The TV Column

For awards show fans, Golden Globes fills night

Girls, starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Allison Williams, returns to HBO at 8 p.m. today.
Girls, starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Allison Williams, returns to HBO at 8 p.m. today.

This is a swell evening for discerning viewers of adult programming and awards show aficionados.

And by "adult" I mean mature cable fare -- TV-MA programs with the triple whammy D, L and S designations for suggestive dialogue, coarse language and sexual content. And a dash of nudity now and then.

Depending on where you're coming from, TV-MA means it's either the "good stuff" that doesn't insult your intelligence and treats you like a grown-up, or the "bad stuff" full of vulgarity, crudity and proof that TV has gone downhill since we left Mayberry.

For the most part, I'll side with the former unless it's blatantly gratuitous. There's no creative excuse for shock value.

Awards show fans should set aside the entire evening for the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards airing live from 7 to 10 p.m. on NBC and broadcast to more than 160 countries.

If you enjoy the tedious banality of the red carpet, NBC will present the Golden Globe Arrivals Special at 6 p.m. Watch the Today show's Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales, along with Carson Daly fawn all over celebrities as they shuffle their way into the Beverly Hilton.

NBC gushes that the crew will have "interviews with the biggest stars from television and film, and reveal the eagerly awaited red carpet fashions worn on Hollywood's biggest night."

Biggest night? Take that, Academy Award snobs.

Just to be clear, the Golden Globe nominees and winners are selected by a mere handful of members (about 90) of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Some of their credentials are dicey at best.

Nonetheless, the awards ceremony has become a lot of fun recently thanks to the best hosts on TV. For the third consecutive year, Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) will do the honors.

George Clooney is this year's recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, chosen by the HFPA Board of Directors for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment." Whatever that means. My bet is they were just going for a big name.

ADULT FARE

Meanwhile, here's a look at the stuff for grown-ups that returns or debuts tonight on HBO and Showtime.

HBO:

Girls 8 p.m. Created by and starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture), the show is a humorous look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of young women in their mid-20s.

The cast also includes Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver, Alex Karpovsky, Andrew Rannells and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Season 4 will have 10 episodes.

In the season premiere, aspiring writer Hannah Horvath (Dunham) has moved from New York after being accepted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Expect culture shock.

Also, it'll be interesting to see if Williams gets to sing more this season having starred in NBC's Peter Pan Live! last month.

Togetherness, 8:30 p.m. This is the premiere for the comedy, one that didn't impress me very much. The pilot, which frequently dragged, reminds me of a vanity project that got the green light because someone owed someone a favor.

In the series, married couple Brett and Michelle Pierson (Mark Duplass, Melanie Lynskey) struggle to re-energize their relationship that has fizzled from the stress of marriage and children.

Their goal is complicated when Brett's friend, Alex Pappas (Steve Zissis), and Michelle's sister, Tina Morris (Amanda Peet), move in. Hilarity is supposed to ensue as the themes of friendship, careers and approaching middle age are explored.

Created by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, along with Zissis, the series gets eight episodes to find an audience.

Looking, 9 p.m. The 10 episodes of Season 2 of the comedy/drama follow three friends -- Patrick, Agustin and Dom (Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett) -- as they "search for happiness and intimacy in the complex, modern gay world" of San Francisco.

Showtime:

Shameless, 8 p.m. It's Season 5 for this outstanding comedy/drama that follows the dysfunctional Gallagher clan as they struggle to make a go of it in Chicago. Outstanding performances are turned in by William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Joan Cusack and Jeremy Allen White.

Warning: Their Chicago neighborhood is being gentrified. Good luck with that with the Gallaghers around.

House of Lies, 9 p.m. The comedy/drama's Season 4 will bring 12 episodes for the series that follows a group of ruthless management consultants. The ensemble includes Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell. Note: Bell is pregnant in real life, so look for her character to follow.

Episodes, 9:30 p.m. It's Season 4 of the Matt Le­Blanc series that actually stars Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig as a British couple who travel to Hollywood to remake their hit British TV series. Disaster ensues.

Note: Somehow, LeBlanc earned a 2011 Golden Globe playing a fictitious version of himself in this show.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 01/11/2015

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