Over the last few years, the Emmy Awards [Sunday, NBC, 8/7C] given [in theory] to the best and brightest on television, have been spread among more and more worthy selections and fewer and fewer winners from force of habit. True they may never be able to satisfy everyone, but this, for example, there were maybe a handful of nominations that didn’t seem right [or fair] and only one truly egregious error – at least to my mind.
Most TV critics publish a list of nominations they think should win and one of noms they expect will win. Since I’ve never been able to really settle into the whole prediction mode thing, this year I’m just going to present my opinions of who should win in the major categories – and leave predictions to The Amazing Kreskin. My choices follow the jump.
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
Jane Lynch [Glee]
Julie Bowen [Modern Family]
Sofia Vergara [Modern Family]
Kristen Wiig [Saturday Night Live]
Jane Krakowski [30 Rock]
Holland Taylor [Two And A Half Men]
With the exception of Holland Taylor, everyone on this list deserves recognition [Murse Jackie’s Eve Best and Merritt Wever, for example, could easily have replaced Taylor and made the category more competitive]. As deserving as they are to be here, though, Jane Lynch should win because Sue Sylvester is a once-in-a-lifetime role and Lynch nails her every time.
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Chris Colfer [Glee]
Neil Patrick Harris [How I Met Your Mother]
Jesse Tyler Ferguson [Modern Family]
Eric Stonestreet [Modern Family]
Ty Burrell [Modern Family]
Jon Cryer [Two And A Half Men]
As with Holland Taylor in the supporting Actress category, Jon Cryer is the odd man out here. He’s clearly here more through inertia than anything else. Even though an Ed O’Neill nom would have made this the Modern Family category, he was far better, far more often than Cryer was when 2.5 Men was new and kinda funny. His absence isn’t quite the faux pas that exists in the Supporting Actor, Drama category, but it is a significant good.
For the category as it stands, I’d have to go with Eric Stonestreet for his ability to take a role that could easily have gotten bogged down in stereotypical behavior and making Cam genuinely unique. His mix of carefully doled out nuance and over-the-top gung ho joy is simply brilliant.
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Sharon Gless [Burn Notice]
Rose Byrne [Damages]
Archie Panjabi [The Good Wife]
Christine Baranski [The Good Wife]
Christina Hendricks [Mad Men]
Elisabeth Moss [Mad Men]
Again, we have a category where fice of six nominees have been brilliant while one has only been very good. Frankly, as much as I love Burn Notice – and Madeline Westen, the character is simply not as complex and involving as, say, Betsy Brandt’s Marie [Breaking Bad] or Emilie de Ravin’s crazy quilt Claire [Lost].
In the end, this category, for me, comes down to Mad Men’s Joan Holloway [Christine Hendricks] and Peggy Olson [Elizabeth Moss]. Joan is a showier role, but not without her complexities, while Peggy is a less obvious but equally as complex character. I’d be happy if either wins, but the Emmy should go to Moss.
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
Aaron Paul [Breaking Bad]
Martin Short [Damages]
Terry O’Quinn [Lost]
Michael Emerson [Lost]
John Slattery [Mad Men]
Andre Braugher [Men Of A Certain Age]
This is the category in which the most egregious error took place. The actor who should win this category, John Noble [Fringe’s Walter Bishop/Walternate] wasn’t even nominated. Even though Braugher has been exceptional on Men of a Certain Age, in a category this strong, he doesn’t compare with the man they omitted.
As the list stands, I have to go with Lost’s Michael Emerson. His Ben Linus has always been a complex character, and it’s always been difficult to decide whether he was just plain evil, or the good giy he claimed to be. With the “flash-sideways” arc, this season, we got to see the Ben who might have existed had The Island never been – and we got to see the Island Ben strive for redemption. Emerson bright more colors to the character than in any previous season and for that reason alone, he should take home the sharp golden object.
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
Lea Michele [Glee]
Julia Louis-Dreyfus [The New Adventures Of Old Christine]
Edie Falco [Nurse Jackie]
Amy Poehler [Parks And Recreation]
Tina Fey [30 Rock]
Toni Collette [United States Of Tara]
This category features a lot of showy roles, none more so than Toni Collette’s Tara. While the other five nominees have colorful, well developed characters and have done great work in bringing them to life, Collette has given us a character who is a handful of different characters in one – and made each of those characters as believable as Tara. No one else in this category has as much to do, nor have they done so quite this well. Collette should be a lock here.
