Grid Effect

So it appears the Emmy nominations came out today, and although we couldn’t care less about any of this shit, we are writing a TV blog so there’s a sense of obligation to pay attention to it. One highlight we noticed — and it’s only because his magnum opus was so absurdly overlooked by the Emmys — was David Simon’s adaptation of the Evan Wright novel, Generation Kill snagging eleven nominations. I would love it if he didn’t even bother showing up, but as noteworthy as he is for being irritable, I doubt he’s that big of a prick. Even though he should be.

With that said, let’s rundown the nominees for the best acting, best writing and best comedy and drama series’, because there isn’t much else that’s been transpiring for the past 27 hours. If you want to see the full list because we’re being nothing if not non-comprehensive, go here.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Lost “The Incident”
Mad Men “A Night To Remember”
Mad Men “Six Month Leave”
Mad Men “The Jet Set”
Mad Men “Meditations In An Emergency”

Looks like Mad Men is officially the new Sopranos. While I appreciate the fact that it’s garnering so much attention, I can’t stand the fact that everything else is overlooked at it’s expense. I’m about two episodes into the second season of Breaking Bad, and I can all but guarantee that it’s being overlooked in some capacity. Same with Friday Night Lights and BSG (though the few episodes I’ve seen always did strike me as heavy-handed. Anyways, I liked all these Mad Men episodes, but I can’t believe “The Mountain King” wasn’t among the nominees. Of those I’m probably taking “Meditations In An Emergency” to win in a landslide, but “Six Month Leave” would be our selection.

Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series
Flight of The Conchords, “Prime Minister”
30 Rock, “Reunion”
30 Rock, “Apollo, Apollo”
30 Rock “Mama Mia”
30 Rock “Kidney Now”

And it looks like 30 Rock is the new Friends (with the small caveat of actually being good). My reaction to this was pretty much the same as it was to Mad Men, except there was so much more competition in this field. No nominations for The Office or Life and Times of Tim or South Park or Weeds? Anyhow, amongst the choices I’d go with “Reunion”, but again, I’m amazed that “The Natural Order” isn’t nominated. You nominate a fifth of a season for writing awards and you don’t even get the right fifth.

Best Actor in A Drama Series
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House

Sorry Jon Hamm and Michael C. Hall, Bryan Cranston deserves back-to-back wins for this. One of your characters comes down with cancer or starts dealing heavy narcotics, then we’ll talk. But right now Cranston absolutely carries an already great series (whereas Hall carries a mediocre one and Hamm is great but the ensemble is just as impressive).

Best Actress in A Drama Series
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

You probably won’t go wrong with Close or Sedgwick, but Moss should win this in a landslide. Whatever, if Sally Field wins this award again we might start a petition to get that series — a series we didn’t realize was still on the air until just this second– off the air, if for no other reason than in the eyes of this site, ABC should have lost the right to still create original programming fifteen years ago.

Best Actor in A Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Jemaine Clement, Flight of th Conchords
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

Do the nominees ever change for this category. Sure, we have Jemaine Clement and Jim Parsons bringing in some new blood, but how many times have Sheen, Shalhoub, Carell and Baldwin been nominated? I guess the bright side is the last two were deserved. Anyways, Carell should win for all the range Carell showed with Michael Scott’s extremely reluctant growth, but I think we all know Baldwin is taking this home.

Best Actress in A Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program

I’m not so certain that half of these aren’t really comedy roles (Parker, Collette and Applegate specifically). With that out of the way, I’m probably giving it to Fey and for the first time since we’ve been writing this, we agree with Emmy voters.

Best Comedy Series
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

Tough field, though I don’t know how they justify giving it to anyone other than 30 Rock. Great comedy stems from great writing, and when four out of the five nominees are for one show and from the same committee that’s determining the best writing category, it seems pretty self-explanatory. I’d obviously go with The Office, since I know it’s a pipe dream for It’s Always Sunny to ever be nominated for anything other than a Spike TV award (or whatever that shit is called).

Best Drama Series
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

As much as we love Breaking Bad, our pick is still Mad Men. It wouldn’t surprise me if they made an exception in this case and gave it to Lost, simply because it’s on a network and infinitely more people want to see it win, which I’m sure might endure the masses to the broadcast. Still disappointing that FNL can’t get any love, but I really shouldn’t be surprised.

We didn’t want to get into supporting acting, guest acting or variety categories because this shit is already being given about six hundred more words than it deserves, but there was plenty more to like and dislike (easier to read list of nominees here). Specifically, I thought the supporting actor and actress nominees for comedy made a lot of sense, but the same can’t be said for the supporting actress nominees for drama. How do January Jones and Christina Hendricks get snubbed here? How? What are they seeing that I’m not or vice versa?

Also, while Generation Kill did receive eleven nominations, none of them were for acting. I’m guessing the voters had difficultly telling the characters apart, but Alexander Skarsgard (whom you can now see in True Blood as something named Eric Northman), James Ransone, Lee Tergerson and Brian Wade were all pretty remarkable with the time they were given.

If we had any complaints, along with The Shield getting snubbed those were probably the three most notable. But for an awards show that saw five seasons of The Wire and only nominated it twice for writing Emmys, it has obviously invalidated itself. I hope they enjoy the swag of whatever it’s called from the networks and advertisers, maybe some day these meaningless awards will have some legitimacy to them.

Back later with some links.