Emmy Cool-Down
Monday, September 21, 2015 at 6:26PM 
Emmy Post-Mortem
Pajiba all the times Mad Men lost acting Emmys. To this we add Christina Hendricks to Uzo Aduba (2015) and Elisabeth Moss to Viola Davis (2015) so they went 1 for 36 for eight years of an entire cast -- including the day players -- doing totally brilliant work. This is one of the reasons (only one) that the Emmys truly suck.
Slate a superb analysis of why Jon Hamm never won until now.
Glenn Dunks offers a neat solution for a couple of EGOT seekers
Vanity Fair 10 best reaction shots from the ceremony
Awesomely Luvvie on the "Blackest Emmys Ever" - I especially appreciate the shout out to future understandings of diversity because I long for the day when everyone realize that diversity does not mean white + black. But there's some time to go before we get there, you know?
E! Online covers the important stories. WHO WAS ALISON JANNEY'S SUPER HUNKY DATE?
Six Afterthoughts on the Big Night
1. I really should have posted my predictions because they were spot on this year in regards to Veep and Game of Thrones emerging as the big winners with a nauseating mix of sameness in the acting categories mixed with new winners but only when they had no other choice. The new rules, which no longer require blue ribbon panels or for voters to have watched the nominees, are bound to eventually lead to even more repeat winners if you ask me. If a show is as popular as Game of Thrones it will be awfully tough to beat in a contest where no one voting needs to have watched any shows, even the current season of the one they're voting for.
2. Congratulations to the incredible Frances McDormand, the latest thespian to achieve the coveted Triple Crown (screw the overrated EGOT - Grammys are not an acting competition!). What's even more incredible is she is a) nothing like a typical leading lady b) won all three awards for leading roles in c) excellent properties: Fargo (1996), Good People (2011), and Olive Kitteridge (2015).
3. I'm saddened that Matthew Weiner didn't win the writing Emmy for Mad Men's "Person to Person" since ending an iconic TV show is so hard to do superbly. I met him briefly at TIFF at a movie party held shortly after this "In Conversation" event (which I did not attend) and he was super gracious when I told him he nailed the most difficult dismount ever with that episode. He did win three writing Emmys for the show though for "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (S1.1), "Meditations in an Emergency" (S2.13), and "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" (S3.13) and since I'm always griping about people winning multiple Emmys for the same show perhaps 3 is enough. It's just too bad they weren't a little more spaced out since Mad Men was that rare show that did not depreciate as it went along. Which is why it's officially my favorite show of all time. I never thought anything would replace Buffy!
4. For those following along at home Nathaniel's all time favorite shows (excluding 1 season wonders and not considering shows still on the air) probably go something like this... 1: Mad Men (2007-2015); 2: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003); 3: Twin Peaks (1990-1991); 4: Sex & the City (1998-2004); 5: Once & Again (1999-2002); 6: Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009); 7: Pushing Daisies (2007-2009); 8: 30 Rock (2006-2013); 9: Roseanne (1988-1997); 10: The Muppet Show (1976-1981). As you can see I'm not really into classic television, largely because laugh tracks make me crazy and the serialized drama has really stepped up its game in the last two decades though the shows just off this list are some combo of Six Feet Under, Friends and 80s dramas like Dynasty and thirtysomething. I suspect we're going to see some levelling off now of the rise in quality since we're already getting clichés that spring mostly from this new golden age. If someone greenlights one more anti-hero show. Ugh.
5. Can we create a statue that honors Best Speech and the nominees can be culled from all Awards Shows each year? Viola Davis wins this statue basically whenever she wins a statue of any kind in a given year because WOW. Remember her amazing SAG speech about dreaming big? And then last night's tremendous historically minded but forward looking diversity plea. Queen.
6. We'll do a red carpet lineup soon and be done with the 2015 Emmys and then we'll start the whole process of dumb hope then disillusionment all over again for next year when Emmy stays set in its awful repetitive ways.
7.
Final #Emmy Tweet: Who wore it best? pic.twitter.com/v11HhWp2BF
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) September 21, 2015
Reader Comments (27)
Someone mentioned it on the other thread, but it's true that Viola knows the importance of a speech. She made Jon Hamm's win look surprisingly small.
Looking at that list of Mad Men acting losses at the Emmys hurts on an almost physical level, especially given how many repeat losses were to the same person.
