By now you’ve had enough time to pore through this year’s Emmy nominees, and you’re either really mad or really *shrug*. Both sides make good points, and like it is every year, the Emmys got a lot of things right and A LOT of things wrong. Here are five of each, beginning with the good stuff, which doesn’t include obvious things like heaps of Breaking Bad and True Detective praise.
1. Not that it matters, because Modern Family will win the damn thing like it always does, but it was nice to see Silicon Valley, which basically stole Girls space, and Orange Is the New Black join repeat nominees Louie and Veep in Outstanding Comedy Series. That’s not a half-bad lineup (sorry, Parks). Here’s hoping the greatest dick joke in TV history was the thing that swayed voters.
2. A special someone is missing in the Outstanding Actress In a Drama category, but praise be Lizzy Caplan for getting her much-deserved first Emmy nomination. The Emmys has a weird boner for Showtime series (see: Episodes, Nurse Jackie, Homeland, etc.), but Masters actually deserves its multiple nominations. Lizzy vs. Julianna Margulies is like a sexier Cranston vs. McConaughey.
3. Swapping out whatever the hell Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Project is for Rick & Morty would have been nice, but the Outstanding Animated Program category includes not only one of the greatest cartoons on TV but one of the finest SHOWS overall, Bob’s Burgers, and that’s all that matters.
4. The always enjoyable Kate McKinnon is the best reason to still watch SNL, and it’s nice to see that she received this year’s Bill Hader/Kristen Wiig Honorary Nomination For an SNL Cast Member Who Has No Chance of Winning but Should In Favor of Julie Bowen or Blossom.
5. Fargo‘s decision to not pull a True Detective paid off handsomely. Basically everyone in the cast was nominated, including should-be winners Martin Freeman (JUST over Billy Bob) and Allison Tolman, and as long as voters aren’t blind to the obvious, Fargo is the clear Outstanding Miniseries frontrunner.
BONUS BEST-EVER THING TO HAPPEN TO THE EMMYS.
Now let’s go to the bad stuff.
1. Not only did I think Tatiana Maslany was going to get a nomination, I thought she had a decent chance at winning. She’s received accolades for her clone-club work on Orphan Black from practically every other awards show, but not the Emmys. Why? Well, the obvious answer is, they have no idea what to do with genre shows. And to further the insult, they didn’t even give her vacant slot to Elisabeth Moss.
2. The Sopranos, 24, CSI, Joan of Arcadia, The West Wing. Those were the five nominees for Outstanding Drama Series exactly 10 years ago, when it was unthinkable that the Emmys woul ever completely ignore network dramas, yet here we are: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, True Detective, Downton Abbey, and House of Cards. It’s hard to complain with the first four, but The Americans and The Good Wife, which could have been the token drama (though deserved!), had much better seasons than Downton and the increasingly campy Cards. Not to mention…
3. WE STILL LOVE YOU HANNIBAL.
4. Seriously, Ray Donovan‘s Jon Voight for Outstanding Supporting Actor over Charles Dance, Walton Goggins, Michael K. Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Norman Reedus, Vincent Kartheiser, etc.? WHAT IS SHOWTIME BLACKMAILING EMMY VOTERS WITH? How do you feel about this, Pete?
5. Game of Thrones was nominated 19 times, but couldn’t they have gotten just one more?
Rough year for that guy.
