Tag Archives: Television

August 27, 2010 · 8:18 am

Why I Write About the Emmys

August 27th, 2010

On her Twitter feed, the illustrious Maureen Ryan (soon to be of AOL TV) posted the following:

This would likely be a common sentiment amongst TV critics: they write about the Emmys less because they care about them and more because they’re a major television event which their employers (whether they be print or online outlets) feel they need to have coverage of. There’s a general cynicism towards the Emmys, with many critics writing posts which question their validity or offering their own alternative ballot to better reflect a more objective (albeit decidedly subjective) survey of the year in television.

However, in my unique position without any sort of employer, I am able to write about what I want to write about, which begs the question: why, precisely, do I write about the Emmys as much as I do? I don’t have to predict the nominations, or analyze the submissions, or break down each individual category, but I choose to do so. I had originally planned to just predict Comedy and Drama series and be done with it, but there’s been enough talk about how and why we cover the Emmy Awards floating around that I wanted to offer my personal perspective before we head into the weekend.

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2010 Emmy Award Predictions: Lead Acting in a Drama Series

Lead Acting in a Drama Series

August 26th, 2010

The Lead Acting awards on the Drama side this year are polar opposites: one has a clear frontrunner and a slightly tired set of nominees, while the other category has a ridiculously packed lineup of potential winners where no clear frontrunner exists and where I’d be happy with anyone winning the trophy.

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Tagged as 2010, Connie Britton, Damages, Dexter, Emmys, Friday Night Lights, Glenn Close, House, Hugh Laurie., January Jones, Jon Hamm, Julianna Margulies, Kyle Chandler, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Lost, Mad Men, Matthew Fox, Michael C. Hall, Nominations, Nominees, Predictions, Television, TV

August 25, 2010 · 8:00 am

2010 Emmy Award Predictions: Lead Acting in a Comedy Series

Lead Acting in a Comedy Series

August 25th, 2010

There is nothing particularly progressive about the Lead Acting awards on the comedy side: with Modern Family’s cast choosing to submit in supporting across the board, and with Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison both submitting poorly, the big comedy battle of the year really isn’t relevant here, which means that we’re left with less interesting battles.

Or, more accurately, some less heartening battles: the reality is that these awards are unlikely to go to new faces, with previous winners dominating both fields. I’d like to believe that someone like Amy Poehler or Jim Parsons could walk away with these awards, but only the latter really has a chance, and even then something big, boring, and potentially enraging stands in his way.

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Tagged as 2010, Amy Poehler, Awards, Edie Falco, Emmys, Entertainment, Glee, Jim Parsons, Lea Michele, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Matthew Morrison, Monk, Nominees, Nurse Jackie, Parks and Recreation, Predictions, Television, The Big Bang Theory, Toni Colette, Tony Shahloub, TV, United States of Tara

August 24, 2010 · 8:00 am

2010 Emmy Award Predictions: Supporting Acting in a Comedy

Supporting Acting in a Comedy

August 24th, 2010

When it comes to the supporting acting awards in comedy, it’s an interesting microcosm of the larger comedy race: while 30 Rock is unrepresented in a competitive fashion, both races boil down to a showdown between the freshman contenders, Modern Family and Glee.

The problem is that what works from a series perspective won’t work from an acting perspective: the overwhelming positivity of Glee, or Modern Family’s rekindling of the family sitcom tradition, won’t be as evident in acting submissions. However, it will be a part of the process when Jane Lynch’s position as frontrunner is tested, and where we see whether the men of Modern Family can deal with vote-splitting.

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
Jane Lynch (Glee)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)

With Supporting Actress, Lynch has been the frontrunner from the beginning despite the fact that she’s yet to win anything: with SAG not recognizing supporting players, and with the Golden Globes lumping her in with far more substantial roles like Chloe Sevigny’s, she has yet to found a platform where her comic role could be recognized. It’s a broad, juicy comic role, which makes it an ideal fit in this category. While Glee as a series could prove divisive, everyone seems on the same page that Lynch’s scenery-chewing is some really strong work, and any problems people have with the role are regarding how the writers use her as opposed to Lynch’s performance.

