Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Now that I’ve finally recovered from my post-Emmy’s pineapple-orange-banana juice hangover, it's time to tally up how many of the Inlander predictions, in all their sage TV wisdom, landed.
Two out of 10. Slightly better than pure, drunken, dart-flinging chance. If I had been the optimist, I would have done slightly better. Three of the actors I said "should win," did.
A few thoughts on the rest of the ceremony:
Isn’t it amazing that actors, who should be gods of the stage, are generally absolutely awful at bantery-skit interaction before they announce the winners? The one way to solve this, generally, is to give the presenting duties for each award to only one. We get more spontaneous "Ricky Gervais" moments and fewer awkward "Jim from The Office meets Betty Draper from Mad Men" moments.
The networks want to create a separate awards show for the TV movie and miniseries awards. The networks, some suspect, just want to take the focus off of cable powerhouses. But I’d agree with this decision. For the most part, a miniseries or TV movie is a very different beast than an ongoing TV series. Currently, these awards drain the pacing of the ceremonies. Cut the hour of miniseries and TV movie awards, and make the show that much sleeker.
Julianna Margulies, who everybody thought was a lock for her performance in The Good Wife lost for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. Archie Panjabi, who nobody thought had a shot for her performance in The Good Wife, won. Both major surprises. For you, Inlander readers, I marathoned through the first 10 The Good Wife episodes. For all that, I say of her performance: Eh, not bad, I guess.
Fascinating how Aaron Paul, one of the most cringe-worthy actors in Breaking Bad in the first season — a character who would have been killed off if not for the writer’s strike — became a great enough character to justifiably win Outstanding Performance for a Supporting Actor.
Modern Family beats Glee: The uneven, but innovative, heavily-hyped show loses to the incredibly consistent, but incredibly generic, moderately hyped show. Interesting.
Everybody hates Lost. Not a single win for the final season of the series. Since the final episode (and final season) divided fans and critics so sharply, that's not a surprise. But a disappointment for a series that didn't belong anywhere near broadcast television, but somehow became a hit anyway.
Top Chef finally broke the long, long reign of The Amazing Race. This, for the Top Chef season starring the bearded Kevin Gillespie, a fan favorite and, briefly, head chef at Spokane's Luna. Good call, Emmy voters.
The full list: ---
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy -- Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy -- Modern Family
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy -- Jane Lynch, Glee
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy -- Glee
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy -- Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy -- Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program -- Top Chef
Outstanding Writing for a Drama -- Mad Men
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama -- Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama --Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama -- Brian Cranston, Breaking Bad
Outstanding Directing in a Drama -- Dexter
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama -- Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Outstanding Writing in Variety -- 63rd Annual Tony Awards
Outstanding Variety Series -- The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie -- Julia Ormond, Temple Grandin
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie -- David Strathairn, Temple Grandin
Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries or Movie -- You Don't Know Jack
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie -- Claire Danes, Temple Grandin
Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries or Movie -- Temple Grandin
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie -- Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack
Outstanding Miniseries -- The Pacific
Outstanding Made for Television Movie -- Temple Grandin
Outstanding Drama Series -- Mad Men
Outstanding Comedy Series -- Modern Family
Tags: Television , Emmy , TV