The common consensus is that the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Golden Globes are silly entities that prefer style over substance and the new over the established, and it’s hard to argue with that assertion after looking at the television nominations for the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards.

Out of all of the categories, Best Television Series – Drama made the most sense as Boardwalk Empire, Homeland, and Game of Thrones all got deserving nominations. Since I didn’t watch Boss, I cannot comment on its quality, but it does seem like the kind of show the HFPA would nominate. I know that there are some who were flabbergasted that American Horror Story got the nod over Breaking Bad, Justified, or The Good Wife, but these are the Globes we’re talking about, so I wasn’t too shocked or appalled. It is what it is.

On the funnier side, Glee and Modern Family were nominated yet again for Best Television Series – Comedy/Musical, and they were joined by Enlightened, Episodes, and New Girl. Honestly, I was a little surprised that Glee was included yet again since the backlash towards the show is so strong, but I’ll take it. I just don’t think it’s going to three-peat. I wasn’t too surprised that New Girl got a nomination since it’s one of the hottest new shows on TV, but I don’t understand all of the love for Episodes. I don’t know a thing about Enlightened, but it seems like it’s in the same vein as Nurse Jackie and The Big C, so its inclusion was not a shock.

Further proof of the anti-Glee sentiment could be seen in the Best Actor/Actress categories for Comedy as it went from 4 for 4 to being shut out. I understand why Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, and Jane Lynch were not asked back, but I was a little surprised that Golden Globe Winner Chris Colfer didn’t get the chance to defend his title.

Speaking of acting, Best Actor – Comedy/Musical has to be the most absurd category of the bunch since only one nominee was deserving, and of course I’m talking about The Big Bang Theory‘s Johnny Galecki. Yay sarcasm! I’m totally on board with Alec Baldwin’s nom, but the rest of the field doesn’t make much sense to me. Yes, the aforementioned Galecki and Episodes’ Matt LeBlanc were nominated for the Emmy, but their inclusion didn’t make much sense then either.

As for the ladies, I’m OK with those who were nominated for Best Actress – Comedy/Musical (massive props to Zooey Deschanel and Amy Poehler). The Drama race will be interesting since a supporting actress (Madeline Stowe) snuck her way into the leading category, and we got another out-of-nowhere nomination for someone from the USA Network, but at least it wasn’t Piper Perabo this time around (I really dislike Covert Affairs). I’m just glad Claire Danes was nominated for Homeland.

Danes’ castmate, Damian Lewis, was also nominated for Best Actor – Drama which was well deserved, as was the nominations for Boardwalk Empire‘s Steve Buscemi and Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston. I even understand Kelsey Grammer’s nod for Boss, but I’m not quite sure why Jeremy Irons was invited to the party instead of say Emmy Award Winner Kyle Chandler.

The less I write about the Supporting categories, the better, but all I will write is thank God for Peter Dinklage and Kelly Macdonald. That is all.

Overall, the crop of Golden Globe nominees is uninspired at best. I’m not overly annoyed by those who were recognized over those who weren’t because it’s hard to take the Globes seriously to begin with. If anything, I’m more annoyed that Ricky Gervais will be hosting again, but that’s a rant for another time.

“The Small Screen Podcast” is back for Episode 14. This week, Kristal and I talked about the AFI’s Top 10 of 2011 List, Glee and Grimm casting news, and we revisited some of the year’s new shows to share our thoughts on where they stand at this point. Please note that we had some connectivity issues while recording which explains the drop in quality.

