Torchwood Returns and Other TV Thoughts

I've been meaning to talk about the return of Torchwood since I saw the premiere last week, but I guess the lead-up and then the reaction to the Emmy nominations sapped my energies regarding TV. Since then though I've seen the second episode and a bunch of other TV shows. My thoughts on them all below!

The first two episodes of Torchwood gave me a lot of hope that this season could be great. I enjoyed the first episode, but there was so much set up and hand-holding for new viewers for me to really get into it. Never mind the fact that after all this time, I'm STILL recovering from the trauma that Children of Earth inflicted (in a good way!) and so I also needed a bit of hand-holding to bring me back to Jack, Gwen, and the world of Torchwood. This season's arc of people unable to die is epic, intriguing, and just plain engrossing. That's been my favorite thing of the season so far, seeing how this "miracle" is affecting humanity from the small to the global, from the benign to the horrific. Gwen has been given plenty of moments to shine from her gun/rocket launcher skills in the first episode to her taking lead in making the anecdote in the second and I love her for it. Bill Pullman is creepy as all hell and I'm so uncomfortable watching him, which is to say he's doing a wonderful job. It's slow-going for me to warm up to Mekhi Phifer's character, but I'm thinking now that he is forced to work together with Torchwood, he'll turn around. Plus I'm still giggling over his "Wales is the New Jersey of Britain!" line from the premiere. Right now I'm just thinking the sky is the limit when it comes to this season. I'm expecting lots of shocking twists and turns to come.

Now just some brief thoughts on other TV shows:

True Blood - Other than the whole Jason storyline, I've pretty much liked-loved everything this season has to offer. The most latest episode though, I want to give kudos to Alexander Skarsgard for playing an amnesic-smiling-confused-adorable Eric Northram to perfection. Lovely to see Alcide again. Claudine's death was very unexpected.

Weeds - The scene I was most looking forward to was the reunion between Silas and Nancy and while it was nothing special, at least it didn't disappoint. There's lots of complicated emotions at play and both Hunter Parrish and Mary Louise Parker are treading them nicely. Also, yay for more gratuitous Silas-in-underwear scenes.

Alphas - Saw the first episode last Monday and it was just okay. I'm a sucker for these type of show aka humans with superabilities. At the moment it all feels a tad dour even if they tried to shoehorn some funny into the pilot. I'll probably give it an episode or two, but this summer I've gotten impatient. Speaking of, I really should catch up on Falling Skies.

So You Think You Can Dance - We're down to the top 10 which means the couples are broken up and everyone is now playing for themselves. My favorites (Melanie, Marko, Jess, Sasha, and Ricky) are all still around so that's good. The whole star guest judge though has been mixed this season, but next week's Neil Patrick Harris will surely be amazing.

Friday Night Lights - It's been months since I saw the series finale, but it aired on NBC this past Friday and I just wanted to say that I thought it was a fitting end to a great show. I, sadly, never really warmed up to the new kids except for perhaps Jess, but all I really needed was a happy ending for Mr. & Mrs. Coach and that's what we got. Though one pet peeve I had... no reunion scene with Landry and Tyra? Really? REALLY?

Breaking Bad - The premiere is tonight! The premiere is tonight! You need to be watching this show.

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.

Perfect 10 for Elle Woods

During the past decade, Reese Witherpoon won the Academy Award for Walk the Line and starred in five films grossing over $90 million (including doing voice work on Monsters Vs. Aliens). And yet if you ask me her greatest role of the past decade, I'd probably say it was Elle Woods with her go-get-em attitude, endless pink ensemble, scented resumes, Delta Nu pride, and vast knowledge of hair care rules. I bring all of this up today because it happens to be the 10th Anniversary of Legally Blonde.

"You got into Harvard Law?" "What? Like, it's hard?"

It's been awhile since I've seen it, but the one thing I remember about the film is how FUN it was and how charming Reese was in it. Actually that's a lie, since I remember another thing from the film, The Bend and Snap.

And speaking of what-the-heck-have-they-been-up-to, what is Jennifer Coolidge doing at the moment? A quick IMDb search says she's mostly doing TV in The Secret Life of the American Teenager and will soon reprise her role as Stifler's mom in another American Pie film. And I'm getting sidetracked here. Where were we? Oh right... Legally Blonde, bend and snap, Reese needs to do more movies like these, etc. So yeah, lovely memories. Victor Garber playing a sleazy guy, Luke Wilson at his most adorkable, Holland Taylor before she sold her soul to Two and a Half Men... good times.

