"Fargo" and "Orange Is the New Black" Tie for Most Awarded Series
The Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) tonight announced the winners of the 4th annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards. Seventeen of the best series in television were honored at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at a star-studded gala awards show, which was broadcast live on The CW.
FX was the most awarded network with five wins, followed by HBO with four wins. Fargo (FX) and Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) tied as most honored series with three wins each. Allison Janney was the only actor to receive two performance awards: Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Mom (CBS), tied with Kate Mulgrew in Orange Is the New Black, as well as Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series for Masters of Sex (Showtime).
Breaking Bad (AMC) won for Best Drama Series, while Orange Is the New Black won as Best Comedy Series. Matthew McConaughey and Jim Parsons won Best Actor in a Drama Series for True Detective (HBO) and Best Actor in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang Theory (CBS), respectively. Tatiana Maslany was honored as Best Actress in a Drama Series for Orphan Black (BBC America), while Julia Louis-Dreyfus won for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Veep (HBO), both for the second year in a row. Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul was awarded Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series; Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s (FOX) Andre Braugher was awarded Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series; and Scandal’s (ABC) Bellamy Young was named Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Uzo Aduba was named Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for her role in Orange Is the New Black.
For the first time, BTJA separated the Best Movie and Best Mini-Series categories. The Normal Heart (HBO) won for Best Movie, and Matt Bomer won Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or Mini-Series for his performance. Fargo was awarded Best Mini-Series, and its stars Billy Bob Thornton and Allison Tolman were honored as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Mini-Series, respectively. Jessica Lange won Best Actress in a Movie or Mini-Series for her performance in American Horror Story: Coven (FX).
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX) took home awards for Best Reality Series and Best Reality Host, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The Best Reality Series-Competition category went to Shark Tank (ABC). The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) won the Best Talk Show category, and Archer (FX) won for Best Animated Series.
In addition, Extant (CBS), Gotham (FOX), Halt and Catch Fire (AMC), The Leftovers (HBO), Outlander (Starz), Penny Dreadful (Showtime) and The Strain (FX) were honored as Most Exciting New Series.
BTJA honored Ryan Murphy with the Critics’ Choice LOUIS XIII Genius Award, established to honor excellence in the television industry. Jim Parsons presented the award to the Emmy Award-winning creator, writer and director, whose The Normal Heart and American Horror Story: Coven were both awarded.
The Critics’ Choice Television Awards honored programs and performances that aired between June 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014, except for the Most Exciting New Series category, which are shows premiering after May 1, 2014.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More