Episode Breakdown:

Intros: Start – 1:33

TV News: 1:34 – 16:00
AFI’s Top Ten List: 1:34 – 8:16
Glee Casting News: 8:17 – 13:46
Grimm Casting News: 13:47 – 16:00

Midseason Rundown (SPOILER ALERT): 16:01 – 50:00
2 Broke Girls: 16:40 – 21:16
Terra Nova: 21:17 – 23:31
Hart of Dixie: 23:32 – 26:08
New Girl: 26:09 – 32:29
Suburgatory/Up All Night: 32:30 – 35:47
Revenge: 35:48 – 38:39
The Secret Circle: 38:40 – 40:42
Grimm: 40:43 – 43:25
Once Upon a Time: 43:26 – 45:17
Pan Am: 45:18 – 47:25
Homeland: 47:26 – 50:00

What We’re Looking Forward To – The Golden Globes Nominations: 50:10 – 50:52

Closing: 50:53 – End

Check out the episode below, or download it over at iTunes:

http://smallscreenpodcast.podomatic.com/swf/joeplayer_v18c.swf

For more, follow us on Twitter:
Kristal: @kristal_bailey
Marcos: @poppas2cents

I wasn’t sure if I should review “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” because it was pretty much an hour-long commercial for the cast’s second Christmas album and it wasn’t all that great of an episode, but it did offer enough laughs to keep me engaged for most of the run-time.

Since New Directions did so well at Sectionals (or was it Regionals? What are Regionals anyway?) their act was in high demand. Schue informed the glee clubbers that the local public access channel lost its rights to air the yule log, and it was interested in hiring them to put on a Christmas special which of course everyone was on board with except for Artie (who was asked to direct) because he felt television was selling out. Thankfully, Chewbacca visted him in a dream and convinced him to do the special as long as it paid tribute to The Star Wars Holiday Special and to Judy Garland.

Now that Artie had control over the special, he wanted to make sure that only happy Christmas songs (thanks to last year’s downer Christmas) made it on air, so he vetoed Rachel’s version on Joni Mitchell’s “River” because it was too depressing. The newly returned Sam had issue with Artie’s vision because sadness also plays a role in the holiday season, and he decided to ditch the special altogether to help Sue at a homeless shelter.

Oh yeah, for some reason Sue wanted to hire New Directions to perform while she volunteered at a homeless shelter because it was her first Christmas without her sister, but the glitz and glamour of public television was too much for the gleeks to ignore. They ended up cancelling on her in favor of the special, but Sam and Quinn decided that helping the less fortunate would put their own issues into perspective.

Honestly, my biggest gripe with “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” had to do with these two conflicting performances that New Directions committed to. First off, the idea of having a television special was a blatant attempt to squeeze as many songs into the episode as possible with the least amount of plot. Now, I wouldn’t have minded this approach if they just focused on the television show instead of trying to make us care about other things that were going on, but more on that later. Had this episode been a 30-minute fake Christmas spectacular with 10 minutes of set-up and resolution, it would’ve played better than a 15-minute version with 30 minutes of other stuff all crammed in. That being said, there were some funny line and moments because of this storyline.

Sue’s attempt at bringing holiday cheer to to the homeless confused me. Now, I know that Glee’s always tried to humanize Sue, and I appreciated the effort in the past, but at this point her character’s beyond redemption that her actions felt false which made them ineffective. It’s just getting harder to buy that someone who would do and say such horrible things would also care about anyone else besides herself now that her sister is gone. Maybe Sue can be saved, but it’ll be hard to do that if she’s wasting time hatching another asinine plan to take over the world or some junk.

The other plot lines that this episode tried to introduce were hit and miss. Rory’s mom was supposed to be coming to the States to visit him, but she wasn’t able to because of the high price of plane tickets. Sam could relate since his folks were in Kentucky, and he volunteered to be Rory’s Christmas sponsor to help him feel more at home. The new bromance was short-lived when Rory sided with Artie’s vision, but he made amends by pulling off his best Linus impression instead of reciting Artie’s rebooted version of “Frosty” at the end of the special.

Rory’s bout with homesickness felt genuine, and I was happy that Damian McGinty had something to do. I even liked the idea of Sam and Rory bonding because of their similar situations, but I would’ve liked it more if the episode spent more time on these two instead of forcing “Christmas Wrapping” down our throats.