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
Jim Parsons [The Big Bang Theory]
Larry David [Curb Your Enthusiasm]
Matthew Morrison [Glee]
Tony Shalhoub [Monk]
Steve Carell [The Office]
Alec Baldwin [30 Rock]
I’ll admit it – I don’t get Curb Your Enthusiasm. Maybe it’s because there are no characters that aren’t mean, vicious and utterly self-centered [my same problem with It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia, by the way], and they never seem to get anywhere. I’ve tried to watch The big Bang Theory but it’s predictability has me changing channels before the end of the first act. Monk became sillier and sillier as the series wore on, and The Office is now past its prime.
In theory, this should mean that the Emmy will go to either Alec Baldwin or Matthew Morrison. On the other hand, as silly as Monk could get, Tony Shalhoub never played a false note as phobia-ridden, OCD title character and was a marvel to watch right up to the series finale. And Jim Parsons has garnered heaps of praise for playing a character that is, essentially, Adrian Monk as a physics whiz. So, who knows?
I would give the Emmy to Matthew Morrison because it doesn’t matter if a particular episode of Glee is brilliant or too, too much – Morrison is almost never less than brilliant.
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series
Kyra Sedgwick [The Closer]
Glenn Close [Damages]
Connie Britton [Friday Night Lights]
Julianna Margulies [The Good Wife]
Mariska Hargitay [Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]
January Jones [Mad Men ]
The Emmys’ nominating committee may have gone to the well once too often with Mariska Hargitay, but it’s hard to fault for it. Hargitay is another series lead who never phones it in. January Jones is an interesting selection – her character is the most tightly wound in the category and the most likely to have a series of mental breakdowns, but that is almost never shown onscreen. Jones is a marvel at playing subtext.
Still, when you get right down to it, this category belongs to two nominees: Kyra Sedgwick, whose brilliance elevates to solid The Closer, and Julianna Margulies, who leads the season’s best new drama, The Good Wife. Sedgwick tends to carry The Closer, while Margulies has a better ensemble and consistently better writing. I have to go with Margulies because the excellence of her show’s ensemble
pushes her to a higher level, more consistently.
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series
Bryan Cranston [Breaking Bad]
Michael C. Hall [Dexter]
Kyle Chandler [Friday Night Lights]
Hugh Laurie [House]
Matthew Fox [Lost]
Jon Hamm [Mad Men]
This is absolutely the strongest category, this year. Despite Bryan Cranston’s two straight wins, I have to go with Michael C. Hall as my choice. Hall’s Dexter went through a spectacular kind of hell this season and the self-proclaimed monster never seemed more human. Working with a terrific ensemble, and jousting with his most brilliant foe yet – in John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer – Dexter maintained his adherence to his code at the expense of the person who most helped him to fit in. Then there’s the fact that Dexter’s adherence to his code [as a serial killer, he targets serial killer’s almost exclusively – there was that pedophile who was targeting his stepdaughter…] makes him both more moral and more ethical than most non-psychopaths. That’s not an easy stunt to pull off, especially while his life seems to be falling apart around him. Hall is definitely the actor who should take the award, this year.
Outstanding Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Glee
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie
The Office
30 Rock
I’ve already made my feelings about Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office clear, so here’s a quick overview of the rest: 30 Rock is [just] past its peak; Glee is usually either brilliant or wildly off the rails; Nurse Jackie seems stick in neutral, and Modern Family is consistently excellent.
Glee could win because it’s something new and shiny – and frequently brilliant [but when it misses… whoa!]. Modern Family is both a brilliant traditional sitcom and a subversive delight with its willingness to accept that there are new types of families evolving. I love both shows, but Modern Family should win simply because it has far fewer lows than Glee – and its brilliant eps are every bit as good.
Outstanding Drama Series
Breaking Bad
Dexter
The Good Wife
Lost
Mad Men
True Blood
Next to Outstanding Lead Actor n a Drama Series, this is the strongest category, this year. Despite my love for Lost, I have to go with another series here – even though I was one of those who found the Lost series finale to be something wonderful. [I should just mention that I love each of these series, if for different reasons.]
For all the reasons that Michael C. Hall should win the Actor, Drama category, Dexter should take home the gold for Outstanding Series, Drama. Just for the record, though, I won’t be disappointed with this category no matter which show wins. Just sayin’…