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.