2011-2012 Emmy Awards

[ksrymy]

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MAD MEN

Breaking Bad's sudden rush of nominations comes at no shock to me. That last season is easily one of the best ever aired and with all the downtime between that season and the start of the fifth last Sunday more hype has been building and more nominations came in the form of Anna Gunn and Giancarlo Esposito.

I'm freaking elated with all the Downton Abbey nominees. I expected McGovern and Smith as last year but the additions of Hugh Bonneville, Brendan Coyle, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, and, most of all, my future wife Michelle Dockery. McGovern's snub did come as a shock though. I had to double take to make sure I didn't skip her.

Too bad none of these supporting drama actors will stand a chance against Jared Harris. If he doesn't win, I will flip my kitchen table in a blind rage. I am not letting Lane Pryce die in vain. If Joe Pantoliano can come on The Sopranos for one season and die and win an Emmy then, by God, Jared Harris can do it too!!

I was expecting New Girl to pick up a nomination for Zooey Deschanel seeing as she did win at the Globes. I have no doubt that she will win though. She's become the new icon for quirk.

And speaking of quirk, it's great to see Mayim Bialik nominated for The Big Bang Theory. It's a show I have great reservations about mainly due to the most annoying laugh track in TV history, but my roommate is addicted and I'll watch it every week just because (usually surfing this site while it's on).

But I did not expect that left-field nomination for Max Greenfield in Deschanel's show. I don't think anyone expected that.

I went in thinking that Elisabeth Moss was going to finally win for Mad Men. Then I watched Homeland and Claire Danes is going to run away with this award. I think Damian Lewis' nomination is unmerited though. He's merely effective, but it's the nature of his role that got him the nod.

But Mad Men will finally win this year because Christina Hendricks' divorce episode. It also completely proved to any doubters that, yes, you can still be very attractive nowadays and actually be able to act.

And if Hendricks does not win, Jared Harris will. Mad Men is guaranteed its first acting win in its fifth season.

HOLY SHIT! One minute... WHERE THE FUCK IS JOHN SLATTERY?!?!?! Goddamn Downton Abbey and Breaking Bad with all their nominees. If Jared Harris does not win, this will be even worse.

I'm sorry, Sabin, but we must finally disagree on something. I think Parks and Recreation is entirely bland. It tries to be The Office in the hand-held documentary styled show that has its comedy based on awkwardness. Nothing for which I've ever really gone.

It's also nice seeing Jon Cryer finally get boosted to the lead status that Charlie Sheen held above him. I think the show is terrible, but now he's finally recognized as a lead even though I'm pretty sure, during Sheen's reign, he was in more episodes, and therefore, had more screentime.

ALSO WHERE THE FUCK IS JANE KRAKOWSKI?!?! Oh, that's right. She got shafted for some no-name on Nurse Jackie and the Emmys decided to nominate Kathryn Joosten because she died. Bullshit.

I'm interested to see if the Emmys still like Bryan Cranston or if Jon Hamm will finally win. Mad Men's fifth season was easily their best. I have no doubts that it will win dramatic program. Also, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, now being nominated for Veep and having previously been nominated for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine, has become the third person to be nominated for acting in three different series, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, behind John Ritter for Three's Company, Hooperman, and 8 Simple Rules and Tyne Daly for Cagney & Lacey, Christy, and Judging Amy. I feel like their has to be more than that.

I'll start a prediction contest if anyone would like. Should we start another thread or do it here after the buzz has died down?

[The Original BJ]

American Horror Story = 12 hour-long episodes = mini-series.

Girls = 10 half-hour episodes = series.

Welcome to the Emmys.

[Sabin]

I don't watch a ton of television, but this I know to be true:

-- The drama nominations look mostly pretty darn good. Mad Men is likely going to win its fifth Emmy in a row but this year it's the weakest of the nominees and in a just world we'd be seeing Breaking Bad take it considering that Breaking Bad fever has finally took hold. Anna Gunn has deserved a nomination for some time but her mid-season plastic surgery was incredibly problematic and distanced me from her performance. I hope Giancarlo Esposito wins, but it will likely go to Peter Dinklage again. If Bryan Cranston released the two episodes I think he will, I think he's got his fourth win sewn up.

