Emmy Nom Hangover: Snubs & Peculiarities
Saturday, July 12, 2014 at 9:58AM Apologies for my radio silence yesterday. Off my game I was for the entire day plus which means I'm know 36 hours behind on writing projects. Hooray. Nevertheless, because Emmy nominations are still very much on my mind after the initial response and the main titles detour (oh don't pretend you aren't still thinking about them) I polled a few members of Team Experience about their feelings. And here's what they had to say on four questions. Answer them yourself in the comments, too. The more the merrier.
What's the Nomination That Most Perplexes You?
Adam Armstrong: Kristen Wiig – The Spoils of Babylon. When I read her name among the nominees, I was like:
...Pure, unadulterated, ecstatic, confused bliss.
Andrew Kendall: So many options, but it's impossible for me to let Christina Hendricks in Mad Men just pass - for so many reasons. Everyone loves Joan and Hendricks is one Mad Men's finest actors but in the seven episode "half season" 2014 gave up what did Joan Harris even do to warrant a citation? I'm always willing to defend the Emmy voters when people accuse them of voting without watching (maybe they just have trite tastes?) but can anyone have watched this last season of television and sincerely felt Christina Hendricks did anything of note? Her nomination this particular season is even more of an albatross to the category than Maggie Smith's never ending series of nominations for frowning on Downton Abbey.
Dancin' Dan: Michelle Dockery, Lead Actress in a Drama. Does she actually do ANYTHING remotely interesting or difficult on Downton Abbey? This nomination has always perplexed me.
Anne Marie: Apparently the only people still watching Glee are Emmy voters. It's the only way to explain how it got a directing nomination for an episode with fewer audience members than the population of New Mexico.
Omission You Will Hold Against the Emmys Forever?
[RuPaul, Hannibal, Archer, The Good Wife and much more after the jump]
Dancin' Dan: Um, WTF Emmys?!?!? I know Hannibal is NOT your thing, but a quick look at any one frame of that show (with gore or without) will show you that it is the most gorgeous show on TV - art direction, cinematography, and costumes are all perfection. And you couldn't find room for it in ANY of those categories?!?
Jose: No The Good Wife in Best Drama is ludicrous as ****
Abstew: Masters of Sex for Best Drama. It should've easily taken Downton Abbey's spot. I still watched Downton this season, but I can't even remember what happened. Everyone died, right?
Anne Marie: I know the Emmys don't do genre TV, but I really thought this was the Year of Tatiana. Sorry, Michelle Dockery, but there's a tiny Canadian carrying a big show on her cloned shoulders, and you're sitting in her chair
This is also Nathaiel's favorite episode of "Girls" in Season 3Adam Armstrong: Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series – Girls, “Beach House” & Looking, “Looking For the Future”
Andrew Kendall: There are too many omissions that hurt so I'll turn to a nomination that was surprising considering the response to the show. Considering how much Emmy voters love Orange is the New Black how disappointing that the most fearless performance on the show, and at times the most effective was omitted. It's hard to love Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett but Taryn Manning's performance is a marvel and she just barely edged out Mulgrew as my personal favourite on season one of the show.
Nathaniel: I have channeled all my anger into their refusal to have fun with RuPaul's Drag Race along with the rest of the world. It's so superior and so much fresher than the shows that they do nominate in Reality Competition that you don't even need to explain why. You just lower your reading glass and glare, okay hunty? The shade of it all.
Jose: Best Writing, Inside Amy Schumer
Abstew: Favorite Nomination in Any Non-Acting Category: Wait, there are categories other than acting? Let's say Myrtle Snow's ensembles (and all the other great looks) for Best Costume in AHS: Coven.
Balenciaga!!!!!!
Dancin' Dan: Napoleon and Tabatha D'Umo, Best Choreography for this piece of "WERK IT, GURL!" bad-assery and this continuous-shot wonder...
Random Miscellaneous Thought You Just Have To Get Off Your Chest
Jose: GIVE JULIA ROBERTS HER EMMY! *breathes*
Abstew: So, Ellen Burstyn gets a nomination every time she shows up on TV, huh? Well, at least it was longer than a minute this time. And although I feel like Julia is winning that category ("Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries"), I kinda want a three way tie with the ladies of AHS: Coven (Bates, Bassett, Conroy) because all three were, as the kids say, EVERYTHING!
