The Golden Globes 2012 nominations were announced this morning:
BEST ACTRESS, TV DRAMA
Claire Danes, Homeland
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Hello Hello," Gnomeo and Juliet
"The Keeper," Machine Gun Preacher
"Lay Your Head Down," Albert Nobbs
"The Living Proof," The Help
"Masterpiece," W.E.
BEST ACTRESS, TV COMEDY
Laura Dern, Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
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ZOMBIES are a value stock. They are wordless and oozing and brain dead, but they’re an ever-expanding market with no glass ceiling. Zombies are a target-rich environment, literally and figuratively. The more you fill them with bullets, the more interesting they become. Roughly 5.3 million people watched the first episode of “The Walking Dead” on AMC, a stunning 83 percent more than the 2.9 million who watched the Season 4 premiere of “Mad Men.” This means there are at least 2.4 million cable-ready Americans who might prefer watching Christina Hendricks if she were an animated corpse.
Statistically and aesthetically that dissonance seems perverse. But it probably shouldn’t. Mainstream interest in zombies has steadily risen over the past 40 years. Zombies are a commodity that has advanced slowly and without major evolution, much like the staggering creatures George Romero popularized in the 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead.” What makes that measured amplification curious is the inherent limitations of the zombie itself: You can’t add much depth to a creature who can’t talk, doesn’t think and whose only motive is the consumption of flesh. You can’t humanize a zombie, unless you make it less zombie-esque. There are slow zombies, and there are fast zombies— that’s pretty much the spectrum of zombie diversity. It’s not that zombies are changing to fit the world’s condition; it’s that the condition of the world seems more like a zombie offensive. Something about zombies is becoming more intriguing to us. And I think I know what that something is.
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Good news for undead zombies who consume the flesh of the living and the television viewers who love them: AMC said on Monday that it has officially ordered a second season of “The Walking Dead,” its original series adapted from the comic books written by Robert Kirkman about human survivors in a world overrun by the ambulatory deceased. (Catchy phrase, no?)
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In the first five episodes of its sophomore season “Glee” has addressed topics as ephemeral as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and the music of Britney Spears, and as enduring as the nature of religious faith. In Tuesday night’s installment it turns to subject matter that is timely and also substantial: the episode, called “Never Been Kissed,” finds Kurt Hummel (an openly gay character played by Chris Colfer) antagonized by a bully who targets him because of his sexuality, and it addresses the consequences of Kurt’s decision to stand up to his tormentor.
Ryan Murphy, a creator and executive producer of “Glee,” has said this will be the first of several episodes in which its characters are affected by bullying. In the first part of a two-part interview, Mr. Murphy spoke with ArtsBeat about the ideas and themes that went into “Never Been Kissed.” (Part 2 of the conversation will be posted on Wednesday, after you’ve had a chance to watch the episode.)
Q.The issue of bullying – young people in general and gay people in particular – has recently become a flashpoint for discussion. How long have you been planning to use Chris Colfer’s character to tackle it?
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