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Brian Lehrer: It's Brian Lehrer in WNYC. Last night, the Golden Globes, the first big movie and television awards of the season. Did you watch? They rolled out awards season virtually. If you're a bit confused about what the Golden Globes are in a year of no movie theaters, hosts, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, explained it in their monologue last night, the opening monologue. Poehler speaks first.

Amy Poehler: At the Golden Globes, we give out awards for movies and TV, but it's hard to tell them apart this year because movie theaters were closed and we watched everything on our phones.

Tina Fey: You may be confused which nominees count as movies and which are considered TV.

Amy Poehler: Now, TV is the one that I watch five hours straight, but a movie is the one that I don't turn on because it's two hours. I don't want to be in front of my TV for two hours. I want to be in front of the TV for one hour, five times.

Brian: Now, 2020 was the year that gave us ambient television, a phrase coined by New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka to describe television that, "aims to erase thought entirely, smoothing any disruptive texture or dissonance." He used the term ambient television to describe that show, Emily in Paris, which was nominated for two Golden Globes, much to the surprise of critics, and even some fans. Here's Tina Fey again.

Tina Fey: Emily in Paris is nominated for best TV series, musical or comedy and I, for one, can't wait to find out which it is. French Exit is what I did after watching the first episode of Emily and Paris.

Brian: French Exit. Joining me now to explain some of Sunday nights, last night's Golden Globes controversy, and what it says about how the pandemic is changing what people are watching, and how television is addressing the pandemic, and to take your calls on how you are addressing television in the pandemic is Alison Herman, staff writer at The Ringer, where she writes about TV. Hey, Alison, welcome to WNYC.

Alison Herman: Hi, Brian. Thanks so much for having me.

Brian: Listeners, have you figured it out for yourself? Has the pandemic changed what you watch? Are you watching more ambient television, that is TV you can have on in the background and enjoy, but not pay too much attention to? Are you steering away from reality altogether, and maybe you went down a Pixar rabbit hole after you watched Soul? Are you coping with the pandemic by watching documentaries about anything that's not pandemic-related, in order to root yourself in other real-life problems, or just completely immersing yourself in things that are pandemic-related and obsessing, even with your TV choices?

Tweet @BrianLehrer, or give us a call now with your pandemic television habits at 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. Alison, let's start with last night, when the show, Emily in Paris, was nominated, a lot of people were confused. Is that the right word?

Alison: Or outraged. I think confused works, too.

Brian: Even a writer for the show I'm told, I didn't see it last night. Can you briefly describe Emily in Paris for people who aren't familiar with it at all, and why some thought it didn't deserve the nominations at the Golden Globes?

Alison: Sure. Emily in Paris is a show on Netflix that was originally developed for the Paramount Network, and it's created by Darren Star, whose previous shows include Sex in the City and Younger. That CV gives you an idea of the light and frothy tone it's going for, and the title character is played by Lily Collins, who is a marketing executive, social media manager type, who moves to Paris, becomes a influencer of sorts, and just generally navigates for French society.

In general, it's a fun frothy watch. I think a lot of people hate-watch and complained about some of the observations that made about American versus French society, but I think the trouble really came when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association chose to declare this one of the five best TV series, musical or comedy, that came out in the last year.

This is a perfectly fine show to watch on your couch on a Saturday afternoon, especially now that that's how we all spend our Saturday afternoons, but it's not really what one might call great art, especially compared to some of the other nominees in that category like The Flight Attendant, which is this beautiful character study about addiction or Ted Lasso, which is this really heartwarming story about team building.

Brian: Are there other TV shows that would fall into that category that Kyle Chayka coined ambient television?

Alison: Yes. I actually dispute that characterization when it comes to Emily in Paris, because I think people were quite active given their activity on social media when they were watching the show, but I do think the category really describes streaming TV, aiming to recreate that passive feeling of consuming TV that you get with linear TV, or even just when you're out in the world at a gas station or a doctor's waiting room.