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Tagged as Awards, Chris Colfer, Comedy Series, Emmys, Eric Stonestreet, FOX, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Jane Lynch, Julie Bowen, Modern Family, Neil Patrick Harris, Nominees, Predictions, Sofia Vergara, Supporting Acting, Television, TV, Ty Burrell

August 23, 2010 · 11:46 pm

Huge – “Parents Weekend – Part One”

“Parents Weekend – Part One”

August 23rd, 2010

In “Letters Home,” which was, like “Parents Weekend – Part One,” scripted by Gayle Abrams, we ‘met’ the parents.

Sure, we only met each camper’s parents through letters they wrote to them, but we got a sense of how each of them related with their parents. Trent, instead of writing to his father, writes to his deceased mother, while Will writes a scathing letter to her parents which she promptly rips up when she realizes it’s too honest for her standards. We didn’t actually meet their parents, but we saw enough to understand that family relationships play an enormous role in the larger psychological issues at play in the series.

Over the weekend, I watched the pilot to Winnie Holzman’s My So-Called Life, which is available on Hulu and which was pretty fantastic. That series was similarly interested in the relationship between teenagers and their parents, but what sets Huge apart for me is how many diverse scenarios its camp setting allows it to present. Whereas more dramas would be content to follow a few pairings, the sheer depth of this cast means that there are a good half dozen parental scenarios which unfold in the span of the episode, each connecting to the same basic themes while presenting an entirely different set of circumstances.

It doesn’t exactly have as much of a cliffhanger as it thinks it has, and treads water in a few too many areas, but there’s some really great subtlety here which continues the series’ trend towards greatness.

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Tagged as ABC Family, Alistair, Amber, Analysis, Becca, Chloe, Core, Delgado, Disability, Dorothy Rand, Episode 9, Finale, George, Gina Torres, Ian, Parents, Parents Weekend, Part 1, Poppy, Review, Season 1, Television, Trent, TV, Will

August 23, 2010 · 7:51 pm

2010 Emmy Award Predictions: Supporting Acting in a Drama Series

Supporting Acting in a Drama Series

August 23rd, 2010

The complete lack of a frontrunner in neither Supporting Actor nor Supporting Actress in a Drama Series isn’t particularly surprising: these categories are always fairly stacked, and so predicting them is always a bit of a crapshoot.

This year, though, the lack of a frontrunner should prove particularly interesting, and potentially quite frustrating for the majority of television viewers.

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)
Martin Short (Damages)
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
Terry O’Quinn (Lost)
Michael Emerson (Lost)
John Slattery (Mad Men)

On the Actor side of things, it’s a problem of too much talent: while many are right to complain about John Lithgow getting dropped down to (and winning) Guest Actor from Supporting on a technicality, I think this category is better for his absence, as it allows people like Aaron Paul (still looking for his first Emmy win for this spectacular work on Breaking Bad) to have a legitimate shot at the trophy instead of appearing as also-rans. However, when he’s alongside someone as respected as Martin Short, and when former winners Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson are riding the momentum of Lost coming to its conclusion, Paul still seems like a small fish in a big pond (Slattery, as good as he is, is simply not going to be the Mad Men actor to break the series’ drought in performance categories).

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Tagged as 2010, Aaron Paul, Andre Braugher, Archie Panjabi, Breaking Bad, Christina Hendricks, Christine Baranski, Drama, Elisabeth Moss, Emmys, John Slattery, Lost, Mad Men, Martin Short, Men of a Certain Age, Michael Emerson, Nominees, Prediction, Sharon Gless, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Television, Terry O'Quinn, The Good Wife, TV

August 22, 2010 · 11:50 pm

Mad Men – “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”

“The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”

August 22nd, 2010

Ted, the Don Draper-equivalent over at rival agency CGC, is not in Don Draper’s league: he is neither visionary nor genius, and yet by virtue of his insistence that he is a competitor he has been elevated to Don’s level. It’s the ultimate example of self-definition, of putting something out there (in this case, to the New York Times) and then turning it into reality. It doesn’t matter that Jai Alai went with another agency because its owner is delusional, or that Clearasil was a conflict rather than business lost: as it would appear to the outside world, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce lost two accounts and CGC (under Ted’s leadership) gained both of them.