Claire Danes over Elisabeth Moss and Anna Gunn over Christina Hendricks TWO years in a row?! Unfathomable.
That Mad Men stat is sad, but I'm glad I held on long enough to watch one Mad Men actor win an Emmy. I've watched every year the show was on the air, and I can stop watching the Emmys now.
I didn't think Jon Hamm's win seemed "small" at all. He wanted to use his speech to thank the people who took him in when he was a little boy and his mother died of colon cancer. After giving the best performance on TV for the past eight years, I'd say he's entitled.
In a way, it seems entirely fitting (if depressing) that Mad Men's one acting Emmy went to Jon Hamm.
I always thought the Triple Crown of acting implied that they were all leading wins. Have I been wrong all this time? Does anyone have a list of Triple Crown winners?
I'm changing my name and am only going to say positive things from here on out. If you have nothing nice to say, it's often better to not comment at all.
Thank god for E! Alison Janey's hunky date! girl, I flooded my basement!
That pajiba list Made me suffer all again over Christina Hendricks losing for "The Other Woman". Still can't conceive how that happen.
That one hurts even more than Hamm/Moss losing for "the suitcase".
Serious question: why even write on the emmys?
Jon's win was bittersweet. One Emmy, one Golden Globe and two SAG's (none as lead). Sorry, but that's not enough! And don't get me started with Elisabeth Moss. Peggy Olson joins the exclusive club of great TV female characters never awarded (Ally McBeal, Ruth Fisher, Samantha Jones, Valerie Cherish).
And Robert Morse losing to Joe Morton in Scandal was a scandal. And don't tell me that Jared Harris didn't have a killer storyline in his last season. January, Christina, Slattery, Kartheiser... Julia Ormond has never been better and Cardellini was so good too. I could go on an on.
Arkaan -- the amount of people who write about the Oscars who don't even like them, entitles me to this :) also we were tired of rarely writing about tv because everyone watches it including most of the team here. Also: trying to stay competitive. TFE is one of the last remaining indies. Most sites are corporate backed/run now and competition has never been more crushing.
gr8ful - godspeed
The real tragedy for Mad Men is that Kiernan Shipka was never Emmy nominated for such a wonderful performance. She's just as iconic as the other female characters on the show.
That Mad Men statistic is exactly why I can't get behind excessive wins for a single role in the same series. It was different in the early days of television when there were only a handful of networks producing original content, but today's landscape is as vast as it's ever been. As a result, it is mathematically impossible for the same actors' work to stand so head and shoulders above their colleagues' EVERY SINGLE YEAR. All those repeat wins tell me is that the voters aren't watching enough TV past their favorites. Furthermore, those repeat wins start to feel less and less special after a while. I remember being over it when Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce began racking them up for Frazier, a show I watched faithfully.
Troy -- i'm glad i'm not alone in feeling this way. If you believe the Emmys we are definitely not in any golden age. (a golden age would be intensely competitive and volatile in terms of "bests") If you believe everyone else we are.
I think the Mad Men actors were, like many of our greatest film actors, competing against themselves when it comes to awards. I often read (even from professional tv critics) that Moss/Hendricks/Slattery etc. don't deserve to win because "this season wasn't their best season." This season certainly wasn't the best season for Tony Hale, Uzo Aduba, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, etc., either, but they're held to a different standard.
Lady Gaga's new song Till It Happens To You will break your heart. She continues to reach surprising new heights as a vocalist, artist and agent of change.
Perhaps it's because I grew up with them but I've never had a huge problem with laugh tracks. I mean they're a little more problematic now then when I was a kid but I still don't hate them or anything. Anyway, other than the TONYS, which I've never seen despite it being held at my job almost ever year, I almost never watch the Emmys and this year was no exception.
In saying that, I'm happy for John Hamm, Viola Davis and Regina King. I never watched more than an episode of Mad Men but his performance was acclaimed enough that it seemed weird Hamm kept losing. As for Davis and King; I also haven't seen their performances - this site made HTGAWM sound like a complete mess and I fell behind on American Crime after the first episode - but they're good actors and they've been at this for quite along time, so it's nice to see them rewarded.
Regina King was excellent in AC--and she wasn't even the best thing about the season. A challenging, often problematic show, but seriously undervalued.