- The comedy nominations are especially problematic if you happen to recognize that Parks and Rec was the best comedy show last year. It's now overtaken The Office and is stronger than that show over was. Beyond that, it's a beautiful American show about success and failure, and I thought it had the best shot of beating Modern Family this year, but alas, "The Modern Family Awards" it shall be. No Series nom means Amy Poehler will lose to Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep. No Paul Rudd for Guest Actor...

- Wrong Girl. I like Lena Dunham's GIrls but it's awfully navel-gazing, whereas Zooey Deschanel's New Girl wasn't just a good show that became very good. If you live in Los Angeles, the barrage of billboards showcasing Zooey Deschanel's quirky face as the words "Simply Adorkable" underneath it became an unavoidable fact of life every day. I have never hated a billboard more than that one. I wanted to hate this show. It's pretty rocky at the start, but it's very good. It's aesthetic is pretty great and Max Greenfield's nomination as Schmidt is a nice surprise.

- I am staunchly Team Schmidt for Best Supporting Actor. Burrell, Ferguson, O'Neill, and Stonestreet are all very good, but at this point the show should be called Modern Frasier. It's hard to hate on Bill Hader's nomination because he continues to provide the shaky SNL with jolts of inspiration, but not at the expense of Nick Offerman. Ron Swanson year is for me the most inspired comedic creation since Arrested Development's Gob Bluth. At this point, a nomination will likely be impossible for him. You get nominated if you arrive in the public view or if your character does something new. Ron Swanson exists, he will never do something new. Nick Offerman's shots are now dashed.

- Louie for Actor but no Louie for Series? That ain't right. Especially considering the heights the show rose to. I'm talking about blowing the lid off punch up writers. I'm talking about the beautiful, touching airport season finale. Curb and 30 Rock attempted to bring new life into their shows, but Louie works outside the box so much he should be the envy of everyone. I'm not sure he's going to win for directing the "Duckling" episode. It's quite good, but if he can't win for that, it will be because he's starring in it, it's not incredibly funny, and people will view it as indulgent. If that's the case, then Lena Dunham has no business being up there. Curb won't take it and I doubt the two Modern Family directors will either. Maybe Jake Kasdan has a shot for New GIrl.

- As expected, Community got the shaft again. This great show has now lost Dan Harmon and will air on Friday's as Thirty MInutes of Community-Inspired Programming. I didn't expect something for Series or Animated Series (that ploy was a bit silly), or any of the sublime supporting performers either, but Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, and especially Alison Brie sorely deserve attention. Clearly there are a lot of Joosten boosters. With no clear lead in this field, I see Bowen again. Likewise, it would be great to see Chris McKenna win for the "Remedial Chaos Theory" episode of Community which everyone loves but I was never really on board with it. If anything, it continued to steer the show away from what I loved about it. And while it'd be great to see Amy Poehler win SOMETHING for P&R this year, "The Debate" was probably my least favorite episode last year. Especially compared to "Win Lose or Draw". It'll be Dunham, but I'm rooting for Louie even though the episodes "Oh, Louie/Tickets", "Eddie", and especially "New Jersey/Airport". It should be said that all of these shows are very good and even if these aren't the best episodes of their respective seasons, the quality, the voices, and the focus of writing in them is as good as any year.

- Conan never won anything for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He should have won for holding The Tonight Show hostage every night as he was being forced to leave. And he's not going to win for his TBS show either.

- In the Dramatic Directing category, I have a hunch that even though Vince Gilligan should win for the "Face Off" episode of Breaking Bad only because I have never talked about an episode of television in earnest until the next season came out, Michael Cuesta winning for the Homeland Pilot welcomes a new show clearly beloved into the club.

[Greg]

The biggest surprise for me is no writing nominations for Modern Family. Yay for Jared Harris.

[anonymous1980]

The nominations are out.

As per usual, there are some pleasant and unpleasant surprises. Lots of random-ass nominations here and there.

[anonymous1980]

When was this? Are you referring to the nod to Ellen Burstyn some years ago?

Yes. The Ellen Burstyn nod for Mrs. Harris which was basically a 15 second cameo. It shows that a lot of voters automatically check a known/respected name on a ballot without watching a film. It made the Academy institute a rule that in order for an actor to be eligible for submission, he or she must appear in at least 5% of the show/movie. Before they just submit any name they want to. HBO placed Ellen Burstyn's name automatically without thinking and Academy voters just checked her name automatically.

