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Posts tagged as “Emmys”

This is odd for so many reasons (Emmys 2011)

First off, I can’t believe this is already my fourth Emmy review on this site.
I’d like to thank — Oh, who am I kidding. I made myself.

Anyways, on to business.

I’ve gotta admit, this was a pretty good year for the Emmys.
Jane Lynch was a great host, and it started off fairly well with her opening number.
It did drag on a bit but, overall, it was a nice time (I’m still a fan of last year’s Born To Run though).
One thing I did note about the stage was the huge FOX logo at the top of the gigantic video tower.
We get it, we’re on FOX. The Simon Cowell network.

The big awkward running gag of the night (you’ve gotta have one of those) was the Emmytones. Or, as I call it, the “why the fuck am I doing this” choir, composed of such talented actors as Joel McHale and Zach Levi.
Forced smiles coupled with bad timing meant one bad musical number after another.
LL Cool J’s surprise guest song towards the end of the night only reinforced the contrast between a “cool” number and…that.

As expected, we were treated with funny presenters mixed with more, shall we say, somber ones.
It started pretty well with the two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) boxing it out.
The first part of the night was, as Jane Lynch called it, the Modern Family Awards.
Beyond the fact that it was a clean sweep for the show, I actually did not expect Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell to win. They did deserve the awards though.
Ricky Gervais’ pre-recorded message was way too tame to be funny. I know it was supposed to be the joke but, still, too on the nose. Here’s to hoping he’ll be back in some capacity live on another award show.
Another annoying thing about the night was the overbearing announcer/voice-over guy making pretty crappy jokes about each winner as they walked onto the stage. They definitely need to cut that gag out next time around.

I honestly thought there would be an upset in the comedy writing department with Louis C.K. winning. After all, the show is widely loved in LaLaLand.
And if not a Louie episode, then at least the final Steve Carell/The Office one.
So, yes, this was another Modern Family Emmy I didn’t really anticipate.
Same comment for ‘best actor’ where I really thought Steve Carell’s final year would be recognized.
Charlie Sheen’s speech was beyond awkward. Was he being serious or ironic? It all sounded so hollow and strange. I can understand Jim Parsons being creeped out.

At this point in the post I have to take a moment and acknowledge the great dramatic presentation that was the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category.
All the nominated actresses going up on stage ‘impromptu’-style was great.
Yay for McCarthy. I’m not a big Mike & Molly fan though I’m seeing this victory as a recognition of McCarthy’s past work (Gilmore Girls!). And Bridesmaids certainly didn’t hurt.

The best moment of the night was undoubtedly the great Office comedy bit with fellow characters/actors popping in and out of the short. The biggest laughs were had with Jesse Pinkman giving Creed some meth. Brilliant.


I also cannot help but be amused by Cee-Lo’s chair malfunction.

Moving on the the Reality/Variety category, I have to say that Top Chef: All-Stars was a shoe-in for the Emmy, not Amazing Race (for what feels like a decade of wins).
Speaking of gazillion victories, The Daily Show once again took the top prize. I can’t complain, although I’m still waiting on The Colbert Report to get the Emmy.

We then got blasted with a Lonely Island medley (sorta).
Look, I enjoy the occasional skit as much as the next guy, but doing a live remake of the Michael Bolton song was unoriginal to say the least.
It was a nice touch to have (I think) Ed Helms, Maya Rudolph and John Stamos in the set as well, but overall, a fairly weak (albeit crazy) skit.

And this brings me to the ‘best drama writer’ category.
Holy smokes.
Huge surprise (in my mind) with Jason Katims’ oh-so-deserved victory for the series finale of Friday Night Lights.
Finally some recognition!
Now, I’m still a season behind, but I’m super stoked about this win.
Ditto for Kyle Chandler’s Emmy prize.
Those are upsets I enjoy seeing.
Martin Scorsese winning best director was one of the most obvious awards of the night (save for the finale two).
On the other side of the coin, Peter Dinklage won!


It might not have seemed like the role of a lifetime but it sure feels like it now.
Game of Thrones is currently the number one talked-about show in every writers room so it might not be as surprising as it seems.

Following last year’s debacle, the ‘In Memoriam’ segment was anticipated (for lack of a more politically-correct description).
What we got this time around was a music clip promoting a Canadian boys band singing a terrible version of Hallelujah.
Better luck next season, right?

And now about the final awards.
Clearly no surprise there for Downtown Abbey which holds the BS record for “most acclaimed series in the world“.
I haven’t got much else to add about Mad Men‘s victory.
And as for Modern Family winning. Well. It’s the new 30 Rock.

Born to Run (Emmys 2010)

Already another award show?
It’s as if time isn’t standing still anymore.
Unlike when you’re stuck watching an award show. Badum-ching.

For once, the opening Emmy number was good (surprisingly). It was also a nice big ad for FOX’s Glee…on NBC.
I do have one major caveat though: Jimmy Fallon, please stop singing.
I mean it.
We could all tell you had a hard time catching your breath and you were pretty much completely off-cue during the live part of the song.
I do wonder why they didn’t use Auto-Tune like Simon Cowell.

