that began the revolution in the supernatural that has taken over pop culture. Without The X-Files, would we have had the zombies of The Walking Dead; the vampires of the Twilight series, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries; Supernatural; the Paranormal Activity movies; Fringe; or the dozens of faux-reality series featuring ghostbuster types? The X-Files will air in the US at the same time as in Israel. I didn’t follow the original series regularly, but whenever I saw an episode, I was taken aback by how scary it was. The first episode of the new version was screened at the New York Comic-Con and received mixed reviews from critics and fans.
In recent years, Anderson has appeared in a number of movies and television series, among them The Fall, Hannibal and Crisis, while Duchovny is best known for Californication, the TV series on which he plays a bad-boy, selfdestructive writer. Duchovny also plays the lead in Aquarius, a TV series about a detective on the trail of Charles Manson, which is returning for a second season later this year. Its first season was uneven, but Duchovny was very good in it.
The Golden Globes ceremony will take place at 3 a.m. on January 11 local time (it begins in Los Angeles at 5 p.m. on January 10) and will be aired live on YES.
Rickey Gervais will be back hosting after Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took over for a few years.
The sharp-tongued Brit has already sent out an apology to the people he is certain he will offend.
“Because I can see the future, I’d like to [apologize] now for the things I said at next week’s Golden Globes,” he tweeted last week.
Because of the ever more intense interest in celebrities (redcarpet fashion, awards, etc.) the Golden Globes are often mentioned in the same breath with the Oscars. This is odd because while the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is composed of more than 6,000 members of the movie industry, including actors, directors and screenwriters, the Golden Globe awards are selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 90 foreign journalists in the US, once rumored to accept bribes in exchange for votes.
In any case, the important distinction between the Oscars and the Golden Globes for viewers is that alcohol is served at the Globes ceremony, so the acceptance speeches tend to be more relaxed and funnier. The winners of the Golden Globes in the movie categories often go on to success at the Oscars. The Globes have separate movie categories for comedies and dramas. This year, The Martian, about an astronaut trapped on Mars, and The Big Short, about investors who foresaw and profited from the 2008 US economic crisis, are in the comedy category, which doesn’t make much sense, but more categories mean more awards and more winners.