Emmy Nomination Hangover: Snubs & Perplexities
Friday, July 15, 2016 at 12:12PM Now that we've had 24 hours to think those Emmy nominations over (comedy & drama), Team Experience is sounding off on what most wounded them. Normally we are a positive bunch here at TFE but sometimes you gotta air out the grievances. Two questions this afternoon.
- Which nomination most perplexes you?
- Which snub makes you the most crazy?
Answers from the team after the jump. And do share your own after reading!
WHICH NOMINATION MOST PERPLEXES YOU?
Abstew: Game of Thrones was spectacular this season, so I get why the Emmys went a little overboard. But that doesn't explain why they felt the need to nominate Kit Harington for an acting award, of all things. I mean, we were all happy that Jon Snow came back from the dead (spoiler alert? Nah, everyone saw it coming), but Harington's permanently wrinkled brow and man bun alone are not enough to warrant recognition.
Anne Marie: *said in the style of Elaine Stritch* Does anyone… still watch… Homeland?
Manuel Betancourt: Can I say Modern Family for Best Comedy? Would saying so be as predictable and easily brushed off as this latest automatic nomination?
Modern Family had its worst Emmy showing by far (only 3 nominations) but still in there for the big one Comedy Series
Don't get me wrong, Melora Hardin has been great on the show. But with more memorable performances from Kathryn Hahn, Hari Neff, Angelica Houston, and Cherry Jones, on the very same show, it's odd that she is the show's only representative.
Nathaniel R: I don't have a specific grip but a general perplexing and vexing problem. Since Emmy does in fact still have a few juried categories, shouldn't they do that for the Guest Actor & Guest Actress awards which are always supremely lazy (even lazier than their normal awards which is really saying something) with tons of repeat nominations as long as you're famous and/or get a job hosting SNL. Shouldn't this prize be more like the bakeoffs at the Oscars where a jury can watch submitted short reels of the 100s of possibilities. I have zero doubt that the nominations would vastly improve if they did and would change a lot each year since no acting category has more varied options from year to year by its very nature.
Eric Blume: John Travolta for The People vs OJ Simpson. That program was filled with sensational acting, and I'd love if Courtney B. Vance, Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown all won in their categories. But Travolta never broke out of his schticky play-acting. He spent most of the season looking like he held a turd underneath his nose, and unlike his fellow actors, he was unable to make us feel for his character.
David Upton: David Schwimmer, American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson. It’s almost as if the entire voting body didn’t see that compilation of David Schwimmer repeating the word “Juice” as if it were his own personal self-help mantra. A furrowed brow does not a good performance make.
WHICH SNUB MAKES YOU THE MOST CRAZY?
Josh Forward: To quote Emmy nominee RuPaul, “Bring back… my Girls”. Emmy has a strange, unforgiving nature. Have one off season and you are strucketh off the list. Season 5 of Girls was widely regarded as not just a return to form, but possibly even the best season ever. And it got zip. It should have popped up all over the nominations, but particularly erroneous is Alison Williams in Best Supporting Actress, and Lena Dunham for Best Writing for the episode "The Panic in Central Park". Unless some nostalgia kicks in for the final season next year, it looks like Girls is done at the Emmys.
Dancin Dan: Did you use the word "crazy" on purpose? Because that's how I feel about the snub of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and its brilliant, talented, Golden Globe-winning star, Rachel Bloom. She sang, she danced, she was gut-bustingly hilarious, and on top of all that, she gave the most well-rounded, nuanced portrayal of a "crazy" person seen on screens (large or small) in decades. If all that doesn't deserve an Emmy, then WTF does?!?
Me scanning the Emmy noms looking for Eva Green's name... pic.twitter.com/LGaxmozmvE
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 14, 2016
Nathaniel R: Neicy Nash is literally the only actual nominee this year that made my ballot for Supporting Actress but Donna Lynne Champlin in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is superior to their entire shortlist. She nails a demanding frankly weird role without ever collapsing into caricature. Plus she brings the house down when she sings.
