Nodding Off

The Emmy nominations are out, and they're not bad. A lot of deserving people and shows got nods. Here's hoping the awards are as good.

30 Rock got more attention than any other show--22 nominations, a record. It's a good show, but not head and shoulders above the rest. Maybe the TV academy should spread the wealth a little.

I'm not sure why, but seven shows were nominated for Best Drama and for Best Comedy. This ensured a lot of worthy shows made it, but isn't five enough? (Actually, on TV, Eight Is Enough, though I thought this was supposed to be a Table For Five.)

The Best Comedy Series nominees are Entourage, Family Guy, Flight of the Conchords, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock and Weeds. Family Guy may be animated, but it deserves it. I got no trouble with The Office, 30 Rock and Entourage being here either. But no love for the now-departed My Name Is Earl, and still nothing for The Big Bang Theory.

None of the shows listed are actively bad, but neither do I have a strong rooting interest for any single one. I suppose it'll be 30 Rock, which TV people obviously love.

The drama nominees are even better: Big Love, Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, House, Lost and Mad Men. I got no use for three of these, but since they got the four best hourlongs on TV--Breaking Bad, House, Lost and Mad Men--I'm not complaining. Note the total lack of CSI or Law And Order or The Mentalist or any of those other procedurals. I'm glad to see no respect for the perenially overrated Boston Legal, and not exactly surprised to see no notice of the final season of Battlestar Galactica.

I'll be happy if any of the big four take it, though Lost probably deserves it most. It also has only one more chance. If Mad Men anbd Breaking Bad don't seem so bright and shiny any more, maybe Lost will come through.

For best variety show, all the big names are there--Stewart, Colbert, Letterman, Maher--except the once and future king of The Tonight Show, Leno and Conan. Hmmm.

Skimming through the other categories...

For best actor in a comedy, mostly the big names everyone expects. But there's Jim Parsons of Big Bang--good to see him. Weirder is Jemaine Clement, the deadest of deadpans on Flight Of The Conchords. He's the best thing on the show, but it's quite a burn on his partner, Bret. Wouldn't be surprised to see Alec Baldwin win again--he certainly deserves it as much as anyone.

For best actor in a drama, some tough competition. Bryan Cranston, who won last year, was even better in season 2 of Breaking Bad. Or maybe they're ready to give it to Jon Hamm in Mad Men, though I think his performance is too cool for them. Really the winner should be Hugh Laurie, who for the last five years has been amazing. At least there's no James Spader to gum up the works.

Interesting if somewhat weaker competition for best actress in a comedy. Tina Fey doesn't seem that special in 30 Rock, but she won last year, and I suppose is the favorite again.

TV loves stars, especially names from movies or theatre, who are willing to travel coach, and appear on the tube. That's why one-shot categories pretty much only feature big names, often those who have already won Tonys and Oscars and even Emmys. Look at the miniseries names: Kevin Klien (sic--I blame Variety), Brendan Gleeson, Sir Ian McKellen, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kenneth Branagh, Drew Barrymore, Jessica Lange, Shirley MacLaine, Sigourney Weaver and Chandra Wilson. Or guest shots in comedy and drama: Alan Alda, Beau Bridges, Jon Hamm, Steve Martin, Justin Timberlake, Edward Asner, Ernest Borgnine, Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Aniston, Christine Baranski, Tina Fey, Gena Rowlands, Elaine Stritch, Betty White, Brenda Blethyn, Carol Burnett, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Lawrence and CCH Pounder. Whew! It's pretty shameless, actually, the bowing and scraping. There are a lot of surprisingly bad performances in that group. On the other hand, I have to admit Tina Fey was impressive as Sarah Palin, and she deserves the win. (For that matter, Justin Timberlake was surprisingly good on SNL, too.)

Supporting actor in comedy continues the tradition of Jon Cryer being here, while co-star Charlie Sheen is playing with the big boys. (I'm sure Jon is crying all the way to the bank.) The big surprise here is former double-winner Jeremy Piven of Entourage is missing. Did he voluntarily take his name out, or was this due to mercury poisoning? Meanwhile, Kevin Dillon, who's just as memorable on the same show, gets another shot. Another big surprise is along with Tracy Morgan, we get Jack McBrayer--boy do they love 30 Rock. I'm almost surprised no Judah Friedlander. Oh well, always next year. (They had no room for Justin Kirk of Weeds, the best reason to watch the show.)

Supporting actress in a comedy has Jane Krakowski coming in under the 30 Rock rule. There's also Elizabeth Perkins, who didn't have the best season on Weeds. Amy Poehler, who didn't receive a best actress nod for her sitcom, gets a consolation prize for her work on SNL, but I think she deserves to be beat by Kristen Wiig, who's become the go-to gal there.

Supporting actor in a drama has more star love, with William Hurt, front and center. It still has a couple stragglers from Boston Legal, including Captain Kirk, who's already got his Emmy. Then there are three interesting nominees. Ladies and gentleman, the only acting nomination on Lost, the show with the biggest cast in TV history--Michael Emerson. Oh well, if you gotta pick one, might as well be Benjamin Linus. I'll be rooting for him. But there's also the excellent Aaron Paul on Breaking Bad, who'd be so easy to overlook, and the amazing John Slattery of Mad Men. If either of those guys gets it, that'd be great.

Supporting actress in a drama has yet more stars who have condescended to appear on TV, such as Hope Davis, Dianne Wiest and Cherry Jones. And look, another nomination for Chandra Wilson. Guess Tina Fey isn't the only women who might need both hands.

Enough, let's cut to the very weird writing categories. Both comedy and drama feature one show getting four out of five nominations.

For comedy it's--you guessed it--30 Rock. I can see one, maybe two, but this is ridiculous. Nothing from Family Guy, The Office, Earl? No Spock's Napkin episode from Big Bang? Then the only other one is from Flight Of The Conchords? I mean, the "Prime Minister" episode was fine, but really?

For drama, as you'd probably guess, it's Mad Men. Now I love Mad Men, and the nominations are generally worthy (especially "Six Month Leave"--though it's odd the bizarre "Jet Set" was one of the choices), and since Matt Weiner had a hand in each, he's gotta be odds-on favorite to take a statuette home. But still, nothing for Breaking Bad, which was amazing episode after episode? The one show that sneaked past the Mad Men monopoly was Lost's "The Incident." I'd say there was better writing in "Jughead," "The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham," "LaFleur," and "Dead Is Dead." "The Incident" was the big finale, no question, but it didn't stand out as the best writing of the season.

Anyway, for all my complaints, there's a lot to root for, which is nice.