TV that’s fun to watch, and maybe fun to watch win

Admit it, you don’t always want to grapple with existential dilemmas and moral quandaries when you plant your weary bones in front of the television. Very often you just want to be amused, transported, titillated and charmed. Shows that do this particularly well can stand out, not just in the ratings but also in the minds of award voters. That’s why the simple satisfactions of a revitalized genre, a fantasy escape or an engaging showcase for a charismatic actor are sometimes enough to land a show in the golden circle of award recognition.

“A few years ago, shows like ‘True Blood’ and ‘Glee’ might have been considered guilty pleasures rather than potential award winners,” says Entertainment Weekly television critic Ken Tucker. “But a couple of things are at work here. One, the bar has been lowered, in a TV landscape overrun by ‘ Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘The Biggest Loser.’ But also, shows like ‘True Blood’ and ‘Glee’ take genres that are familiar even to older awards voters, like horror or the musical, and give them fresh interpretations that result in big ratings. And these days, even awards ceremonies like to look as though they’re rewarding big mass hits, not just arty, small, ambitious work.”

The award shows, agrees L.A. Times television critic Mary McNamara, want to include what people are watching. “The Emmys this year did a really good job of bringing in nominees from all branches of television,” McNamara notes. “And the Golden Globes tend to be even more democratic. Nobody wants to be perceived as totally elitist or to make themselves meaningless in the realm of popular opinion.”

With the Golden Globe nominations around the corner, here’s a look at several shows that are likely candidates to straddle the line between guilty and golden.

‘True Blood’ ( HBO)

It’s HBO’s biggest ratings-getter since “The Sopranos,” and it launched with one of TV’s zingiest marketing campaigns — for a synthetic blood beverage that helps vampires integrate peaceably with humans. But Alan Ball’s Southern Gothic vampire saga about a telepathic waitress ( Anna Paquin) who falls in love with the first vampire she meets (Stephen Moyers) had its naysayers at the outset, and still does. “ ‘True Blood’ won’t so much make your blood run cold as it will leave you cold,” said the New York Post’s Linda Stasi when it premiered. EW’s Tucker sums up his first-season review as “chilly to negative,” but he’s come around. “‘Blood’ is telling terrific tales with a potent mixture of freaky scariness and great country music,” he wrote recently. “Yee-haw and chomp-chomp.”

Golden Globes voters granted Paquin an acting trophy the first season, and the Screen Actors Guild this year honored the whole troupe as best ensemble. But Emmy voters surprised a lot of people this year when they nominated the show for outstanding drama series. “ ‘True Blood’ has the imprimatur of a classy cable outlet, HBO, and an award-winning creator, Alan Ball,” says Tucker. “You can get away with a lot of bare chests and blood-sucking-as-metaphor-for-sex stuff when you’re in classy company.”

‘Glee’ (Fox)

Who knew there was such a pent-up demand for a soapy, gay-friendly musical in which high schoolers do souped-up karaoke versions of ‘80s pop hits and show tunes? “Glee” has not only inspired some of the most obsessive fandom since “Star Trek,” it also has spawned a mini music industry, placing more chart hits in the Top 100 than any act since the Beatles. Even while Variety’s Brian Lowry described the show as “a frustrating mess” that squanders its talent via a “jokey, cartoonish, wildly uneven tone,” Emmy voters granted it a stunning 19 nominations and four wins, while the Globes last year named it best series in the musical or comedy division. “It would have been ridiculous if ‘Glee’ had not been nominated, because nothing like it had been seen before,” says McNamara. “It’s an unprecedented, envelope-pushing show, and it rocked everybody back on their heels because it was so ambitious.”

‘Cougar Town’ (ABC)

Comedies never have it easy at award time, but this giddy, goofy and brash half-hour from “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence embarked on a particularly rocky path when it presented Courteney Cox as a middle-aged divorcee who lusts like a teenager after guys not much older than her son. Even if the premise contains a touch of social relevance, it caused most critics to squirm rather than smile. “It’s about as subtle as a kick to the groin,” lamented Variety’s Lowry. Maybe that’s why the producers revamped it in Season 2, giving Cox an age-appropriate love interest and focusing on the fast-flying repartee and buoyant chemistry of the ensemble. “It’s now more like a middle-aged ‘Friends,’” says McNamara, “in which people sit around saying wacky things and getting into scrapes.”

Globes voters singled out Cox for a lead actress nomination last year. Entertainment Weekly, which lets fans vote online for its so-called Ewwy Awards, nominated it for “outstanding comedy series” and bestowed wins on both Cox and supporting actress Busy Phillips. Says Lawrence, “Anytime you can point to a fan-driven award, that’s a good thing. The best way to stay alive as a TV show nowadays is to cultivate a really loyal audience, and this kind of thing tells you they’re out there.” Plus, he said, “the critics have helped us, because they’ve really turned around on this thing.” As critics increasingly weigh in as being newly impressed, award voters may also take notice.

‘Hawaii Five-0’ ( CBS)

“A big, dumb bag of sexy fun” is how the Washington Post described this remake of a show that, in its first incarnation, became one of television’s longest-running crime dramas. Scott Caan, who as Det. Danny “Danno” Williams was cast as the sardonic second banana to star Alex O’Loughlin, is being increasingly featured in the stories as critics single him out for praise. “Scott Caan steals the show,” wrote Ben Watson of BuddyTV.com. “I would tune in every week just to watch him — he’s that good.”

The slick, fast-moving Honolulu-set action drama about an elite cop unit is one of only two shows in this season’s freshman class to score strong ratings. (The other is AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” and had it had more than six episodes to show off, it would have made this guilty but golden list as well.) Could Caan nab award notice as the season’s breakout newcomer?

“He has a couple things going for him,” says Minneapolis Star-Tribune critic Neal Justin. “A famous name [he’s actor James Caan’s son] and a juicy, three-dimensional role that is ultimately more critical than the show’s overall appeal.”

Caan’s Danno is a divorced New Jersey transplant who took the assignment in Hawaii only to be close to his young daughter. Whereas most people see Honolulu as a paradise, he calls it “a pineapple-infested hellhole.”

“He has a rich background and a very specific point of view, and people are kind of gravitating toward that,” says the show’s executive producer, Peter Lenkov. “When it came to adding value to this franchise, it seemed to me that fleshing out the characters and adding humor would give it its best chance of survival.”

Still, says Justin, “he’s going to need at least one real showcase episode — like he gets shot and has to swim eight miles to a hospital, or his daughter is kidnapped by evil surfers. That would help him greatly.”

Yee-haw and chomp-chomp, indeed.

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