• by Ed Martin , December 12, 2013

All the distress over exasperating snubs that was lingering in the air like swamp gas after the announcement yesterday of this year’s Screen Actors Guild Award nominees dissipated earlier this morning once the 2013 Golden Globe Award nominations were announced.

Apparently members of the Hollywood Foreign Press watch more television than members of the Screen Actors Guild. Or they’re simply better at keeping up with what’s happening. Regardless, the Globe nominees represent a very satisfying cross-section of the series and performances that are currently the best on television. SAG members could learn a lot from them. So could voting members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Cases in point: Major Globe nominations for CBS’ “The Good Wife,” Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” and “Ray Donovan,” Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” BBC America’s “Orphan Black,” NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and “The Blacklist” and Fox’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” all overlooked by SAG.

Located within the Globe nominations are actors snubbed by SAG who are likely to be front-runners in this year’s Emmy race, including Michael Sheen of “Masters of Sex,” Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight of “Ray Donovan” and Taylor Schilling of “Orange is the New Black.” And there are three -- Tatiana Maslany of “Orphan Black,” Hayden Panettiere of ABC’s “Nashville” and Monica Potter of NBC’s “Parenthood” -- who were egregiously overlooked in last year’s Emmy race but must be feeling a little bit better now.

The significant Globes snubs this time around are HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Showtime’s “Homeland.” The former had its best season yet, so the total shut out is puzzling. The latter is just finishing up a mess of a third season, so its absence from the drama series categories is not very surprising, but its star (and last year’s Outstanding Lead Actress winner) Claire Danes has continued to deliver one of the most powerful performances by any actress currently working in series television, so hers is another odd omission. I would have gone with Danes, along with Vera Farmiga of A&E’s “Bates Motel,” over Globe nominees Kerry Washington of ABC’s “Scandal” and Robin Wright of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” but I’m not a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, so what do I know?

Why do we even care about the Golden Globes? Contrary to popular belief, there is no significant correlation between victories in the movie categories and wins at the Academy Awards. And whatever attention the Globes pay to television series and performers fades away long before Emmy time rolls around. Questions abound about the cultural significance of the HFA itself. Everything about it seems so mysterious.

In other words, the Globes appear to be quite meaningless in every significant way. Plainly, the only reason we pay any attention at all is that the event itself is widely (and rightly) regarded as the most entertaining movie and/or television awards show of the year. That has a lot to do with the fact that NBC’s annual presentation of the Globes is the first awards telecast of the season -- long before awards fatigue sets in, which makes everything about it fresh and fun. It also doesn’t take itself too damn seriously, unlike almost every awards show out there. Recent Globes hosts Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have had shameless fun entertaining audiences in the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and at home alike. (Curiously, when the Academy Awards try to loosen up, like they did last year with host Seth MacFarlane, the complaints and criticisms can be deafening. But when the Globes come tantalizingly close to going off the rails everyone is thrilled.)

So as long as we all admit up front that we don’t care about the Globes we can once again settle in and enjoy them when they are telecast January 12 on NBC.

My one big gripe with the Globes is the HFA’s stubborn insistence on lumping supporting actors and actresses from all television genres into one category. Lead performers in drama series, comedy series and TV movie and mini-series enjoy categories of their own, but supporting performers are squashed together in ridiculous fashion. The Globes are now big and popular enough to expand those supporting categories. That would make them even more fun, and fun seems to be what they are all about.

Here is a complete list of this year’s Golden Globe nominations in the television categories:

Outstanding Drama Series

“Breaking Bad” (AMC)
“Downton Abbey” (PBS)
“The Good Wife” (CBS)
“House of Cards” (Netflix)
“Masters of Sex” (Showtime)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan” (Showtime)
Michael Sheen, “Masters of Sex” (Showtime)
Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards” (Netflix)
James Spader, “The Blacklist” (NBC)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series 

Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black” (BBC America)
Taylor Schilling, “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)
Kerry Washington, “Scandal” (ABC)
Robin Wright, “House of Cards” (Netflix)

Outstanding Comedy or Musical Series 

“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)
“Girls” (HBO)
“Modern Family” (ABC)
“Parks and Recreation” (NBC)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy or Musical Series

Jason Bateman, “Arrested Development” (Netflix)
Don Cheadle, “House of Lies” (Showtime)
Michael J. Fox, “The Michael J. Fox Show” (NBC)
Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
Andy Samberg, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy or Musical Series

Zooey Deschanel, “New Girl” (Fox)
Lena Dunham, “Girls” (HBO)
Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” (HBO)
Amy Poehler, “Parks and Recreation” (NBC)

Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series

“American Horror Story: Coven” (FX)
“Behind the Candelabra” (HBO)
“Dancing on the Edge” (Starz)
“Top of the Lake” (Sundance Channel)
“The White Queen” (Starz)

Outstanding Actor in a TV Movie or Mini-Series

Matt Damon, “Behind the Candelabra” (HBO)
Michael Douglas, “Behind the Candelabra” (HBO)
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “Dancing on the Edge” (Starz)
Idris Elba, “Luther” (BBC America)
Al Pacino, “Phil Spector” (HBO)

Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie or Mini-Series

Helena Bonham Carter, “Burton & Taylor” (BBC America)
Rebecca Ferguson, “The White Queen” (Starz)
Jessica Lange, “American Horror Story: Coven” (FX)
Helen Mirren, “Phil Spector” (HBO)
Elisabeth Moss, “Top of the Lake” (Sundance Channel)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Series, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Josh Charles, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
Rob Lowe, “Behind the Candelabra” (HBO)
Aaron Paul, “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
Corey Stoll, “House of Cards” (Netflix)
Jon Voight, “Ray Donovan” (Showtime)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Series, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Jacqueline Bisset, “Dancing on the Edge” (Starz)
Janet McTeer, “The White Queen” (Starz)
Hayden Panettiere, “Nashville” (ABC)
Monica Potter, “Parenthood” (NBC)
Sofia Vergara, “Modern Family” (ABC)