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

THE GOOD

- LOST nabs 12 nominations for its final season including nominations for series, directing, writing, and four of its actors (Matthew Fox, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, and Elizabeth Mitchell). Most happy for Fox and Mitchell getting their first (and well-deserved) Emmy nominations.

- Breakout comedy hits Glee and Modern Family score lots of love including much deserved acting nominations for Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, and Julie Bowen.

- The Good Wife gets 9 nominations including nominations for Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, and Archie Panjabi. I'm most happy for the latter's surprise first Emmy nomination!

- These fantastic actors getting double nominated: Jane Lynch, Neil Patrick Harris, Christine Baranski, Jon Hamm, and Tina Fey.

- Emmy voters going mad over the ladies of Mad Men as January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, and Christina Hendricks all get nominations. YoSaffBridge is an Emmy nominee, y'all!

- Even though I don't watch the show, special shout out to Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler for getting the first acting nominations of their infamously-ignored show, Friday Night Lights.

- Betty White is nominated for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series along side funny women Tina Fey, Jane Lynch, Christine Baranski, Elaine Stritch, and Kathryn Joosten. What an awesome category.

- Film regulars Jeff Bridges, Anne Hathaway, Alan Cumming, Dennis Quaid, Michael Sheen, and David Strathairn get their first Emmy nominations!

- Conan O'Brien and his team on The Tonight Show got some love. Suck on that Leno!

- The creators of How I Met Your Mother were nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the musical episode. Hee!

- Last year 30 Rock and Mad Men got 8 out of 10 writing nominations, which I dubbed as absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully, things are a bit more spread out this year. They both only got two nominations each.

THE BAD

- Some of my favorite shows that got inexplicably shut out of ANY nominations: Community, Dollhouse, Party Down, and Ugly Betty. While Gary Unmarried gets one.

- Some of my favorite shows that managed to get only 1-2 nominations: Chuck, Fringe, Caprica, and V.

- Courtney Cox, already the ONLY Friends cast member to not get nominated for an Emmy, comes up empty once again.

- Too many nominations for Glee! I think I would've been fine with it all if they just didn't give a default nomination to Matthew Morrison. Seriously? Speaking of, all that Glee love and they didn't nominate Joss Whedon for directing? DIAF.

- Married with Children co-stars Ed O'Neill and Katey Segal unable to get their FIRST Emmy nominations for Modern Family and Sons of Anarchy respectively.

- Default nominations for Tony Shaloub, Larry David, Jon Cryer, and Mariska Hargitay. How BORING and PREDICTABLE!

- I know I already mentioned it, but I'm SO disappointed/angry that Community got ZERO nominations, especially with a relatively weak season of The Office getting some love.

- Yay for Neil Patrick Harris and Jim Parson for their nominations, but man I do wish that How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory would get more Emmy love. Alyson Hannigan? Kaley Cuoco? Wake up Emmy!

- John Noble (Fringe), Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara), Nathan Fillion (Castle), and Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) were all criminally overlooked.

- I know Torchwood: Children of Earth wasn't submitted, but the lack of miniseries nominated is making me sad thinking about how this could've garnered a good chunk of nominations.

- Cat Deeley still not getting any love for Outstanding Host. BOO!

THE WHATEVER

- Past Emmy favorites Heroes, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy IN TOTAL got only four nominations. FOUR. That must hurt.

- Speaking of, I'm not a big fan of Grey's Anatomy, but I'm shocked that its harrowing season finale didn't garner more nominations for the show and the cast.

- Shocked that True Blood got nominated for Best Drama Series. Nothing else to say... just... shocked. Plus none for its cast? Weird.

- Other than LOST, shows ending didn't get much love including a shut out for Ugly Betty and Law & Order and a measly 5 nominations (not including Best Actor or Best Series) to 24. Feeling a bit sad for previous winners America Ferrera and Kiefer Sutherland here.

- The CW got a total of ZERO nominations.

- Family Guy (nominated last year for Best Comedy Series) and other Seth McFarlane productions were largely ignored.

- So You Think You Can Dance only managed to get two Outstanding Choreography nominations, but two of the other three nominations went to a former contestant (Chelsie Hightower) and a current judge (Adam Shankman) of the show.

