Raising Hope is Wacky. So is the definition of "GUEST ACTOR"Now that this morning's Emmy nominations have sunk in here's a few things we didn't cover earlier or didn't dig deep enough into in the earlier rundown, largely inspired by your comments.
Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
This is where we are reminded that the Emmys have too many categories and category fraud adjusts to include all of them. How on god's green earth is Cloris Leachman a "guest actress" on Raising Hope when she's a member of the main family and in every single episode? I see her winning with that unfortunate advantage given that the Glee nominees (Gwyneth Paltrow, Kristin Chenoweth, Dot Marie Jones as "Beiste") may cancel each other out and Tina Fey (as host of SNL) is already buried in Emmys. Since I am adamantly opposed to category fraud and since Gwynnie's follow up Glee visits paled in comparison to her first and since Cheno had virtually nothing to do this season, my vote would have to go to Elizabeth Banks for 30 Rock.
Guest Actor & Actress in Drama Series
These categories usually belong to the Law & Order franchise but this year we're blissfully absent of rapists, perverts and victims. Unless some of the characters I'm unfamiliar with qualify and who knows. Three Mad Men made the grade including Cara Buono's jilted businesswoman, Robert Morse ("Cooper" of Sterling Cooper) and everyone's favorite dead woman "Miss Blankenship" (Randee Heller).
"'Who got an Emmy nod for mouthing off and getting Lafayette laid proper?' I DID, HOOKER"True Blood's Troubles
True Blood which we've been writing about generally gets 3-5 Emmy nominations but last year it added a surprise "Best Drama Series" to its tally. This year it was demoted again with only four nominations for its third season, the one about the V addicted werewolves and the King of Mississippi. The weirdest bit of awards trivia for True Blood though: It has never been nominated for any acting prizes with Emmy (it's won Globes) until now and the person who did it for them is Alfre Woodard who basically only cameo'd in Season 3 as Lafayette's crazy homophobic mama.
It goes to show you, just like Kathy Bates's lead actress nomination, that sometimes all you need is to be an actor who brings "prestige" on to the set with them and you're in.
Reality
I've long maintained that despite this genre of television's dearth of originality, Emmy still can't separate the wheat from the chaff. How is it that The Amazing Race wins every year and Project Runway, even at its peak, couldn't? And how stupid that RuPaul's Drag Race, the one reality show that seems to both totally "get" and use the genre's inherent and inescapable self absorption and branding repetition in witty self absorbed and branded ways can't even get itself a nomination. Not even for RuPaul as host!
Costume Design
Nobody speaks of this at the Emmys but costume design is always interesting even when the nominees aren't. It speaks, like awards always do, to what people value. It's beyond maddening that Janie Bryant, who is a straight up genius and crucial to Mad Men's iconicity as a pop culture phenomenon, has never won an Emmy. This year she's nominated again for one of the season's strongest episodes. She has an astonishing gift at stitching characterization to theme and vice versa and then detailing the look with period specificity and accessorizing it with eye candy. In short her work is versatile and trascendant and richly deserving of gold statues; I fully expect her to lose again
"The Beautiful Girls" (Hendricks, Moss, Buono) are all nominated for Emmys this year!
The Shortlist
Boardwalk Empire "Anastasia" John Dunn
The Borziaga "Lucretia's Wedding" Gabriel Pescucci
Game of Thrones "The Pointy End" Michelle Clapton
Glee "New York" Lou A. Eyrich
Mad Men "Beautiful Girls" Janie Bryant
Supporting Actress Comedy
I started to get at this earlier this morning when I mentioned that I think Jane Lynch, a wonderful performer, did not deserve a nomination this year for Glee. They've written her Coach Sylvester into too many one-note corners on Glee and whenever they try to give her more to work with -- such as in the maudlin funeral episode when her mentally disabled sister died -- it usually comes off as elaborately contrived specifically to give her something more to work with. The character was an instant hit but too one-note in concept for long haul pleasures. But the Emmys being the Emmys, Lynch will probably be nominated until Glee goes off the air. And the more I thought of Lynch's default nomination the more it occurred to me that even my beloved Jane Krakowski was maybe nominated by default, too. First I should say that "Jenna" is, give or take Jack Donaghy, the best character on 30 Rock and Krakowski has earned the Emmy she has yet to win several times over. But then I'd have to add that if you're judging solely by the season you're supposed to be judging by this may have been her weakest year. The overall quality of 30 Rock was down which can't have helped but her material last year (like dating a drag version of herself) was hugely inspired in comparison. So if I had to construct the perfect lineup for this particular tv year (the 2010/2011 season) it might actually look like this.
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Heather Morris & Naya Rivera (special joint nomination), Glee
Busy Philipps, Cougar Town
Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family.
It might. I'm still thinking about it. (Since I don't actually get a ballot, I can take my sweet time.) Do you like my Emmy lineup here or will you stick with the official one?