Over the next two weeks we'll periodically be experiencing a little Emmy countdown silliness. But first a matter of who we're rooting for in just 16 days. I polled a few members of TFE's team and my podcast co-host Joe Reid from whom I've learned much about TV (he's an expert) and who still thinks I look down on TV through pinched cinematic nose. Okay, maybe a little... but it is not from lack of quality! It's from other reasons but it mostly boils down to these four: I prefer a two hour commitment as opposed to a one-to-ten year commitment to stories and characters; I like the scope of history of the arts and the cinema has a much richer, longer and more well preserved history (people didn't really think of TV as an art until our lifetimes); I'm more naturally drawn to and more often wowed by movie stars; I despise the false equivalencies people who should know better (critics and journalists) are always spouting about TV vs Film so I am routinely pressed and therefore must take up arms for the cinema!
But otherwise I love TV... or at least "my shows". So let's get to it. Who is Team TFE rooting for in the big categories?
Why I'm Rooting for _______ in Drama Series? (answers after the jump)
Jose: The Good Wife (Shut up, I'm in denial...)
Joe Reid: I'm rooting for Game of Thrones in Outstanding Drama Series, but not because I think it was objectively the best of the six nominees. That would probably be Breaking Bad. I'd also probably slot True Detective ahead of Thrones if only for how thrillingly propulsive that show felt as I binge-watched it in the lead-up to the finale. I'm rooting for Thrones because it's been generally under-rewarded (except for Peter Dinklage, who's actually not my favorite when it comes to cast members), and because somewhat inexplicably it's become the TV show I most look forward to watching.
Dancin' Dan: Game of Thrones but only because: Breaking Bad has already won; they didn't nominate the ACTUAL best shows on television (The Good Wife, Hannibal, The Americans, and Masters of Sex); I never quite "got" Mad Men (what I wanted from it was not what it was giving me in that first season, and I haven't tuned in since); because True Detective was as maddening and pretentious as it was exciting and fascinating; because Downton Abbey ceased being any good at the end of its first season; and because wild horses could not get me to watch House of Cards.
Abstew: I know it's probably down to Breaking Bad vs. True Detective but I'm throwing my weight behind Game of Thrones a show that might not have a chance (despite having the most nominations), but which I eagerly await watching the most when it airs and in real-time. (Otherwise someone - ahem, the internet...-might ruin something big.) It's epic, entertaining, and spectacular in every sense of the word.
Adam: Game of Thrones. As much as I bitched and moaned (and lord did I), the balancing act of jumping between three books is as flawless as Lena Headey’s resting bitch face.
Nathaniel R: I'm not sure I have an answer to this one. Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad aren't for me (I tried but both regularly made me ill with the gruesomeness). True Detective was interesting but deflated toward the end and feels a smidge smug and is already wildly overpraised - Top of the Lake last year, another detective murder mystery, was stronger and received half the attention. I still love Mad Men best so there's my vote though I'd be rooting fully for Masters of Sex had it been nominated.
Why You're Rooting for ________ in Comedy Series?
Anne Marie: OINTB is everything Modern Family pretends to be: diverse, subversive, funny, with a surprisingly warm heart underneath all that snark. I want to see OINTB straight up slock the reigning Emmy darling.
Joe Reid: I'm rooting for Veep in comedy series because it's the funniest of the nominated shows by a mile; probably several miles. The only other nominated show I enjoy half as much as Orange Is the New Black, and that's probably a drama.
Nathaniel R: Orange is the New Black since I couldn't possibly love it more. See our Best Shot episode if you haven't yet
Dancin' Dan: Orange is the New Black, because it cares more for its characters than any other show on "TV" even as it still acknowledges that some of them are very bad people, and because it is often more hilarious than any other of the "comedies" nominated (except Veep, which would also be a worthy winner, what with its delicious, scarily accurate Washington satire and unbelievably spot-on performances).
Jose: Veep because I still don't get how OITNB - which I DO love - is a comedy series.
Favorite Nomination in Any Acting Category
Abstew: Favorite Nomination in Any Acting Category: Lizzy Caplan. Lizzy Caplan. Lizzy Caplan. She is absolutely brilliant on Masters of Sex and her nomination was the only thing I was actively hoping would happen yesterday. (The Secret works, y'all!) Bonus points if she takes Damian as her date and they wear matching purple tuxedos.
Dancin' Dan: Frances Conroy for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries, a shining beacon of camp excellence in the otherwise muddled, messy, and unsatisfying American Horror Story: Coven.
Jose: Allison Janney in "Masters of Sex". Janney became my Emmy enemy (emmemy?) when she kept stealing Jennifer Garner's Emmysfor "Alias", but I'll be damned if I don't want her to win for this pithy, devastating performance.
P.S. Both Anne Marie and Adam vowed to throw pies at each voting member if Uzo Adobe didn't win Guest Actress for her role as "Crazy Eyes" in Orange is the New Black. Be warned, voters!