Anne Marie: How the hell did Full Frontal with Samantha Bee get overlooked for Outstanding Variety Talk Series? You cannot tell me that she’s less deserving than the nominees. Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel are interchangeable bowls of instant pudding, and James Corden is Jimmy Fallon with a British accent. Samantha Bee, like her former Daily Show coworker John Oliver, marries deep satire and extensive research. Like Bill Maher, she’s not afraid of voicing her frustrations, but she takes shots at absurdities on both sides of the aisle and she has yet to pull a punch. Is it the desk? Are variety show hosts supposed to have desks? Give her a desk so she can flip it over and tell the Emmys how out of touch is their all-white-guys list of nominees.
Manuel: Full Frontal With Samantha Bee missing out on the Variety Talk Show category. Bee's show has been scathing, probing, fascinating, necessary, hilarious, informative, urgent, and most of all entertaining during an election season that will surely give her fodder to get better and better. Sadly, Emmy loves itself some viral moments with dudes instead.
David: I could choose anyone from The CW’s continually outstanding comedies, and it was perhaps too much to expect a superhero show, even one as searing as Jessica Jones, to really break through. So I land on The Night Manager, and the absolutely baffling case where everyone but Elizabeth Debicki, the sly, icy blonde caught in a web of male greed, is nominated. For shame.
Eric: No Rachel Bloom in Best Actress? She's up to complicated things in Crazy Ex Girlfriend that none of those six talented nominated ladies are doing. She's got a natural magic to her, but it's more than that: she mapped a tricky journey of a largely unlikable character with nuance and style, and keeps managing to surprise episode by episode with depth.
Abstew: The Emmys are so slow to react to new shows and actors, while recognizing the same people over and over again, that you kinda just expect them to skip over your favorites every year. It's what they do. But how they can continue to ignore the perfect timing of Constance Wu on Fresh Off the Boat. But The Americans was finally nominated this year for its 4th season, so maybe I should just check back in a couple of years...
Chris: RuPaul's Drag Race misses in Reality Competition Program again. RuPaul's hosting nomination eases the sting, but this category must loosen the hold its unexciting perennials have. All I have to say about American Ninja Warrior getting nominated over one of the best seasons in the show's herstory, is this:
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The People vs OJ Simpson
American Crime
Confirmation
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Constance Zimmer for UnREAL
Sterling K Brown for The People vs
Main Title Design Nominees
Happy Thoughts Finale
If I had a ballot, Drama
If I had a ballot, Comedy
Reader Comments (36)
Snubs... Connor Jessup American Crime
Freddie Highmore Bates Motel, also Ver Fermiga
Patrick Wilson Fargo
Perplexes Cuba Gooding Jr and Schwimmer in OJ series
Melissa McBride for The Walking Dead. Even though the show has terribly inconsistent writing, she's always amazing and does her best to sell Gimple's crappy stories.
I have so many gripes, mama. I'll try to limit myself to things not mentioned above already.
The Leftovers, with another one of the most complicated and compelling seasons of television in my lifetime, is completely overlooked? Carrie Coon and Justin Theroux are doing some of the best work on television, period. Regina King, Ann Dowd, and Liv Tyler would've made my ballot as well. Hell, I'd throw Amy Brenneman in there too.
Three actresses from Game of Thrones make the cut in supporting, but Sophie Turner isn't one of them? Good for Maisie Williams, but Turner CARRIED this season. She and Lena Headey should have made the cut, and Lena will definitely win.
Girls getting shut out is insane to me for a lot of reasons you noted above. The Guest Actor/Actress in a Comedy Series should be riddled with Girls noms. Peter Scolari, Christopher Abbott, Corey Stoll, Becky Ann Baker, Aidy Bryant.
Andrew Rannells was delicious as Elijah this season!
Allison Williams delivered probably the best performance in an episode in that series' run in The Panic In Central Park.
Speaking of specific episodes that went over-looked...the Episode of Grey's Anatomy that Denzel Washington directed? Brilliant. Best episode of Grey's in at least 5 years. Should have warranted a nom for Denzel, and maybe even an Acting nod for Ellen Pompeo.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Orange Is the New Black's third season, but to not recognized ANY of the actresses at all is absurd. Selenis Levya should've made the cut at the bare minimum.
Krysten Ritter and David Tennant missing the cut for Jessica Jones stings a lot.
There ARE of course things that thrilled me, like RuPaul's nomination, The Americans being included, Master of None getting noticed, and Laurie Metcalf getting three nods.