Nathaniel: If they don't start fixing the rules soon (miniseries vs. tiny series vs. full length series, guest vs. regular vs. supporting vs. lead comedies suddenly being dramas and vice vers) the Emmys are going to become a joke on the level of the Grammys or the People's Choice Awards. They need their governing committee to be fully deputized law enforcement because it's getting to be the wild wild west on television and it is truly embarassing at this point.
Dancin' Dan: RuPaul was robbed, but I bet he was the first person to call up Laverne Cox and congratulate her on making Emmy herstory.
Anne Marie: There is an Netflix show nominated in almost every major category. The Emmy Awards have integrated online-exclusive shows without much fanfare, but this is basically a rubber stamp (or a gold statuette) for the legitimacy of online shows and the redefinition of what constitutes "television."
Andrew Kendall: Will I stop beating the drum for The Good Wife? Probably not. I suspect people who don't watch the show are continuously confused by the passion that this seemingly regular CBS legal drama seems to evoke. But, if this past season which wasn't just critically acclaimed but managed to achieve so much word of mouth on the internet couldn't pierce the category of "Best Series about an Anti-Hero on Cable" I have to wonder - can anything? The Good Wife (along with Hannibal and a few others) has become the last bastion on network TV keeping us back from being submerged by only cable offering good and "respected" dramatic television. Everything seemed in place for it to be welcomed back with open arms but it couldn't manage it, not in writing, not in directing, and not in series (not even last year's Guest Actress winner, Carrie Preston, managed to be nominated again). I can't say the omissions surprised because I was too wary to be hopeful, and I may be overreacting, but The Good Wife's failure to succeed with the Emmy's, I can't help wondering if the standard network television drama has any hope of ever piercing that Best Drama Directing category or "Best Drama Series Where Men Behave Badly" categories again?
YOUR TURN PEOPLE. You know you wanna keep on yakking about the snubbed that stung and oddities that fascinate you.
AHS, Emmy, Hannibal, Kristen Wiig, Laverne Cox, Netflix, TV, continuous shot, dance
Reader Comments (49)
I can't get over The Good Wife not being nominated. And DOWNTON ABBEY in its place. I used to LOVE Downton, it used to be my favourite show, but it is horrible now. I can't even be happy right now over a lot of people getting acting noms (Julianna/Josh/Christine, the ladies from OITNB, Lena Headey finally) because my heart can't handle the disappointment of TGW not being there.
The more time I sit on the fact that The Good Wife didn't get nominated, the angrier I get. This season was just SO good! Beyond good. It was fantastic from start to finish. I was not entertained by any other show as much, it had amazing acting, the best directing on TV, fantastic writing, and enough interesting storylines and plot points to make any other show salivate. And it's a show they loved before, I'm hoping that Juliana or Josh or Christine can take home the prize to make up for this snub.
I agree about Christina on Mad Men -- that was random. I guess she's very well liked though... if they had to give it to a MM actress, it would've been nice if they honored Kiernan Shipka for once.
I'll defend Michelle Dockery. Other than Maggie Smith, I find her to be the best thing about the show. Also glad to see Joanne Froggatt was honored. Jim Carter is a head scratcher though. Robert James Collier is far more deserving.
Please allow me to defend Hendricks' performance. Yes she didn't have as much to do and yes she probably coasted to a nomination based on previous recognition. But....she came into her own as an account manager early in the season handling sexist clients with a smart deft hand, she continued to clash against Don and in a great bit of acting handled Bob Benson's proposal. Not much but sublime work that allowed her to show different facets of the character.
Murtada- Agreed. She might not have fully deserved the nomination, but saying she did nothing of note is just plain wrong. Lots of strong work from the margins.
