Tag Archives: Curb Your Enthusiasm

July 8, 2010 · 10:28 am

The 2010 Primetime Emmy Award Nominations

July 8th, 2010

[For complete analysis of the 2010 Emmy Nominees, head to my full breakdown, “The Trick is to Watch TV,” here.]

Here are the nominees for the 2010 Emmy Awards (and, for added value, my gut feelings in terms of early favourites have been bolded): for all of the awards, click here to download the Academy’s PDF.

Outstanding Drama Series

True Blood
Breaking Bad
The Good Wife
Dexter
Lost
Mad Men

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Glenn Close (Damages)
Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU)
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)
January Jones (Mad Men)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Matthew Fox (Lost)

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Tagged as 2010, 30 Rock, Aaron Paul, Andre Braugher, Archie Panjabi, Betty White, Breaking Bad, Burn Notice, Chris Colfer, Christine Baranski, Conan O'Brien, Connie Britton, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emmys, Eric Stonestreet, Friday Night Lights, Glee, Hugh Laurie., Jane Lynch, John Lithgow, Julianna Margulies, Kyle Chandler, Lea Michele, Lost, Mad Men, Matthew Morrison, Michael Emerson, Mike O'Malley, Modern Family, Neil Patrick Harris, Nominations, Nominees, Nurse Jackie, Sharon Gless, Terry O'Quinn, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, Tina Fey

June 5, 2010 · 2:36 am

Handicapping the 2010 Emmys: Official Ballot Miscellany

Official Ballot Miscellany

June 4th, 2010

Earlier this evening, Emmy voting officially began; this isn’t particularly important to us non-voters, but it does mean that the official ballots were released (PDFs: Performers, Writing, Directing), which means that we know who submitted their names for Emmy contention and can thus make our predictions accordingly. In some cases, this simply confirms our earlier submissions regarding particularly categories, while in other cases it throws our expectations for a loop as frontrunners or contenders don’t end up submitting at all.

For example, Cherry Jones (who last year won for her work on 24) chose not to submit her name for contention this year, a decision which seems somewhat bizarre and is currently being speculatively explained by her unhappiness with her character’s direction in the show’s final season. It completely changes the anatomy of that race, removing a potential frontrunner and clearing the way for some new contenders (or, perhaps, another actress from Grey’s Anatomy). Either way, it’s a real shakeup, so it makes this period particularly interesting.

I will speak a bit about some surprising omissions and inclusions in the categories I’ve already covered this week, but I want to focus on the categories that I haven’t discussed yet, including the guest acting categories, writing, and direction, which are some interesting races this year.

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Tagged as 2010, 24, 30 Rock, Alan Cumming, Allison Janney, Amy Poehler, Andre Braugher, Ballot, Betty White, Breaking Bad, Carlton Cuse, Cherry Jones, Christine Baranski, Comedy, Community, Conan O'Brien, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Damages, Damon Lindelof, Dexter, Directing, Drama, Elaine Stritch, Elizabeth Banks, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emmys, Friday Night Lights, Glee, Guest Actor, Guest Actress, Henry Ian Cusick, How I Met Your Mother, Jack Bender, Jared Harris, Jason Alexander, Jason Winer, John Lithgow, Jon Hamm, Julianne Moore, Justin Lin, Kristin Chenoweth, Lily Tomlin, Lost, Mad Men, Martha Plimpton, Matt Damon, Megan Mullally, Men of a Certain Age, Michael Sheen, Modern Family, Modern Warfare, Neil Patrick Harris, Nominees, Nurse Jackie, Pamela Fryman, Rian Johnson, Ryan Murphy, Saturday Night Live, Shelley Long, Sons of Anarchy, Submissions, Television, The End, The Good Wife, The Office, The Pacific, Tina Fey, Titus Welliver, Treme, TV, United States of Tara, Viola Davis, Wheels, Writing, Zach Gilford

June 2, 2010 · 2:47 am

Handicapping the 2010 Emmys: Comedy Acting

June 2nd, 2010

In comedy this year, a lot depends on what shows make it big: we know that Glee and Modern Family are going to make a statement (as noted in my piece handicapping the Comedy Series race), but is it going to be a statement of “this is a great show” or a statement of “this is the greatest show since sliced bread?” The difference will largely be felt in the acting categories: both Modern Family and Glee have multiple Emmy contenders, but it’s unclear whether some of the less heralded performers will be able to rise along with the big “stars,” or whether the halo of series success won’t help them compete against some established names already entrenched in these categories.