And again, just a really fun film with some great work from Witherspoon. I also still think of the movie whenever Hoku's "Perfect Day" pops up in my mp3 player.

Updated: I also want to say one reason to love the film is that it spawned a pretty good Broadway musical. I especially love, love this showstopper of a number by Laura Bell Bundy:

My Emmy Ballot: TV Series

Tomorrow the Emmy Award nominations will surely break my heart as they've done so many times in years' past. Now I've come to accept this and instead learned to channel my disappointments to cheering on the shows I do like and would love to be nominated i.e. why I'm filling out my own ballot. Andrew and I talked about which shows we thought would get nominated so click here to see our chat and our predictions.

Disclaimer: Even though they only nominate 5-6 shows, voters are asked to pick "no more than 10" shows they "feel worthy of nomination." So I'll be picking 10, but making sure to highlight the 6 shows making up my top choices.


COMEDY SERIES
Community
Cougar Town
How I Met Your Mother
Modern Family
Parks and Recreation
United States of Tara
Big Bang Theory
Greek
Happy Endings
Raising Hope

It's crazy that even from this list of ten shows, only one show is sure to be nominated tomorrow (Modern Family). It's even crazier to think that one of the best shows on TV, drama or comedy, will have to breakthrough to get a nomination it should be getting automatically (Parks and Recreation). The rest of the list consists of hip, wacky shows the Emmys won't even watch (Community, Cougar Town, Happy Endings) or old favorites (How I Met Your Mother, Greek, Big Bang Theory). But really all of my energy is focused on getting Parks and Recreation the nomination and the WIN it deserves.


DRAMA SERIES
Dexter
Fringe
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men
Shameless
Castle
Friday Night Lights
The Walking Dead
White Collar

This drama list is a bit more Emmy-friendly than my comedy one, but it also contains a show that they would most certainly ignore despite of its superbly high quality (Fringe). The rest of my top tier nominees I can actually see getting nominated, even Shameless with the shows on the bottom tier having very little chance. With that said, this probably means that I'm going to be just fine come nomination morning regarding this category. If only I had watched Boardwalk Empire (or they would watch Fringe), then we'd probably match up pretty well.

And that's it for my ballots! I'll surely post my reactions to the actual nominations tomorrow. In the meantime, to read my ballots for the acting awards, click the following: Guest / Supporting / Leading.

Looking Forward To...

Captain America: The First Avenger
Release: July 22, 2011
Distributor: Paramount
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Hones, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell, Neal McDonough, Toby Jones, Derek Luke, Richard Armitage, and Dominic Cooper

My Emmy Ballot: Leading Performances

Just two more days until the Emmy nominations. The past couple days I've been talking about who I would pick if I could fill out a ballot. Today I'm tackling the lead actors and actresses, which by their definition, gave me less to work with compared to the supporting or guest categories. To read the chat Andrew and I had regarding about who we think would get nominated in these categories, click here and here.

Disclaimer: Only performances I have seen are qualified and I'm going to honor the category the actors have chosen to submit themselves in, even when I think it's ultimately wrong.

Lead Actor, Comedy
Steve Carrell, The Office
Zachary Levi, Chuck
Rob Lowe, Parks and Recreation
Joel McHale, Community
Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory
Josh Radnor, How I Met Your Mother

This was tough, because after I put down Carrell, McHale, and Parsons I was stuck. These three were pretty damn wonderful this past season especially Carrell during Michael Scott's swan song. I'm not saying that Radnor, Levi, and Lowe don't deserve my nominations, they do, but this category was ridiculously open. I guess that's why Lowe wrongly submitted himself here rather than the much more competitive Supporting category. I think another reason is some shows/performances that would fit right at home here (White Collar's Bomer, Castle's Fillion) are randomly in the drama category.

Alternates: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Lucas Neff (Raising Hope), and Johnny Galecki (Big Bang Theory)

Lead Actress, Comedy
Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Courtnex Cox, Cougar Town
Kaley Cuoco, Big Bang Theory
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

I'm heartened at the fact that half of my picks seem like a good bet for the Emmys namely Collette, Fey, and Poehler. It's hard to compare Fey and Poehler's work to the darker and amazing performance put up by Collette during her show's last season, but they do set the standard for network comedy. I developed a better appreciation for Cuoco early in the season when she had to miss episodes due to and injury and the show SUFFERED for it. Cox is a veteran that has shockingly never been nominated and Plimpton is the new girl, which is kind of weird to say. Crazy mothers for the win!