- The sucktastic season of Project Runway got nominated over an apparently thrilling season of Survivor.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE LIST OF EMMY NOMINATIONS

Hell-O, Hello Goodbye

Last night, in an episode entitled "Hell-O," Glee was welcomed back to the small screens with much media fanfare. With all the buzz, awards, and hype building and building during its four-month hiatus, the show returned with its highest ratings ever. And what was not to love? The kids were still showing off their mad singing skills. Sue Sylvester was deliciously diabolical as always. And Broadway divas Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel made fantastic additions to the cast. The second half of season one will surely be chock full of moments to talk about so onwards...


And well, as one bright shiny show returned, another one ended this week. With much less fanfare, Ugly Betty had its final episode ending a four-year run full of fashion faux-pas, high drama, and heartwarming moments. The final episode, entitled "Hello Goodbye," was light in actual plot and was more focused on giving the fans and the characters some much needed closure. I was totally down with this.

The closures:

• Wilhemina listens to reason from Marc and realizes fighting with the Meades will be the death of her. She reunites with her love and in the end ends up becoming the sole editor-in-chief of Mode anyways.
• Marc stands up to Wilhemina, reconnects with Troy (should've been Cliff, but whatever), and seems to be the new Creative Director of Mode.
• Amanda is not completely failing as a stylist, but doesn't really matter since she's now reunited with her long-lost father.
• Hilda is married to her high school sweetheart, moving out of her childhood home to live in the city with her son...
• Justin is with Austin, both proudly raising their adorable gay flags.
• Ignacio, while sad to see his family leave the nest, is proud of all of them taking their next steps paralleling it to when he first moved to America.

And then there's Betty and Daniel. Oh man. I was so very fearful at what they would do to these two characters, but I think they handled it quite well. Betty risked it all once more and moved out to London to take a hold of her dreams. Daniel, in the meantime, pulled a Felicity and followed Betty to London but thankfully not to declare his undying love for her. Instead, he wanted to work himself to the top, just like Betty did, and in the process get to know Betty as someone other than his former assistant. The ending is so open-ended for both of them that it's difficult for a fan or non-fan of Betty/Daniel to be too upset. Perfect.

Overall, an absolutely beautiful finale. Bravo.

Catch-All Post on TV

I meant to post all of these as separate entries in the past five days or so, but one thing led to another and I never wrote any of those entries. So in hopes of getting it all off my chest before I completely forget and/or it becomes pointless...

Justin's Sweet Coming Out and the Dreaded Betty/Daniel


I have nothing but superbly positive words on how the show has handled Justin coming out to himself and to his family these past few episodes. From confiding with Marc to asking Austin to dance with him at his mother's wedding, it was quite touching and definitely had me in tears. But hold up, with one episode remaining, why the hell would they try to bring us a possible Betty/Daniel ending. I know that's how every other version of Ugly Betty ended, but it just would not be right for these versions of those characters!

It wouldn't have been so heinous if they had just built it up during these last few episodes. Instead we have seen more of a brother/sister type relationship development between these two this past season. If anything, they should be building more on that development i.e. that they both consider each other as family now. It still provides that drama of Betty having to decide between London and leaving her family, extended or otherwise. No matter what though, I'll be a bit disappointed if Betty does not go to London. And if the reason is Daniel, I might scream.

Idol Eliminates Nobody and Dubiously Brings Back Runner-Up


The Top 9 gets a second week to prove themselves as one of them, Michael Lynche, ended up with the lowest number of votes last week only to be saved by the judges. With the Judges' Save used, two people will be leaving next week. This non-elimination was surprising enough, but even more so was the realization that Tim Urban is gaining fans. He wasn't even in the bottom three this week!

With that said, I'm still rooting for Crystal and Lee with Siobhan and Casey as possible dark horses. Clearly hoping to add some much needed buzz this season, Idol have asked back last year's showstopper Adam Lambert to mentor the contestants. I love Adam and all, but it's a little odd considering the show has not previously extended this offer to previous Idol winners, let alone other runner-ups. Not to mention that while Adam has released his album and kicking ass performing everywhere, he's still very VERY new to the industry and well, it all sort of reeks of desperation for both parties really. Still looking forward to it though.


Tina Fey Does Palin and Flirts with Bieber


Haven't seen much of Saturday Night Live the past few months, but I knew I had to see Tina Fey especially since I saw the hilarious Date Night this past weekend. Maybe I'm conflating her with her character Liz Lemon, but for some reason I was pleasantly surprised to see Tina so extraordinarily confident. Her standout sketch was, of course, her Sarah Palin sketch where the "Vice-Presidential silver medalist" started her own network to obvious hilarious results.