[Reza]

Aren't the lead/supporting mini-series/movies acting categories this year being combined?

Why would they want to do this?

That stated, the supporting categories did provide the single worst nomination in awards show history, so we know that won't happen again.

When was this? Are you referring to the nod to Ellen Burstyn some years ago?

[Okri]

Aren't the lead/supporting mini-series/movies acting categories this year being combined?

Why would they want to do this?

The stated reason was to make the show shorter and figure out a way to remove some extraneous categories. The real reason is that the big four networks are seeing their presence at the emmys eroding every year (it's a serious possibilty that none of the drama series nominees come from the big four) and a way to stick it to all those cable networks that actually make miniseries and movies. That stated, the supporting categories did provide the single worst nomination in awards show history, so we know that won't happen again.

[The Original BJ]

I thought the pilot of Girls was promising, but I found the season got worse and worse as it went on. The dialogue is often funny, but my god, are the show's writers purposely attempting to avoid any of the usual pleasures of narrative? The show's "plots" -- if you could call them that -- are about as half-hearted as they come. And I can't say I find the show anywhere near as insightful as it thinks it is -- for a series that is clearly trying to depict a more honest, less-glamorized version of twenty-something life than we usually get on TV, it sure does know how to fill the screen with characters who behave in ways that seem totally divorced from reality.

And Lena Dunham sure is oddly obsessed with making a spectacle out of her own body.

[Sabin]

anonymous wrote

Sabin wrote

anonymous wrote
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Nolan Gould, Modern Family (ABC)

Still?

Hope-dicting. He actually has a better shot this year.

You've got a better shot at a restraining order.


I've only seen the pilot of Girls. There's been so much back and forth pro-/anti-dialogue about it that I just missed out on. Now that there's a moment's peace where the conversation has pretty much died down, I should watch the rest of the season. What I liked about it was the dialogue, but I could easily see these characters getting old.

[danfrank]

My favorite new show is Girls (HBO). It's smart and incredibly funny. I hope it gets a boatload of nominations. Besides Best Comedy, Best Writing (Lena Dunham), and Best Actress (Lena Dunham), I'm hoping against odds that Adam Driver gets a supporting nomination for his "Adam," one of the most original characters I've seen in some time, a neanderthal with a sensitive streak. I also really like Zosia Mamet, who plays Shoshanna, the ultra-neurotic virgin. This character is the polar opposite of the confident character Mamet played on Mad Men (Joyce Ramsay, the lesbian Life Magazine photo editor who introduces Peggy to the hipster downtown life).

[anonymous1980]

anonymous wrote
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Nolan Gould, Modern Family (ABC)

Still?

Hope-dicting. He actually has a better shot this year.

[Sabin]

anonymous wrote
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Nolan Gould, Modern Family (ABC)

Still?

[anonymous1980]

The other problem that Mad Men has with performances is that very rarely to actors get episodes that really showcase them in great ways. The brilliance of their work is watching them stretched out over a season, or many seasons, and watching the layers of the characters slowly peel away. If you only watch the one or two episodes to vote for an Emmy, you can miss a lot of what they are doing and the impressiveness isn't caught.

This is exactly why despite winning the Outstanding Drama Emmy 4 years in a row, Mad Men has yet to win a single acting award.

Why would they want to do this?

I actually looked through this year's ballot and I actually sort of get why they did this. The list of names in the Supporting Actor/Actress in a miniseries/movie ballot is quite sparse. So I sort of get why they wanted to combine it. But then again, a great supporting performance in a miniseries/movie would have a tough time getting nominated much less win over a showy lead performance.

[FilmFan720]

I doubt Jared Harris gets a nomination. The truth is that until that pentultimate episode, the show really had no idea what to do with Harris. Lane had the worst subplots of the season (the wallet?) and floated around most of the season with no real purpose to the show. He only got the one episode, which granted he was very good in.

The other problem that Mad Men has with performances is that very rarely to actors get episodes that really showcase them in great ways. The brilliance of their work is watching them stretched out over a season, or many seasons, and watching the layers of the characters slowly peel away. If you only watch the one or two episodes to vote for an Emmy, you can miss a lot of what they are doing and the impressiveness isn't caught.