Alternates: Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) and Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva)

Lead Actor, Drama
Matt Bomer, White Collar
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Nathan Fillion, Castle
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead

Even though I already mentioned it above, I still want to say that Bomer and Fillion probably feel more at home in the Comedy category, but since they've submitted here, I had to give them their props. Though I do feel bad leaving out Tim Dekay since he and Bomer ARE the show. Last time I saw Lincoln, he was professing his love for Keira Knightley in Love, Actually so naturally he's now a zombie-killing sheriff and clearly loving it. The last three, who were nominated for an Emmy last year, should be nominated again for another strong season. Hall and Hamm especially showed off the vulnerable sides of their usually stoic characters.

Alternates: Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), Tim DeKay (White Collar), William H. Macy (Shameless), and Bill Paxton (Big Love)

Lead Actress, Drama
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Stana Katic, Castle
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Emmy Rossum, Shameless
Anna Torv, Fringe

Can I just declare my love for all of these ladies? Britton and Katic did impressive work especially in tandem with their partners. Margulies shined as a stronger and simultaneously more damaged Alicia Florrick while Moss rose this season to become the MVP of her magnificent cast. Whoever gave Rossum this role deserves a gift from not just Rossum, whose career had flatlined after Phantom of the Opera, but from the audience as well since we get to see this fierce, sexy, affective version of Rossum on a weekly basis. Finally, I've continually praised the excellent and brilliant dual/triple/inimitable work of Torv this season on Fringe. Her being most likely snubbed will be Emmy's biggest mistake this year.

Alternates: Lena Heady (Game of Thrones), Elizabeth Mitchell (V), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love), and Mireille Enos (The Killing)

Based on my ballot picks for guest, supporting, and now lead categories, it's pretty easy to parse out which shows I'm going to choose tomorrow, but patience is a virtue!

Teaser Poster: Dark Knight Rises

The marketing team behind Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated film The Dark Knight Rises is already hard at work releasing the first official teaser poster for the film last night, which you can see above. The teaser trailer is not far behind, making its debut in front of a million or so eyeballs this weekend who will be seeing the final Harry Potter film.

The poster itself is exactly what you expect for this movie so while it's hardly a ground-breaking poster design, it's still quite strong, evocative, and really just aesthetically beautiful. Though is it just me or is it most obviously influenced by two of Nolan's previous films, namely Batman Begins and Inception?

Batman Begins + Inception = Batception? Dark Knight Rises?

In any case, plenty of people are already trying to wring out clues from the poster, be it the tone or even the actual plot of the film. Apart from the obvious image of Gotham City in ruins signaling an ever darker turn for the city, it's still a fairly vague image and doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. The third film is going to be darker and more intense? THAT IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION!

But it got the fans salivating and the media/blogs talking. That's all the teaser poster is being asked to do, so it's so far successful. Plus there's still a year left for everything else. Now where is that teaser trailer?

My Emmy Ballot: Supporting Performances

So what if I had an Emmy ballot? Well yesterday, I wrote about who I'd pick for guest acting. Today, it's all about those supporting characters, which are usually way more interesting than the leads. In fact, for most of these, it didn't take me long to fill up my alternate slots with another half dozen actors. In any case, if you want to read the conversations I had with Andrew talking about supporting characters and my predictions to these categories, click here and here.

Disclaimer: Only performances I have seen are qualified and I'm going to honor the category the actors have chosen to submit themselves in, even when I think it's ultimately wrong.

Supporting Actor, Comedy
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Danny Pudi, Community
Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation
Jason Segel, How I Met Your Mother

I view Burrell and Pudi as the MVP in their respective shows which is saying a lot since their shows are full of crazy talented people. And though it was a weaker year for Harris, he still knocks it out of the park when he's asked to, namely his scenes with John Lithgow. The MVP honors for How I Met Your Mother though goes to Segel who handled the death of his character's dad with a great blend of emotion and humor. Playing the straight man, Scott's role isn't as flashy as most of his castmate's, but his chemistry with Poehler is undeniable. Speaking of flashy, don't let Ron Swanson hear I called him that, but Offerman really should've been nominated already for this role a couple times over.

