Golden Globe Musings: Best Comedy Series

Golden Globe nominations for this year will be announced soon, so here’s a survey of the contenders and the most likely predictions at this time. Weigh in with your thoughts, and let me know if I’ve left off anyone important. A reminder that last year’s nominees mean zilch at the Globes and that the race is almost entirely unpredictable.

Last year’s nominees:
Barry
Fleabag
The Kominsky Method
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Politician

New contenders:
The Flight Attendant
The Great
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Potential first-time nominees:
Dead to Me
Insecure
Pen15
Ramy
Schitt’s Creek
Ted Lasso
What We Do in the Shadows

Returning series:
Kidding

Past nominees:
Black-ish
Will and Grace

You can read my extensive rundown of this category for Awards Radar from November. This year is a strange situation since only one of last year’s nominees – “The Politician” – is eligible again, and it’s hard to imagine it returning. I would be ecstatic if the now-cancelled “Kidding,” which aired its second season early in 2020, managed a repeat, but I don’t see it happening. “The Flight Attendant” wasn’t yet a contender when I did my analysis of this category a few months ago, and so I’m struggling to decide which show ends up with only an acting bid and no nomination here. I’m going to go ahead and add first-time nominee “Schitt’s Creek” to a list that otherwise includes only brand-new shows rather than series in their second seasons, like “Ramy,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” or “Dead to Me.”

Current predictions:
The Flight Attendant
The Great
Schitt’s Creek
Ted Lasso
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist