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?
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n