Thursday, June 21, 2012

NO LOUIE NOM IS A WAR CRIME. BUT NOT A SURPRISE:  Many of our favorite tv critics roundtable their Emmy nomination hopes and predictions. Nominating ballots are due next week; nominations announced on July 19.

You can see the list of performers who've submitted themselves for consideration here (and all the rest of the nominating ballots are here). New York magazine has compiled 25 surprising attempts to seek an Emmy nomination (Supah Ninjas for Best Writing - Comedy), but surely we've got thoughts of our own on all of this.  (I'm amused that Donald Glover is being submitted for best guest actor - comedy for his work as Young Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock, but, c'mon, Billy Baldwin needs that slot for his 30 Rock work.)

19 comments:

  1. Joseph J. Finn8:50 AM

    Let me just echo Sepinwall here; the lack of nominations for <span>Rob McElhenney and Kailtin Olson is just annoying as hell, but sadly not surprising.  They both had a really, really strong last year so here's hoping. (Besides that, my only hope is for Max Greenfield and Miyam Bialik to get nods and for Modern Family to get only one nomination per category.  Also, that Lena Headey gets nominated so there's an Emmy clip of her drunkenly giving Sansa advice.)</span>

    *One more thing: I do hope Community does NOT get nominated for Animated, ecause I think the animation series writers are right in that they're getting shuffled off to the side a bit and there's a certain amount of them being hosed by the rules.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where else can you find descriptions like this?

    "In the "30 Rock" live episode, Jon Hamm plays Abner, an African-American character played by a white actor in the horribly racist 1950s sitcom “Alfie and Abner.” He also plays a confused and misogynistic David Brinkley."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Animation has taken advantage of the double-dip scenario in the past.  For instance, a few years ago, Family Guy was able to submit as both Best Comedy and Best Animated by submitting a double-length episode for Best Animated (I think it was one of the Star Wars ones) and the regular series for Best Comedy.  I am a touch more annoyed by this year's Community effort, because it's right at 50% animated/50% live action as I recall, unlike last year, when they won, where the episode was wholly animated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:28 AM

    Rob Lowe and Adam Scott submitted for LEAD actor comedy? I'm hoping that this is part of a "clear the field for Ron F'ing Swanson" strategy for best supporting actor as opposed to ego run amok.

    --bd

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rob Lowe has always submitted as a lead--he certainly did for West Wing, where his claim was defensible, and I believe he did for the couple of seasons of Brothers and Sisters he did (where his claim was not).

    To the extent that this season of Parks had a leading man, there's really no question it was Scott, so that's defensible. 

    Because of how Modern Family (and, to a lesser degree, SNL) submits with all performers in supporting category, lead is now the less competitive category in comedy acting, despite some great performances we're seeing right now that are clearly leads.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dinklage should have submitted as a lead this season for GoT.

    ReplyDelete
  7. To me, the most interesting question is if Emmy is going to embrace "Girls."  It's not a populist hit, but the critics have eaten it up (largely deservedly so).  I can envision a situation where it gets no nominations at all, a situation where it gets a bunch of nominations, but substantially all for Lena Dunham as actor/director/writer/producer, and one where it gets nominations across the board (for Mamet and/or Williams as supporting actress, Driver for supporting actor, and guest acting).

    There's a similar question about "Homeland."  While Danes is a lock and Lewis is close to one, is the love going to spread up to Best Drama and down to the supporting cast?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Andrew12:16 PM

    I would watch an entire show based around this premise: "Kelsey Grammer plays 'Kelsey Grammer,' a bored millionaire and former actor who has turned his talents to graft, petty crime, and perhaps even murder in an effort just to feel something again from inside the gilded cage of fame."

    ReplyDelete
  9. Joseph Finn1:11 PM

    Adam, I'm not sure on that one.   Does Game really have a lead?

    ReplyDelete
  10. As a viewer, I believed Sean Bean was the lead in season 1, and Dinklage was in season 2.  

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bean and Headey both submitted as leads last year.  This year, everyone submitted as featured.  The male lead category is very hard to get a win in (Jon Hamm, Hugh Laurie, Michael C. Hall, and Timothy Olyphant have all been nominated for roles they're eligible for again this year but never won, and Cranston has won for every season of Breaking Bad).

    It's a strategic call for Dinklage--yes, he'd probably get a nomination if he submitted as lead, but getting the win is hard.  In supporting, he's the automatic frontrunner.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Joseph Finn4:38 PM

    And here's an interesting thought; since they're both new shows with a good shot at a nomination, does Girls or New Girl crowd one or the other out, or split the vote?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think that while there are folks who are fans of both, the two are VERY tonally different.  Were I guessing, Modern Family and 30 Rock are locks to return, Big Bang Theory and Parks are both pretty likely to be back in the mix, and I wouldn't be shocked to see Office and Glee fall out of the equation this year (certainly critical consensus is that both took significant steps backwards this year), leaving space for two new nominees, which I'd bet come from some mix of Louie, Girls, New Girl, Veep, and Nurse Jackie.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Margaret Cho reprises her role as totally not dead North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il, kidnapper, professional golfer and TV weatherman. Margaret also appears as Jong-il’s super gay, basketball-loving son, Kim Jong-un."

    "Andie MacDowell plays Dave Williams’ wife, Claire, in the classic Leap Day movie “Leap Dave Williams." She encourages her husband to do something crazy on Leap Day because, after all, real life is for March."

    ReplyDelete
  15. Joseph Finn6:42 PM

    Gack, I can't imagine the Emmy voters have the guts to pull the trigger on Louie.  But then, my dream is Modern Family gets dropped.

    ReplyDelete
  16. So, you're saying that Dinklage is thinking strategically here.  Hmm.  That's called commitment to character.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Louie got an acting and writing nod for Season 1, so it's already on the Emmy radar screen.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Joseph J. Finn8:43 PM

    But best comedy?  You might as well ask them to nominate Sunny.

    ReplyDelete
  19. isaac_spaceman9:18 PM

    This year's Community animation was cute, but it wasn't really great animation.  Abed's Christmas episode had a much higher degree of difficulty than, say, an episode of Archer (the best animated program on television, just by virtue of the fact that it's one of the best comedies on TV, but it uses a lot of static reusable backgrounds and a lot of cheats in the actual animation). 

    ReplyDelete