The best moments of the night didn’t come from Fallon (as expected, like the Conan jokes), but from Neil Patrick Harris, Ricky Gervais, and even a clip featuring the Modern Family cast discussing ‘options’ with a fake suit.

The running-gag of Twitter jokes was as bad as that time we had reality presenters as actual hosts of the Emmys. Remember?
You shouldn’t be scarce on jokes when you’re hosting an award ceremony, that is all.

There were several awkward moments during the night, especially with some presenters. The first one coming to mind is the Matthew Perry/Lauren Graham duo that epicly bombed.
That was soon followed by John Krasinski forgetting his lines–even though the teleprompter was right in front of him.
Awkward.

This year was also the year of popular vote it seems, with lots of newcomers and fan faves winning. Jane Lynch, Jim Parsons, Eric Stonestreet, Aaron Paul, you name it.
And, yes, Bryan Cranston did deserve to win again!
I’m however sorry to point out that Eddie Falco was not the best choice as Lead Actress in a Comedy. She even admitted it herself.


Still nothing new under the sun regarding the Best Drama-type categories, which brings me to this now-popular joke: Will Erin Levy get fired for winning an Emmy? *rimshot*

Lost didn’t win anything.
I find it sad that Darlton actually used as their Emmy joke a true anecdote showing how poorly planned their mythology was. Though that’s old news by now surely.

It’s funny that the Emmy peeps recycled last year’s bottom-screen announcement, such as ‘George Clooney in 17 minutes’ or ‘True Blood cast in 21 minutes.’
I mean really?
Is that what people watched the show for, or is NBC that desperate to get eyeballs?
Funny to think that the cast of True Blood is also seemingly as popular as Clooney.
At least this year they didn’t pull out the ‘In Memoriam in 30 seconds‘ card.

Oh well.
At least a deserving series won for Best Comedy.

Put down the remote (Emmys 2009)

The Emmys still fail.
There, I said it.
Despite Neil Patrick Harris doing an incredible job (obviously way superior to last year’s abysmal opening), most of the results did suck.

Obviously, there were no major surprises regarding who won the major awards.
Overhyped much?

On a completely random subject, I was surprised to see Elisabeth Moss kissing Fred Armisen.

Turns out, they’re engaged.
(Yeah, I’m not one to peruse the E! Online pages)

And was that a dig from Glenn Close at the poor writing from Damages’ Second Season?
Said Close:

I wanna begin by thanking Todd, Glenn and Daniel for giving me, probably, maybe, the character of my lifetime — depending on what they do this season. (awkward laugh)

Anyways, Little Dorrit garnered the most Emmy wins of the night with a total of seven, closely followed by Grey Gardens.
I was pretty disappointed that Generation Kill didn’t win best mini-series. Poor Flight of the Conchords never had a chance either.
30 Rock is at five, one more than…Pushing Daisies, the second TV show on the list!
Kristin Chenoweth winning was both surprising and well-deserved.
HBO dominated the Emmys with 21 awards (NBC comes in second with 16, ABC third with 11, and FOX fifth with 10).

It’s funny seeing how the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences categorizes the web-based wins.
For instance, the network (yes) for Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog (which won “Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program”) is actually drhorrible.com.
For you Lost fans out there, in case you didn’t know, the show did win something else: “Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media (Fiction)”, thanks to the latest Dharma Initiative ARG.
As you might have guessed, the same thing applies here; dharmawantsyou.com is listed instead of ABC or some other studio.
Ironically, this was the worst received of all Lost ARGs.
That, and the website is now dead.

Even the NBC web-based content (such as The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Digital Experience) is not filed under NBC but NBC.com.
It’s certainly an interesting shift to note, especially given the fact that this year’s broadcast seemed to be under the theme of network failure.

Moving on to the other wins, I was very happy for both Bryan Cranston and Michael Emerson and was even more ecstatic to see Kristin Chenoweth win.
Cherry Jones is a great actress but her 24 material was pretty weak compared to the extraordinary In Treatment.
Sadly, Colbert didn’t win anything. I’m awaiting the fallout next Tuesday.
There was a bit of an emphasis this year on Battlestar Galactica (probably since it was its last season).
First, a few clips were shown in the “One Year of Drama” section. Pretty late in the game for that, especially given the quality of the final season.
Also, Bear McCreary’s fantastic score for the series was used for the same section.
Pretty neat.

However, perhaps the most talked-about moment from last night’s show was the “surprise” appearance of Dr. Horrible.

Now that was great.

On the polar opposite, we have CBS advertising in the middle of an acceptance speech the In Memoriam!

What the hell?!

Despite this little mishap, and a few skits that bombed (like that “greatest TV fan badly seated” one), these 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were definitely enjoyable, if only for Neil Patrick Harris.
Certainly not for their results though.