I think Veep, Downton Abbey and Transparent are generally overnominated. I don't understand why someone like Maggie Smith is still taking up space in Supporting Actress - Drama, the most crowded category at the Emmys. I've read a lot of complaints about the three Game of Thrones actresses in that category, but I've never watched the show, so I can't comment. But Smith has really never belonged there and has coasted by on her celebrity and her wisecracks for a long, long time. Any number of OINTB actresses (Taryn Manning would have been my pick), the wonderful actresses from the woefully ignored Rectify (yeah, I know, none of you watch it), Cara Seymour from The Knick, etc. But Alison Wright from The Americans felt like the biggest omission to me. It's a shame she couldn't have snuck in with the rest of the nominations for that show.
I watch Homeland. If *you* don't watch it, why are you commenting on its nomination?
Appleby and Green missing in Actress (Drama), a disgrace. And where's Langella?
Those default nominations for Martindale/Whitford (who is at least playing a different character this season, but still...)/etc don't make any sense, given what else was eligible in the categories.
The Game of Thrones acting nominations are all wacky. Did they just nominate the first 5 names they see on the opening credits? Most of those actors, including perennial Dinklage, had little to do this season (except Lena Heady who was the season MVP and is very much deserving). Meanwhile Sophie Turner, Liam Cunningham and Jonathan Pryce (maybe qualifies as guest actor? didn't get that either) knocked their roles out of the park.
It's so amazing to me how boring all the Guest nominations are in term of what shows they're from. House of Cards has six, Veep has five? These are somehow the only categories Big Bang Theory and Good Wife has a hold on anymore? What's up with that.
Cumberbatch is so remarkably sad given Oscar Isaac just. Standing right there with his Golden Globe. Him, Rachel Bloom, Christian Slater, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Lady Gaga are all standing on the sidelines with their Golden Globes, looking at all the same old same old. I'd love how unpredictable the Emmy nominations were if they were actually, y'know, exciting or adventurous. Can you imagine an Oscar season where winning the Golden Globe didn't inherently mean you were in? That's so surreal.
And in a very general sense, the lack of Denis O'Hare, Mare Winningham, Evan Peters, Sherri Appleby, Krysten Ritter, David Tennant, Artemis Pebdani (it's just me, but still), the entire female cast of Kimmy Schmidt (congrats to Ellie Kemper!), Constance Wu, and Gina Rodriguez (to name only a few) is just so lame. Say what you will about Oscar loving the same people too much, but rarely is anyone as relentlessly recognized by default as some of Emmy's favorites.
I dunno, I'm mostly happy with everything nominated for once. RuPaul finally got nominated for Best Host, Constance Zimmer got a nod for Supporting Actress, Aziz Ansari got 3 individual nods for Acting/directing/Writing, Bokeem got a nod for Fargo, The Americans got major nominations, while perennials Alison Janney and Jim Parsons finally took a break. Samantha Bee did get a nod for Writing at least. Sure Drag Race should have been nominated for Reality Show (Ninja Warrior got in instead, which is a nice surprise while the rest of the category always stays the same) and Bee's show should have gotten a show nod too, but the Emmys always have some good and bad nods.
I'm with Anne-Marie and Manuel: WHERE IS SAMANTHA BEE?!!!
Which nomination most perplexes you? Clarke, Dinklage, Harington, Williams... basically the entire cast of Game of Thrones except for Lena Headey.
Which snub makes you the most crazy? Connor Jessup, Baranski, The Affair, The Leftovers and Show Me Hero
The biggest Snub for me was Orange is the new Black, Season 4 was great, they better get nominated at the SAG Awards!
Where is Eva Green on the list ?
And Billy on the Street! If Adele is a nominee Julianne Moore should have gotten a special Emmy for her episode.
steolicious -- it was actually season 3 of OITNB that was eligible. Season 4 will be eligible next time.
I'll stick up for Hardin in Transparent. I think she has a really tough character and only gets a few short scenes where she has to do a lot and she always nails it. Huston, as much as I love her, just didn't have much to do. Jones would've also been a good pick but again, maybe her role was just too low-key.
And if you're going to ignore Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in the main categories, how does it only get ONE nomination in the song category? They had so many brilliant options. I really wish the media would start a larger discussion about the Emmys blacklisting any CW shows.