The other “storyline” had to do with Finn and Rachel. Since the holidays is the season of giving, Rachel wanted to make sure that Finn gave her the perfect Christmas present (not Hanukkah mind you,) so she put together a list of possible presents that he could pick five from. Since money’s tight, and Finn realized that extravagant gifts are not a symbol of love, he decided to donate to a charity that fattened up pigs for hungry people in Africa in her honor. Of course, this didn’t initially go over well, but Rachel finally learned her lesson after their trip to the homeless shelter, and she ended up being happy with her pig and the star that Finn bought for her. He even went the extra mile and got her earrings, but she felt that it was better to return them and donate the money to the Salvation Army. It’s a Christmas miracle.

Usually, I can tolerate almost any flavor of Rachel that the writers need to use, but for some reason her high maintenance attitude just rubbed me the wrong way. The fact that she wanted fancy gifts from Finn didn’t bother me, but the fact that we’ve never really seen this side of her before was jarring and upsetting. Rachel’s always been a selfish person, but that fault has always sprang from her ambition, and the fact that this time around it was because she was being materialistic didn’t sit well with me.

On the Music Front: I’m not going to go too much into the songs this week because they weren’t anything special (although I did like Rory’s “Blue Christmas,”) and I couldn’t get over how out of place some were, but that’s what happens when you turn an episode into a commercial. Also, I cannot understand for the life of me how they could leave out Santana’s “Santa Baby” yet put in “Christmas Wrapping.”

Other Odds and Ends:

• Sue’s Nicknames for Blaine: “Other Gay” and “Young Burt Reynolds”
• I loved it that Blaine actually liked “Young Burt Reynolds.”
• Man, they really had a lot of callbacks this time around. Screw you people who doubt Glee‘s continuity!
• Rachel seriously said, “Brav-ho ho ho.” Someone needs to be fired for that one.
• I’m starting to care more about the fake gay couples (like Rory/Sam and Finn/Blaine) than the real straight ones. What has this show done to me?!?!
• Man, Darren Criss and Lea Michele have crazy chemistry.
• The Glee Holiday Spectacular was actually pretty good except “My Favorite Things” brought everything to a grinding halt, and I still cannot get over “Christmas Wrapping.”
• “Holy crap. I’m dating Kim Kardashian.”
• Rory: “I’d like to cheer myself up by dedicating this song to them, and to the King.”
  Kurt: “Jesus?”
• “Britt and her family are going on a trip to see a gay Santa. Something about Santa Fe.”
• “You gave me a dead pig for Christmas…I’m a vegan.”
• “Mike Chang and Tina Cohen-Chang. No relation.”
• “Would it be weird if I made myself a plate?”
• Rachel: “You named a star after me?”
  Finn: “Well, no. I thought about that, but I named it ‘Finn Hudson’ because there’s already a star named Rachel Berry. She’s right here on Earth, and she’s brighter than any of those stars up there. So, I just wanted to make sure whenever she feels lonely, she can look up in the sky, and no matter where I am she can know that I’m looking down on her. When it’s night time.”

Leverage continued to give its audience more stand alone episodes with “The Girls’ Night Out Job,” but at least they put enough of a spin on it to make it fun to watch. Plus, it was Parker-heavy, which I’m always going to be a fan of, but I was just expecting a little more out of it.

Sunday
Leverage: “The Office Job”

I think that I need to re-evaluate how I watch Leverage which is not to say that I’m unhappy with the show because so far Season 4 has been pretty entertaining. The thing is, the more serialized elements that have been introduced over the years have been toned down, and we’ve been getting more and more stand alone episodes like “The Office Job.” This week, we didn’t get any hints at any larger story arcs, but instead we got a funny episode that highlighted the relationships between some of the Leverage Crew. Again, this isn’t a bad approach for the show to take, I’m all for strong characters and how they relate to one another, but I also want some consistent plot threads that connect everything. We’ve been given samplings of this kind of storytelling from Leverage before, but it feels like the writers are backing away and taking a more episodic stance, which is fine but that means I need to lower my expectations when it comes to a bigger picture. That’s just a long-winded way for me to say that “The Office Job” was a good one-off episode.

