I believe that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences needs to implement a major overhaul of the Emmy nomination process, such that once a person (in a specific role) or show wins a category, they should be retired from that category going forward. As it stands now, the system is designed to continually issue the same awards to the same winners year after year. That’s exactly what happened in last night’s ceremony, which bestowed its major prizes to the same series that won last year. How boring is that?
The big winners of the night were ‘Mad Men’ for Drama Series and ‘Modern Family’ for Comedy Series, both of which won the same trophies last year. In fact, this was the fourth win in a row for ‘Mad Men’. Even though I like both shows, I think it’s time for the Emmys to move on. Jim Parsons from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ also won Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the second time.
To be fair, the Academy did let in some fresh blood as well, the most exciting being Peter Dinklage (‘Game of Thrones’) for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Dinklage was a lock for this award as soon as the show’s pilot episode aired. He’s so awesome in the role that it would have been impossible for the Academy to not recognize him.
In a nice surprise, Margo Martindale from ‘Justified’ took home Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She was great in the show, but I expected her to be passed over for some of the higher-profile nominees.
Kyle Chandler is having a pretty good year. He starred in a blockbuster movie (‘Super 8’) and took home the Lead Actor in a Drama Series trophy for ‘Friday Night Lights’. Chandler is an underappreciated talent, so it’s nice to see him get some recognition. The show also claimed a writing award for the series finale episode.
HBO’s very expensive and very unsatisfying ‘Mildred Pierce’ juggernaut was expected to sweep the Miniseries categories. Indeed, Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce claimed acting awards for it. However, the production was passed over in the main Miniseries or Movie category, as well as directing, writing, and Supporting Actress in favor of the British ‘Downton Abbey’, which honestly I’d never even heard of until last night.
HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ strolled into the evening with an astounding 18 nominations, but came up short in all of them except Martin Scorsese in the Directing for a Drama Series category, which he probably won based on name recognition alone.
You can find the full list of nominees and winners on Emmys.com.
The ceremony was hosted this year by Jane Lynch from ‘Glee’, which sounded like a good idea when it was announced. Because I spent most of Sunday driving home from Toronto, I missed all but the last half hour of the show. From what I saw, the jokes seemed to be falling painfully flat with the audience. Is that a fair assessment, or was the rest of the program more entertaining?
TJ Kats
I personally don’t think Jane Lynch us funny so I may be biased but the only funny parts to me was the Mad Men part and Ricky Gervais part. The only thing that made her look talented was the near suicide inducing bit with Andy Samberg and Michael Bolton.
As to the actual awards I was also very happy to see Margo Martindale win ad she was amazing in Justified. I also agree that it would probably nice to retire winners each year.
Nate "the boss" Boss
i 100% agree on retiring a winner. How many times is the same role up for an Emmy? take horrible Tina Fey or Steve Carrell, 30 Crap and Office, respectively. HOW many times do we need the same actor in the same role nominated yearly? why is it every year one show utterly DOMINATES?
lame as fuck award show.
Ian Whitcombe
Nate, Carrell has never won an Emmy for The Office.
Nate "the boss" Boss
Aware, but how many noms has he earned? A TON.
Evan Withrow
Was so happy to see that Kyle Chandler won. It was much deserved and long overdue recognition for him and the show. Also loved that Margo Martindale won- (but I think she won it for supporting actress in a DRAMA series) – Thought I would give the heads up on the typo Josh, since Justified isn’t exactly a comedy. Though it does have some good laughs.
Josh Zyber
AuthorD’oh! Fixed now. Thanks. 🙂
Aaron T. Starks
They shouldn’t be retired, but they shouldn’t be nominated in consecutive years after a win. It’s absurd to think that only one show on television is worthy of an award. And insulting to the audience to act like other shows and actors were even given fair consideration.
It’s also stupid that one episode from a season is judged instead of an entire season.
Chad Lawless
I don’t agree with the idea that someone SHOULDN’T be allowed to win an award after winning one the previous year. They might have done BETTER work the following season (a lot of shows don’t hit their true stride until Seasons 2 or 3, although some shows can come on strong out of the gate). I always think the best person should win, even though this is rarely the case.
But, I do like Aaron T. Starks’ idea that they are excused from nomination the following year, just to mix it up.
Is there an answer? Should they break the awards down by day of the week, or network, or time slot…. and we could have a day-long Emmy awards ceremony…. ugh…. please no…..
On a serious note, I was glad to see a little love tossed towards BBC’s “Sherlock”. If you haven’t seen this one yet, pick up the first season (all 3 episodes of it). I can’t wait for season 2 and hope that Martin Freeman’s work on the Hobbit prequels won’t interfere with his excellent work on the series.
Julian
Josh, do please check out Downton Abbey! It’s one of the most gorgeous filmed dramas in a long time. The English vistas and landscapes are a sight for sore eyes! I saw the entire series earlier this year when they aired on our national television channel.
The first season only costs $14 on play.com
Here’s the link for you http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/17197509/Downton-Abbey-Series-1-Box-Set/Product.html
Shannon Nutt
Here’s a little not-so-hidden secret among Emmy voters (and the same goes for Oscar voters)…they DON’T WATCH THE SHOWS! Voter A calls Voter B and says, hey, you vote for “my guy” and I’ll vote for “your gal” and that’s pretty much the way it goes. Add popularity with voters and the occassional “body of work” nod, and there you have in a nutshell how voting is done on these shows.
Chad Lawless
Good point, Shannon. I had an uncle who worked for Paramount for years, and he said that a lot of the Oscar ballots were filled out by secretaries, because studio honchos don’t have enough time to watch every movie/actor/etc that’s up for nomination.
Ian Whitcombe
In terms of the acting nominees at least, the Academy has changed their policy on this in recent years. A member must watch all respective acting performances before casting their ballot.
Of course, the actor submission is just based on one episode, and it is true that the average Academy member is completely unaware of their series body of work.