Chernobyl

Source: Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival. Photo: Liam Daniel HBO

Emily Watson in Chernobyl

Strong showings by HBO/Sky’s Chernobyl and  Netflix’s The Crown, with four nominations each, and promising awards season starts for Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, and Netflix’s Unbelievable and The Politician stood out in the television categories of this year’s Golden Globe nominations.

Meanwhile Netflix’s When They See Us, HBO’s Veep and HBO’s Watchmen were shut out of the Globes running, while HBO’s Game Of Thrones scored just one nomination from its blockbuster final season - for actor Kit Harington. 

Among the platforms, Netflix was slightly ahead in its ongoing awards tussle with HBO, as the streamer received a total of 17 Globe nominations compared to the legacy cable network’s 15. There was still room for the newly arrived Apple TV+, which made a decent awards season debut with three nominations.

In the best drama series category, the exclusion of Game Of Thrones left room for Apple’s The Morning Show to join three expected nominees: Netflix’s The Crown, BBC America’s Killing Eve (the only nominee in the category returning from last year), and HBO’s SuccessionBig Little Lies, also from the latter, made its debut in the category after previously receiving awards as a miniseries.

In the best limited series or TV movie category, Emmy-winner Chernobyl, joined FX’s Fosse/Verdon, Showtime’s The Loudest Voice and new Netflix drama Unbelievable among expected nominees. The exclusion of Netflix’s When They See Us, meanwhile, left room for surprise nominee Catch-22 from Hulu.

Emmy-winner Fleabag, screened by Amazon Prime Video in the US but made by Two Brothers Pictures for the BBC in the UK, and last year’s Globe winner The Kominsky Method, from Netflix, led the field in the best musical or comedy series category with three nominations apiece. The category’s surprise entry was The Politician, Ryan Murphy’s first series for Netflix, which received two nominations.

Among the Globes’ TV acting categories, The Crown’s Olivia Colman and Killing Eve Emmy-winner Jodie Comer led an all-new field in the best actress in a drama series line-up, which also delivered nominations for both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon from The Morning Show and Nicole Kidman from Big Little Lies.

Emmy-winner Billy Porter, from Pose, is the favourite in the best actor in a drama series category, where other nominees are Game Of Thrones’ Harington, Brian Cox from Succession (whose Jeremy Strong was a slightly surprising omission), Tobias Menzies from The Crown and Rami Malek from Mr Robot.

International talent was well represented via the UK in the Globe’s TV categories. In addition to the nominations for Colman, Comer, Harington, Cox and Menzies, Phoebe Waller-Bridge received  a nod in the best actress in a comedy series category for Fleabag. Helen Mirren was recognised in the best actress in a limited series or TV movie line-up for Catherine The Grea twhile Sacha Baron Cohen, for The Spy, and Jared Harris, for Chernobyl, were both nominated in the best actor in a limited series or movie group.

Helena Bonham Carter  for The Crown, and Emily Watson for Chernobyl were among nominees for best supporting actress in a series, limited series or TV movie; and Ireland’s Andrew Scott secured a nod in the best supporting actor in a series, limited series or movie category for his performance as the ‘hot priest’ in Fleabag