‘Carol,’ ‘Big Short’ top 2016 Golden Globe nominations

The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best animated film on Thurs…

As if determined to avoid the “do any of you even watch TV?” reaction that inevitably accompanies the Round Up of Usual Suspects known as the Emmy nominations, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association produced a jaw-dropping list of Golden Globe nominees on Thursday. Time Warner TWX -owned HBO received multiple nominations across both awards shows for their series Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, and Veep.

The Globes are often looked at as a measuring stick for the Academy Awards, though the pool of voters is much smaller – the 100 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – and the number of nominations is doubled in some cases, since there are divisions for drama and comedy/musical.

But little else was so straightforward in nominations that rewarded the acclaimed newsroom drama “Spotlight”, but not its cast; gave Netflix a leading eight nominations (plus one for its first original movie); and supplied “Creed” co-star Sylvester Stallone his first Globe nomination in 29 years, yet for the same character (Mr. Rocky Balboa).

The 73 Golden Globe Awards, hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais, will air on NBC on January 10 at 8:00 PM EST.

“Flesh and Bone”, a gritty eight-hour limited series created by Emmy® award-winning “Breaking Bad” writer and Executive Producer Moira Walley-Beckett, follows a young dancer with a distinctly troubled past as she joins a prestigious ballet company in NY.

Best TV series for a comedy or musical was dominated by streamers: Hulu’s new series from Jason Reitman, Casual, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and Amazon’s Transparent all made the nominations.

Mad Max: Fury Road, aside from its best drama nomination, also earned a nod for director George Miller – his first Globe nomination ever. “The Martian”, meanwhile, was nominated in the comedy category. PBS’ “Downton Abbey”, CBS’ “The Good Wife”, Netflix’s “House of Cards” were all Globe drama series nominees last year, but not this year.

In other film news of geeky interest, The Martian received a nominee for best motion picture in a comedy/musical. The premium-cable network and its period-piece, European co-productions such as “The White Queen” and “Dancing on the Edge” have fared well at the Golden Globes in recent years.

Fox, for one, could see a pickup with its string of Golden Globe nominations. Rampling received best actress honors for her performance at the Berlin International Film Festival and was named best actress last week by the Boston and Los Angeles Film Critics.

Swedish actress Alicia Vikander has been on the rise for a couple of years now.

The acting categories are a safer mix of obvious choices – Emmy winners Viola Davis and Hamm, breakout stars Tariji P. Henson (Empire) and Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) – and celebrations of the underrecognized – Eva Green (Penny Dreadful), Maura Tierney (The Affair) and Rachel Bloom, singing star of the valiant but struggling Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Kathy Bates, who plays Iris, also took to Twitter to extend her congratulations on the nomination, saying: “I’m screaming with you @LadyGaga!”

There is a lot of love for The Revenant and Leonardo DiCaprio for his central performance in the film, but Tom Hardy has been overlooked in the Best Supporting Actor category.