During that successful year for the Golden Globes — during which the Hollywood Foreign Press Association returned from exile after weathering a series of scandals of its own — the ceremony actually managed to be fun as host Jerrod Carmichael dragged the HFPA to hell and back in his opening monologue.
As for the awards themselves, the HFPA seemed pretty safe to play Tuesday night. Logic prevailed in the awards: Colin Farrell won for The Banshees of Inisherin, Jennifer Coolidge won for The White Lotus, Steven Spielberg won Best Director — and Cate Blanchett won for Tár, although she didn’t was there to collect the prize. Gone are the days, maybe forever, when an Aaron Taylor-Johnson (for his role in “Nocturnal Animals”) could win over future Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (for “Moonlight”). (Are we a little sad about the prospect of a no-batshit Globes going forward? Yes. Yes, we are.)
The clear highlights of the evening were Carmichael’s fearless moderation and stunning outfits, and Jennifer Coolidge’s tearful, hilarious and heartfelt speech.
Some well-deserved honors were presented among the winners, with Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Ke Huy Quan and Zendaya taking home well-deserved awards. And yet there were also some surprise winners – and some unexpected omissions! Which we’ll get into below. (For the full list of winners, click here.)
“The Fabelmans” wins the award for best motion picture drama
On Monday, Variety’s esteemed awards editor Clayton Davis predicted that Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” would win Best Drama, which seemed surprising! So we asked him about it, and he explained that while the conventional wisdom is that Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is the slight favorite here, he sees Elvis as a surprise Bohemian Rhapsody-style win with the HFPA gaudy music spectacle instead of soft family drama.
Aside from Clayton trying to read the HFPA tea leaves, Theater Hero of the Year, Top Gun: Maverick, has been an industry favorite throughout awards season. But star and producer Tom Cruise helped bring the Globes to the brink of oblivion when he returned his three trophies in 2021, and Cruise declined to attend the ceremony. Carmichael even used a comedy segment about these trophies to make a shocking joke about Scientology character Shelly Miscavige.
With Spielberg already winning as a director, Spielberg’s winning night continued – and the HFPA may have put The Fabelmans back in the running for the Academy Awards!
Bob Odenkirk missed his last chance to win a Globe for Better Call Saul
Best Actor in a TV Drama was originally intended to be one of the first awards of the night but was instead pushed to the final acting award of the night, meaning five-time Globe nominee Bob Odenkirk had to wait that much longer for his outstanding performance in finally Getting credit for AMC’s “Better Call Saul”. And then he lost to “Yellowstone” star Kevin Costner, who wasn’t even there to accept! As host Regina Hall said (amid laughter) of Costner, “Because of the unprecedented weather and flooding, he’s having to take shelter in Santa Barbara.” Meanwhile, Odenkirk survived a massive heart attack! What else does he have to do for you? Aren’t you entertained?!
House of the Dragon wins the highly competitive TV Drama category
Two of the HFPA nominees — HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and Apple TV+’s “Severance” — are freshmen who were launched to critical acclaim, and the Globes look forward to honoring feisty rookies (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” ” Mr. Robot”, “The Affair”). Two other nominees – AMC’s “Better Call Saul” and Netflix’s “Ozark” – ended their runs this year with some of their strongest and most famous episodes; Similar circumstances led to The Americans winning that category for its final season. And the fifth contestant, Netflix’s “The Crown,” has been nominated for all five seasons so far, winning twice.
All of which means that any of these shows could have won here, and it would have felt like a surprise, but House of the Dragon’s win was particularly unexpected given that its predecessor, Game of Thrones, was nominated five times in this one category and never won. Executive producer Miguel Sapochnik — who actually left since Season 1, leaving the show running duties to Ryan Condal, who wasn’t even there — was so certain the show wasn’t going to win that he’d already shed his tie for the evening . Not a crazy shock, but still, huh!
Quinta Brunson Wins as TV Comedy Actressand “Abbott Elementary” wins for TV Comedy
Last year, “Hacks” and star Jean Smart won the Golden Globes for Best TV Musical or Actress in a TV Musical or TV Comedy in a non-televised ceremony, but of course neither the show’s creators nor Smart ready to accept this. One might have expected the Hollywood Foreign Press to award the Globe again to “Hacks” and Smart so they could get their podium moments, but first-time nominee Quinta Brunson was waiting in the wings for her first win for playing in the elementary school teacher Janine Teagues in Abbott Elementary, which of course she also created. She’s only the fourth – the fourth! – Black woman wins in this category after Tracee Ellis Ross (for Black-ish, 2015), Debbie Allen (for Fame, 1982) and Diahann Carroll (for Julia, 1968).
Brunson was back on stage when “Abbott” won for TV comedy, which also beat lively shows “Wednesday,” “The Bear,” and “Only Murders in the Building.” A rare triumph for network TV.
Jeremy Allen White Wins for TV Comedy Actor
When FX aired all eight episodes of “The Bear” on Hulu on June 23, less than a month after the Emmys deadline of May 31, pundits wondered if the network had underestimated how much the audience loved the show which stars Jeremy Allen. White plays Carmy, a top chef who returns to Chicago to take over his late brother’s restaurant.
And maybe they did! But that doesn’t matter now, because White’s win underscores that “The Bear” is a strong contender for awards from now on, no matter when the show premiered.
Julia Garner wasn’t done winning for Ozark!
Ruth Langmore may not have made it out of the Ozark alive, but Julia Garner certainly did! In Supporting Actress in a drama or comedy category where the consensus choice was either Elizabeth Debicki for her portrayal of Princess Diana in The Crown or Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph (who previously won an Emmy for the role) , Garner’s win here was really unexpected. Despite dominating the drama supporting actress Emmy — yes, she won three times — she had only been nominated (and lost) by the HFPA once before. The hugely popular “Ozark” came to an end last year and Garner’s win showed we shouldn’t have counted it out. Whatever the reason, we all got it wrong, proving, as Ruth might have said, that we “know nothing about fucking.”
Tyler James Williams wins TV Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama
First of all, hell yes! What a nice surprise. The Abbott Elementary star – who plays former substitute teacher and now full-time teacher Gregory Eddie – won in a category that has almost always gone to actors in a drama in recent years. (The consensus pick among pundits this year was John Turturro for his role in Apple TV+’s twisted Severance.)
In fact, the last time a male actor won a comedy was the Golden Globes in 2010 when Chris Colfer won for Glee. Williams gave a beautiful speech and said of his character, Gregory, that he hopes the story of a public school teacher in Philadelphia will be considered “as important as any other story” out there. Also, the fact that Williams, who starred in Everybody Hates Chris, was the second ex-child actor of the night to win – the first being Ke Huy Quan from Everything Everywhere All at Once – made this surprise all the more appealing.
Argentina, 1985 wins non-English language film ahead of RRR, All Quiet on the Western Front and Decision to Leave
On an otherwise rather conventional evening, the Hollywood Foreign Press hit the bull’s eye with the film it honored in this category. Instead of the global sensation “RRR” (which won for the original song) or the critics’ favorite “Decision to Leave” or the stunning war epic “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the HFPA settled on “Argentina, 1985”. a slow-burning courtroom drama about the trial of Argentina’s civil-military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. And then the TV show roughly played music about producer and star Ricardo Darín as he tried to speak to the people of Argentina. A moment of old-school globe mayhem!