The Oscars picture is starting to emerge.  Last night, Argo won the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture, and tonight Ben Affleck‘s drama has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.  With tonight’s win, Argo is slowly moving towards being the first film since Driving Miss Daisy to win Best Picture at the Oscars even though the director didn’t pick up a nomination.  Like Driving Miss Daisy, Argo will have managed the incredible task of directing itself.  The night’s other film actor winners included Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Tommy Lee Jones, and Anne Hathaway.  It will be interesting to see how these will match up with the Oscar winners.  Over on the TV side, Downton Abbey broke Homeland‘s awards-streak by picking up Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

We’re nearly a month away from the 85th Academy Awards, and Oscar prognosticators now turn their attention to the various guild awards ceremonies that will be taking place over the next couple of weeks.  The guilds are a major bellwether for Oscar since the crossover between guild voters and Oscar voters is significant, and the Producers Guild Awards were handed out last night, making this already wide open race even more interesting.  Argo won the top prize at the ceremony, positioning the film as a serious Best Picture contender despite Ben Affleck’s lack of a Best Director nomination.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners and what this means for Argo’s Oscar chances.

Opening this weekend is director Taylor Hackford’s (Ray) Parker.  Based on the novel Flashfire by Donald E. Westlake (published under the pseudonym Richard Stark) the crime thriller stars Jason Statham as the title character, a professional thief with a strict personal code of ethics.  Parker doesn’t steal from people who can’t afford it, he doesn’t hurt people who don’t deserve it, and if you break his rules he will hunt you down and make you pay.  When his team double crosses him on the job and leaves him for dead he tracks them to Palm Beach with a mission for vengeance.  The film also stars Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Nick Nolte, Clifton Collins, Wendell Pierce and Micah Hauptman.

During the recent Los Angeles press day I got to talk with Statham.  He talked about Hackford’s approach to the action genre, what it took to pull off the stunts, what kind of movie he’d like to make in the future, stepping into the role of producer on Heat, whether he’ll ever direct a film, and more.  In addition, we got updates on Crank 3, Homeland and Hummingbird.  Check out the full interview after the jump.

The 2013 Golden Globes have just wrapped up.  I only watched the last hour of the ceremony because the Globes no longer have their awards season power due to voting schedule changes.  Reading tweets and Facebook posts, it seems like it was a fairly entertaining show (keep an eye out for Jodie Foster‘s acceptance speech for her Lifetime Achievement Award).  As for the winners, they were very “Globes” in that they were more populist choices that are unlikely to have much bearing on the Oscars.  Argo may have had a good night at the Globes by winning Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, but I still think Lincoln is the picture to beat when it comes to the Academy Awards, especially since Ben Affleck was snubbed for the Best Director Oscar nomination.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

As part of the Showtime portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Entertainment David Nevins took some time to talk about current and upcoming shows for the network, and the end game for a few of their long-time series.  During the interview, he talked about how he felt about the creative direction of Homeland for Season 2, whether he’d consider continuing the series without Damian Lewis, how Dexter is progressing, that the contemporary genre thriller The Vatican (from Paul Attanasio and Ridley Scott) will go into production in April, how John Logan will be writing every episode of Penny Dreadful with the hope that Sam Mendes will direct, that it will be a psychological and highly erotic story set in Victorian London, what fans can expect from The Borgias, when Californication might end, the plan for when Episodes will return, what makes Masters of Sex a compelling series, and the epic feel of the multi-episode event documentary Years of Living Dangerously, from James Cameron.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Showtime has announced the premiere dates for its 2013 original series.  Here’s a brief look at the schedule:

• Shameless – Season three premieres January 13th.
• Californication – Season six premieres January 13th.
• Inside Comedy – Season two premieres February 11th.
• Nurse Jackie – Season five premieres April 14th.
• The Borgias – Season three premieres April 14th.
• The Big C – The final season premieres April 29th.
• Dexter – Season eight premieres June 30th.
• Ray Donovan – Series premiere June 30th.
• Homeland – Season three premieres September 29th.
• Masters of Sex – Series premiere September 29th.

Hit the jump for more details on all of the aforementioned series.

The nominations for the 2013 Producers Guild Awards have been announced.  The PGA’s are a fairly reliable predictor of the Academy Awards, as last year all but two eventual Best Picture nominees (The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) were PGA nominees.  This year’s contenders include expected fare like Argo, Les Miserables, and Lincoln, indies such as Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom, and critical favorite Zero Dark Thirty.  The PGA’s are also fond of singling out one “popular” choice, and in this year’s case that film looks to be the excellent Skyfall

In addition to the feature films, the PGAs also announced the nominees in television.  Drama series nominees include the usual suspects like Homeland, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, while the comedy category is filled out by 30 Rock, Louie, Modern Family, and for some reason The Big Bang Theory.  Notably absent is HBO’s Girls and NBC’s brilliant Parks and Recreation.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of film and television nominees.  The 24th Annual PGA Awards will be held on January 26th.