GRADE: B

Homeland: “Representative Brody”

Well, the plots definitely thickening now that Brody’s agreed to run for Congress which was the sign Nazir was looking for, so now we get to find out where things go from here. The thing is, Brody’s decision was not the most captivating part of the episode, but watching him manipulate his friends and family was genius and an example of what this show does so well. The same can be said about Carrie’s interrogation of the Saudi diplomat, and I am continually surprised by the lengths that she’s willing to go to in order to get the information that she wants. “Representative Brody” also continued to add to the mole subplot, and I know that some out there are still unsure about that angle, and while I don’t watch the show for that aspect alone, I am interested to see how that storyline will pan out.

GRADE: B+

Monday
How I Met Your Mother: “Symphony of Illumination”

I don’t know what else to say about How I Met Your Mother at this point. I keep coming back week after week with hopes that it will get its stuff together and become good again, but I continue to be let down. This week was no different. I get what HIMYM is trying to do. It’s trying to tell the familiar story of growing up and becoming an adult in a unique way, but the thing is it tries too hard to be different that everything starts feeling the same. For example, this show loves to pull fast ones on its audience because the writers think it makes their show smarter than every other sitcom, and this used to be true. Unfortunately, HIMYM has used this trick too many times and have exhausted any good will I had for this show. If Robin’s story about not being able to have children hadn’t been underlined with another “gotcha” moment, then it would’ve been a stronger episode in my opinion. Instead, we got more of the same non-sense which made me care less about what Robin was going through. Rug-pulling aside, and Marshall’s throw away B-plot, “Symphony of Illumination” could’ve been one of the better episodes of the season, but HIMYM continued to be too clever for its own good which was too bad.

GRADE: D

2 Broke Girls: “And the Reality Check”

You know it’s a bad sign when a throw-away joke about Oleg taking a picture of his junk was the biggest laugh of the night, and yet I powered through “And the Reality Check.” At some point, I’m going to have to figure out why I watch 2 Broke Girls because it’s still a show that is both full of potential but also very underwhelming. I can see why it’s a popular show, and I can respect that to a certain extent, but I can also see it becoming so much more. I just don’t think it ever will, but I keep coming back with hopes that things will change. This is all a long-winded way to say that “And the Reality Check” was an OK episode of television. There were some chuckles here and there, but everything about the horse and the emotions involved with giving it away felt forced to me. I don’t know why, but I just wasn’t buying it.

GRADE: C

Castle: “Cuffed”

You would think that an episode that had Castle and Beckett handcuffed together for the majority of the time would be one of the greatest Castles ever, but instead “Cuffed” was merely OK. I’ll admit that most of the scenes between the two were good because of their trademark banter, and I like how the show continues to poke fun at its own absurd “will they, won’t they” device, but it’s starting to get old, and I hope that we’re headed towards some form of resolution in the near future. Even the set-up of them being captured had a lot of potential, but where “Cuffed” started to come undone was when they introduced the tiger because that was wacky even by Castle standards. I also felt that this episode was too relationship heavy as they brought back the Esplaine drama and Ryan’s pending marriage, and both felt shoe-horned in, so I wasn’t really feeling them. “Cuffed” wasn’t a bad episode, but it could’ve been a little bit better since it was the last one before the break. Oh well.

GRADE: B-

Tuesday
Glee: “Hold on to Sixteen”

The competition episodes of Glee can be hit or miss. “Sectionals” was probably one of the show’s best while “Special Education” suffered from way too much plot and not enough time. Don’t even get me started on “New York.” Thankfully, “Hold on to Sixteen” was somewhere in the middle. This episode started to wrap up some of this season’s less successful storylines (everything involving Quinn, Puck, and/or Shelby) while continuing the theme of growing up and moving on. It even had some good musical numbers (I was a sucker for the Jackson medley), and it didn’t veer too much into the ridiculous zone. To me, it felt like a smaller episode that brought the show back to earth by focusing on the kids and not the craziness going on around them. It was by no means a great episode of Glee, but it was just entertaining enough to win me over. It was even nice seeing Trouty Mouth again.

