TVSquad

Finally someone shows some love for Lost, which got itself back on track last season. The Directors Guild announced their nominees for this year's awards. Lost nabbed two nominations in the Dramatic Series category, for "The Looking Glass" and "The Brig." The Sopranos picked up two of the three remaining nominations, saving the last one for AMC's excellent freshmen drama, Mad Men.

On the comedy side, 30 Rock nabbed two nominations, with Desperate Housewives and Entourage picking up one each. And the critical love for ABC's incredibly charming Pushing Daisies continues as it snatches the final spot. But one category in which the Directors think very differently than anyone else is in Reality Programs. Not only is the kitschy Who Wants to be a Superhero? nominated, but is joined by Shooting Sizemore and Pros vs. Joes. The full list, including commercials, documentaries and mini-series after the jump.

Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to the end of summer reruns, and for the new fall season to kick off over the next several weeks. In addition to returning shows and new offerings from the networks and studios, I'm also quite interested in Ken Burns' new documentary for PBS, The War, which debuts on September 23 at 8:00 p.m. and is scheduled to air in seven parts. Check your listings for airtimes in your area.

I've been drawn to the idea of a lengthy documentary about World War II partially for the historical aspect, but moreso because of the human aspect. Growing up, my exposure to that era was through films featuring rugged heroes and clean, bloodless battles. Combine this with the solipsism inherent in all young people, and the result is a skewed --if not completely false-- perspective on what it was really like to be alive during that era, not only for the soldiers on the battlefields overseas, but also for the people back home.

PBS recently posted a teaser clip of the new Ken Burns documentary about World War II, The War, on YouTube. I've placed it at the end of this post.

Based on my past posts about this upcoming documentary (it airs for two weeks starting September 23), people have differing opinions about Burns' talent as a documentary filmmaker. As a layman, I thought his Civil War was well-made and very interesting, though certainly not the most exciting documentary I've ever seen.

Ken Burns' upcoming PBS documentary about World War II has angered some veterans and leaders in the Latino community.

The protest was sparked by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, who runs an oral history project about Latino veterans for the University of Texas.

Burns points out that not every story could be told in The War, his 14-hour documentary slated to air on PBS this September, but the documentary contains no interviews with Latino soldiers whatsoever. Unfortunately, going back and splicing in stories from Latino veterans is easier said than done, and satisfying Rivas-Rodriguez's desire to have at least an additional two hours dedicated to Latino veterans is a rather tall order, considering the documentary focuses on four specific communities and Latino veterans from each of those communities would have to be found and their stories spliced in to fit the overall narrative.