Grid Effect

Well, that was fucking annoying. We had posted some links on Friday and a Thursday night network preview, and with the higher ups switching to a new server, it somehow managed to delete both posts. This is particularly annoying for the Thursday post, mainly because it was exceptionally funny and it is a timely thing. Meaning it was written for specific date and times that can’t be replicated.

Fuck it, we’ll just write the same exact thing for this Thursday. My apologies for that.

Anyhow, here’s a summarized version of what we said about the Emmy nominations on Friday. Basically, everything looked on the up and up set aside a few minor quibbles which aren’t worth getting into the details of (again), and the major complaint being the almost clean snub of The Wire yet again. It’s not like we were surprised by this outcome, if the fourth season couldn’t muster up a single nomination — which we’re on record as saying is the best season of television ever made — then what hope did the far inferior (but still better than everything else on television with the exception of Mad Men) fifth season really have? After two years of writing for this site, it’s a good thing this shit doesn’t bother me anymore.

The only aspect of this even remotely flummoxing about this is David Simon and Ed Burns manage to snag a writing nomination. And that is almost a disappointment, the series’ legacy would have been better off being unacknowledged altogether.

According to David Chase, these only go for $15 at your local pawn shop, perhaps there's a reason for the diminished market value?

Based on this nomination and one for the same category for season three’s penultimate episode “Middle Ground”, it would appear that Emmy voters are at least, to some extent, watching the series. So why the lack of nominations in all major categories (acting, directing and best drama)? Even they are spinning a giant wheel and nominating whichever name the pin falls under, you would assume The Wire would come up more than it has. We do not have an explanation other than the people running this shindig are fairly unenlightened. Ed Burns sees it as a willful lack of recognition for black actors, and we’re sure that factors in to some degree. But filming in Baltimore probably doesn’t help their cause. Or their fans cause rather, since Simon doesn’t give a shit about Emmy’s or any awards.

In other areas, Rescue Me and Dennis Leary were all but ignored. Which is probably a good thing, since multiple nominations would only inflate the already inflated ego. Mad Men and 30 Rock led the way with over fifteen nominations for each series (four of 30 Rock’s came in the best guest appearance category, which probably illustrates why we don’t watch the series more than anything else), while other multiple nomination recipients went to Damages, The Office, and just to prove how in love with itself Hollywood actually is: Entourage.

What’s most vexing about all this and how it relates to The Wire, is how many more cable nominations there are than ever before. This is good news. One would figure the increased recognition of non-broadcast series would boost the best series on television’s profile, but that wouldn’t appear to be the case. Maybe they can attribute the writing nom to this development.

Even though we consider the overall development a sign of progress, their is always a dissenting opinion. Take this stooge for example. Who claims that the Emmy’s are now out of touch with the common American viewer. To which we reply: Good. The average American viewer, if ratings are any indication, is either ten years old or a complete moron who watches, soul-crushing, mind-numbing trash that we’d be ashamed to even throw out, much less claim ownership to.

Maybe this development will hurt the ratings for the Emmy’s broadcast, but we are fairly indifferent to that as well. Since the show is nothing more than a self-congratulatory smug-fest it’s probably better that no one watches it. But it does seem if not important, then at least relevant, that the people running the show for television’s highest creative honors at least honor creative efforts.

Either way, this is a significant improvement from last year’s awards, and that is with our favorite show ever being ignored. I guess our expectations were low. Still, now that The Wire is done and nothing left for them to blatantly ignore that deserves their attention, maybe we’ll be impressed from here on out.