The news on everyone’s mind is yesterday’s Emmy nomination list. As some of you saw via my Twitter reactions, I was pretty pissed at some stuff that got on the list.
Let’s begin with Family Guy. Now, I don’t hate the show, actually I watch it religiously. My problem has to do with that it’s Family Guy getting the honors of being the first animated program to be nominated in the Best Comedy category in 50 years or so, instead of The Simpsons. Also, I don’t believe the show is that good. It might have been during the first few seasons but not currently.
I don’t appreciate the various writing noms this year either. And by various, I mean the complete opposite. Four out of five comedy writing noms are for 30 Rock, and four out of five drama writing noms are for Mad Men! Ridiculous.
My third problem is with another nomination, this time Drama-side: Lost. Yet again, I’m a huge Lost fan (remember when I interviewed Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse? I sure do), I’ve been with the show since day one. But this latest season was just atrociously bad, let alone majorly retcon. Long story short, Lost‘s Season Five shouldn’t be worth the nomination. Remember how four out of five drama writing noms were for Mad Men? Well the other one is for, wait for it, Lost‘s The Incident (Season 5 finale). Out of every drama hours from the past year, they chose this one? Not even a tiny Breakind Bad episode?
Lost shouldn’t even be nominated for Best Drama, which brings me to my next problem. With seven contenders this year, I would have expected some outsiders joining the show. Fortunately, Flight of the Conchords was nominated. On the other hand however, Lost getting on meant The Shield‘s final season got the boot. Not cool. I would have liked to see In Treatment in there as well. Hopefully, Breaking Bad will win.
A new category was announced as well, Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment, also known as the ‘Online Stuff’ category. With the exception of the Super-Bowl show, all the other noms are webisodes of some kind. Obviously, Dr. Horrible was nominated. One might wonder if this category was made just for Dr. Horrible. It’s a given it will get the Emmy. Speaking of, Scifi Wire has an interview up with Joss Whedon talking about this nomination, amongst other things.
Another major snub includes Michael Giacchino’s wonderful Lost score being completely ignored from the Outstanding Music Composition category. Instead, such musical classic as Castle, Legend of the Seeker, and even Ghost Whisperer got the nom.
So much to complain about, I must have left out some other things. In any case, yeah, I’m pissed at the 61st Emmy Awards. And they haven’t even started yet.
A few previews have appeared for some interesting upcoming shows.
The first is AMC’s Rubicon starring James Badge Dale and Lili Taylor based on a Jason Horwitch script. Check out this trailer:
FX meanwhile has made a 6-episode order for an animated comedy series named Archer and created by Adam Reed and Matt Thompson who previously worked on Sealab 2021. As for what it is about, see the following extract:
And finally, two other TV tidbits. First, some Station news. The FOX show produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour, not a network station. John Goodman has been cast as the co-star alongside Justin Bartha on this series created by Kevin Napier about covert CIA operatives working on installing a new dictatorship in Central America. The pilot will be shot by Role Model‘s David Wain.
Also, NBC has picked-up Persons Unknown, a 13-episode series Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar in 1994 for his Usual Suspects script. The show, produced showrunner Remi Aubuchon, Christopher & Heather McQuarrie, revolves around strangers waking up in a deserted town with no recollection of how they got there. They must now work together to escape by solving puzzles.
I loved this great fad so much that I decided to help the poor execs by giving them a Top 5 list of games they should quickly make into movies.
The audience is just dying for ground-breaking entertainment, let’s give it to ’em!
The choice was extremely hard to make, some plastic tokens were lost in the process, but all is well now.
Let’s dive right in.
5) Connect 4
A classic game but how could one adapt this into an Oscar-winning motion picture?
Easy. Just imagine the following pic:
“A parallel world where everything is decided via a game of Connect 4. Suddenly, throughout the globe, strange events start happening as soon as people put pieces in the Connect 4 slots.
Cows explode, buildin gs are destroyed, Ahmadinejad converts to Judaism.
One man can save us all, he’s our only hope: the world-champion of Connect 4.”
I just got chills.
4) Chinese Checkers
The clock is ticking for Denzel Washington, who must uncover the truth behind a global conspiracy that threatens international security.
A new Sino-American pact has just been signed. The pact allows trading of state secrets between the two countries.
This thrilling political thriller will shed a light on a(nother) secret society inside the U.S. Government.
Ultimately, the movie will have no relation whatsoever with the game it is based on except for the name, a clever pun.
Chinese Checkers, the new political thriller by Tony Scott, coming soon.
3) Risk
Okay, this one is more like a half-joke.
I’d genuinely be interested in seeing what movie could be based off this great board game about world conquest.
My thinking is it’s something close to Napoleon meets Michael Bay.
A global fight for land involving epic space lasers and giant elephants.
Why elephants? Why not.
That, or a movie on colonialism.
2) Scrabble
What if a secret code was hidden inside Scrabble boxes everywhere?
In deciphering this Scrabble code one would uncover what lies inside the obscure fraternal organisation known as ‘Freemascrabble’ currently ruling the world.
Think Da Vinci Code meets National Treasure but for nerds.
It’s pretty original.
If Jon Turteltaub directs this on a script by Akiva Goldsman starring Nicolas Cage, I want to see the movie now.
1) Pictionary
So many ways to adapt this pictureless (and pointless) game.
What about a family-oriented movie with kids solving a murder thanks to clues that must be drawn and guessed just to piss those damn kids off?
And best of all, the audience can participate too!
Just shout the answers to the clues at a responseless screen to play.
That’s right, you’re publicly encouraged to annoy even more your already-annoyed movie theatre neighbour.