Buttons and Unbuttons: Emmy Nominations 2009

Yup it's late but I honestly haven't the time to sit and blog recently. I managed to get some novel stuff done using pen and paper in Cornwall from where I got back from on Saturday only to immediately go down to Wales the next day to look at the renovations done to our house down there. Today was mostly spent sleeping and watching anything I may have missed on television over the past week. But now I'm back and it's Emmy Nominations!!!

To start with yes there are snubs. Some quite obvious ones but honestly the only one that really pisses me off is Chuck not getting any big nominations. Pushing Daises got one for Outstanding Supporting Actress (Kristen Chenowith) so I can live with that loving since the show was mercilessly canceled. Chuck is massive snub however considering how good it is, but as well all know geek shows don't get nominated. Take Battlestar Galactica, whilst it still gets more acclaim than other shows (*cough*TheWire*cough*) it just didn't get any respect for it's final season even when it's one of the most critical acclaimed shows on television and it's lead actors (again highly acclaimed) don't get any respect. Same goes for two other shows, The Shield and Friday Night Lights both of which got no respect. Also True Blood, it might be so bad it's good but it's still better than 95% of current television. However I'm behind on almost all of these shows so it doesn't affect me as much as their die hard fans.

Brief overview of the Best Comedy Series nominations:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Jemaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock
Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock
Rainn Wilson, The Office

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Kristin Wiig, Saturday Night Live
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alan Alda, 30 Rock
Beau Bridges, Desperate Housewives
Jon Hamm, 30 Rock
Steve Martin, 30 Rock
Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jennifer Aniston, 30 Rock
Christine Baranski, The Big Bang Theory
Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live
Gena Rowlands, Monk
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock
Betty White, My Name Is Earl

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
James Bobin, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, Flight of the Conchords ("Prime Minister")
Jack Burditt and Robert Carlock, 30 Rock ("Kidney Now!")
Robert Carlock, 30 Rock ("Apollo, Apollo")
Matt Hubbard, 30 Rock ("Reunion")
Ron Weiner, 30 Rock ("Mamma Mia")

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Jeff Blitz, The Office ("Stress Relief")
James Bobin, Flight of the Conchords ("The Tough Brets")
Julian Falino, Entourage ("Tree Trippers")
Todd Holland, 30 Rock ("Generalissimo")
Beth McCarthy, 30 Rock(episode: "Reunion")
Millicent Shelton, 30 Rock ("Apollo, Apollo")

However I'm here to talk about the nominations I do like. For starters, How I Met Your Mother finally got nominated for Best Comedy. Whilst it has no chance against 30 Rock it's great to see it get the respect it deserves. Especially since it's my favourite comedy on television. Not necessarily the best, but my favourite. Also Neil Patrick Harris once more got nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor which with no Jeremy Piven being nominated (he has won for the past three years, God knows why) means he's in with an awesome shot. Especially because he is also the host and really it would make my day that an actor I would see in ANYTHING get the respect he deserves.

In surprising news Family Guy got nominated for Best Comedy Series, the first ever animated show to be nominated. Whilst I think this is great news I have to ask, why Family Guy? Yes it might be because the bracket has been expanded from 5 to 7 so some extra spots were needed, but Family Guy isn't the best animated series on television. Hopefully next year South Park will submit itself and get Family Guy's slot but at the moment Family Guy deserves despite (apparently) not being as good as it used to. On a side note The Simpsons tried to get itself nominated early on in it's tenure, 1993 and 1994, decided to put itself in the Outstanding Comedy slot and they submitted Mr. Plow one of the strongest episodes ever, so it shows how far we've come. Shame they didn't do it back then because maybe The Simpsons would have realised the quality was declining after they stopped getting nominated after about 8 years.

The other surprise comedy nomination was Flight of the Conchords. A small time comedy from a New Zealand music comedy which is extremely funny and only two seasons long. Well worth a look for. Think Tenacious D without the metal (on another note Tenacious D made a TV show in the 90s so why not go check out both now!!)

But when talking about comedy you can't not talk about the elephant in the room, 30 Rock. This year they managed to get a mind boggling 22 nominations. Highest for any comedy series EVER. They've won for the past two years, all five of the main actors for the show have been nominated with acting awards (with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin winning last year), four out of the five nominations for writing and five of the eleven nominations for guest actors. The only show that could compete is The Office but 30 Rock is the critical darling and WILL win. I hope that the votes are split in the Supporting Actor category are split between the 30 Rock actors so Neil Patrick Harris can win an award. Please let that happen.