The last twelve months have been great for TV, with some decidedly memorable moments.  We’re still firmly entrenched in this Second Golden Age of Television … if you discount 90% of what’s out there (looking at you, reality television!).  There were some great hits, some surprising flops and a few heartening comebacks.  After the jump you’ll find some of my picks for the best, worst, most confusing and also the most underrated of the year (spoiler-free!).  It’s not meant to be exhaustive or definitive, but contains a few memories and considerations from 2012.  And though I do watch an ungodly amount of TV, there’s plenty I’m not caught up on, so let me know what I’ve missed. Hit the jump to check it out.

If you follow Damon Lindelof on Twitter, you know that he’s a huge fan of both The Walking Dead and Homeland (two of the best shows on television).  So when I spoke to him at the recent Star Trek Bad Robot press day (and during a follow up phone call), we talked about the success of The Walking Dead and his thoughts on the Homeland season 2 finale.  While Lindelof is not involved with either show, he’s a passionate fan of both and thought you might like to hear his thoughts.

Note: Massive Homeland spoilers are discussed.  Do not read unless you are caught up.

There’s no denying that the back half of this season of Homeland started sliding off a cliff, and like Boardwalk Empire (which also just finished up a shaky run) many Homeland fans were looking for this finale to right a lot of the wrongs elsewhere in the season, something Boardwalk Empire did a few weeks ago with aplomb.  Promos for the finale teased high drama and emotions, and conversations this past week among friends, fans and even strangers in line at the grocery store all had the same conclusion about where the series was “clearly” headed.  But in “The Choice,” Homeland reminded us why we should never take anything for granted.  Hit the jump for more on this topsy turvy finale episode.

Monday’s TV ratings are in along with the cable ratings for Sunday’s programming.  Here’s a brief look at the highlights:

• CBS’ veteran series How I Met Your Mother saw a rise, hitting a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demo and 9 million viewers.  That’s up 6% from last week’s 3.1 rating.
• 2 Broke Girls was once again the highest rated program of the night, garnering a 4.0 rating and 11.8 million viewers and a 3.9 rating and 11.5 million viewers for back-to-back new episodes.  That’s up over last week’s 3.5 rating in the demo.
• Over at Showtime, the penultimate episode of Dexter‘s seventh season broke literally every Showtime record in existence, as the installment drew 2.6 million total viewers.
• Critical favorite Homeland also made records of its own, as the Showtime series’ penultimate episode of its second season was up 8 percent over last week’s series-high, netting another all-time high of 2.36 million viewers.

Hit the jump for the full ratings report for Monday, December 10th, including 90210, Hawaii Five-O, and more.

The American Film Institute has announced its annual Top 10 lists.  In the film category, this awards season’s usual suspects popped up as Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Argo, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook made the cut alongside Django Unchained and Moonrise Kingdom.  AFI is notable for also including a few popular titles on their lists (last year Bridesmaids and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo landed in the Top 10), and this year is no exception as fan-favorite The Dark Knight Rises nabbed a spot.  Notably absent, though, is Paul Thomas Anderson’s polarizing drama The Master.

On the TV side of things, Emmy-winner Homeland made the cut as well as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Louie, The Walking Dead, and FX’s American Horror Story.  AMC’s Mad Men landed on the list for a fifth time, making it the most recognized AFI Awards TV honoree in history.  Hit the jump to check out the full Top 10’s for both TV and Film.

One thing lately that Homeland has had in common with Sons of Anarchy is that even when the plot lets you down, the show does a damn fine job of giving satisfying “feels.”  Last week’s Homeland left viewers and critics alike in a quandary: was it a great episode?  A ludicrous one?  Had it turned into Prison Break? My stance was essentially that it was pretty ridiculous, but as others pointed out, we’ve bought into a pretty ridiculous world here anyway.  Why not believe that terrorists could be using Skype or that a normally subtle character went off the rails screaming a terrorist’s name in the Vice-President’s house?   But “The Motherfucker with a Turban” righted many of those wrongs, and focused almost entirely on the emotional.  It also blew some of the show’s conspiracy theories out of the water, possibly, but hit the jump to get into the specifics.

Homeland‘s greatest success may be its complete and utter emotional manipulation of its viewers to the point where only afterwards and after much consideration does one realize how completely ridiculous what just happened was.  Does anyone get through episodes of Homeland without getting close to hyperventilation?  The suspense, the jump cuts, the unsteady cam, the music — everything builds to an unholy tremor of excitement and emotion, and we’re whipped around from place to place without time to even finish a game of Hearts with Chris!  It’s all too much. But hit the jump to look at some of the cold, hard truths of Homeland once that emotion starts to wear away. 

The Producers Guild of American announced the TV and Digital Series nominations for the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards today.  The Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television Drama nominees include Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland, and Mad Men, while the comedy category consists of 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, and Modern Family.  Hit the jump to see the full list of nominees.  All other nominations (including film) will be announced on January 3, 2013, followed by the 2013 Producers Guild Award ceremony on January 26, 2013.