July 17th: Emmy's Almost Get it Right

I have been a huge advocate for the destruction, or at least renovation, of the Emmy system. Each yeah, I wait eagerly to see the finalists, and each year I am extremely disappointed swearing off the Emmy's for good (until next year comes along at least). However, I must admit that this year the panelists actually got it nearly right. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some huge glaring omissions, but a lot of deserving shows also got noticed, so maybe we are moving in the right direction.

In my view the most important category is Best Drama and when I heard about the ten semifinalists I thought the perfect five would be Lost, Mad Men, Dexter, Wire, and Damages. Now, for some reason (likely a tie) there was actually six finalists chosen, but four of them were from my list. Only The Wire (an extremely deserving show) was snubbed, and was replaced by House (which had its moments in an off season) and Boston Legal (I have no comment how this makes it). I was never too worried about Mad Men not making it, but to see both Dexter and Lost make it completely surprised me, because neither of which are shows the Emmy panel usually supports. While Lost is the show I want to win it the most; Dexter and Mad Men definitely deserve it as both are extremely intriguing shows that don't fit the traditional mold. Also, congrats to both Damages and Mad Men for being the first basic cable show to be nominated in the lead drama category.

Of course, there are the acting awards, which usually take even more criticism than the show categories. I mean, its easy to understand the hate for the Emmy's because the defending lead actor in a drama is James Spader (not that he is a bad actor, but his work on Boston Legal is not near the best in the industry). The problem with acting nominations, however, has to do with the system. An actor nominates him or herself for the role and submits two episodes for the panel to view. A perfect example of the flaw can be seen in House this year, a show that I am a fan of. House, as a whole, had a decrease of quality this season, yet they produced two absolutely amazing episodes (the first and the last). By submitting those two episodes, the panel could consider Hugh Laurie the best actor, despite the rest of the season not being near as high quality. Boston Legal has been the beneficiary of this system for years, as they usually produce one to two Emmy worthy episodes, with the rest of the season being fairly weak. However, another finalist in Michael C. Hall (Dexter), was superb in ever episode of the season, so submitting only two does not give him a clear advantage. The system is flawed, and yet this year I am not nearly as upset. Last year, the panelists overlooked Hall's superb performance, and yet this year he got the nomination he dearly deserves (and he deserves to win too). Also, Michael Emerson (who portrays Ben on Lost) got the nomination for best supporting actor, something that he has to be considered the favorite to win, although he is going against two highly rated actors from Damages. In the end, however, the only area I am disappointed in is supporting actress, as both Rita from Dexter and Sun Paik from Lost deserved to be part of that list, and their omission makes that one category that I will not be paying too much attention to.

Quick Notes:

~The Miniseries John Adams earned the most nominations with 21, while Mad Men had the most for a television show with 17. This is the first Emmy's without perennial powerhouse Sopranos, and without it HBO laid a goose egg in the major drama areas, for the first time sense before Sopranos even existed.

~Defending champ 30 Rock makes the finals, however Terry O'Quinn (Locke) won't be defending his supporting actor nomination this season. Katharine Hiegel did not even put herself in the running to defend her supporting actress nomination, and of the five finalists for best drama last year, only Boston Legal and House return to the nominations this year.

~I will not be posting next week (July 24th), however i will return to my regular weekly postings a week later, as I will be on a vacation in Rochester. However, please comment whether it be complaints about my opinions or errors, or just about who you would like to see win the Emmy's, who was snubbed, and all that good stuff.