Wag The WGA

The Writer's Guild Awards have been announced. Best drama, Mad Men, best comedy, 30 Rock. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I like both shows, but, come on.

The best episode of a drama was a specially bad House that took us out of the series and was a mini-One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I wish the Guild were more suspicious of "special" episodes.

The real news was for screenplay. Best adaptation was Up In The Air, which was expected. And considering they completely rewrote that book, it's quite an adaptation. But for best original screenplay, I was a bit surprised to see The Hurt Locker. It's a compelling film, but I didn't consider the screenplay to be that special. It's always hard to know how much credit to give a screenplay, and easy to misattribute its contribution to other factors, but what was special about that film wasn't necessarily the plot--in fact, I didn't think that much of the plot--or depth of character (and certainly not the dialogue), but the atmosphere, the acting and some of the set pieces.

It looks like there might be a bandwagon building for The Hurt Locker, which has to be the favorite for best director and perhaps now the favorite for Best Picture (though I'd say, considering the vote split, it can't be considered the odds-on favorite).