Category Archives: Award Shows

June 6, 2007 · 7:34 am

Television Critics Pile on the Praise for the Shows I Like

The annual TCA awards are pretty much the exact opposite of the Emmy Awards.

Television Critics Association Nominations – Variety.com

Television Critics are, for the most part, much better informed on the actual quality of network and cable television as opposed to being completely ignorant to various entertaining programs. As a result, these are awards that actually give us an indicator of who gave the best performances, not just who submitted the best episode. And, let me tell you: the result is an intense race that creates categories impossible to decide upon.

Program of the Year

“American Idol” (Fox)
“Friday Night Lights” (NBC)
“Heroes” (NBC)
“Planet Earth” (Discovery)
“The Wire” (HBO)
“When the Levees Broke” (HBO)

This is such a bizarre category, because it’s really more defined as programming from I guess a…I don’t even know what it means. Either way, you’ve got reality television, family drama, Sci-Fi drama, Nature Documentary, gritty HBO drama, and a Katrina documentary. That’s a diverse mix of shows right there. Are they looking for something new, something powerful…I don’t even know.

Comedy Series

“30 Rock” (NBC”)
“The Daily Show” (Comedy Central”)
“Entourage” (HBO”)
“The Office” (NBC”)
“Ugly Betty” (ABC”)

This category is just unfair, TCA. The Office against The Daily Show? Throw 30 Rock into the mix and you’ve got an impossible decision to make. I really have no idea how I’d decide on this one, and I for one support separate variety categories just to keep this conundrum from taking place.

Drama Series

“Friday Night Lights” (NBC”)
“Heroes” (NBC”)
“Lost” (ABC”)
“The Sopranos” (HBO”)
“The Wire” (HBO”)

We don’t know how much this will coincide with Emmy’s list, but I feel for certain that three of these shows will be named on July 19th. The Wire is one of those shows that has never garnered Emmy attention due to its lack of Network coverage, and without star power or pedigree it might have trouble breaking through at the Emmys. However, the amount of critical attention given to the series might make it something to catch up on this summer.

New Program

“30 Rock” (NBC”)
“Dexter” (Showtime”)
“Friday Night Lights” (NBC”)
“Heroes” (NBC”)
“Ugly Betty” (ABC”)

Umm, TCA? Are you following my viewing habits or something? I doubt they are, but these five shows are likely to make it onto my respective Drama/Comedy Emmy FYCs in July, and are probably my top 5 new shows of the season. I’m especially happy to see Dexter getting some love, it is most deserved.

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Filed under 30 Rock, American Idol, Award Shows, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, House, Lost, NBC, Television, The Office, The Sopranos

Tagged as Showtime

June 5, 2007 · 10:45 am

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – John C. McGinley and Zach Gilford

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59^th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our fifth set of candidates. For all candidates, Click Here]

Supporting Actor in a Comedy

John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox)

Scrubs

John C. McGinley really never gets a fair shake when Emmy time rolls around. Dr. Cox, the character he portrays on NBC’s Scrubs, is hilariously funny through most of the episodes, but he is at his best when the series demands dramatic material from him. When Dr. Cox just a few seasons ago lost three cancer patients due to an infection that he missed, he sunk into a deep depression from which he was unable to escape. When his best friend and brother-in-law passed away, he went through an entire episode imagining him to be there, leading him through his life and making up for mistakes along the way. These episodes were touching, emotionally powerful…but not comic. And, as a result, he has struggled in this category. Well, this season lacked such a poignant moment for the character, but I still believe that he is an unsung hero that should be considered for an Emmy nomination.

What Dr. Cox does so well is to basically serve as the sarcastic doctor, a mentor who has not yet become so jaded as to refuse to mentor others, and as someone who is always there to call J.D. girl’s names and let his opinion be known. I’ve written in the past about how I feel Scrubs hasn’t aged well (If I haven’t, I’ll have to do so when the show premieres in September), but I think that McGinley has magically overcome this problem. While other characters seem to spin in circles, McGinley seems to be able to navigate a fairly interesting path for his character even though his brand of humour can often be the most stereotypical.

That sense of humour, however, remains fresh. His long-winded rants about J.D. and others’ incompetence, his refusal to become part of the personal lives of the doctors around him, and his general sarcasm all make him funny and entertaining, while he remains able to humanize himself through his own life with two kids, an ex-wife who he hates and loves at the same time, and an inner heart of gold. McGinley never seems to get lost in the character, or lost in the other characters’ inability to mature over six seasons. McGinley, as the most consistent character in the show’s ensemble, deserves to be recognized more than its lead, who often sits back and watches as McGinley berates him with aplomb. And that, my friends, is why John C. McGinley deserves serious Emmy attention for his comic performance.