Ultimately, I’m willing to say that there’s going to be some pretty big turnaround this year in some of these categories, but others feature quite a large number of former nominees who likely aren’t going anywhere, so it should be interesting to see how things shake out on July 8th. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the four major Comedy Acting Emmys and see where the chips lie.

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Tagged as 2010, 30 Rock, Adam Scott, Alec Baldwin, Alison Brie, Amber Riley, Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, Awards Show, Better Off Ted, Brian Van Holt, Charlie Sheen, Chevy Chase, Chris Colfer, Chris Pratt, Community, Cougar Town, Courteney Cox, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ed O'Neill, Edie Falco, Emmys, Entourage, Eric Stonestreet, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Hung, Jane Lynch, Jeremy Piven, Jim Parsons, Joel McHale, Jon Cryer, Julie Bowen, Larry David, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Merritt Wever, Modern Family, Monk, Neil Patrick Harris, Nick Offerman, Nominees, Nurse Jackie, Parks and Recreation, Party Down, Patricia Heaton, Portia De Rossi, Predictions, Rainn Wilson, Rico Rodriguez, Rosemarie Dewitt, Sofia Vergara, Steve Carell, Television, The Big Bang Theory, The Middle, The Office, Tina Fey, Toni Colette, Tony Shahloub, Tracy Morgan, TV, Two and a Half Men, Ty Burrell, United States of Tara, Weeds

October 5, 2009 · 10:50 am

Cultural Learnings On the Road: Starstruck, Broadway’d and HBO’d

As my Twitter feed has indicated, I am currently in the Big Apple, New York City, on a brief adventure. And since this means a lack of traditional reviews (I guess I’d call this a vacation in that respect), I figured I’d blog a tiny bit about the trip itself, as well as some of the TV I watched when I was dead tired and had not the energy to do much else.

So, thoughts on Broadway’s Next to Normal, being starstruck on the subway, and HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bored to Death and Entourage after the jump.

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Tagged as Bored to Death, Broadway, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, HBO, Neil Patrick Harris, New York, Next to Normal, Season Finale, Seinfeld

September 19, 2008 · 10:34 am

Cultural Learnings’ 2008 60th Primetime Emmy Awards Predictions

Last year, during this important period of the pre-Emmy festivities, I had a bit more time to really delve into some key issues. This year, things are busier, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to make some prognostications about the end results. I’m going to be discussing more themes and the like tomorrow in my Emmy Preview, but for now let’s get to what we really care about: predicting who is actually going to walk home with Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Drama Series

Boston Legal (ABC)
Damages (FX)
Dexter (Showtime)
House (FOX)
Lost (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)

There is some wiggle room here, as each some has something (Pedigree, viewership, buzz, etc.) that makes it stand out, but there is nothing on this list quite as emphatically received and, more importantly, different from your standard fare than Mad Men. I’ll discuss more of this tomorrow, but its combination of a small network, a small fanbase, fresh-faced actors and its attention to detail will be unstoppable.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

James Spader (Boston Legal)
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)

This is a category where only one thing is important: that James Spader finally loses. Either Hamm, C. Hall or Laurie are in a position to usurp last year’s winner, and I’ve got my money on Michael C. Hall. After getting snubbed here last year, and with his show in the big race, voters might choose to recognize his brave and fantastic performance even when the show itself loses them with its dark atmosphere. But, this is maybe the night’s most up in the air race.

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
Holly Hunter (Saving Grace)
Glenn Close (Damages)
Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU)

This race, however, is not up in the air at all. Its highly serialized nature and red herring use might keep it from being the best drama series on television, but there is no way that Emmy Voters can ignore Close’s pedigree with such a richly portrayed character (even if I’d argue that character isn’t nearly as important as voters might think it is to the show’s success).

