I knew I was likely to be unhappy with the Emmy nominations. I didn't expect them to be so atrocious.
And lazy. Just unbelievably, disappointingly lazy.
The Good
Best drama: Breaking Bad, True Detective. And I'm okay with House of Cards, but not over the Good Wife or the Americans. Ditto for True Detective being in the WRONG CATEGORY.
Best comedy: I have yet to see Silicon Valley, Louie or Veep, but those all seem like fine choices. Orange is the New Black is good.
Best mini: Fargo. I'll say AHS, too, for the Kathy Bates bits, but lets all hope next season is a return to form.
Best actor - drama: Bryan Cranston, Kevin Spacey, Matthew McConaughey. I'm surprised Woody Harrelson got in for lead, but I think he was as good as McConaughey, without the flashy speeches.
Best actress - drama: Juliana Margulies - THANK GOD, Robin Wright and Lizzy Caplan.
Best supporting actor - drama: Aaron Paul, Josh Charles - THANK GOD. I'm okay with Peter Dinklage, even though I don't think it was his best season.
Best supporting actress - drama: CHRISTINE BARANSKI! YAAAY! Lena Headey, too.
Best actor - comedy: Nice to see William H. Macy up for Shameless, and I suppose he is sometimes funny, even though the show is not a comedy. I don't really have a dog in the fight otherwise.
Best supporting actress - comedy: Kate Mulgrew!! Yay!!
Best actor - mini/movie: Cumberbatches. Sure, fine. Billy Bob Thorton was wonderful in Fargo - I hope he wins.
Best actress - mini/movie: The AHS ladies. As always.
Best supporting actor - mini/movie: Colin Hanks! Yay! I'm so glad he made it in. He did such a great job in that role. I have yet to see the Normal Heart, so no opinions there.
Best supporting actress - mini/movie: this may be the only category that makes me happy. All the AHS ladies, plus Alison Tolman, who was completely wonderful in Fargo and absolutely deserves to win.
Best animated: Archer! FINALLY.
Best guest actor - drama: Dylan Baker! Yay!
Best guest actress - drama: Allison Janney. I SO hope she wins. She was heart-breaking in Masters of Sex. Margo Martindale, too.
Best guest actress - comedy: Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox and Natasha Lyonne all made it in.
As for Title Design, I quite like Black Sails, although True Detective is fine, too. I actually think Masters of Sex could've been something better.
The Bad and the Ugly
God, just so much in this category. Mostly just that the majority of nominations are re-hashes, without any seeming thought. Sure, we've nominated Jon Hamm before. Let's do it again.
Best drama: No Good Wife, no Americans, no Masters of Sex, no Hannibal. More on Hannibal here.
Best comedy: Eh, I would have loved to see Parks and Rec. It wasn't its best season, but Ben convincing Leslie to take the National Parks job at the Marin Headlands made me cry (starts at about 16:45).
Best mini: The White Queen. Which was canceled. Bonnie and Clyde, which did not get great reviews. And the fact that True Detecitve is being submitted under Drama because of some arcane bylaw that "created by Nic Pizzolatto" rather than "created for television by Nic Pizzolatto" in the credits invalidates it as a mini series, despite being an anthology show IS INSANE.
Best actor - drama: No Matthew Rhys. That's just awful. He SO deserved to be up. No Michael Sheen. Jeff Daniels is up, which is just vomit-inducing. I didn't think it was a good idea to put Mads Mikkelsen in for lead, but who knows if he would've made it in supporting - that's the category with the most competition. I mean - he could've been up for Best Actor at the Oscars last year - it's awful of the Emmys not to recognize how brilliant he is as Hannibal.
Best actress - drama: No Eva Green, no Keri Russell, no Tatiana Maslany.
Best supporting actor - drama: No Dean Norris, no Michael Kelly, still no Walton Goggins, no Peter Sarsgaard, no Jeffrey Wright. Dean Norris is the one that really hurts - he deserved to be up for Hank's final run. I'm used to Boyd being overlooked. Kinda.