Hendricks losing to Maggie Smith was always the loss that most pisses me off. I like Downton Abbey just fine and Smith (who had already won previously when the show was competing as a limited series) is always delightful on the show, but sitting around delivering pithy one-liners in no way should've won over what Hendricks had to do in her submitted episode that year.
suzanne -- a great point. weird how that happens but it obviously does.
daniel - i promise it was! HTGAWM. It took a lot of being terrible to convince me to quit watching given my love for Viola Davis (who i've been a devotee of since 2002, long before the world cared). That's how bad i thought the show was!
It feels like every year my anger at Uzo Aduba grows. She's beaten true guest starring turns for a series regular role (Emmy 1, CCTVA), beaten comedic leading ladies for a hammy dramatic supporting part (SAG) and cock-blocked people like Christina Hendricks (Emmy 2). And every single time, she's hogging acclaim from her own costars who are twice as deserving as she is.
"Arkaan -- the amount of people who write about the Oscars who don't even like them, entitles me to this :) also we were tired of rarely writing about tv because everyone watches it including most of the team here. Also: trying to stay competitive. TFE is one of the last remaining indies. Most sites are corporate backed/run now and competition has never been more crushing. "
Fair enough. I did really think you'd stop talking about television once Mad Men was over. Plus you really come off disdainful of the medium and the way people discuss it.
Arkaan -- it always makes me sad that you feel this way though you've expressed it before. I don't actually feel disdainful of the medium. (though yes i absolutely think the Emmys themselves are shite. but this should not be considered disdainful of tv itself. Most music buffs i know think the Grammys are dumb)
in fact i reread this entire post to see where i was disdainful of tv and i never was. i was only disdainful of the Emmys themselves.
OMG WHY DID I JUST TYPE WHAT FOLLOWS. I'M SO SORRY FOR THE BRAIN VOMIT...
I do however often feel disdainful of the way people discuss TV because they can be so hyperbolic in a way you just don't hear about other mediums in the same smug way. and they don't seem to realize what this says about them -- to me what it seems to say (and i could be wrong but i don't hear the same sort of hyperbole about other art forms) is "i like convenience so this is what i expose myself to the most because it is right there and i don't have to spend money or seek it out and IT IS ALL BRILLIANT and the rare movies i pay to see are dumb (because i don't pay attention and let marketing guide me)"
whereas if people left their homes more often they might realize they're only getting a portion of the art that's in the world. and some of the art they aren't willing to seek out is just as good as the art that falls in their lap!
my point is this: i'm allowed to be highly annoyed that people will really give TV shows HOURS of their time even if they don't like it in the hopes that it will become good or that they'll say TV is good which is just trashy but would never claim a trashy movie is good. and i'm allowed to be annoyed that it's pulling teeth to get people to go to great movies unless they have gargantuan ad budgets and yet people will try really daring provocative challenging tv shows but they won't go to arthouse movies,
it's a clearly an imbalanced environment people live in and if they would only realize that i wouldn't have to point it out ;) and people wouldn't have to feel like i don't like TV (which i do).
in fact, Im having friends over tonight to watch Scream Queens because even though it'll probably be bad (as all Ryan Murphy shows end up being even if they have great premises or fun instincts because he cannot tell stories for shit) it will probably be fun to watch with friends plus: JAMIE LEE CURTIS.
anyway. that's how i feel. and no i had no intention to stop talking about tv. there are a lot of shows i like and a lot of actors i love that do both tv and movies.
Hayden -- i absolutely agree. to me "Crazy Eyes" is becoming "Sue Sylvester" a schticky character that was really fun for one season. but she didn't really need to win TWO EMMYS and the SAG for it. especially when at least 5 actresses from her same show were more deserving for season 2 including the two actresses she shared the most scenes with: Lorraine Toussaint and Danielle Brooks.
Hayden & Nathaniel - I love OITNB, but I too am baffled at the number of awards Uzo Aduba has won for her role. Yes to your love for Toussaint & Brooks, and I must add a shout out to the wonderful Kate Mulgrew. I think her rich, layered, creation of "Red" should have earned her the same kind of acclaim that "Crazy Eyes" has received.
Please continue to cover TV in your own inimitable way Nathaniel, I am always interested in your opinions. I don't think everything on TV is great, but I am grateful for some shows, particularly those with female leads. But it would be a dull world indeed if I only watched just TV. The world of indie film, foreign films, and Theatre is wondrous as well.
Not sure how to respond to the brain vomit. I recall the last time we had this discussion. I felt like I hurt your feelings, which isn't my intent.