Musical guest and tween idol Justin Bieber showed up in a few sketches in between performing and fighting off all the ladies. His most surreal (and funny?) sketch had to be him singing about his feelings for his teacher (as played by Fey) all the byproduct of the teacher's fantasy. Other episode highlights include Fey eating her Brownie husband with the "caramel surprise" and The Devil putting a 5-min smackdown on the Catholic church.

Long-Awaited First Kiss on Ugly Betty

The writing was already on the wall for Ugly Betty after ABC moved it on Fridays this season and then moved it back on Wednesdays with its ratings continuing to free fall. So it was nice that ABC gave the cast and crew enough advance warning on their inevitable cancellation in order for them to fashion an appropriate ending for the show and its characters.

Already this season has shown its titular character undergoing quite a transformation dressing a bit more fashionably, sporting better hair, and in next week's episode the braces are finally (FINALLY!) coming off. Other story lines such as Hilda's getting engaged to a high school love, Wilhemina trying to figure out what she really wants out of life, and Claire reuniting with her long lost son are par for the course and are quite entertaining by themselves. But there was one question long time fans have been wanting answered since episode one: Will Justin ever come out?

It was clear from the get go that Justin was gay, but due to his age, the show decided to wisely not focus too much on his sexuality as much as they focused on his "uniqueness." The adults in his life, from his family in Brooklyn to his very much out mentor Marc, for their part, didn't try to push him and instead gave him plenty of support.

With the show ending, the writers admit they had to fast track Justin's storyline and with only a handful of episodes left, Justin took a big step in tonight's episode. Caught up in a love triangle over a girl he "liked" with a guy "friend" he constantly talked about, the episode couldn't have ended in a more predictable and yet very satisfactory way...


And yet it was quite nice that after The First Kiss, Justin didn't suddenly declare himself the next Adam Lambert. He was shocked. He was confused. He went home and was then comforted by his mom's words (not to him):

Somehow you got it in your head that this is your story. You've got to let that go. You've got to come up with a whole new story for yourself. You are who you are. And the sooner you are okay with that, the sooner that you see what I see, the happier you're going to be. I swear to God.

Amen. I do hope the writers don't end Justin's storyline there. I don't think they'd just leave it hanging, so I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here. Then again, next week I'm just excited to see Betty sans the braces. God, aren't you?

End-Of-Year: 2009 TV Winners

Hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas! On Monday, I posted my personal picks of the best TV performances/shows of 2009.

Today I give you the winners...

Best Actor, Drama
John Barrowman, Torchwood
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
John Noble, Fringe
Russell Tovey, Being Human
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

It's funny reading over this list and thinking how insane it would be if all of these men (as their characters) were to meet and have a conversation. Noble and Tovey would blather on and probably talk about the wonders of the latter's werewolf-ism while Sutherland and Hamm might be too busy deeply brooding mayhaps thinking about their troubled past and odd family dynamics. Barrowman? He would have sex with all of them. If I have to pick the best actor though I'd give it to Noble who plays crazy Walter just as easily as he plays evil Walter, sad Walter, and weird Walter.

Best Actor, Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Nathan Fillion, Castle
Scott Michael Foster, Greek
Zachary Levi, Chuck
Joel McHale, Community

Y'all might be thinking, Foster? Where did he come from?! But when Foster is in a scene, you almost forget that the show is about the Cartwrights because he's such a scene-stealer. He was fascinating to watch this season especially as he pretty much forced himself to grow up. As opposed to McHale and Fillion who plays two grown men who still seem like teenagers. They're both funny individually, but their great chemistry with their respective co-stars really elevate their work. Levi makes you believe that Chuck is a real person dealing with real super spies, insane friends, and impossible choices while Baldwin makes you forget about the real world, because he takes you into his own warped one. There can only be one winner though and it's goes to Fillion. Because he dressed up as Mal and it was epic.

Best Actress, Drama
Julianna Marguillies, The Good Wife
Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica
Elizabeth Moss, Mad Men
Eve Myles, Torchwood
Annie Wersching, 24

All of these are tough women. There's Marguillies who manages to balance the mom role with the lawyer role with ease while Wersching was so kick-ass that I began to think that if Jack Bauer ever died, it would be OKAY since she could just take over. Then there's Myles who plays Gwen Cooper with so much heart, her emotions always on her sleeve and I can't forget her heartbreaking monologue. Moss didn't really do that much this season, but the little she did still made a pretty good impact. And while all of these women are so awesome in their own way, the award goes to McDonnell in her final year as President Laura Roslin who even in the face of death remained full of grit and grace that made her character so wonderful.