Best supporting actress - drama: Joanne Froggatt was so astoundingly godawful on Robin Hood that I think she should be banned from acting awards, on general principal. No Annet Mahendru, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Jennifer Carpenter, Carolina Dhavernas or Maisie Williams.
Best actress - comedy: Taylor Schilling? Really? Poor Emmy Rossum. She is so good on that show, and if William H. Macy is going to get nomination, then she really deserves one more.
Best supporting actor - comedy: No Jeremy Allen White, Christopher Evan Welch, Nick Offerman or Charlie Day.
Best supporting actress - comedy: No Merritt Wever? She gave the best speech last year!
Best actor - mini/movie: Martin Freeman - he was in many ways the weakest link in the Fargo cast.
Best guest actor - drama: No one from Hannibal. Boo.
Best guest actress - drama: No Charlotte Rampling, no Carrie Preston, no Gillian Anderson, no Julianne Nicholson, and, now that I think about it, no Laura Benanti.
Best guest actor - comedy: No Walton Goggins or Jonathan Banks.
The Factoids
Up for Best Song are Key and Peele's awesome Les Mis song and the 2013 Tony opener.
Key & Peele and Inside Schumer are up for writing for a Variety Series. I kind of want Amy to win for the Sorkin parody.
The Soup: True Detective is up for Short-format. What is this?
Rian Johnson is NOT up for directing Ozymandias.
EVEN SLEEPY HOLLOW GOT NOMINATED. HOW DO YOU SHUT OUT HANNIBAL
Matt Zoller Seitz on the Emmy snubs here. The best part:
"I also need just to go on record here and say (1) the worst ten minutes of Hannibal display more tonal control and visual imagination than the best hour of almost any other drama you can name, even the great ones; and (2) it should have been nominated here; and (3) it doesn't matter that it wasn't nominated because 20 or 30 years down the road, young students of cinema and television will ask their elders if they watched Hannibal during its first run, and they'll all lie and claim they watched every second, like people do today when young viewers ask about Twin Peaks."
The full nominations (with the good bolded):
Outstanding Drama Series
"Breaking Bad"
"Downton Abbey"
"Game of Thrones"
"House of Cards"
"Mad Men"
"True Detective" - shouldn't be in this category, though
And lazy. Just unbelievably, disappointingly lazy.
The Good
Best drama: Breaking Bad, True Detective. And I'm okay with House of Cards, but not over the Good Wife or the Americans. Ditto for True Detective being in the WRONG CATEGORY.
Best comedy: I have yet to see Silicon Valley, Louie or Veep, but those all seem like fine choices. Orange is the New Black is good.
Best mini: Fargo. I'll say AHS, too, for the Kathy Bates bits, but lets all hope next season is a return to form.
Best actor - drama: Bryan Cranston, Kevin Spacey, Matthew McConaughey. I'm surprised Woody Harrelson got in for lead, but I think he was as good as McConaughey, without the flashy speeches.
Best actress - drama: Juliana Margulies - THANK GOD, Robin Wright and Lizzy Caplan.
Best supporting actor - drama: Aaron Paul, Josh Charles - THANK GOD. I'm okay with Peter Dinklage, even though I don't think it was his best season.
Best supporting actress - drama: CHRISTINE BARANSKI! YAAAY! Lena Headey, too.
Best actor - comedy: Nice to see William H. Macy up for Shameless, and I suppose he is sometimes funny, even though the show is not a comedy. I don't really have a dog in the fight otherwise.
Best supporting actress - comedy: Kate Mulgrew!! Yay!!
Best actor - mini/movie: Cumberbatches. Sure, fine. Billy Bob Thorton was wonderful in Fargo - I hope he wins.
Best actress - mini/movie: The AHS ladies. As always.
Best supporting actor - mini/movie: Colin Hanks! Yay! I'm so glad he made it in. He did such a great job in that role. I have yet to see the Normal Heart, so no opinions there.
Best supporting actress - mini/movie: this may be the only category that makes me happy. All the AHS ladies, plus Alison Tolman, who was completely wonderful in Fargo and absolutely deserves to win.
Best animated: Archer! FINALLY.
Best guest actor - drama: Dylan Baker! Yay!
