I’d like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press

Last night’s Golden Globes were the usual awards ceremony mixed bag, with highlights like Robert Downey Jr.’s wacky acceptance speech for Sherlock Holmes (which is quite enjoyable, by the way, and actually doesn’t stray as far from Conan Doyle as one might initially think, but that’s a whole other blog post) and low moments like several of Ricky Gervais’ jokes that didn’t land well. (The worst was Paul McCartney, who had a full-on, hand-to-mouth look of horror when Gervais noted that McCartney must be trying to save money after spending so much of it last year).

I know, you really care, don’t you? Yeah. It’s hard to work up much enthusiasm for a room full of wealthy movie stars congratulating themselves on their work, and it’s even more awkward when they all put on Haitian flag lapel pins and chide each other about charitable donations. Still, as Matthew Weiner reminded the audience in his speech, it’s great that the Hollywood Foreign Press gives awards for outstanding television, even if the reasoning behind who wins can be a little opaque.

So, a few of the night’s better moments:

Speaking of Matt Weiner, Mad Men won best television drama, an obvious and worthy decision for that category. Glee won for best musical or comedy television, and although I feel like the award is premature for that show, I’m happy an expensive hour-long program is getting some love.

Of course there were several references to the problems at NBC, especially because NBC was the network hosting the whole shebang. My favorite was Julianna Margulies, who won best actress in a television drama for The Good Wife and thanked CBS for “believing in the 10pm drama.” Hulu doesn’t have that clip, though, so instead you get Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks cracking on NBC.

As mentioned above, Robert Downey Jr. has a nice handle on the appropriate tone, content and entertainment value of an acceptance speech.

And finally, the best Ricky Gervais moment was every bit as cruel as the flopped Paul McCartney joke, but because it was making fun of Mel Gibson, no one seemed to mind.