GRADE: B

New Girl: “Bad in Bed”

Full Disclosure: I’m not a fan of awkward, uncomfortable humor. When I watch characters in cringe-worhty scenarios, I don’t find it funny because I can’t help but feel bad for them. This aversion was probably the reason why I didn’t really care for “Bad in Bed.” I’m not one of those who’s put off by Jess’ lack of experience or how she becomes exceedingly quirky while talking about sex due to her uncomfortableness with the subject because I think Zooey sells it, but watching her trying to seduce Paul stopped being funny fairly early on into the bit, and it made me never to want to see them as a couple ever again (but Justin Long’s character probably also had something to do with that). I didn’t find it cute, just odd and off-putting. The ensemble didn’t help “Bad in Bed” either because Winston and CeCe went back to being underused while Nick was put into a unfunny story about his hair. Even Schmidt fell a little flat this time around. With that being said, the episode could have been good if it had just focused on Jess and the guys talking about sex instead of forcing that scene in the bedroom. New Girl‘s still funny, but its flaws are starting to show week after week.

GRADE: C+

Sons of Anarchy: “To Be, Part 2″

Depending on who you listen to, “To Be, Part 2″ was either a subtle ending to a wild season of Sons of Anarchy, or it was the biggest travesty since the non-denominational church on Lost. I for one, wasn’t all that riled up by the direction Kurt Sutter took his show because I didn’t trick myself into believing that Clay had to die for the show to make sense. Did we get some outlandish deus ex machina moments? Heck yeah we did. Did they make me want to swear off SAMCRO for good? Nope. Am I interested to see where Season 5 goes from here? Yup. All and all, I think that makes “To Be, Part 2″ a serviceable but not earth-shattering finale, and I’m fine with that. At least Lincoln Potter wasn’t a figment of Juice’s imagination who was there to signify what his life could have been. Now, that would’ve felt like a cheat.

GRADE: B-

Wednesday
Up All Night: “First Christmas”

I’m close to taking Up All Night out of the rotation because it’s losing steam, and I find myself being bored rather than entertained while watching it. “First Christmas” didn’t do anything that wowed me, and it felt like your run-of-the-mill Christmas episode of a sitcom. There were a few times where Chris and Ava made me laugh, but they weren’t enough to keep me fully engaged in the episode. Also, I didn’t quite understand where Reagan’s change of attitude came from, and her obsession with decorating the house seemed odd. Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention, but the shift in character didn’t ring true and felt like a cheap ploy to bring in Blythe Danner. Speaking of Reagan’s mom, I didn’t love her introduction a few episodes ago, so I wasn’t not looking forward to seeing her again, and I’m not enjoying their relationship. With Up All Night‘s move to Thursdays, I don’t see myself keeping up with this show for much longer, which is a shame since it was NBC’s most promising new comedy.

GRADE: C-

Modern Family: “Express Christmas”

Since Season 2, it’s been easy for Modern Family to break the characters into three natural groups and have the various plots focus on the different families, but I’ve always appreciated it when the writers either brought everyone together or split them up into new combinations. So, I will give Modern Family credit for mixing up the pairings this week and giving the audience some new dynamics. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the episode to be all that funny because it felt like the same old thing. “Express Christmas” was just another episode where everyone bickered at one another but learned a lesson by the end of it, and everyone was happy. Pretty much like “Punkin Chunkin,” which is one of the drawbacks of having Thanksgiving and Christmas so close together. I did like seeing Mitchell and Alex spend time together though, and that’s a pairing I hope we see more of. Though Gloria and Luke, not so much.

