Sunday, September 22, 2013

2013 EMMYS ANALYSIS! UPSETS, "...CANDELABRA", MORE UPSETS, and yes, "BREAKING BAD"!



Well, NPH was right about something, everybody lost their Emmys Pool this year. If you predicted Merritt Weaver winning, you're lying. Bullshit! I love her, I love "Nurse Jackie," I've loved Merritt Weaver since "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" but c'mon, don't lie. Nobody had her winning. Even she had nothing to say and was completely unprepared. But that said, that was the greatest speech ever!

"I gotta go, bye."

Beautiful, natural speech from a beautiful and very talented actress.

Well, let's go through my predictions real quick, ....

On second thought, let's just say I got them all right. Alright, I didn't. "Modern Family" won again, and I think we're sick and tired of it. It shouldn't have been nominated, but it won Comedy Series and Directing again, that's become the clue, in the comedy categories it seems I've noticed. Gail Mancuso, winning. Beth McCartney-Miller never winning is bullshit. So, in the saddest Emmys ever, "Modern Family" ends it on a downnote for comedy, and "Breaking Bad", finally got it's win in Best Drama Series. Congratulation, they should've won it last year. If "Modern Family" wins next year, it'll tie the record with 5, and not only 5 for a series, 5 in a row, which "Frasier" did back in the '90s, the only other show to win 5. Maybe next year "Big Bang" fans. (And "Girls" fans like me.)

That was a common theme too, the shoulda-won-it-last-years, kept winning. Heidi Klum & Tim Gunn, presenting, Bob Newhart, shoulda won it many years ago. "The Voice" shouldn't have been nominated this year, but pulled off the surprise upset over "The Amazing Race" this year. Last year, I was all about "The Voice", and thought it was spectactular and predicted it would win last year, as it should have, and then they made it more like "American Idol", they fucked the show up, and now it wins. If you're gonna do that Academy, just give it to "The Amazing Race" every year then. You're not honoring "Project Runway" the six or seven times it should've won, or "Top Chef" or "So You Think You Can Dance?", why are we giving it away to a show in a weak year, that's gonna get worst and worst unless they change back. You didn't honor "...Idol" correctly all that time,- it makes no sense to honor "The Voice" now.

Not sure why they decided to honor "The Colbert Report" upsetting it over "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", unless they just arbitrailly decided to not give it to them this year. Maybe it was John Oliver's fault? Eh, who knows. I just wish that if the Emmys are gonna pass that Award around now, they have to give it to "Real Time with Bill Maher" instead. 29 Nominations for Maher, 0 Victories. Almost as bad as Bob Newhart not winning until last week.

Neil Patrick Harris, was very good, especially late in the show, when he teased us by not having musical numbers 'til later. I thought the opening bit was fantastic, and funny as hell, with Kevin Spacey sabotaging everyone, that was very funny, and btw, Kevin Spacey, would make an incredible Emmy host next year. They should really think about that. A lot of the other sketches were great, I didn't know about the surprise tribute to choreography, but I am in favor of it, because never has choreography become such a mainstay on network primetime television then it has in recent years, so I think there's legitimacy to that. But it was an akward show overall, one of NPH's weakest, but not fault the directing and organizing was terrible. And the tributes, ugh! So many of them, and all of them, being before the actual "In Memoriam", is just somewhat insulting to all the others who died. And as sad as it is, are you really gonna tell me that Cory Montieth's death is more worthy of a eulogized tribute, than Larry Hagman's? The rest, I understood, even Gary David Goldberg, people who don't know/realize who he was might not know, but he was incredibly important and influential, but- Montieth, over Jack Klugman, or Andy Williams, even, he had the longest-running variety show in TV history, before "Saturday Night Live" passed him, not my favorite either, in fact I didn't even know he died, but I probably shouldn't have found out on the In Memoriam at the end like that. I mean, there's ways to do that correctly, and ways to do it wrong, this multiple eulogies thing, really did it wrong, just glad we didn't focus on the musical performance during the actual tribute.

"Behind the Candelabra" was pretty much the only non-shocker however. It won over 11 total, that's close to a record actually, including Miniseries, Michael Douglas, and for Steven Soderbergh tonight.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus's win was a little unsurprising, and "Veep" did surprisingly well, and while, I still can't figure out the Academy's insistance on ignoring Amy Poehler again and again, but Louis-Dreyfus's acceptance speech with Tony Hale close by, who also pulled off a surprise Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series win, was incredibly funny and smart, to those who got it. Two in a row for her, and two in a row for writing and Actress for "Homeland". Claire Danes won again, deservingly so, she is amazing on that, but Kerry Washington will win next year. I can guarantee it. Nobody wants to piss off Diahann Carroll two years in a row. Trust me, she's pissed, and everybody's running around making sure she's never pissed off again. Trust me on that, doesn't matter how good, or bad "Scandal" is next year, Washington's winning it.

Tina Fey left with one more Emmy for "30 Rock", co-writing the show's finale with Tracey Wigfield, that's her 8th Career Emmy btw. She's 43 folks, and look 28, with two kids, and has 8 Emmys overall! She's in Cloris Leachman/Betty White territory folks! Unbelievable!

The best upset however, and I know who's gonna give me shit about this, but you know, Jeff Daniels deserved to win, more than Brayn Cranston. "The Newsroom" should've won Best Series, wasn't nominated, big screw up when that happened, but Daniels is spectacular in "The Newsroom", an incredibly complicated character, who's just layered upon layered, and I'm sorry, "Breaking Bad" it deserved to win among the nominees for Best Drama Series, but it wasn't as good as the year before. It was lacking, and basically Walter White's transformation is complete, so it isn't as deep and conflicting a performance as it has been in the past, and "The Newsroom" is the best show on television; glad excited- I screamed when he won! Seriously, I was shocked as anybody, but Jeff Daniels is one of the best actors alive, and it was the single-most deserving win of the night, and so good, 'cause it was so unexpected. Thank you Academy for that.

And screw you Academy for Sarah Paulsen, Amy Poehler, "The Office", Mayim Bialik, Ed O'Neill, "The Voice", Lena Dunham, and screw you twice, for Elisabeth Moss (Love you Laura Linney though, but still....) and Screw you Academy for every "Mad Men" acting nomination, ever! I thought John Slattery had won, once, and I was wrong, "Mad Men" is 0-31 in Acting nominations. Are you friggin' kidding me!? And btw, Vincent Kartheiser, has never been nominated! Screw you Academy!

I love Award shows for their arbitrariness and their place in pop culture, and their honoring of the true art of entertainment, and seeing people like Weaver, Anna Gunn, Daniels, Parsons, Bromell (RIP), Cannavale and Abi Morgan, Ellen Burstyn and Michael Douglas get rewarded for their artistic efforts, and it's sad to see Mamet, Spacey, Cranston, Paul, Dinklage, Campion, and many other deserving nominees go home empty handed, but still, it's nice to see such great talent winning and it's nice to see that, in this era of when too many people out there still belittle television, it's great to recognize that there truly is some amazing great and memorable television out there, and there's gonna be for awhile. There was a lot of talk of the "Golden Age" of television," tonight, well, here's the secret, every age is the golden age since there's good shows on at every age, and you're we're lucky and honored enough to watch them. The Emmys as flawed as they may sometimes be, does it's best every year to honor them. So, I know that's counter to my last statement where I told them all "Screw themselves" nine or ten times, but you know, we still watch the Emmys, because we still watch and love television, and thats why we love watching television go honored and appreciated every year at the Emmys.

See you all next year, when the Emmys screw Amy Poehler and "The Newsroom" again, folks!


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