Thoughts on the Emmy Nominations

This morning it seems that everyone in Hollywood got nominated for an Emmy Award.  Seriously, with a 43-page word document full of lucky contenders, you might want to head over to the Emmy website to see if should be dress-shopping.  As this has basically turned into Emmy week on the blog, I thought it only appropriate to discuss some of the high and lowlights of this morning’s announcement.

The Good

The best nominations are almost always the ones that you didn’t expect.  I may be rooting for someone like Adam Driver or Peter Dinklage to get nominated, but the reality is that I expected those citations.  Therefore, the best nomination of the morning surely had to be Kate McKinnon over in Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.  McKinnon has been the best reason to turn into Saturday Night Live in the past few years what with her killer celebrity impressions and musical numbers, and I’m ecstatic to see that Emmy, who occasionally gets a bit starry-eyed (they usually only go for the household names like Amy Poehler or Kristin Wiig from SNL) with their nominations noticed her.  Double kudos to her nomination for writing the lyrics for the funniest skit in years for the show : “Twin Bed.”

I also have to applaud when Emmy notices someone who has been killer on her show for years.  Usually the Emmys only honor the same actors from a show over and over and over again rather than bringing in new blood or honoring other cast members, so Lena Headey’s nomination for her dynamite season on Game of Thrones is a wonderful surprise.

I also have to say just in general that while the nominations are frequently repetitive, there are so many quality options on television these days that Emmy has a harder time making a lot of mistakes.  I mean, Mad Men and Breaking Bad are back in Best Series, but it’s hard to argue with this.

And though I don’t watch it, all of the women getting nominated for Orange is the New Black is awesome.  A breakthrough show that’s female-centric and critical acclaimed doesn’t always guarantee nominations, particularly when the show isn’t brimming with stars, so kudos.  And I think it might be able to take Modern Family.

The Confusing

I have never understood how Emmy decides the number of nominees in each category.  Honestly, how is it that Miniseries gets six nominations (including for the flop Bonnie and Clyde) whereas Television Movie only has five?  It makes very little sense.

I also HATE what the Best Guest Actor races have become.  Beau Bridges, Diana Rigg, Robert Morse, and Gary Cole are all regulars on their particular shows-how can they qualify here?  And those are just the ones I know about-when it seems like only the SNL hosts are true guest stars, you need to reevaluate how this category functions and what it’s for (I vote no more than two episode appearances to qualify, personally).

The Bad

I have never been a big fan of what Robin Wright is doing in House of Cards, particularly when you put it next to what Elisabeth Moss consistently accomplishes on Mad Men.  I know that Wright is critically-acclaimed, but that show and performance leave me utterly cold and I would have preferred a citation for Peggy.

Also, The Big Bang Theory is in a serious rut, and while I like the show, it has nothing on the creative juices running through something like Girls (or if it was classified as a comedy, Looking).  I know it makes mountains of money, but isn’t it time to retire the show or expect something less repetitive from it?

The Ugly

None of the nominees, quite frankly, scream out “ugly!”  There are a few shows that I don’t care for that got nominated and there are a few shows I haven’t seen for a reason, but by-and-large this isn’t a bad list.  I am on record as not liking Ricky Gervais, so that’s probably the one I’m most annoyed by, but I admittedly don’t watch that show (which I thought was critically-maligned, so even more puzzling).

What I hate though, is Entertainment Weekly’s coverage of the Emmys.  HATE!!!!  The reason for this is because there is no greater awards show pet peeve that I have than when people complain about a snub and don’t point out who should go in their place (or complain about the show they haven’t watched in years shouldn’t have gotten nominated even though they have no way of knowing if the past season was any good).  I personally am stunned that the supporting women on Girls cannot seem to get nominated, but I’m not complaining about it because there’s not really a bad nominee in that field (I don’t watch Mom, but I do have a soft spot for Alison Janney and hear she is the MVP) and the ones that I would cut I don’t really watch.  You cannot complain about Charles Dance not getting nominated unless you’re willing to state who shouldn’t have been nominated in that very strong field.  EW used to have the guts to do something like point out which actors didn’t deserve their nominations, but now they just suck up and say who should have received nominations, and I will have none of it because you can’t have and don’t need 7,8,9 nominations (I don’t even go over there anymore for awards coverage, but I wanted to double check that they still do this stupid activity…and they do).

Those are my brief thoughts in what was a fairly predictable (I did well on my predictions) morning.  Who are you most excited for?  Whose nomination should disappear?  And who is that great snub you’re bitter about (and don’t forget to say who should have lost their slot in their place)?  Share in the comments!