Episode Selection: “My House” (Airdate: January 4th, 2007)

Now, I don’t know if I would have selected this episode myself (It is somewhat lacking in some of Dr. Cox’s best qualities), but the premise behind the episode is one that could affect Emmy voters. Faced with two medical mysteries (Four if you count Carla and Eliot’s problems), Dr. Cox becomes the NBC equivalent of House. This quasi-crossover appeal should engage voters, and there are some strong moments for the character, but I think that the episode is just a bit too dull. Hugh Laurie’s performance of House is brilliantly comic within a dramatic setting. Here, McGinley is understated in a show that values absurdist comedy (Too often, to be honest). As a result, I think it won’t gain traction as a comic performance…but stranger things have happened. Via YouTube, here is his final diagnostic, House style.

YouTube – “My House”

Supporting Actor in a Drama

Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen)

Friday Night Lights

When I wrote a review of the Friday Night Lights pilot, I classified Matt Saracen as something akin to a contrived cliché in character form. Backup quarterback, never played a game in his life, throws footballs through a tire, takes care of his ailing grandmother, and in a moment of tragedy he is forced to step up and put the weight of an entire town on his shoulders. Within the context of the pilot, it was certainly a cliché series of events. However, what I did not realize at the time was that the show was also asking for a lot of weight to be placed on Zach Gilford’s shoulders, and much as his character led the Dillon Panthers to State so too did Gilford take this character and portray him as a real teenager, with real anxiety, and with real heart. And even in his understated fashion, without a single breakout scene to blow Emmy voters away, this young actor absolutely deserves to be considered this award season.

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Tagged as Emmys

June 4, 2007 · 11:00 am

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – Rainn Wilson and Jack Coleman

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59^th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our fourth set of candidates. For all candidates, Click Here]

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Rainn Wilson (Dwight)

The Office

While sentimental types might support John Krasinki’s Jim, it is Rainn Wilson’s Dwight that remains, and will always remain, the show’s supporting comic center. Jim’s pranks may initiate the laughs, but it is always Dwight reaction that gives me the most enjoyment. The fact that Rainn Wilson wasn’t nominated last year despite the utterly fantastic work in “Dwight’s Speech” is outrageous, and therefore it is only fitting that he be given a shot at an Emmy this year.

Without Dwight, The Office would not function the way it currently does. Michael would be infinitely less funny if he didn’t have someone hanging off of his every word. Jim would be a juvenile prankster if Dwight’s reactions weren’t so funny that we forget about the idiocy of it all. And, in those moments where Dwight is asked to step up to the plate and be his own starring character, he knocks them out of the park. His relationship with Angela has always been played subtlely, and it is often one of the show’s best qualities.

Rainn Wilson always brings a quality to the character that makes him more likable than he really should be; while there is no question Dwight is a decent guy at his core, Wilson always ensures that we see that just enough to make it work. Whether he’s trying to capture a bat, trying to take over the Office, or actually succeeding in doing so, Dwight is always played with just the right amount of nerdiness, naivety, and gusto. A scene-stealer in every possible way, Rainn Wilson deserves credit for bringing Dwight to the screen each week with an Emmy Nomination.

Episode Selection: “The Job” (Airdate: May 17th, 2007)

Currently, Wilson’s episode entry is the early-season episode “The Coup,” nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award. While a decent episode, and featuring some solid Dwight comedy, it doesn’t work as well for me as the recent season finale as the highlight of Dwight’s absurdity and humanity. “The Job” features Dwight finally having his dream come true: Michael appoints him boss, and he gets to run The Office his own way. Even though I have some problems with the way the season finale played out, Dwight’s part in it was indicative of some of the character’s best qualities, and Rainn Wilson knocked it out of the park. While individual Dwight moments certainly resonate more than any single episode, this one certainly brought a lot to the table for the character comedically. The Coup certainly has more of a character arc, but the hour-long finale has more overall moments for voters to remember.

YouTube – “The Job”

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet)

Heroes

Although the academy will not be handing out awards based on an entire season’s work, the journey of Jack Coleman over the span of this past year has been one of the most intriguing in all of television. Introduced as a shadowy villain without a name, Noah Bennet quickly became a conflicted father, a reluctant conspirator and, eventually, a hero in his own right. When we finally learned his first name in the show’s season finale, one felt that a real arc had been created: this person who we barely knew but 22 episodes ago was now perhaps the character we knew the best. And it is Jack Coleman’s portrayal of this character that makes him deserving of Emmy Award recognition.

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Tagged as Emmys, For Your Consideration

June 3, 2007 · 11:02 am

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – Jack McBrayer and Dominic Monaghan

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59^th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our third set of candidates. For all candidates, Click Here]