Hard for me to get worked up about the Good Wife being shut out in Best Drama (even though I quite liked this season) when you have two stronger and much more consistent shows in Hannibal and The Americans getting shut out of everything. You would at least think Hugh Dancy or Keri Russell's name recognition + some of the strongest work on tv would net them nods, but no, Emmy voters just aren't watching and probably never will:(
Taylor Kitsch the only actor from Normal Heart not nominated seems unfair.
lol just found out about burstyn' s infamous emmy nod!
Bia -- i think Dockery gives the single best performance on Downton Abbey and has since roughly the beginning so I'm totally okay with her nomination. I think she has the single best voice on television (it just drips with money, and later in the series with entitlement that's suddenly aware of itself) and she has such enormously subtle fluctuations in her line readings and barely perceptible shifts in that lovely mask like face. So, yes, I totally disagree with my staff here but what can you do :)
that said I still love Downton but I do think calling it one of the best dramas on television at this point is kind of embarrassing. it's a guilty pleasure now where once it was just a pleasure.
just remembered peter sarsgaad was excelent in "the killing" season 3, don't know if he was submitted as guest or supporting actor (or at all).
I can't get over the snub of Elisabeth Moss. I don't watch a ton of shows, so when it comes to Emmys, I mostly watch to see if a Mad Men actor will finally win something, and this season, with the the pitch episode, she seemed like their main contender.
I'm finding this year I have very little to root for.
The Good Wife landing in Best Series was always going to be a long shot, however good the show has been this season, but the snub in Best Writing for Hitting The Fan really stings. As does the slow decline of Mad Men, which had an excellent season in spite of the weird split. It's a mystery to me how the same people voting for Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks could fail to see the great work Elisabeth Moss was putting in (again).
Similarly, Tatiana Maslany is a Golden Globe nominee and has won two Critics Choice awards. She's on their radar, so once that happens how can you possible deny that she's not worthy of a nomination? Having said that, the Lizzy Caplan nod has to be one of the few very real and deserved delights of the nomination morning. And even if it didn't quite have the resurgence many were hoping for, at least Julianna Margulies managed to re-enter the field for her best season yet on TGW. It does, however, seem nuts that The WB managed to nab Keri Russell a Golden Globe for Felicity, but can't seem to even get her in the conversation for The Americans, which showed such growth for its second season. I do agree with Nathaniel, however, in that whatever my problems with Downton Abbey, none of it has to do with Michelle Dockery, who is inordinately gifted with often incredibly weak material. That nomination is earned even if Maggie Smith and Jim Carter's emphatically aren't.
The Orange Is The New Black love, and not just for its more well-known white leads, is surely the best story here.
I never understood the lack of love for "Park & Rec." vs. the abuse of love for lest say Oh! "Big boring theory"...
Random Miscellaneous Thought You Just Have To Get Off Your Chest:
Lizzy Caplan - the first Mean Girls gang (I'm excluding adult characters like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler) to receive an acting nom in Emmy/Oscar. Not even bigger stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried achieved that yet. Bravo Janis Ian, she probably would yell "Suck on that!" to Regina George now. Hee!
What's the Nomination That Most Perplexes You? Fred Armisen as supporting actor
Omission You Will Hold Against the Emmys Forever? Elisabeth Moss. I guess they didn't watch her face squeezing Julio good-bye.
Favorite Nomination in Any Non-Acting Category? Janie Bryant, Mad Men
Random Miscellaneous Thought You Just Just Have To Get Off Off You Chest -- I've seen the Beach House episode four times. In my opinion, it is perfect television.
P.S. Thanks, I needed that!
Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but:
* Don't shows submit two episodes per aspiring actor? We'd have to see which episodes were submitted by, for instance, Elizabeth Moss (grrrrr...) I remember discussions in the past as to whether a given actor should submit more "dramatic" episodes or lighter ones.
* Aren't nominations voted by just a group / committee, so that those who vote for Supporting Actor are not the same people who vote for Best Actress? That being the process, it's rather improbable that there will be consistency in the nominations.
I'm glad Mandy Patinkin was nominated again for his brilliant work on Homeland. That show has gone downhill in a lot of ways, so I expected the dip in nominations, and I was worried Patinkin would be dragged down with the ship. With Brody pretty sidelined all season, the series became much more focused on Saul as its male lead. The show further explored Saul's relationship with Carrie, delved into his marriage, and sent him to war with Tracy Letts' Senator Lockhart. Patinkin played every nuance superbly and he was far and away the best part of season three. I doubt he has enough goodwill to win due to backlash against his show, but he certainly deserves it.
