Welcome to The GBU, a weekly column where I look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly on TV.
The 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards were a lot more serious than the recent Golden Globe Awards. For television, the awards went to Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Betty White (Hot in Cleveland) and the casts of Boardwalk Empire and Modern Family.
Just like at the Emmys and Golden Globes, Claire Danes (Temple Grandin) and Al Pacino (You Don’t Know Jack) won the awards for TV movie actress and actor. In the film categories, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale won for The Fighter, Natalie Portman won for Black Swan and Colin Firth won for The King’s Speech. In the closest thing to an upset, The King’s Speech also won for Best Ensemble.
Here’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards..
The Good: Modern Family
After being tragically ignored last year in favor of the cast of Glee, the SAG Awards made up for that mistake by giving the award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy to the cast of Modern Family. Ed O’Neill’s acceptance speech was quick and to the point, but he correctly noted that this is the one they most wanted to win because while the individual performances are all good, Modern Family is the ultimate ensemble show.
The Bad: The Movie Awards
Melissa Leo, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and Colin Firth won the individual acting awards, exactly like they did two weeks ago at the Golden Globe Awards. With so many awards shows in a short period of time, it gets a bit dull when the same people win every single time, so to have a year where the four major acting categories are so consistent, it’s going to make watching the Oscars a dull time.
The Ugly: Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock
For the fifth year in a row, Baldwin won the award for Male Actor in a Comedy Series. Sure, he’s good, but five in a row is a bit ridiculous, especially in a category with the insanely funny Ty Burrell from Modern Family. Give someone else a chance.
(Images courtesy of ABC, NBC and FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