Best Actress, Comedy
Courtney Cox, Cougar Town
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Stana Katic, Castle
Lea Michele, Glee

To be honest, I'm oddly less enthused about this category. I mean don't get me wrong, I love each and everyone of these actresses and the characters they play. I wouldn't have nominated them if I didn't, but I don't really feel passionate about any of them the way I do other actors I've nominated. In any case, Katic is the perfect blend of sexy and tough and she plays off her co-lead so well. Cox and Michele play manic characters that are a hoot to watch, but it's moments when they slow down, be it talking to her son or sing a heartfelt ballad, where they shine. And so we come down to Fey and Ferrera who have won awards playing the characters they currently play. Fey deals with "smarter" comedy, but Ferrera just has that something extra that tug at your heartstrings while still making you laugh, so she edges Fey a bit for me especially since I'm sorta loving the makeover she had this season.

Best Supporting Actress, Drama
Tricia Helfer, Battlestar Galactica
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost

I don't know anyone who doesn't want more of Hendricks on Mad Men. In fact this year, she was criminally underutilized and yet she still shined with the few scenes she did have. Similarly Panjabi and Lachman are mostly unknown, but they infuse commitment and energy to both of their roles, the latter especially using her magnetic chemistry with a fellow co-star to wonderful fruition on-screen. But it was between two blonde ladies who a few might argue could be considered leads. Helfer, playing the different versions of Six, continued to astound even to the final moments of the show while Mitchell played tough and vulnerable to pitch perfection delivering a specially harrowing scene to end Lost's season. This is why Elizabeth Mitchell gets the prize.

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy
Alison Brie, Community
Yvette Nicole Brown, Community
Kaley Cuoco, Big Bang Theory
Alyson Hannigan, How I Met Your Mother
Jane Lynch, Glee

This was tougher than I first thought when I made this list. Seriously. Cuoco is delightfully as Penny especially when she plays the foil to Sheldon's eccentricities. Brie and Brown are hilarious individually, but they also make a potent comedic duo. And then came Hannigan and Lynch. My initial thought is that Lynch has this award sewn up, because Sue Sylvester is THE breakout TV character of the year if you ask me. But it's hard to discount Hannigan who manages to make the increasingly manic Lily character not only believable, but also lovable. Then again I can say the same thing about Jane Lynch, right? Jane Lynch it is then.

Best Supporting Actor, Drama
Misha Collins, Supernatural
Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood
Michael Emerson, Lost
Enver Gjokaj, Dollhouse
Fran Kranz, Dollhouse

Do not make me choose. Please do NOT make me choose. Collins plays an angel and Kranz plays a goofy super smart scientist. The writing of the show is good enough that these two characters do not utterly fail, but the actors full commitment to their roles elevate these two characters as people who are completely endearing. Then there's David-Lloyd. My poor poor dead Ianto. It was uber depressing to see him die, but he went out with a bang. And so it's between Emerson's super villainy Ben Linus or Gjokaj's multi-faceted Victor/Anthony/Topher/party girl/FBI agent. This is pretty much a coin flip, but I'm giving it to Enver Gjokaj.

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy
Dan Byrd, Cougar Town
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory
Danny Pudi, Community
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

This might actually be more difficult than its counterpart in the drama category! Byrd has great comedic timing for someone so young and really humanizes Courtney Cox's character. Pudi and Stonestreet are newcomers, but already they may me laugh countless of times even though they are part of very talented ensembles. And now with a heavy heart, I have to compare two Emmy-nominated CBS heavyweights in Parsons and Harris. It's pretty obvious that these two roles (Sheldon and Barney) played by these two comic geniuses are the breakout characters of their popular shows and are usually the character with the most interesting storylines. And while I am still very much impressed with what Harris is doing, I have to give this award this year to Parsons.

So now finally, we have the Best Show categories. I'm afraid you'll have to wait just a bit longer to find out the winner here. Not too long. I should be posting my ranked list of Top 30ish shows of 2009 in a day or two. For now, let's refresh your memories...

Best Show, Drama
Battlestar Galactica
Being Human
Dollhouse
Mad Men
Lost
Torchwood

Best Show, Comedy
Big Bang Theory
Castle
Glee
Greek
How I Met Your Mother
Modern Family