“No one cares about movies anymore. No one goes to the cinema. No one really watches network TV. Everyone is watching Netflix. This show should just be me coming out going, ‘Well done, Netflix. You win everything. Good night.’”
We all recognize those words by now. They were part of actor Ricky Gervais’ controversial presentation at the recent Golden Globes celebration. (On a personal note, I doubt he’ll be invited to host that awards ceremony ever again!) And, while Ricky picked Netflix as the ultimate winner of the entire show, we all know it didn’t work out that way. The streaming service came into the event with 17 nominations for its original movies and TV series. Maybe that’s why Ricky thought it was a lock. Despite what seemed like overwhelming odds, Netflix walked away with only two awards that night:
| Award | Nominee | Character | Movie/Series |
| Supporting Performance | Laura Dern | Nora Fanshaw | Marriage Story |
| Best Performance by an Actress in a TV series – Drama | Olivia Colman | Queen Elizabeth II | The Crown |
The Real Winner
So, if Netflix fell short of expectations, who was the big winner at the Golden Globes? It was HBO, in my opinion. And that hardly came as no surprise to me. Yes, the network is owned by AT&T and we’re an AT&T Preferred Dealer, but that’s not the reason why. Truth is, HBO continues to offer up a great variety of original movies and series. It came into the awards show with 15 nominations, just two less than Netflix, yet walked away with twice as many awards:
| Award | Nominee | Character | Movie/Series |
| Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for TV | N/A | N/A | Chernobyl |
| Best Performance in a Limited Series | Stellan Skarsgard | Boris Shcherbin | Chernobyl |
| Best TV Series – Drama | N/A | N/A | Succession |
| Best Actor in a TV Series – Drama | Brian Cox | Logan Roy | Succession |
The Real Truth Behind All of This
There were other winners in other categories of course, but those don’t matter to me. I wanted to focus on Netflix because I like it and HBO because I really like it. More to the point, I shined a spotlight at Netflix because my colleague Stuart Sweet has been griping about it lately. To quote him, “Netflix sucks.” He said some other things too, but his words were even more inappropriate than Ricky Gervais’s speech at the Globes.
If you’ve been reading this column, you won’t be surprised to read that I disagree with Stuart. He and I don’t see eye-to-eye about anything in the world of streaming. At least that’s how it seems if you read his desperate attempts at Streaming Saturday posts. His grudge against Netflix hasn’t gone anywhere but it seems to have gotten worse. Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s dead wrong about Netflix.
Just to be nominated for a Golden Globe is an honor, and Netflix’s content got 17 nominations. Even though the streaming service provider only took home two awards, that’s still a respectable showing. And let’s not forget that Netflix isn’t slowing down its number of original movies and series. This year could be the streaming provider’s year. (Stuart would say I sound like a Detroit Lions fan with that and he’d be right.)
Just Between You and Me…
…It doesn’t really matter if Netflix sweeps the Golden Globe awards in 2020 or not. I’ve already told you that I’m all about our “home team,” HBO. That’s where I do most of my streaming, with Netflix being the occasional program in between my favorite HBO titles. The only reason I’d like to see the big red streaming provider win a lot of awards is that it will prove Stuart Sweet wrong. Oh, who am I kidding? He never admits when he’s wrong. Last I heard, he still has CBS All Access!