Snubs that make me sad are Rachel Bloom, Carrie Coon, Samantha Bee (for the show), and the Girls' episode "Panic in Central Park" (for writing).
And, though it probably puts me in a lonely place, I'm unhappy about the lack of Horace and Pete nominations. I would have loved to have seen Steve Buscemi up for lead actor in a drama, the last episode for writing, and Amy Sedaris for best guest actress in a drama for the finale.
Alison Wright gave the best performance of the year bar none. I still can't believe she was snubbed.
Girl, Kit Harington is fantastic this season and if he submits Battle of the Bastards, he can actually win!
The one that perplexes me is Laurie Metcalf's three nominations this year! I mean, I love her but, wow this one is a sudden blow-up huh?
I AM STILL SO FUCKING ANGRY THAT CHRISTINE BARANSKI AND JANE KRAKOWKI ARE NOT NOMINATED FOR SUPPORTING ACTRESSES!!!
And YES of course I still watch Homeland. That show continues to be fantastic, even after Brody's death and last year series' best. Claire Danes is superb as usual. But the lack of a nomination for Mandy Patinkin also enrages me.
I am happy others are upset about Sophie Turner missing out. I get that Kit Harrington had a BIG year on the show this season, but all his best acting scenes were with Tuner, which is not a coincedence. She should be there over Maisie Williams.
I also share the outrage over Samantha Bee's miss. Her aftermath monologue about the Orlando shooting alone should guarantee a win let alone a nomination.
Most perplexing is Travolta, who was wildly entertaining but did all his acting with his shoe-polished eyebrows. Craziest snub is Julie Bowen, who continues to kill in a tricky role and wields comic timing with a scalpel.
Oh, Alison Wright. ::sobs::
Loved the unexpected nominations for Molly Parker (House of Cards), Jean Smart (Fargo), and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline)
Aghast over the nominations for John Travolta + David Schwimmer (American Crime Story) and A Very Murray Christmas
Pissed about the snubs of Amy Landecker (Transparent) and Samantha Bee's Full Frontal
I think Lena Dunham is the most brilliant writer that writes for tv these days, she elevates the medium. The fact that the emmy voters decided that they don't like her anymore is a proof to me of there irrelevance.
Dunham is irrelevant and a hypocrite.
Biggest perplexity is Harrington - clearly the worst actor on that show. But I can't really complain that much - they nominated Ther Americans and its leads FINALLY. So good job Emmys you did good this year.
For me, the worst omission that hasn't yet been mentioned is Jaime Camil from JANE THE VIRGIN, who makes pompous vanity lovable.
Keith -- yeah, i love him on that show. If only they wouldn't hold what network you were on against you. This is why they need blue ribbon panels who just look at the content and judge. and not just people voting based on what they happen to watch at home (which is hbo/netflix)
Count me on board with the Kit Harington nomination...it's a very brooding, internalized character and he can convey and emote quite a lot without doing much at all (he's so good at telegraphing his character's fear and reticence as his world is pushing him to become a leader)...plus the acting and physical demands of the Battle of the Basterds episode were beyond impressive. He really is a fine actor...see also Testament of Youth.
The funny thing about all those Metcalf nominations... is that she deserves all of 'em. Well, maybe except Big Bang. But her work in Getting On and Horace and Pete is searing and beautifully shaded. In GO she had to handle extreme tonal shifts and made it look human and relatable. Her HOP episode is the definition of tour-de-force: 80% of it is just her face and she makes the most of what she's given. And Cks screenplay was really difficult.
No Eva. No Patti. :'(
You know who was good this season in Game of Thrones? Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont!
was And Then There Were None eligible? I know it was on British TV before it was shown on Lifetime. If it was eligible, then most of the cast got shafted. They were all wonderful.
Sad to see Debicki get snubbed (again), but her career is still beginning. Only a matter of time before she breaks out, and she'll break out big. If it's not Guardians 2 it'll be that God Particle film.
Is the woman in the gif supposed to upset about her weight? Lol she basically has just eaten some pasta.
Harrington improved lot in this and the last season so I would say he does deserve it. Lena Headey on the other hand I just do not get what people see in her. The same "bitchy" or obvious boring acting year after year.
Tom, I was wondering the same about BBC's London Spy. Ben Whishaw was so great in that but I don't know if he was eligible.
Vera Farmiga