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Tagged as 2008, 30 Rock, 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, Alec Baldwin, America Ferrera, Amy Poehler, Award Shows, Awards, Boston Legal, Brothers & Sisters, Candice Bergen, Chandra Wilson, Christina Applegate, Comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Damages, Dancing with the Stars, Dexter, Drama, Emmys, Entertainment, Entourage, Glenn Close, Grey's Anatomy, Heidi Klum, House, How I Met Your Mother, Hugh Laurie., In Treatment, James Spader, Jeff Probst, Jeremy Piven, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kevin Dillon, Kristin Chenoweth, Lee Pace, Lost, Mad Men, Mary Louise-Parker, Michael C. Hall, Michael Emerson, Neil Patrick Harris, Predictions, Project Runway, Pushing Daisies, Rachel Griffiths, Rainn Wilson, Recount, Sally Field, Sandra Oh, Saturday Night Live, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Ted Danson, Television, The Amazing Race, The Colbert Report, The Office, The Wire, Tina Fey, Tom Bergeron, Tony Shahloub, Two and a Half Men, Ugly Betty, Vanessa Williams, Weeds, William Shatner, Zeljko Ivanek

June 28, 2008 · 10:40 pm

Assessing the Emmy Contenders: Curb Your Enthusiasm – “The Bat Mitzvah”

When Emmy released the Top 10 lists of the potential nominees for both comedy and drama series, they took the wind out of my sails in terms of putting up my own predictions. However, their work and the work of Tom O’Neill over at Gold Derby getting the episode submission titles means that interested parties can have their own private screening of the 10 comedy and 10 drama episodes that the blue ribbon panels are viewing this weekend. So, following a suggestion by GoldDerby Forum poster jss0058, I figured I’d offer my thoughts on the submitted episodes in alphabetical order as we approach the July 17th nominations.

First off, two caveats:

For the sake of not ruining plot-heavy series, I have no intention of watching the submitted episodes from The Tudors or The Wire. I’m currently on the fence with Flight of the Conchords, but chances are I’ll be fine with it.
I probably won’t rewatch some of the episodes that I’ve already reviewed/watched extensively, but I’ll try to at least take a fresh perspective.

And with that out of the way, let’s get onto the first series, Larry David’s improvisational comedy hit that finished off its sixth season late last year.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Episode: “The Bat Mitzvah” (Directed by Larry David)

Synopsis: Larry (Larry David) has a tickle in his anus, and a rumour spreads that it’s the result of a gerbil finding a way into that particular cavity.

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Academy Reveals Emmy “Top 10s” for Comedy and Drama Series

Earlier this week, Tom O’Neill over at The Envelope’s Gold Derby revealed that the Academy planned, for the first time, to reveal the official Top 10 qualifiers for the Series and Acting prizes. These are the shows that will be screened in front of panels, and then used to decide 50% of the final nomination process. These lists are the cutoff point – if you don’t make the list, you cannot get nominated for an Emmy.

Now, the Academy is making their unprecedented decision a little bit more tentative; they’ve announced the Top 10 Series in both Comedy and Drama, and are going to re-assess the situation tomorrow after they see the critical and industry response to these revelations. This is fair, I guess, but let me be the first to say that as a wannabe TV critic I love this news, and think that it’s only helpful to the process. Yes, it will make a potential nomination for a show like The Wire less surprising (Where before people would have presumed that it wouldn’t even make the Top 10), but now people are actually kind of excited going into the process.

Now, Tom has asked that the list of episode submissions be kept to his blog, but the Top 10 lists are floating around. So, here’s the link to Tom’s list, and then I’ll provide the full list of shows and go into some commentary on the choices, and why releasing the acting lists is still a viable option.

Gold Derby: Emmy Drama/Comedy Top 10 Submissions [Link]

Drama

“Boston Legal”
“Damages”
“Dexter”
“Friday Night Lights”
“Grey’s Anatomy”
“House”
“Lost”
“Mad Men”
“The Tudors”
“The Wire”

The Big Surprise: The Wire, which in its fifth season finally captured a little more of voters’ attention. The show is actually HBO’s only show in the category, trouncing their more heavily promoted In Treatment.

The Big Snub: While one could argue that Big Love’s absence from the list is a surprise, the real surprise is that Heroes (nominated last year) didn’t make the Top 10. That the Academy so clearly judged the second season’s quality correctly gives me high hopes.

The Sentimental Favourite: It’s gotta be Friday Night Lights, which squeaks its way into the category with an uneven, but still quality, second season.

After the break, the comedy list.

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