Perplexed by... Ricky Gervias in Comedy Actor for Derek. ?
Omission... Good Wife in drama. (echo)
Favourite non-acting nom... Justified in Art Direction. Justified.
Miscellaneous... Costume will probably be decided by weighing all the clothes and Game of Thrones will beat Mad Men. I am resigned to this already.
Murtada- YES. No, Joan didn't get prominent story lines this (half)season, but that proposal scene! Oof! Ahh! Deliciously played with OODLES of subtext by both Hendricks and James Wolk. If Hendricks had never been nominated before, people would be celebrating this one.
Andrew Kendall, love your Good Wife callout and that gif is perfection.
Ben, um why was former Best Drama nominee The Good Wife a long shot in its most acclaimed season?
I am so pleased to see so much love for The Good Wife, it certainly is one of the five sharpest written and directed shows around. I re-watched season 5 last weekend and found that it to be the most sublime pleasure, such great ensemble acting as well.
My other love is for Orange is the New Black, I was so very pleased to see the acting nominations, I truly hope Kate Mulgrew gets the win.
I don't understand the Ricky Gervais, Ellen Burstyn nominations, and does anyone think Nurse Jackie should still be nominated? (show is past it's prime)
RuPaul was robbed, simply robbed.
Finally, I still watch Downton Abbey but it's a puzzle to me how it gets so much attention when Call the Midwife is so, so, much better. strange!
"Survivor" had 2 of it's best season, 20+ seasons into the show! And yet it still loses a nomination to the increasingly lackluster, and probable winner, "The Amazing Race".
Melissa McBride for "The Walking Dead" would have been a nice surprise, but, again, genre.
"Parenthood" was not as close to it's best season, but it's still one of the better shows on network television.
"I think she has the single best voice on television (it just drips with money, and later in the series with entitlement that's suddenly aware of itself)"
YES!
Elisabeth Moss came even stronger this season, the clear MVP, and didn't get a nomination? I feel sorry for her, but at least I know she has a shot at being a movie actress and nay even get an Oscar nomination.
Cal: exactly. I don't weep for her; I weep for me, who wants so badly to see an Elisabeth Moss Emmy acceptance speech.
Elisabeth Moss! I simply don't get it.
The Good Wife had to be nominated for Best Drama, with it's best season yet, and two flaw free episodes that should have been nominated for best writing and direction also. Also, WTF at no Mindy Project Love. And yes, Looking for best writing.
Random Miscellaneous Thought You Just Have To Get Off Your Chest
Are these awards nominations announced now at the beginning of the summer, and the awards given in autumn? Really?
Maybe that should go in the category of what perplexes me more. And the random thought should be that I find Taylor Kitsch non-nomination fair, he was the weakest link in that cast.
For the Glee direction nod, notice how the director is the President of the DGA. Same guy also won it last year.
lady edith -- i love Nurse Jackie. it's not as good as it once was but it's still a pretty strong show. That said it wasn't nominated for Best Comedy series so which nom are people upset about? just Edie Falco?
jake d & cal -- it's funny. that proposal scene was brilliant but i guess i had forgotten about it when i wrote that i thought the nomination was ridiculous on accoutn of nothing to do and then this all reminds me that the whole entire problem is that there were only 7 episodes so even MOSS who usually has a lot of screen time only had 2 or 3 opportunities to knock it out of the park (which she did of course).
I continue to be very very angry at AMC for splitting the season. It's just not good for fans or the legacy of the show. it encourages people to give up if they're already sort of losing interest (as people do when shows go on past season 4 or 5 (almost across the board not matter how good bad or same quality they are at that point) and it encourages awards votes to not give it their full attention either.
...continued...
all of which is really a long way of saying that i hope Breaking Bad loses every single Emmy it's up for because we cannot encourage this as a world, this half effort that wants double the rewards.
RE: NATHANIAL R.
