The Good & Bad of this Year's Emmy Nominations

For the seventh consecutive year Emmy voters failed to give Nick Offerman a nomination for his inspired work as Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, to say nothing of Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, & the rest of the cast, yet I feel like voters did a better job than they have in years. For one, they gave Parks & Rec its second nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series! There were still some weird choices–Jeff Daniels got another nomination for his OK work on the mediocre, at best, Newsroom–& I'm going to criticize those, but when the good outweighs the bad at the Emmys it's cause for celebration. Without further ado a breakdown of the best, & worst, of this morning's Emmy nominations. We'll start with the worst so as to end on a high note. For a full list of the nominations click here.

WORST

Too much love, again, for Downton Abbey & House of Cards

Except useless subplots.

Each year these two steal an Outstanding Drama Series nomination from a more deserving show, & a host of acting nominations as well. To be sure Robin Wright is fully deserving, but there are at least a half dozen leads doing better, less hammy, work than Kevin Spacey. Michael Kelly is fine in Cards but he wouldn't crack my top 20 supporting actors & while I don't watch Downton it's hard to imagine Jim Carter wouldn't be in the same boat or that Joanne Froggatt was preferable to all the Orange is the New Black women who didn't receive nominations (At least they dropped Maggie Smith).

Continued obsession with movie actors in middling shows.

It's not just Spacey & Daniels, but another Don Cheadle nomination for House of Lies & now Liev Schreiber for Ray Donovan. It would be one thing if they were giving fantastic performances that elevated their shows, as Viola Davis is doing on How to Get Away with Murder, but they're not & it's past time Emmy voters woke up to that.

FX & FXX get burned.

The two dramas that should've replaced Downton & Cards? The Americans (which did get a writing nomination) & Justified, with Mathew Rhys & Timothy Olyphant both being more deserving than any of the actors mentioned in the previous two paragraphs. Keri Russell & Walton Goggins fantastic work also should have been recognized. That's just on the drama side. Even if we ignore the perennially overlooked It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX & it's offshoot produced two of the best comedies of the last year in You're the Worst & Man Seeking Woman. Give or take HBO, FX is the best channel on television but you wouldn't know it from these nominations.

Jane the Virgin was entirely ignored.

For my money Jane the Virgin was the second best comedy of the last year, & Gina Rodriguez gave one of the most beautiful performances in all of television. Golden Globes voters took notice & gave the show a nomination & Rodriguez the win, but Emmy voters missed the memo, continuing their history of ignoring everything on the CW regardless of quality.*

*Update: Anthony Mendez got the show's lone, well deserved, nomination for Outstanding Narrator.

So were Broad City & Rectify.

Unlike Jane these two, entirely different shows, have no history of major awards play in their two years on air, so it wasn't shocking to see them omitted but it's shameful nonetheless. We know Emmy voters are aware of Comedy Central because Amy Schumer & Keegan-Michael Key (Yes!) both received nominations, but somehow Abi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer remain on the outside looking in. There's a chance Emmy voters simply haven't found the Sundance channel on their televisions' but considering Rectify's second season has been on Netflix for months that's not an excuse for ignoring TV's most thoughtful & moving program or its host of brilliant performances.

BEST

The Big Bang Theory is out!

OK, not entirely, Mayim Bialik still got nominated for Supporting Actress, but after four straight nominations for Outstanding Comedy & four wins in five years for Jim Parsons both are out! Parsons' reign of terror is over! Score one for taste!

Modern Family's comedy monopoly continues to slip away.

While the show captured it's fifth consecutive win for Outstanding Comedy last year it did see its death grip on the supporting categories lessen as it dropped below five nominations in those two categories for the first time. This year they're down to a mere two nominations in supporting categories, with Elizabeth Banks' nomination in guest acting the series only other major nomination. Nothing for writing, nothing for directing. I think this is the year we, finally, see another show capture the comedy crown.

Diversity!

From the Oscars to the Emmys Viola Davis &
Taraji P. Henson are forces to be reckoned with.

Those who dismissed criticism of the Oscars for their lack of diversity this past year tended to be people who went & saw American Sniper five times while ignoring most other awards fare, which is to say their lack of knowledge regarding film & their political persuasion blinded them to the truth–we live in a day & age where there are always going to be a host of deserving nominees of any race, or gender when it comes to writing & directing, so when all your nominees are white, & male behind the camera, there's a problem. Thankfully the Emmys didn't have that issue. On my ideal ballot there were nine people of color in the leading & supporting acting categories, the actual Emmys nominated that same number but with only a two person overlap. You see what I'm saying about a host of deserving nominees? Women were also represented in each of the writing & directing categories for comedy & drama. Well done Emmys.

Great writing/directing nominations in comedy.

Five shows got directing & writing nominations in comedy, they were Last Man on Earth, Louie, Silicon Valley, Transparent, & Veep. That's the four best comedies nominated for Outstanding Comedy plus Last Man whose pilot episode, "Alive in Tucson" (which earned both of these nominations), was one of the best episodes of the year. Great job, & I really hope Silicon Valley can come away with a writing win.

 Sending out Mad Men & Parks and Recreation right.

As mentioned before, Parks & Rec got only its second Outstanding Comedy nomination to go along with Amy Poehler's sixth straight nomination. That doesn't make up for all the years the show, & non-Poehler performances, have been overlooked but it is a pleasant surprise. Now if we could just get a Poehler win... Mad Men & John Hamm were always locks for nominations, & a sixth straight for Christina Hendricks seemed likely, but Elizabeth Moss fell out last year & with Lead Actress in a Drama a stacked category it was easy to be pessimistic, but I should've known better than to count out Peggy Olson. In addition, Mad Men received two of the five drama writing nominations. Like a Poehler win, a win for Hamm, or any actor from Mad Men, is long overdue. Let's hope the voters are wise enough to realize that.

Two great new shows get the recognition they deserve.

Only five shows* pulled of the feat of getting nominated for outstanding program, lead actor/actress, & supporting actor/actress, & two of them made their debuts in the last year. And let me tell you, Transparent & Better Call Saul are deserving of everything they got. Johnathan Banks is every bit as good on Saul as he was on Breaking Bad & Bob Odenkirk has only been more impressive with greater screen time. Jeffrey Tambor seems likely to win for his astounding performance on Transparent, & Gabby Hoffman is great as well. With nominations in writing & directing too Transparent may be the show to dethrone Modern Family.**

*The other three are "House of Cards," "Mad Men," & "Veep."
 **Or it'll be Veep. One of them is going to do it!

TATIANA MASLANY FINALLY GETS HER DUE!

Tatiana Maslany should have won Outstanding Actress in a Drama each of the last two years for her multi-character performance on Orphan Black but voters failed to nominate her both times. Meanwhile the Golden Globes, after nominating her for the first season, ignored her for the show's second season. It seemed her shot had passed, but this morning Maslany was finally recognized by Emmy voters as one of the finest actresses in television. It was about damn time.

Now let's just hope I can continue to be positive after the winners are announced on Sunday, September 20. Fingers crossed!