GRADE: C

Happy Endings: “Grinches Be Crazy”

The Christmas episode of Happy Endings wasn’t the show’s best, which was kind of a letdown since I had high expectations for it (mostly because of the title). “Grinches Be Crazy” wasn’t a horrible half-hour of television, but it wasn’t as sharp as previous episodes mostly because we spent way too much time with another over-the-top supporting character in the housekeeper. Now, I’m all for the main six being excessive, but when the writers try to incorporate these wacky one-off characters, it feels like too much. Brad and Jane’s story about the mix-up over their vacation money was bogged down by Gita, and unfortunately Max and Penny weren’t on fire like they needed to be. Thankfully, the Dave and Alex plot about her homemade coupons worked because Elisha Cuthbert’s commitment to the bit. I’m not afraid that Happy Endings has hit its peak, but I’m ready for the show to come back with a vengeance in 2012.

GRADE: B-

Thursday
Community: “Regional Holiday Music”

As a devoted Gleek, I should have taken offense to Community‘s holiday episode since it went out of its way to take shots at the FOX dramedy, except it was too funny to be mad at. Also, in some ways it was a better episode of Glee than most of what Glee‘s given us over the past two seasons. By far the highlights for me were the original songs (Troy’s Jehovah’s Witness rap and Annie’s “Santa Baby”-esque routine were tops) even though some of them were predictable and lazy (Shirley singing gospel). “Regional Holiday Music” also explored how a time of joy can also be a time of sadness, and while it was not as strong as last year’s “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” it was still successful at conveying the message without being too much of a downer. In the end, “Regional Holiday Music” was just a funny and smart episode of Community, and hopefully we’ll have the show back on our screens sooner rather than later.

GRADE: A

Grimm: “Danse Macabre”

Due to Prime Suspect‘s dismal ratings and eventual cancellation, NBC decided to give fellow newbie, Grimm, a shot on Thursday night. It’s just too bad that “Danse Macabre” wasn’t one of the show’s better offerings, but it was still creepy enough to entertain. This time around, Nick and Hank had to solve the murder of a music teacher who was devoured by rats. As it turned out, it was a spin on the Pied Piper who was a teenage music prodigy and rat-like creature which was a nice little surprise. Some of the scenes with the kid were too angsty for my liking, David Giuntoli’s acting continued to be problematic, and there was not enough Monore, but overall it was a decent enough episode.

GRADE: C

Friday
Chuck: “Chuck vs. The Hack Off”

“Chuck vs. The Hack Off” had an almost old-school feel to it as Carmichael Industries had to track down a super computer virus, and it was one of the better episodes of Season 5. For me, the best part of the episode had to do with Chuck and his past life as a infamous computer hacker. Even though this show’s been on for five seasons, there’s still a lot we don’t know about these characters, so having the opportunity to learn more about them is always appreciated. I do wish we had learned more about his hacking a few seasons earlier so the show could have built off of it, but I’ll take what I can get. Second favorite moments: the cameos from the Community cast members. My only minor quibble had to do with Sarah’s hesitations about her future with Chuck because it feels a little forced at this point in the show’s run.

GRADE: B+

Grimm: “The Three Bad Wolves”

It’s not a coincidence that the first real Monroe-centric episode of Grimm was also the best to date. He’s by far the best character on the show, and while I get why they keep Hank around, the partnership between Monroe and Nick needs to be the central pairing sooner than later. Getting a glimpse of his past life and relationships was interesting to watch, and I loved how they took the “Three Little Pigs” and turned it on its head. I was also glad that they didn’t write out the feud between Orson and Angelina because it helped build the show’s world, and I hope that they bring that storyline back so we can get to learn even more about Monroe and the grudge between the pigs and the wolves. Grimm could have easily missed the mark by using this particular fairy tale as the basis of the entire episode, but I thought that it brought the right amount of fantasy, creepiness, and humor which made it the best outing of the very young season.

GRADE: B+

This upcoming week will be dominated by reruns and holiday specials, so next week’s TV Report Card may be lighter than usual, but check back anyway.