Best guest actress - drama: Allison Janney. I SO hope she wins. She was heart-breaking in Masters of Sex. Margo Martindale, too.
Best guest actress - comedy: Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox and Natasha Lyonne all made it in.
As for Title Design, I quite like Black Sails, although True Detective is fine, too. I actually think Masters of Sex could've been something better.
The Bad and the Ugly
God, just so much in this category. Mostly just that the majority of nominations are re-hashes, without any seeming thought. Sure, we've nominated Jon Hamm before. Let's do it again.
Best drama: No Good Wife, no Americans, no Masters of Sex, no Hannibal. More on Hannibal here.
Best comedy: Eh, I would have loved to see Parks and Rec. It wasn't its best season, but Ben convincing Leslie to take the National Parks job at the Marin Headlands made me cry (starts at about 16:45).
Best mini: The White Queen. Which was canceled. Bonnie and Clyde, which did not get great reviews. And the fact that True Detecitve is being submitted under Drama because of some arcane bylaw that "created by Nic Pizzolatto" rather than "created for television by Nic Pizzolatto" in the credits invalidates it as a mini series, despite being an anthology show IS INSANE.
Best actor - drama: No Matthew Rhys. That's just awful. He SO deserved to be up. No Michael Sheen. Jeff Daniels is up, which is just vomit-inducing. I didn't think it was a good idea to put Mads Mikkelsen in for lead, but who knows if he would've made it in supporting - that's the category with the most competition. I mean - he could've been up for Best Actor at the Oscars last year - it's awful of the Emmys not to recognize how brilliant he is as Hannibal.
Best actress - drama: No Eva Green, no Keri Russell, no Tatiana Maslany.
Best supporting actor - drama: No Dean Norris, no Michael Kelly, still no Walton Goggins, no Peter Sarsgaard, no Jeffrey Wright. Dean Norris is the one that really hurts - he deserved to be up for Hank's final run. I'm used to Boyd being overlooked. Kinda.
Best supporting actress - drama: Joanne Froggatt was so astoundingly godawful on Robin Hood that I think she should be banned from acting awards, on general principal. No Annet Mahendru, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Jennifer Carpenter, Carolina Dhavernas or Maisie Williams.
Best actress - comedy: Taylor Schilling? Really? Poor Emmy Rossum. She is so good on that show, and if William H. Macy is going to get nomination, then she really deserves one more.
Best supporting actor - comedy: No Jeremy Allen White, Christopher Evan Welch, Nick Offerman or Charlie Day.
Best supporting actress - comedy: No Merritt Wever? She gave the best speech last year!
Best actor - mini/movie: Martin Freeman - he was in many ways the weakest link in the Fargo cast.
Best guest actor - drama: No one from Hannibal. Boo.
Best guest actress - drama: No Charlotte Rampling, no Carrie Preston, no Gillian Anderson, no Julianne Nicholson, and, now that I think about it, no Laura Benanti.
Best guest actor - comedy: No Walton Goggins or Jonathan Banks.
The Factoids
Up for Best Song are Key and Peele's awesome Les Mis song and the 2013 Tony opener.
Key & Peele and Inside Schumer are up for writing for a Variety Series. I kind of want Amy to win for the Sorkin parody.
The Soup: True Detective is up for Short-format. What is this?
Rian Johnson is NOT up for directing Ozymandias.
EVEN SLEEPY HOLLOW GOT NOMINATED. HOW DO YOU SHUT OUT HANNIBAL
Matt Zoller Seitz on the Emmy snubs here. The best part:
"I also need just to go on record here and say (1) the worst ten minutes of Hannibal display more tonal control and visual imagination than the best hour of almost any other drama you can name, even the great ones; and (2) it should have been nominated here; and (3) it doesn't matter that it wasn't nominated because 20 or 30 years down the road, young students of cinema and television will ask their elders if they watched Hannibal during its first run, and they'll all lie and claim they watched every second, like people do today when young viewers ask about Twin Peaks."
The full nominations (with the good bolded):
Outstanding Drama Series
"Breaking Bad"
"Downton Abbey"
"Game of Thrones"
"House of Cards"
"Mad Men"
"True Detective" - shouldn't be in this category, though
