- Holy cow am I freaking awful at predicting Emmy award winners. I went 2/10 tonight for a whooping 20%. I'm pretty sure Adam Dunn's batting average is higher than my prediction ability.
- Wow, what a crazy night for Homeland. Claire Danes won for Best Actress (Drama) which was expected but Damien Lewis won for Best Actor (Drama) and the show won the big prize for best Drama Television Show which were both unexpected.
- Let's first start with Lewis who beat out the two Goliath's Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men). Here's the thing, if you asked me which actor had the best season: Lewis for Season One of Homeland, Cranston for Season 4 of Breaking Bad or Hamm for Season 5 of Mad Men I would say Lewis had the better single season so I'm not too upset that he won. I just really want to see Jon Hamm win an Emmy. Don Draper is one of the best characters ever on television and I hope one day his talents get recognized.
- Last night on Facebook, a friend of mine and I compared the Best Actor (Drama) nominees (Hamm, Cranston, and Lewis) to the three best movies of 1994 (The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump). We were saying that while all three are excellent and we can not make any disparaging remarks about any of the nominees, one was clearly better. We determined that Jon Hamm was Shawshank, Bryan Cranston was Pulp Fiction, and Damien Lewis was Forrest Gump. Lewis is Gump because it's the clear #3, Cranston is Pulp Fiction because it's the clear mainstream #1 and when we look back on this award in 20 years everyone will say Cranston deserved to win it, and Hamm is Shawshank because while it is the mainstream #2, it is my personal #1 and in 20 years I will argue with everyone else than Hamm/Shawshank deserved the award and not Cranston/Pulp Fiction (as great they each are). With Damien Lewis actually winning the award, like Forrest Gump, this analogy becomes that much more amazing.
- Now on to Homeland as a show overall. Homeland's rookie season was great and was better than Season Two of Downton Abbey (which was boring as hell), Season Five of Mad Men (boring for most of the season), and Season Two of Game Of Thrones (really good but too many characters and plot lines diluted the overall season). But it was not even close to Season Four of Breaking Bad (which is without hyperbole) the greatest single season of television ever. I take that back, Season Three might be better. But that's it. As great as Homeland was (which it was) it was not even close to B.B.
- Another huge night for Modern Family. This is no surprise but what was the surprise was the specific winners. Modern Family won for Best Comedic Television Show (to the surprise of no one) but Eric Stonestreet (who plays Cameron Tucker) and Julie Bowen (who plays Claire Dunphy) each repeated as Best Supporting Actor (Comedy) and Best Supporting Actress (Comedy), respectively. These repeats were huge surprises to me- especially considering Sophia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Ed O'Neill do not have Emmy wins. None of the six adult actors on Modern Family separate themselves from each other (they are all at a really high level) so it legitimately shocked me that the Emmy voters made a statement saying two of the actors are above everyone else.
- Seasons 1 and 2 of Modern Family were excellent. Season 3 was just sub par. Let's stop suckling at the teet of Modern Family. Parks and Recreation is by far and away the best comedy on television right now. Let's start creating a bandwagon for them.
- Can we please stop giving away Emmys to Julia Louis-Dreyfus like their free samples?! All the credit in the world goes to HitFix's Dan Feinberg for predicting this one correctly. She won a ton of Emmys for both Seinfeld and on the awful The New Adventures of Old Christine. It was really obvious to the world that she would win again for her performance on the critically acclaimed Veep.
- Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) defeated my predicted Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) for Best Supporting Actress (Drama). This was by far and away my worst selection because it was obvious by the crap ton of nominations that the Emmy voters really like Downton Abbey. This award was so up in the air and Maggie Smith is excellent on the show that of course she was going to win. My bad.
- An actor from Breaking Bad won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor (Drama). Right show, wrong person. As amazing as Aaron Paul was during Season 4 of Breaking Bad (and he was truly excellent and Paul did some of his best work during Season 4) he didn't come close to the excellence that was Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring. Paul already has an Emmy win and Esposito can never win again for Breaking Bad. Not only was Esposito's performance better than Paul's but he just deserved it more.
- Jon Cryer (Two And A Half Men) defeated the powerhouse that was Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) for Best Actor (Comedy). The Emmy's couldn't give Steve Carell an Emmy for his Farewell Tour on The Office (which was excellent. Again, an example where Carell not only had the better performance but deserved it more because Parsons has already won an Emmy up to that point and Carell had never won one for portraying Michael Scott) but we can award Jon Cryer one because we still feel sorry for the (perceived) way Charlie Sheen treated him and the show?! What! If you're gonna proclaim that Parsons was the best actor last year then you need to pull a James Spader and just give the damn thing to him every year. Neither Parsons not Cryer deserve this award though.
- Some dude from Boardwalk Empire won the Emmy for Best Director (Drama). I have no idea how Neil Marshall didn't even get nominated for directing "Blackwater", the penultimate episode from Season Two of Game Of Thrones. It was the best episode that aired during this Emmy nominated period.
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