Emmy Awards will be held on Sept 20th this yearYou've surely already read Team Experience Dream Drama Ballots so you'll know that for many of us Emmy Nomination morning can be a Waking Nightmare. For all the talk of "The Golden Age" of television, there's precious little evidence of that in what is essentially the official industry record each year. "But these are high quality shows!" You protest. Well, yes but...
Even if you accept as the gospel truth that all of the Emmy nominees are of high quality, a true golden wouldn't support a great deal of repetition. A true golden age would suggest such a high level of quality in the competitive pool that the nomination shortlists in each category would be quite volatile from year to year with slight or major dips or rises in quality for entire shows and individual characters reflected in dozens of different names and titles in the Emmy categories causing a revolving door effect rather than a copy and paste effect with some people popping up sporadically, others once and never again, etcetera. This is rarely if ever the case with Emmy. Once you're in the list you tend to stay in, screw the merits of individual episodes, character arcs or seasons that are officially in play. Hence no Golden Age... at least not according to Emmy. Maybe they'll catch up sometime? Yet with their darling Breaking Bad off the air, last year's disruptive force True Detective ineligible (no new episodes during the eligibility period), and Orange is the New Black forced to switch from comedy to this category by the Academy itself, changes were practically forced upon the Emmy voting body.
Did it free up their thinking? Let's find out. The nominee list with first impression commentary after the jump...
DRAMA
Outstanding Drama Series
"Better Call Saul" (1st season. 1st nomination)
"Downton Abbey" (5th season. 5th nomination... though the first was in another category)
"Game of Thrones" (5th season. 5th nomination)
"Homeland" (4th season. 3rd nomination)
"House of Cards" (3rd season. 3rd nomination)
"Mad Men" (8th season. 8th nomination... 7½ whatever)
"Orange is the New Black" (2nd season. 2nd nomination... though the first was in another category)
Similarity to Last Year: 4/7 or 5/7 if you count Better Call Saul as Breaking Bad (I do) or 6/7 if you count Orange's Comedy nod last year (I do). Collectively these series have been on for 28 seasons and nominated for 27 of those.
Surprise That Isn't Remotely A Surprise: Homeland returning. Game of Thrones not being effected by all the Rape Exploitation complaints.
Sorry About It: Despite enormous ratings or acclaim for Empire and The Americans respectively, they couldn't crack this constantly sealed off category.
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Danes, "Homeland" (4 noms in 4 seasons - 2 additional nominations and 3 wins in total)
Viola Davis, "How To Get Away With Murder" (1st nomination, 1st season)
Taraji P Henson, "Empire" (1st nomination, 1st season)
Tatiana Maslany, "Orphan Black" (1st nom, 3rd season)
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men" (6th nom in 8 seasons as this character, 1 additional nomination)
Robin Wright, "House of Cards" (3rd nom in 3 seasons)
Similarity to Last Year: 2/6. Caplan, Dockery, Washington, and Marguiles are all out for newbie sensations Henson & Davis, their on/off affection for Moss and...
Biggest Surprise: Tatiana Maslany finally securing a nod for the third season of her incredible multiple character performance in Orphan Black.
Sorry About It: Lizzy Caplan continued to be utterly brilliant in Masters of Sex but the show's second season proved a distant memory for voters.
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Kyle Chandler, "Bloodline" (1st season... 3 previous nominations and 1 win)
Jeff Daniels, "The Newsroom" (3 noms for 3 seasons, 1 win)
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" (8th nom for 8 seasons, 7 additional noms other categories)
Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul" (1st nom, 1st season - 7 noms/2 wins in other categories)
Liev Schreiber, "Ray Donovan" (1st nom, 2nd season - 1 previous nomination)
Kevin Spacey, "House of Cards" (3rd nom for 3 seasons, 4 additional noms in other categories)
Similarity To Last Year: 3/6 but hilarious all three drop-offs were not even eligible this year so again Emmy only changed when they were forced to.
Sorry About It: Despite a vastly improved performance in the second season, there's no Michael Sheen for Masters of Sex here.
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Uzo Aduba, "Orange is the New Black" (2nd nom for 2nd season, previously Guest Actress which she won)
Christine Baranski, "The Good Wife" (6th nom in 6 seasons, 8 noms/1 win previously for other work)
Emilia Clarke, "Game of Thrones" (2nd nom in 5 seasons)
Joanne Froggatt, "Downton Abbey" (3rd nomination in 5 seasons)
Lena Headey, "Game of Thrones" (2nd nomination in 5 seasons)
Christina Hendricks, "Mad Men" (6th nomination in 8 seasons)
Similarity to Last Year: 4/6. Previous winners Maggie Smith and Anna Gunn (the latter no longer eligible) dropped off to make room for Uzo Aduba (expected) and Emilia Clarke again (unexpected). Despite the fact that Clarke is hardly the most lauded actor on her show and this is arguably the single most competitive category with endless impressive possibilities. Seems that voters really do only watch 10 shows.