Breaking Bad can't lose. That would mean True Detective would win which is an even more of an egregious crime. Talk about half the effort.
"Revenge" used to be a great pleasure, now it's a real guilty pleasure. That said, I still think Emmy owes Madeleine Stowe.
JDB -- we get the world we ask for and everyone's obsession with BREAKING BAD is not doing the world any favors. split seasons, category fraud (aaron paul. supporting. lol), getting twice the awards for half the work, etcetera, relentless focus on every show having to be about anti-heroes.
Breaking Bad's reach exhausts me and I dont even watch it. I just wish people could be content with "it won best series" adn leave it at that but everyone needs it to win again for the same season. I call bullshit.
RE: NATHANIEL R.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I feel True Detective commits all the crimes you mentioned even worse than Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad split the season in half, but True Detective did just as many episodes as the BB half season.
Category Fraud - are you serious? In TD, neither the characters or storyline carry over to next season. At least AHS keeps the same actors. The other shows have characters changing slowly and carefully over years and seasons while TD does an extra long movie and cuts then loose. How is it even possible they are in the Drama Series category? It's all because of the fanfare that they can get away with it.
Breaking Bad shouldn't be blamed for the focus of anti-heroes. That's The Sopranos fault.
Christina Hendricks is outstanding (as good as Moss, though she doesn't get the same credit, Emmy nod or not) and she absolutely deserved her nomination. The Emmy voters still look ridiculous for giving Maggie Smith a trophy for cracking wise a couple years ago over Joan's remarkable journey in Season 5.
Breaking Bad deserves to win for all of its actors and for Best Drama Series. Sucks it was split up, but the last 8 episodes were astonishing. I think you'd feel the same if you watched them, Nathaniel.
Mad Men: if anyone deserved a nomination it was Elisabeth Moss who ruled those seven episodes in my opinion. Her's was the one nomination that I both hoped would happen and yet am not surprised that it didn't. Also I can't help wondering whether next year may finally be Jon Hamm's. Not only am I certain that Weiner will pull something pretty amazing out of the hat for the final episodes but there will also be no Bryan Cranston or Matthew McConaughey to contend with. Both Hamm and Moss should already be winners for "The Suitcase" alone.
House of Cards: The one win I'm secretly hoping for over any other come emmy night is Robin Wright for best actress. I don't understand the naysayers who were so down on season two of this great series. For a start the character of Claire really came into her own. Does it really matter if it's not the most realistic show on the tube or that it's characters spout cliches like they're going out of fashion? Why are people so unable to put their preconceptions aside and simply enjoy the show for its singularly over the top, impeccably acted Machiavellian pleasures?
I have SO MANY Emmy thoughts and I haven't really written them down (not counting my livetweeting during nomination morning) since I'm still trying process and to be honest just SO MEH at a lot of the nominations that I just don't have the will.
With ALL that said... everything Andrew says about THE GOOD WIFE. DITTO. Like whoa.
@JDB: <I>True Detective</I> is a drama series. It has a regular creative team and aims to produce one season per year. The fact that it changes settings makes it an anthology, not a miniseries.
It's the idea that American Horror Story is a miniseries that is the problem. They're classifying themselves like that to improve their odds of winning, not because they are actually are a miniseries (they even have recurring actors and talk about "seasons" of AHS).
I applaud TD for being honest and going for series, even if their belief that they can win is certainly motivating it. The miniseries category should be reserved for actual miniseries.
I'm kind of irritated by all the love for The Normal Heart, because it seems more like a knee-jerk reaction to the combination of HBO + Important subject matter + adaptation of celebrated play than recognition of outstanding work to me. Bummed that Mark Ruffalo is probably going to win for his trying-really-hard-to-be-gay performance.
"Breaking Bad's reach exhausts me and I dont even watch it. I just wish people could be content with "it won best series" adn leave it at that but everyone needs it to win again for the same season. I call bullshit."
a) Nathaniel, you aren't content with Mad Men having won best series four frickin times, but basically want it to sweep every category every year it seems.
b) It's hard to debate with you on this because you haven't watched, and I really should know better then to read your television comments as they generally upset me. But can a season have an arc that requires more or fewer episodes relative to that show's standard run? There is definitely a tonal and narrative shift in the two halves of the season - similar to The Sopranos divide.
