Television: Adieus and awards

Tribute to Fisher and Reynolds, and victory and vino at the Golden Globes.

By HANNAH BROWN
Actress Debbie Reynolds poses with her daughter actress Carrie Fisher (photo credit: REUTERS)
Actress Debbie Reynolds poses with her daughter actress Carrie Fisher
(photo credit: REUTERS)
What family has had a more complicated or fascinating history than movie star Debbie Reynolds and actress/ writer Carrie Fisher? HBO had a documentary about them in the works, and following the sudden untimely death of Fisher, followed swiftly and sadly by the passing of Reynolds, her mother, a day later, the movie Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher will be shown on YES Docu this week.
The first showing of it will be on January 8 at 6 a.m., just when it is shown in the US, then again the same day at 11:30 p.m. and on January 9 at 10 p.m.
HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins told Variety, “It’s life with Carrie and Debbie. It’s about both of them trying to stand upright, both having their frailties — age on the one hand and mental illness on the other. It’s a love story about a mother and daughter — they happen to be Carrie and Debbie.”
The Golden Globes, the awards of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be broadcast on YES 1 at 3 a.m. on January 9 (the awards ceremony begins in Los Angeles at 5 p.m.).
Jimmy Fallon will host this year’s show, and you can expect lots of jokes about how in less than a month, a reality television star will become the next president of the United States. Given how Donald Trump has responded to Saturday Night Live’s comedy sketches about him, you can expect him to complain via Twitter that Fallon isn’t funny at all.
Whether Fallon really does get laughs remains to be seen, but the Globes tend to be a livelier show than the Oscars, no matter who is hosting them. The show is a dinner banquet, where people tend to have a few drinks and are a bit less guarded than at the Oscars. It also comes a few months before the Oscars, and people haven’t gotten sick of the usual suspects collecting their trophies yet.
This year, La La Land seems to be a shoo-in to win the Comedy/ Musical Movie trophies, while Moonlight or Manchester by the Sea should take home the prize in the Drama category.
When it comes to television, though, the Globes can be quite similar to the Emmys, although the Globes tend to nominate more new shows and to shower them with more awards. Four out of the five Drama Series nominees — Westworld, Stranger Things, The Crown and This Is Us — are new, with only Game of Thrones returning. The crowd-pleasing The Crown, about Elizabeth II, seems likely to win, with Claire Foy also expected to win the Best Actress in a Drama. But although Foy is excellent, I would love to see the award go to a wonderful veteran actress making a comeback: Winona Ryder in the 1980s sci-fi series Stranger Things.
In the Comedy category, another newcomer, Atlanta, the series about the music scene in the South, is likely to take the prize.
Donald Glover is also likely to pick up an award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
In the Best Actress in a Comedy vSeries, there are actually six nominees. In previous years, newcomers Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex Girlfriend) have won this, so my bet is that first-time nominee Issa Rae, the actress who created and stars in the new HBO series (available here on both YES and HOT) Insecure will win.
The most competitive match-up is in the Mini Series/TV Movie category, where two popular dramas, The People vs. O.J. Simpson and The Night Of..., will face off.
O.J. Simpson was the big winner in the Emmys, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins the lion’s share of the Globes.
The leads in The Night Of..., John Turturro and Riz Ahmed, are both nominated in the Best Actor category and may cancel each other out, so Courtney B. Vance, who played Johnnie Cochran in O.J. Simpson, is likely to win.
But one thing is certain: Tipsy winners make for more entertaining speeches.