Emmy Reflections 2009

This is a little late, I know, but with school work taking up most of my free time (along with my decision not to live-blog the event), I just haven't yet been able to get around to this. Personally, the delay has given me extra time to think about what happened that night, and decide what I really thought. Emmy's smartest move of the night: separating the show into separate genres, saving best comedy and best drama for last. Keep that idea! It should be noted, however, due to my limited resources, I will only comment on comedy and drama separately, giving notes on the other categories together. Host: Poor Neil Patrick Harris. He was obviously trying his hardest up there, but they obviously didn't give him much to work with. He was saved however by that classic NPH charm, and I personally was hoping he'd show off some of the magic tricks he knows. Anyway, its safe to say he was much better than the reality-host-nominees-as-Emmy-hosts disaster from last year. Variety/Music/Reality/Miniseries/Movie - Little Dorrit was a shocker to me, namely because I always assumed HBO was invincible in the miniseries category. But good for PBS for winning. - Of course Grey Gardens won made for TV movie. Who thought it wouldn't? - I'm glad The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won for the umpteenth time, but The Amazing Race too? Really? - Robot Chicken deserves an Animated Program Emmy. Give it one. Comedy - I'm really glad that Kristen Chenowith won Best Supporting Actress for playing Olive Snook in Pushing Daisies. Let that be a reminder to you, ABC, that you cancelled a truly brilliant show. The category as a whole was very strong this year; the only one I wouldn't really like to have won would be Vanessa Williams (decent performance in an overrated show). - Congratulations on winning Best Supporting Actor, Jon Cryer. He truly is the heart of Two and a Half Men, and its great to see his performance recognized. However, who really deserved to win? Jack McBrayer: how could you not love his ultra-naive Kenneth the Page (complete with Muppetvision)? - Saturday Night Live was on spot this year, with both Justin Timberlake and Tina Fey winning Guest Actor and Guest Actress, respectively, for their incredibly funny performances on the show, particularly Fey as Sarah Palin. - I thought for sure that Tina Fey or Mary-Louise Parker would win Best Actress, but Toni Collette? A part of me thinks I need to investigate United States of Tara to see why she pulled this one off. The most surprising thing here is the lack of the Desperate Housewives cast: there's not a single one to be seen. - Alec Baldwin's win was what I thought would happen originally, but as the awards drew closer, I began to think that Jim Parsons would pull an upset for The Big Bang Theory. I am glad Alec Baldwin won, though, not only because he's truly brilliant in 30 Rock but also because he's not Tony Shaloub. - 30 Rock accounted for 4 of the 5 writing nominees; of course it won (sorry Flight of the Concords, but you never stood a chance). - 30 Rock won Best Comedy for the third year in a row, which is perfectly fine by me. What makes me happiest is that the unfunny, incoherent mess of an excuse for a comedy that is Family Guy did not win. Honestly, it didn't even deserve the nomination. Here's hoping its never nominated here again. Drama - Cherry Jones' win for Best Supporting Actress in 24 is notable in that it was 24's only major nomination in the drama categories this year. Also, as a slight side note, they missed the best supporting performance of the year in not nominated the glorious Allison Pill for In Treatment. She was heartbreaking. She deserves to win. - Thank God Michael Emerson was finally recognized! His Ben Linus on Lost is consistently one of the best performances on the show, and he is easily one of the creepiest villians of all time in any medium. I was convinced they would reward William Shatner for hamming it up on the mediocre-to-abysmal Boston Legal; maybe there is justice in the world. - The guest spots this year were interesting but not revolutionary: Ellen Burstyn won Guest Actress for Law & Order: SVU, and Michael J. Fox won Guest Actor for Rescue Me (which is absolutely fantastic, but he pretty much had the Emmy locked up the moment he rolled on screen). It is curious, however, that Fox's win is the first Emmy to be earned by Rescue Me, which has been consistently good over the last five seasons. It needs more recognition than that.... - Glenn Close won Best Actress for the second year in a row for her role in Damages. This was a great year for actresses on television, but this category was full of familiar faces with multiple nominations. I think its time for this category to let in some fresh faces, such as Friday Night Light's Connie Britton or Dollhouse's Eliza Dushku. - In a stunning upset, Best Actor went to Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad instead of Jon Hamm for Mad Men! Sound familiar? Its the exact same thing that happened last year. I haven't seen Breaking Bad (yet), and I'm sure Cranston's phenomenal, but what's it going to take to get Hugh Laurie an Emmy for playing House, easily the most interesting character in a medical show ever? Or Michael C. Hall for his creepily sympathetic turn in Dexter, for that matter? And surely they didn't intentionally overlook Gabriel Byrne's graceful performance in In Treatment? It was certainly a crowded year, with every nominee (except Simon Baker) deserving a win. - Just like in comedy, the Dramatic Writing category was consisted of only two shows: one nomination for Lost, and the remaining four for Mad Men. Mad Men won, of course, but the winner should have been Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for the fantastic episode of Lost entitled "The Incident." It's one of Lost's finest episodes, and deserved to be honored as such. - If you haven't gotten it by now, I am a Lost fanatic. And so it's understandable why I was disappointed when Lost, just like last year, didn't take home it's second Best Drama Emmy (here's hoping it happens next year for the final season). Mad Men won again, making it two-for-two all time in this category, despite never having an acting winner. To be honest, I didn't think it would win this year. If not Lost, I was hoping House or Dexter would take the prize, but I predicted AMC would still win this category with Breaking Bad. Lesson learned: never bet against advertisement agents who enjoy drinking and sexually harassing their female coworkers in the 1960s.