Sorry About It: The incredible female casts of The Leftovers and Orange is the New Black who were all left out but for Aduba
Bloodline is a very bro-centric show. So 2 of the 3 bros were its nominees
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Jonathan Banks, "Better Call Saul" (2nd nomination for this character, 3rd overall)
Jim Carter, "Downton Abbey" (4th nomination for this character in 5 seasons)
Alan Cumming "The Good Wife" (3rd nomination for this recurring character - once in guest character)
Peter Dinklage, "Game of Thrones" (5th nomination in 5 seasons for this character, 1 win)
Michael Kelly, "House of Cards" (1st nomination for 3rd season as this character)
Ben Mendelsohn, "Bloodline" (1st nomination, 1st season)
Similarity to Last Year: 2/6, though of the 4 "new" players, only one is "New" in all ways - Ben Mendehlson
Sorry About It: Matt Czuchry who got plentiful 'best he's ever been' notices but remains the one key Good Wife actor never nominated. Too many others to mention.
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
F Murray Abraham, "Homeland"
Alan Alda, "The Blacklist"
Beau Bridges, "Masters of Sex"
Reg E. Cathey, "House of Cards"
Michael J Fox, "The Good Wife"
Pablo Schreiber, "Orange is the New Black"
Similarities to Last Year: 2/6... though some were no longer eligible due to new very smart rule: if you're in more than 50% of the episodes you can't be considered a "Guest" anymore.
Pleasant Surprise: The men from Orange never get any credit so Pablo's nomination surprises
Playing the leading character's mom is a good way to get nominated in this category.
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Khandi Alexander, "Scandal"
Rachel Brosnahan, "House of Cards"
Allison Janney, "Masters of Sex"
Margo Martindale, "The Americans"
Diane Rigg, "Game of Thrones"
Cicely Tyson, "How to Get Away With Murder"
Similarities to Last Year: 3/6.
The Americans
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
"The Americans" - "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep" (Joshua Brand)
"Better Call Saul" - "Five-O" (Gordon Smith)
"Game of Thrones" - "Mother's Mercy" (David Benioff & DB Weiss)
"Mad Men" - "Lost Horizon" (Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner)
"Mad Men" - "Person to Person" (Matthew Weiner)
Are They Really Doing It: These plentiful nominations do suggest that they want to send Mad Men off in style
Surprise: The American's cant crack that impenetrable Best Drama field but at least they were honored for writing.
Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
"Boardwalk Empire" -- "Eldorado" (Tim Van Patten)
"Game Of Thrones" -- "Mother's Mercy" (David Nutter)
"Game of Thrones" -- "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" (Jeremy Podeswa)
"Homeland" - "From A to B and Back Again" (Lesli Linka Glatter)
"The Knick" -- "Method and Madness" (Steven Soderbergh)
Surprise: Interesting that Boardwalk and The Knick managed nominations here despite little love elsewhere
MOVIE/MINISERIES
Outstanding Miniseries
"American Crime"
"American Horror Story: Freak Show"
"Olive Kitteridge"
"The Honorable Woman"
"Wolf Hall"
Outstanding Television Movie
"Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case"
"Bessie"
"Grace of Monaco"
"Hello Ladies: The Movie"
"Killing Jesus"
"Nightingale"
Surprise: After a year of critical ridicule, Grace of Monaco got a last laugh with an Emmy nomination in its category
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Honourable Woman"
Felicity Huffman, "American Crime"
Jessica Lange, "American Horror Story: Freakshow"
Queen Latifah "Bessie"
Frances McDormand "Olive Kitteridge"
Emma Thompson "Sweeney Todd: Live From Lincoln Center"
Surprise: Is this the best category?
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Adrien Brody, "Houdini"
Ricky Gervais, "Derek Special"
Timothy Hutton, "American Crime"
Richard Jenkins, "Olive Kitteridge"
David Oyelowo, "Nightingale"
Mark Rylance, "Wolf Hall"
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
Angela Bassett, "AHS: Freakshow"
Kathy Bates, "AHS: Freakshow"
Regina King, "American Crime"
Mo'Nique "Bessie"
Sarah Paulson, "AHS: Freakshow"
Zoe Kazan, "Olive Kitteridge"
Breaking: Category to be renamed Official American Horror Story Placeholder Category. Paulson really outdid herself this year so perhaps she'll finally have a crack at the statue?
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Richard Cabral, "American Crime"
Denis O'Hare, "AHS: Freakshow"
Damian Lewis, "Wolf Hall"
Bill Murray, "Olive Kitteridge"
Michael Kenneth Williams, "Bessie"
Finn Wittrock, "AHS: Freakshow"
FINN WITTROCK. THAT IS ALL. EEEEEEEE.
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
"American Crime" - Episode One (John Ridley)
"Bessie" - (multiple)
"Hello Ladies: The Movie" (multiple)
"The Honourable Woman" (Hugo Blick)
"Olive Kitteridge" (Jane Anderson)
"Wolf Hall" (Peter Straughan)
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
"American Horror Story: Freakshow" - "Monsters Among Us" (Ryan Murphy)
"Bessie" (Dee Rees)
"The Honourable Woman" (Hugo Blick)
"Houdini" (Uli Edel)
"The Missing" (Tom Shankland)
"Olive Kitteridge" (Lisa Cholodenko)
"Wolf Hall" (Peter Kosminsky)
MISCELLANIA
There are approximately 67 more technical categories (The Emmys are nearly as robust as the Grammys with minutae) including multiples of many of the tech categories (for example, Cinematography gets 5 different competitive fields). We'll single some of those out in later posts but for now if you're interested, go to the official Emmy site.