NBC aired the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday Jan. 12, 8 p.m. ET. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler returned to host the Golden Globes for second time. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
“Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reprised their role as hosts, but the duo failed to produce more than sporadic moments of mirth, in a show where honorary-award recipient Woody Allen looked prescient, in hindsight, by staying home.”
—Brian Lowry, Variety
“If the contract to host the Golden Globes indefinitely hasn’t been issued backstage to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, then the Hollywood Foreign Press Association doesn’t know what it’s doing. True, lots of people think the HFPA doesn’t know what it’s doing anyway, but almost everyone can agree that the Fey-Poehler combination was, once again, the highlight of the night. Their jokes didn’t cross any lines but were also not soft (like Oscar jokes), and that’s a very difficult recipe to master.”
—Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter
“[The Hollywood Foreign Press Association] did get many other TV nominees right last night, but you also suspect—you always suspect with the Globes—that some of these nominees scored because they are part of Hollywood royalty and to not confer would disrupt the all-too-cozy, happy, and slightly tawdry relationship the HFPA has spent so many years building.”
—Verne Gay, Newsday
“Beyond that, the Globes mostly made more of doing less: no dragged-out numbers or between-awards bloat, just a brisk program of awards that left a little time for moments like Emma Thompson swaggering onstage holding her shoes and a martini. The production was often sloppy: starting with early winner Jacqueline Bisset, there were epochal waits for winners to make it through the ballroom, an inconsistent finger on the bleep button, and awkward battles with the play-off orchestra.”
—James Poniewozik, Time
“The Golden Globes couldn’t have been much more entertaining, and for that we can thank Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and, shockingly enough, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The Saturday Night Live veterans started the show with a 10-minute wall of laughter. It was the best opening monologue — make that dialogue — of any awards show in recent memory.”
—Tim Molloy, The Wrap
