Emmy Nominations: The Good, The Bad, and The Whatever

So the Emmy nominations were held this morning and despite some very awesome surprises, a few of the snubs just felt really wrong. With that said, my wish list ballots went 34 out of 85 nominations which is pretty dismal. I did slightly better with my actual predictions going 56 out of 85 (47 out of 60 if you don't count the usually difficult-to-predict guest acting categories). I'll be discussing the nominations and how I did in my predictions with Andrew in the next few days. For now, a straight-up Good, Bad, Whatever reaction post...

Mr. and Mrs. Coach feel the love

THE GOOD

- Parks and Recreation and Friday Night Lights breaking through in Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series categories respectively. Plus the much-deserved repeat nominations for their leads--Amy Poehler, Connie Britton, and Kyle Chandler.

- Game of Thrones gets 13 nominations including acting honors for the show's breakout actor Peter Dinklage.

- Dot-Marie Jones nominated alongside Glee guest actresses Kristin Chenoweth and Gwyneth Paltrow! Jones getting nominated is probably my favorite nomination this year. Also Matthew Morrison NOT getting nominated is probably my favorite non-nomination!

- Emmys giving The Good Wife, especially its actors, lots of love with nominations for Julianna Margulies, Archie Panjabi, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Alan Cumming, and Michael J. Fox.

- Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, Cara Buono, and Randee Heller from Mad Men getting nominated. They should really change the title of the show to Awesome Women.

- My summer not-so-guilty pleasure So You Think You Can Dance picked up a series high 8 nominations including one for Reality Show and 5 of the 6 choreography nominations! Cat Deeley also FINALLY gets recognized. Tonight's episode is going to be amazing.

- I haven't seen these performances, but I only hear great things regarding Timothy Olyphant, Margo Martindale, Louis C.K., Mary McDonnell, and Melissa McCarthy so I'm very happy for their nominations. McCarthy had to present the nominees this morning and her reaction when she heard her name was so precious. Also I'm going to pretend McDonnell's nom is for Battlestar Galactica.

- Outstanding Writing for Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special is awesome. Julian Fellowes vs. Todd Haynes vs. Steven Moffatt. Wow.

- Big tally for Mildred Pierce! 21 nominations, the most out of any show, including acting nominations for Kate Winslet, Evan Rachel Wood, and Guy Pearce. Hoping for Winslet to win so she can claim EGO out of her EGOT.

Bow Down! British Acting Royalty!

- Dame Maggie Smith is nominated for her fantastic role in Downton Abbey. Everyone should automatically just lower their heads in honor whenever she's around. That is all.

- Some more nominees I sort of love: Martha Plimpton, Michael C. Hall, Julia Stiles, Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Sofia Vergara, Jane Krakowski, Michelle Forbes, Idris Elba, Cloris Leachman, Loretta Devine, Matt Damon, and Joan Cusack.

THE BAD

- NO NOMINATIONS FOR FRINGE, COMMUNITY, OR COUGAR TOWN. Not even a lone tech nod especially for the first two considering some of the insane episodes they did during the past season. THIS IS A BIG FAIL. A BIG FAIL.

Noble and Torv are too good for the Emmys

- Speaking of big fail, John Noble and Anna Torv delivered two (actually more like six) of the best performances of last year. IT IS RIDICULOUS that neither one was nominated.

- Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series is already a super competitive category. Did we really need to nominate every single adult male from Modern Family? Jon Cryer?! It just means that Nick Offerman got unfairly snubbed as well as Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, Danny Pudi, Adam Scott, and I'm sure a few more deserving people. Very frustrating.

- New shows The Walking Dead and Shameless getting almost no love. The former getting only 3 tech nods (no writing nor directing) while the latter getting the lone acting nod for Joan Cusack. Emmy Rossum was robbed of recognition.

- The Kennedys getting 10 nominations! TEN! I thought no one liked this? I'd rather have had Sherlock: A Study in Pink nominated in Best Miniseries. Damn.

- Emilia Clarke, along with Dinklage, really made Game of Thrones special. Her youth and being relatively unknown most likely hurt her. So sad.

- Johnny Galecki? Really?! I quite like him, but over Joel McHale, Zachary Levi, and Josh Radnor? It's also insane to think that in its weakest season, Big Bang Theory gets all of this love and yet the ladies WHO SAVED the season don't get a whiff of a nomination.

THE WHATEVER

- Film actors getting their first Emmy nominations: Elizabeth Banks, Joan Cusack, Loretta Devine, Peter Dinklage, Zach Galifanakis, Taraji P. Henson, Greg Kinnear, Melissa Leo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Edgar Ramirez, Julia Stiles, and Evan Rachel Wood.

- The CW gets its first Emmy nomination ever: Nikita in Sound Editing. Congratulations?

Ignored: Tara, Jordan, and Wendy

- Random snubs: Toni Collete, Anika Noni Rose, and Johnny Lee Miller. I'm not really pissed at these snubs, but I definitely DO NOT get them. They awarded Collete two years ago! They really loved The Good Wife but no Anika? Stiles/Hall made it in but not Miller?!

- Interesting or whatever? The comedy series nominees are all from network TV while all but one drama series nominee (The Good Wife) are from cable/premium channels. No, I don't count Friday Night Lights as a network show. NBC doesn't deserve to revel in the show's spoils.

- Despite Harris' awful snub, How I Met Your Mother still achieved a series-high 5 Emmy nominations including a surprise Directing nod.

- The Cleveland Show gets a nomination for Animated Program but not Family Guy? What?

- Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour special got 5 nominations. She's just everywhere.

- If you still care, Team Coco wins this round. Conan got 4 nominations while the Tonight Show got none.

- Andy Samberg, with the help of Justin Timberlake, rules the Original Music and Lyrics category. I don't know what this says about the state of TV... or music... or culture. I sort of liked "3 Way" though.

And that's it, for now. Expect a category-by-category commentary later with my predictions on who will win. For now, share some of your thoughts. To see a complete list of nominations, click here.