Alternates: Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara), Donald Glover (Community), Chris Colfer (Glee), Adam Pally (Happy Endings), Josh Hopkins (Cougar Town), and Hunter Parrish (Weeds)

Supporting Actress, Comedy
Mayim Bialik, Big Bang Theory
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Alison Brie, Community
Heather Morris, Glee
Busy Phillips, Cougar Town
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Not sure when it happened, but Morris's Brittany S. Pierce went from background character to supporting player to one of my favorite characters on the show. In a way I could say the same about Bialik to a smaller extent since she just joined the cast this season. Phillips and Brie bring lots of energy and sass to their roles that keep me coming back while Vergara and Bowen just keep doling out funny, consistent work time and time again. Those latter two have a great show at Emmy nominations and one of them could just win.

Alternates: Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), Jane Lynch and Naya Rivera (Glee), Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother) Christa Miller (Cougar Town), and Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation)

Supporting Actor, Drama
Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Nelsan Ellis, True Blood
Jared Harris, Mad Men
Cameron Monaghan, Shameless
John Noble, Fringe

Don't want to say career-best roles, but some of these men seem to be doing just that. I speak mostly for Cumming, Dinklage, and Noble, which in their defense have already done great work before they landed on TV playing the wonderful characters of Eli, Tyrion, and Walter. Ellis and Harris are two bit actors that are probably overshadowed by others in the cast, which is why I was compelled to nominate them myself. No regrets. Actually, I do have one in that I found only room for one Gallagher boy. I could've just as easily pick Jeremy Allen White, but I gravitated towards Monaghan's character more, for obvious reasons.

Alternates: Denis O'Hare and Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood), Joshua Jackson (Fringe), Jeremy Allen White (Shameless), Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife), and Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men)

Supporting Actress, Drama
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
Michelle Forbes, The Killing
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sara Ramirez, Grey's Anatomy
KaDee Strickland, Private Practice

Probably in bad taste of me to put Forbes' and Strickland's names here having only seen a handful of their episodes, but in my defense, they were damn good. Everyone else though, I'll defend wholeheartedly. Clarke really owned a complicated and difficult role and all the while with very limited screen time. I've been a fan of Ramirez since I saw her Tony-winning performance in Spamalot and this year she was on fire. When Panjabi won last year, I literally jumped up and down and the 2nd season fleshed her character out a bit more. Finally, I will always nominate YoSaffBridge aka Hendricks.

Alternates: Chloë Sevigny (Big Love), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones), Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy), Kristin Bauer van Straten (True Blood) and Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)

Three more days until Emmy nominations!

7-Eleven Super 8 Scene

Was trying to think of a film/TV-related thing I can talk about that has anything to do with 7-Eleven since today is 7/11 and other than getting a free Slurpee, what else does one do particularly a TV/film blogger as myself? A quick Google search gave me this bonus clip from Super 8 in which Charles (Riley Griffiths) drops a bombshell on Joe (Joel Courtney), as they head over to their local 7-11, telling him he's invited Alice (Elle Fanning) to be part of his movie.


I think the final cut to make it into the movie doesn't show it's a 7-Eleven, but that connection is pretty tangential and really I just wanted to take a brief moment to give Joel Courtney his props. The reviews for the film were mostly positive and they do praise the kid actors so while Courtney is not exactly under-appreciated, there seems to be a general consensus that Griffiths and Fanning steal/make the movie. I don't disagree with this point per se, since they are great, but Courtney is the heart of the film and a strong one at that. Plus in the above clip alone, I love some of his reaction shots (when Charles tell him about Alice) and line deliveries ("Are you making this up?" "I don't think that's what it is.") Poor boy is so flustered at the thought of getting to spend some time with his crush. Adorable.

Any 7-Eleven scenes from TV/film you can think of? Maybe if people chime in, I won't have to Google for them next year!

My Emmy Ballot: Guest Performances

The Emmy nominations are set to be announced July 14th which is just a few days away. To prepare for the announcement, Andrew and I have been having a few great conversations, tackling each of the main categories and predicting which actors and shows the Emmys will shower with their love. He has been posting all of our talks on his blog, Encore Entertainment. I'll do a postmortem after the nominations come out to see how good my predictions are, but I'd like to take some time the next few days to imagine what my own ballot would look like if I was a voting member of the TV Academy.

Disclaimer: Only performances I have seen are qualified and I'm going to honor the category the actors have chosen to submit themselves in, even when I think it's ultimately wrong.

Today I'll focus on guest actors and actresses. To read my convo with Andrew and see my predictions on these particular categories, click here.

