1st Annual Emmy Hangover Edition

Welcome to my 1^st Annual Emmy Hangover Edition!

Ok, I have to warn you. This will turn into an overall bitchfest. I was happy with some, indifferent with others, and seriously upset in the remainder. Here, I will explain my reasoning.

Since most of the TV I enjoy is in the Drama category, we shall start there.

What began as a promising evening for Breaking Bad with Aaron Paul taking the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, the series would not take any other awards home. Out of six nominations for Primetime Emmys, it would only rake in the one win. One episode, “Face-Off”, managed to walk away with five nominations in the Creative Arts Emmys, yet took not one award away from it.

I find this all ASTOUNDING. I cannot wrap my head around it. Granted, I am a little prejudice. I adore this show. It is nothing short of breathtaking in every way imaginable. The acting, writing, cinematography, dialogue, tension..all set the bar extremely high for the rest of cable television.

While I congratulate Aaron Paul, I really think Giancarlo Esposito should have taken the award home. His portrayal of Gus Fring was phenomenal. Esposito is a master in his craft and made the character one that struck fear in people while also making them admire and adore him. We only got to enjoy him for a short time but Gus will forever be one of the most talked about death scenes in TV history. Esposito displayed the essence of his character in that scene. Aside from the outstanding makeup, Esposito owned that segment.

He is the problem, in my humble I-have-no-professional-reasons opinion. The nominations are based on specific episodes submitted to the committee. The one submitted for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama by Esposito was “Hermanos”; Paul’s episode was “End Times”. Knowing these two specific episodes, I can see clearly why Paul took the trophy. I am going to assume you know these episodes as well but for fun, Paul’s episode is the one where he confronts Walt for poisoning Brock at gunpoint then decides it was Gus.

Esposito’s episode was the flashback to Gus’ previous interactions with Don Eladio and showed the murder of Max. While this episode was Gus-centric and was a fantastic presentation of this characters background, I don’t think it was his best episode as an actor. This particular episode was midway through the season, where “End Times” came directly before the epic finale. The tension, while ever present on this show, was not as thick at this point. Frankly, “Salud” is the episode that I would have submitted for Esposito. It’s a mere two episodes after “Hermanos” yet it carries an entirely different tone. (This is the episode where Gus, Jesse, and Mike go to Don Eladio’s and manage to wipe out the Mexican Cartel.) Esposito was magnificent.

Moving on…..

Homeland was the big winner in the Drama categories. I can’t lie to you guys and tell you I watched it. I have not watched it. Actually, I never watched Homeland or Downton Abbey. I don’t know why really other than the fact that I was busy watching the other five nominated shows. This means I cannot honestly say Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or Boardwalk Empire should have won, though I would have preferred any one of them, particularly Breaking Bad.

With that being said, the competition was really fierce this year in the Drama category. With the spectacular dramas that have been airing in recent years, it is hard to cheer for just one show. I was torn the minute I saw the nominees listed.

 I’ll be honest here. I don’t really watch much that isn’t drama related. I hate reality TV (don’t our lives suck enough without having to watch other people purposely make theirs suck too??), I don’t watch much in the way of sitcoms (there are a couple), and the Variety category is sketchy for me (only because I don’t catch them on a regular basis unless I’m really interested in a guest or something). The Mini-series category is something I must address.

Most of the nominations in the Mini-series category are unknown to me. I have heard of them but didn’t watch most. The only two that fit this area that I actually saw were Sherlock and American Horror Story. Again, this means I can’t say Game Change sucks or any of that kind of stuff.

Jessica Lange took home the Supporting Actress award for her performance in AHS as Constance. She was every bit of excellent in her role. The series itself was nominated for a whopping 17 Emmys total (12 nominations in the Creative Arts) and only took away two. The other award was Hairstyling.

What I think happened here seems to be a popular thought among others. Horror related themes are regularly avoided by the Emmys, even in the Creative Arts area, out of a general misgiving about the horror genre. The general feeling I get from this is “we don’t want it to win and get a bunch of uptight people upset so we will just nominate the hell out of it and vote for something else as the winner”.  People are still uptight about certain words and pictures so horror is going to get the blame for anything weird. Also, AHS had a school shooting scene and we all know how people get about that kind of thing.

The Comedy category is now going to be called the Modern Family awards. The entire cast was up against themselves for the acting awards. I have not seen it. Sorry guys, I am sure it is totally hilarious. I tend not to pay attention to sitcoms until they are in syndication. Judge me if you want. I will watch the reruns when there is nothing else on or I’m in between shows. It’s background fun. What can I say?

I digress. My point is when everyone on one show is nominated for the same awards, is there anything else on worth watching in the Emmy voters eyes? Six out of twelve of the nominated Best Supporting Actors and Actresses were from Modern Family. Let me put that another way; they had enough nominations to make their own category. It seems as though they are the jocks of this high school. They win all the awards without giving any shots to the nerdy kids. Sure “it’s an honor just to be nominated” but let’s be real. As well deserved as the award may be, it seems a little bit on the unfair side.

I don’t have anything to say about the rest of the awards themselves but I would like to say the best skit of the night was the Breaking Bad homage to The Andy Griffith Show. If you didn’t catch it, you really should.

Until next year!!