Brief overview of the Drama Series nominations:

BEST DRAMA SERIES
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
Michael Emerson, Lost
William Hurt, Damages
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Rose Byrne, Damages
Hope Davis, In Treatment
Cherry Jones, 24
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Edward Asner, CSI: NY
Ted Danson, Damages
Ernest Borgnine, ER
Michael J. Fox, Rescue Me
Jimmy Smits, Dexter

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Brenda Blethyn, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Carol Burnett, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Ellen Burstyn, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Sharon Lawrence, Grey's Anatomy
CCH Pounder, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, Lost ("The Incident")
Kater Gordon and Matthew Weiner, Mad Men ("Meditations in an Emergency")
Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton and Matthew Weiner, Mad Men ("Six Month Leave")
Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner, Mad Men ("A Night to Remember")
Matthew Weiner, Mad Men ("The Jet Set")

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Phil Abraham, Mad Men ("The Jet Set")
Bill D'Elia, Boston Legal ("Made In China/Last Call")
Rod Holcomb, ER ("And in the End")
Todd A. Kessler, Damages ("Trust Me")
Michael Rymer, Battlestar Galactica ("Daybreak Part 2")

These nominations, apart from the Guest Actress Nominations (seriously Law & Order for most the nominations?!?) and William Fucking Shatner, are perfect. Whilst yes The Shield and Battlestar Galactica aren't nominated, for me as a massive fan of Dexter, Lost, Mad Men and Breaking Bad these nominations are awesome.

Dexter, whilst season 3 wasn't it's best, it's still one of the best shows on television and thankfully both Michael C. Hall and Jimmy Smitts got nominations for their show stopping performances. If you want to see an acting master class, watch these two in Dexter Season 3.

Breaking Bad, season 2 far outstripped season 1 and it got an Emmy nomination to back up last years win for Bryan Cranston as Lead Actor (seriously the guy is a fucking God) plus Aaron Paul got a Supporting Actor nomination which makes me warm inside because he too is amazing and at times can stand toe to toe with Bryan Cranston himself.

Lost got a surprise nomination for Best Drama. Surprise not because the show is bad but because we leaped headfirst into science fiction this year with time travel. Whilst Heroes did get nominated in Season 1 (hard to believe after how shit it has become) science fiction tends to get ignored so good to see the Lost love spreading (even if Season 5 wasn't as good as Season 4). To back this up we got a nomination for Michael Emerson, who had better win. Whilst I've said Aaron Paul was awesome just above, Michael Emerson has yet to win an Emmy for his work on Lost and he needs one. Terry O'Quinn got one, so just give it to Michael Emerson please? Not fucking Willaim Shatner. Then the writing nomination. Lost this year has the distinction of being the only non-Mad Men show to be nominated for Drama Writing this year. This means Lost has got a nomination ever year for writing (I refuse to believe that The Constant wasn't nominated last year) meaning that if you have yet to check it out, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Just a brief bit on the Lead Actor race before I go onto the elephant in the room (yes that does mean we currently have two elephants in the room). This year it looks tight. Every single one of the nominations is amazing, whilst my personal favourites are Michael C. Hall, Jon Hamm and Bryan Cranston, I know that Hugh Laurie is amazing and that seriously any one of these guys could take it. Television spoils us with amazing actors. The Drama series nominations too are awesome, so much so I have pledged to watch Damages and may get round to Big Love and House eventually. So Drama has some all round good choices.

However if you know anything the favourite for this year is Mad Men and rightfully so. It is probably the best show on television at the moment and currently leads with 16 nominations. It won last year and got 2 Golden Globes so there isn't really of question of whether it will win at all. Jon Hamm is amazing as are Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery however I will say I am annoyed that January Jones didn't get nominated for Best Actress as she is probably the strongest female actress on television at the moment (if you don't know her she plays one of the American girls in Love Actually and the American fiance in The Boat That Rocked, completely tangential but people need to know who she is). It also got four of the nominations for Best Writing however I do hope Lost wins because they have yet to win for writing despite having both Walkabout and Through the Looking Glass Nominated Before.

Finally in other Emmy nomination bits, David Simon's miniseries Generation Kill is one of only two nominations for Best Miniseries so hopefully it'll win and I can forgive the egregious snubbing of The Wire the past few years. Also in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog has been given a special nomination making it the only thing completely unrelated to television to receive and Outstanding Special Class nomination. Good luck to Mr. Whedon and cohorts.

And because it's been a while, trailer roundup!!!
District 9