I think the foremost example of that are these vast catalogs of bingeable sitcoms you find anchoring these big streaming services. You have The Office on Peacock, you have Paramount Plus reviving Frazier, you have just these long, long, long libraries that you can just put on, and let go for hours and hours at a time.

Brian: I think we have an ambient TV watcher calling in, even if she doesn't know the phrase. Sue, on Long Island, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sue.

Sue: Hello. Oh, boy. I'm just fessing up here that not only did we get stuck in the house for a year with the ambient television, but I needed to drown out all of this Trumpvision and I became addicted to the Hallmark Channel.

Brian: What do they play on the whole Hallmark Channel? What do they show?

Sue: Anything but politics. It's a good formula, and you can fall asleep, or you can not fall asleep and it's romance. Oh, there are three of them, actually.

Brian: Hallmarkvision as an alternative to Trumpvision. Sue, thank you very much. Chuck, in Washington Heights, maybe just the opposite. Hi, Chuck.

Chuck: Hi, how are you doing? Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm big fan of your show.

Brian: Thank you.

Chuck: I was curious, on NPR this morning, I noticed a new story that still the diversity is still not met at the Golden Globes, and the fact there's some controversy about not enough representation of some of these news organizations who make these votes. As a Black person living in New York, I've been really leaning a lot into Hulu, because they do have a lot of Black shows now, and one of my favorite shows is Woke, that comedy series, and would've been nice if that would have been mentioned, and me being an artist myself, I'm still developing my own content and also I teach film at Purchase College.

My students are protesting, the BIPOC students, because of the school content not being formative diversity, in a sense. What can I feed back to my students for these African American Latino students? Is this a great opportunity for their content to be produced now, instead of them being glorified technicians in the world?

Brian: Golden Globes are white, Alison?

Alison: The Golden Globes actually faced a lot of scrutiny this year because first, when the nominations came out, they omitted some really prominent releases spotlighting Black storytellers and Black performers. That included a complete shutout of Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, as well as I May Destroy You, which was a really excellent limited series that ran in America on HBO.

That was followed by an investigation by the Los Angeles Times that revealed that the rather small membership of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but still several dozen members, it's slightly shy of 90, didn't include a single Black voter. A lot of people then immediately connected the dots between those two facts, and asked is the HFPA really the body we want deciding on the best art that's being produced today, when it doesn't necessarily reflect the audience for that art in the United States?

Brian: Chuck, thank you for the call, please call us again. Rhodes in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Rhodes.

Rhodes: Hey, Brian. I wanted to say that I find myself, there's been so much really great TV with complex storylines going on, but I found that in the absence of the ambient content that we get from just our daily lives, and hearing people talk around us during our commutes, and at work, and in general, I'll just be turning on Law & Order: SVU, and zoning out and just having contents that makes me feel connected in some way to banality, I guess.

Brian: Rhodes, thank you very much. I can't believe we've come to the point, Alison, where somebody could watch Law & Order: SVU, that particular strain of Law & Order, given the kinds of crimes involved there, and consider it that empty formulate programming that they can zone out to.

Alison: True crime has been this huge growth industry for streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max for exactly that reason. In fact, Saturday Night Live had a really wonderful digital short music video sketch this past week about murder shows and how that's the paradoxical way that people relaxed, is to just find out about incredibly violent and esoteric forms of death, while they're supposed to be relaxing and enjoying their leisure time.

Brian: Shanti in Raleigh, North Carolina, you're on WNYC. Hello from New York, Shanti.

Shanti: Hi, Brian, thanks for taking my call, long-time listener, all the way from Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina now. I just wanted to say that, yes, I definitely have only been watching happy shows, with the exception of I May Destroy You, Alison, I just want to echo that. It was so powerful and it just had me re-evaluating some of my own personal experiences with what she was exploring. My happy show in the last year has been Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, in which characters break into song and only the main character, Zoey, can hear what they're singing, and it gives her an insight into what people are actually feeling. It's my happy show.

At the same time, last spring, at the end of season one, not to give anything away, but there's a loss in the family. It was so cathartic and such a release to just bawl my eyes out over something fictional, rather than the real-life tragedy that was going on around us. It is overall my happy show, but it was also incredibly cathartic, and it's on NBC and streams on Hulu the next day.

