Apple TV+ on Monday received three Golden Globe nominations, the company’s first-ever, from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA):
• Best Television Series, Drama: The Morning Show
• Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama: Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show
• Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama: Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show
The Morning Show is up against:
• Big Little Lies
• The Crown
• Killing Eve
• Succession
Aniston and Witherspoon are up against:
• Olivia Colman, The Crown
• Jodie Comer, Killing Eve
• Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
With these three nominations, Apple TV+ becomes first streaming service ever to earn Golden Globe noms in its launch year, already a tremendous achievement. These type of high-profile awards are important as they create interest and will bring in viewers (subscribers) which is important for Apple TV+, especially in its launch year.
But, can any of the Apple TV+ nominees actually win a Golden Globe?
In the “No” camp, there’s the anti-Apple bias we’ve already seen in some of the first wave of reviews, where they called The Morning Show “boring” (while usually ending with the concession that the series shows some promise, meaning, I guess, that it won’t be “boring” in future episodes).
First of all, every first episode of a new series is expository. It’s an exercise that must be accomplished before we can really begin with the story. Reviewing a series on an initial expository episode or small group of expository episodes is simply disingenuous, but it accomplishes something nefarious, as I’ll get to a bit further down the page.
Secondly, the first expository episode(s) of The Morning Show were not “boring” in the least and I’m not sure what some of these tepid reviewer were watching.
My gut tells me that these reviewers were the same types who review world-class Apple hardware and services poorly. You know the types: “Apple Retail Stores will fail.” “The iPod is a gimmick that nobody will buy.” “The iPhone is Apple’s next Newton; it’ll flop.” “The iPad is just a big iPhone.” Blah, blah, blah.
These people are either hit-whoring or they hate everything they see with an Apple logo because they made the wrong decisions and at least subconciously realize that they’ve hamstrung themselves with Windows, Android, and/or Chrome devices. I don’t know what the tepid reviewers were watching when they watched the first episodes of The Morning Show, but it must have been a reflection in their fake iPhone, pretend iPad, or upside-down and backwards wannabe Mac. The first episodes of The Morning Show are compelling, well-written, and extraordinarily well-acted. As proof, I offer up the three Golden Globes for which it’s already been nominated! Yes, some reviewers now have egg on their faces.
But, what these initial tepid reviews did was nefarious because they were first into the echo chamber. The major media picked it up and were able to tar the series and Apple TV+ along with it in virtually every news story by saying that The Morning Show and, by extension, Apple TV+, had “lukewarm reviews.” It’s just insidious and unfair how the echo chamber functions.
Back to the question at hand: Can any of the Apple TV+ nominees actually win a Golden Globe?
It depends on how smart the voters are. If they’re smart, they’ll reward The Morning Show and/or Aniston and/or Witherspoon (how ’bout a tie for Best Actress?). If they’re smart, Apple TV+ will garner at least one Golden Globe because not only is it deserved (particularly Aniston, who is doing some of her best work, at a very high level), but because it:
• Helps the Golden Globes since Apple will tout the win far and wide to promote Apple TV+
• Encourages Apple to continued to invest in high-quality Apple Originals; which in turn:
• Is a boon for the very industry which the HFPA itself covers
If they’re stupid, they’ll find a way to deny Apple a win, in the process shooting themselves in their collective foot.
I’ve seen all of the nominated series and performances and it’s clear to me, at least that both the The Morning Show and Aniston deserve to win (and the only reason Witherspoon won’t is because she’s a close second to Aniston).
We’ll see if the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is smart enough to agree with me on at least one of these two awards at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 5, 2020.
Fingers crossed!
[UPDATE: 3:15pm ET: Today,
The Morning Show also received three SAG award nominations one each for Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, and Jennifer Aniston.]
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer, and contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
I am neither an enthusiast for actors wearing exoskeletons, nor for super-clothes, nor for sitcoms. I regard a sitcom as a fantasy story; I do not know anyone whose nearly every utterance is a swipe, a twist, a mockery, a jab, a tease, a humor, a giggle. The whole gamut of reactions and reactions is vacuous. These situations do not entertain me but rather depress me with their derived phoniness. At the end of sich shows, what remains that is substantive? Nearly nothing. They are like balloons; They fly high, are colorful, and people look up at them, but it is contains only compressed gas which I can experience that by walking on the sands of a breezy beach.
Steve Jacks offers no qualitative reasons with examples to support his assertion that The Morning Show should win. His three reasons are all political/monetary/Capitalist. I hope the Academy — comprised of knowledgeable story tellers — makes its judgemets on quality instead.
lighten up
Why? What he said was true. You want just “nice”. Because it’s Apple?
I DO hope Apple succeeds with their programming.
HOWEVER, Sitcoms SUCK! (Almost all of them. Even if they’re “quality” sitcoms.)
I think the clue is in the category — ‘best TELEVISION SERIES drama’. IMO none of the contenders set a particularly high bar so, sure, Aniston and Co. probably rate a mention (but Olivia Coleman is better!).
The Morning Show (and several of the other offerings on Apple TV+) clearly suffer from Apple’s squeaky-clean political correctness and come off as preachy from time-to-time. But, hey, it’s Apple and what did you expect?
The biggest problem with Apple TV+ right now isn’t how to win awards, it’s how to provide a full schedule of (adult) watchable content.