Guest Actor, Comedy
Timothy Dalton, Chuck
Matt Damon, 30 Rock
Eddie Izzard, United States of Tara
John Lithgow, How I Met Your Mother
Jim Rash, Community
Ben Schwartz, Parks and Recreation

Damon and Lithgow are probably the surest bet here for nominations, because Emmys love to nominate 30 Rock guest stars and they can't help but nominate Lithgow for everything he does (he won last year for Dexter). Damon does well to go toe to toe with Tina Fey as her pilot boyfriend while Lithgow does fine work alongside Neil Patrick Harris as Barney's father. I've predicted Izzard to be nominated, but it's not a slam-dunk prediction since the Emmys only have love for Toni Collette on the show. Both Rash and Schwartz though should be recognized for their scene-stealing work from from two of NBC's critically-loved, but audience-starved shows.

Alternates: Darren Criss (Glee), Patton Oswalt (United States of Tara), Justin Timberlake (Saturday Night Live), and Nathan Lane and James Marsden (Modern Family)

Guest Actress, Comedy
Kristin Chenoweth, Glee
Dot-Marie Jones, Glee
Cloris Leachman, Raising Hope
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Megan Mullaly, Parks and Recreation
Parker Posey, Parks and Recreation

There are a few former Emmy winners on this list (Chenoweth, Leachman, Mullaly) and they could find themselves nominated again especially Leachman who has more of a supporting role than a guest role. My love for Parks and Recreation is evident though, but Mullaly goofing it up with real-life husband Nick Offerman and Posey battling it out with Poehler were great highlights of a fantastic season. And yes, my P&R love spilled over to Poehler's stint on SNL. Jones' work on Glee is probably my favorite, second only to the two ladies involve in the Brittana storyline. And finally, I picked Chenoweth less because of her April Rhodes and more because it's Kristing frickin' Chenoweth. Plus I think it was either her or Paltrow.

Alternates: Mo Collins (Parks and Recreation), Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live), Frances Conroy (United States of Tara), and Gwyneth Paltrow (Glee).

Guest Actor, Drama
Nicholas Brendon, Private Practice
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife
Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights
Johnny Lee Miller, Dexter
Denis O'Hare, The Good Wife
Andre Royo, Fringe

I no longer watch Private Practice, but when I heard about the powerful rape storyline with Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Xander Harris) playing the rapist, I checked out a few of the episodes and well yeah it's as powerful as you'd expect. Plus I'm forever a Jossverse fanboy. One need only watch the performances from Fox, Miller, and Gilford to see how they add so much even in just the few episodes they were a part of. Same could be said about Andre Royo who had to do more in even less time in a more difficult show than those guys and did it quite effectively. Finally, there's O'Hare who I would've nominated here in a heartbeat for his role in True Blood, but he oddly decided to submit himself in Supporting Actor for that role and Guest Actor for his solid work here. I should punish him, but I just can't.

Alternates: Norman Reedus and Lennie James (The Walking Dead), Joe Manganiello and James Frain (True Blood), Bradley Whitford (The Mentalist), and Dallas Roberts (The Good Wife).

Guest Actress, Drama
Joan Cusack, Shameless
Loretta Devine, Grey's Anatomy
Anika Noni Rose, The Good Wife
Jessica Paré, Mad Men
Julia Stiles, Dexter
Evan Rachel Wood, True Blood

There's a bit of category fraud here since Cusack and Stiles clearly belong in Supporting, but submitting here does make it easier for them to be nominated and in any case, they deserve to be honored in either category. Hasn't it seem like it's been forever since these two gave their fans a great performance? Glad they did so this year. The Good Wife probably could've used Rose a bit more this year, but when she did appear, she was quite perfect. Devine was asked to finally do something substantial on Grey's Anatomy as her character struggles with early stage Alzheimers. Finally, Wood looked liked she enjoyed herself very much playing Queen of Louisiana while Paré snuck into our hearts the way her character snuck into Don Draper's.

Alternates: Ellen Burstyn (Big Love), Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), Carla Buono and Randee Heller (Mad Men), Ana Gasteyer (The Good Wife), and Melissa Rauch (True Blood)

So is there anyone I'm missing? What does your own list look like? Next post will focus on my picks for supporting performances and then after that, I'll talk about lead performances. Finally, I'll end with a post of which shows I think deserve best-of honors. Three more posts in the next three days.