Brian: Well said, Shanti, thank you very much. Alison, Tiffany on Twitter writes, "I've gotten really into HGTV watching people build with their hands, not office work, make their homes more homey, giving me lots of ideas, and complain about stone countertop themes being too light or dark, really takes the edge off of democracy in peril." Do you want to relate to any of those two?

Alison: Of course. I'm as guilty as this of anyone. I'm supposed to be watching TV constantly for my job, and that means I'm supposed to be paying rigorous attention to TV and seeking out new things. Frankly, this quarantine, all I wanted to do was watch either the Great British Baking Show or The Real Housewives. [laughs] It's just so soothing to really immerse yourself in something that is less challenging, when everything else we're being asked to deal with is so challenging.

Brian: Anthony in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Anthony.

Anthony: Hey, how's it going?

Brian: Good. What you got?

Anthony: I wanted to talk about how LaKeith Stanfield didn't get the nomination, or I'm pretty sure he didn't, for Judas and the Black Messiah, and he should have won it. There are a lot of great people in that category, but Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah were unparalleled. I've seen a bunch of movies this year and I can't say that anybody else gave a better performance. LaKeith Stanfield does get out-shined a little by Daniel Kaluuya, but Lakeith, he continues this streak of amazing movies and shows. He's great in Atlanta, he's great in Knives Out, he's great everything. Sorry to bother you.

He gives one of the most emotional performances where the confusion, and the conflict in him are visible in almost every scene and he's incredible. I also wanted to shout out Ted Lasso, because Ted Lasso on Apple TV was just such a heartwarming, fun show. Jason Sudeikis took this character from a Super Bowl commercial seven years ago, and turned it into one of the best TV shows, the most heartwarming TV shows of 2020, 2021. It was so good, I can't wait for more of it.

Brian: Anthony, thanks for all that. Thank you. Have you seen as a TV critic, Alison, shows grappling with how to roll out their fictional content during the pandemic, like whether to put people in masks, whether to social distance? Is that a production issue that the network's or the studios are grappling with?

Alison: Yes. I think it's been really interesting because TV is really unique in that, compared to movies. It has a much shorter turnaround time, which means that COVID-19 started really affecting TV very, very quickly, and showing up in the TV that we watch. I would be remiss if I didn't actually shout out, Kathryn VanArendonk at Vulture, who's really been doing some hero's work and watching network TV particularly, because unlike cable or streaming, network TV does have that especially short turnaround time, and really examining the inconsistent and spotty approach to mass and social distancing on camera, even on shows that are acknowledging the pandemic.

I think it's just, every one's feeling it out in their own way, and they're trying to walk this line between acknowledging the pandemic, but not letting it take over the entire show. Unfortunately, I think it's resulting in some mixed messages and inconsistency in the content being produced.

Brian: Let's finish with this. The Golden Globes were actually two concurrent ceremony ceremonies, for those who didn't see it, with Tina Fey hosting from the Rainbow Room here in New York and Amy Poehler hosting from LA. Both hosts were on a split screen, sort of together, and at one point, Fey reaches out to touch Poehler and her hand actually strokes Poehler's hair, and here's what Tina Fey says next.

Tina Fey: I always knew my career would end with me wandering around the Rainbow Room, pretending to talk to Amy. Just thought it would be later.

Brian: [laughs] Yet, in your review for The Ringer, as good as I think a lot of people thought they were, and we have 20 seconds left, you said all in all, the pandemic edition of the Globes was a mess. How come? Real quick.

Alison: I just think there were a lot of technical difficulties. Daniel Kaluuya got muted during his acceptance speech, and the concurrent ceremonies really added an extra level of difficulty that I didn't really understand why they took on. The Globes are always sloppy, but I thought this year's were sloppy in a more unpleasant way than usual, if that makes sense.

Brian: Alison Herman, staff writer at The Ringer, where she writes about television. Thanks so much for coming on with us today.

Alison: Thanks.

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