The Film Experience

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

Chris Feil: Melora Hardin - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - Transparent

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?!?

Jason:

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:

If I had a ballot, Drama
If I had a ballot, Comedy