Your comments come perilously close to the "this has more episodes, ergo it's more work and should win" that we saw from The Good Wife's producers.
All this general furor over True Detective in Drama Series is fascinating, and I think it absolutely is connected to the threat it poses to "steal" Breaking Bad's last Emmy. American Horror Story provoked a lot of confusion/outrage when it first entered itself in Miniseries (especially after having competed in Drama Series at the earlier Golden Globes) in 2012; now, though, we're all supposed to accept its placement so it can provide the template for arguments that True Detective is in the wrong category. I think any series/miniseries/program that is conceived so as to have regular, yearly iterations produced by the same creative team (i.e. same writers/producers), should be entered in the SERIES category. That regularity and consistency of production (even if the actors change) would seem to signal "series" to me.
Of course, there will always be a gray area. A show like Luther probably belongs in Drama Series according to such a definition, but it only produces 4 episodes a season, below the minimum threshold of 6 episodes required by current Emmy rules. I wonder if one day these categories may be adapted to account for season length -- e.g., have a "limited series" category (for all programs of less than 8 hours) and a "series" category (for all programs whose run is greater than 8 hours in length). This would be more similar to the half hour/hour distinction in the Animated Program categories that allows regular series to compete with specials.
Nathaniel I don't hate Nurse Jackie, and Edie Falco is a wonderful actress, however I did feel her nomination was a default pick. I think there is so many other comedies out there that deserve a little more recognition. For example Wendi Mclendon Covey in The Goldbergs gives a performance that really makes that show for me. No disrespect intended, just wishing for a new face there,
It was interesting to see that Jodie Foster is up for best director for an episode of Orange.
I believe it was a deserving nomination, any thoughts about her work on TV?
Wondering if any of you in the US caught Broadchurch (season 1) when i was aired there last August. I assume its absence from the Emmys nod last year was due to its US release date. But seems like it was forgotten this time around because of its release date...Olivia Coleman is better than any of the nominees, especially in the final episode.
I'm hoping Robert does NOT win for her competent but extraordinary performance (and I'm normally a Roberts fan), and I'd much rather see Bates or Conroy win but I have a feeling the AHS ladies will split votes.
I'm also hoping against hope that Mantello actually wins but I have a feeling it will be Bomer which would be a fine win but I thought Mantello was able to do so much more in much less time in a monologue that would have been much more one-note in the hands of a lesser actor.
And yes, sad for Moss and Maslany. I don't know which episode Maslany submitted, but if it was episode 2 (I think? or 3?) where we saw Allison's musical performance, Helena drugged up and devouring chicken, and new clone Jennifer, all in addition to Sarah and Cosima, then I don't know how they could've ignored her. (I mean, I DO know, thanks to Nat's and others' astute reasons for the snub, but still...)
In defense of Nathaniel, I watched all of Breaking Bad and agree with him. The obsession with that show is exhausting and annoying. I would absolutely put it in the top ten series of the year, but nowhere near the top.
Where was Dean Norris for 'Breaking Bad'??
Arkaan -- what I object to is not the size of the season (though clearly it was a detriment to Mad Men this year) but the "cheating" of being eligible twice for what is technically the same season. I just don't think it's fair is all. Kind of like how I don't think it's fair to be a guest actor when you're in every episode.
and as for my Mad Men obsession. I do not think it needs to win Series every year. I'm okay with it never winning series again (and this past season of everything I would hand the prize IMMEDIATELY to Masters of Sex which was not nominated) but I do think it's egregious that none of the actors have won. Maybe none of them deserve to WIN this year (except Robert Morse) but they've all been the best of the year at some point and nobody has won. It irks me. Same with Costume Design. How has it never won? Mad Men's 4 series wins are basically a weird distraction. People think the show has been overrewarded but in fact it's been weirdly denied what it earned over and over again. (except for Best Drama Series)
Interestingly, Burstyn did deserve a nomination--but as Guest Actress in a Comedy for Louie. (Back to vacation lurking mode.)