“The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” is filled with various examples of situations where appearance becomes reality, to the point where it even becomes a meta-narrative when the series’ positioning of Betty as a child-like figure becomes rendered in three-dimensions. It’s not the most pleasant or subtle of episodes, but it ends up making some fairly interesting observations regarding Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as an agency, as well as the series’ general approach to simulating the past.

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Tagged as AMC, Analysis, Baudrillard, Benihana's, Bethanny, Betty, CGC, Commercial, Don Draper, Entertainment, Episode 5, Erin Levy, Faye Miller, Haircut, Honda, Japan, Joan, Kiernan Shipka, Lesli Linka Glatter, Masturbation, Matthew Weiner, Mrs. Blankenship, Pete Campbell, Pleasure, Psychiatrist, Racism, Review, Roger, Roger Sterling, Sally, Season 4, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Ted, Television, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Translation, TV, World War II

August 21, 2010 · 6:00 pm

2010 Creative Arts Emmys Predictions: Guest Acting

2010 Creative Arts Emmys Predictions

August 21st, 2010

Each year the Creative Arts Emmys are a celebration of the unsung heroes, albeit a celebration which remains largely unsung: few ever really get to see the awards, and so there’s a certain lack of fanfare. However, with the Guest Acting awards given out at the show and with the battles between shows like Glee and Modern Family unfolding for the first time, it’s a good early indicator for how the big awards will fall.

I’m still grappling with the idea of doing predictions for the big awards, and waiting until the Creative Arts ceremony is over is a good reason to put it off for another day. So, let’s take a look at the Creative Arts awards, and go from there.

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Tagged as 2010, 30 Rock, Alan Cumming, Betty White, Big Love, Creative Arts, Damages, Dexter, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emmys, Entertainment, Glee, Guest Acting, Jeff Probst, John Lithgow, Jon Hamm, Kristin Chenoweth, Lily Tomlin, Lost, Michael Giacchino, Mike O'Malley, Neil Patrick Harris, Nominees, Nurse Jackie, Predictions, Saturday Night Live, Sissy Spacek, SNL, Television, The Good Wife, Tina Fey, TV

August 21, 2010 · 2:03 pm

Season Finale: Sherlock – “The Great Game”

“The Great Game”

August 8th, 2010

Almost two weeks after it aired, I know that I’m late to the party in regards to the Sherlock finale, so I’m going to cut right to the chase: while not quite as strong as “A Study in Pink,” largely because of a focus on plot as opposed to character, “The Great Game” nonetheless sends the series off in a compelling fashion which bodes well for the series’ return sometime late next year.

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Tagged as Analysis, BBC, Benedict Cumberbatch, Episode 3, Fight, Finale, Mark Gatiss, Martin Freeman, Moriarty, Review, Season Finale, Series, Steven Moffat, Television, The Great Game, TV, Watson

August 21, 2010 · 1:31 am

Mad Men the Weekend After: Critics accept “The Rejected”

August 20th, 2010

I was without access to a television on Sunday evening, and in the chaos of moving I wasn’t able to get to this week’s episode of Mad Men, “The Rejected,” until yesterday. It was a bit nerve wracking to be in the dark regarding the episode, but this was a particularly strange episode to experience this with: I kept getting cryptic tweets about pears showing up in my Twitter feed, and every time I went shopping I had people asking if I had purchased pears at the store. It created an intriguing sort of mystery, a clue which I figured must be pretty important to have resonated so much with the audience.

Of course, the pears were an oddity, resonating with the audience because of how abstract that final scene seems in relation to the rest of the episode. This is actually one of the most thematically consistent episodes of the series in recent memory, leaning heavily on broad thematic material (in the form of a consideration of the value of marriage) and on our knowledge of previous events (in the form of Pete and Peggy’s divergent paths). It was an episode which rejected the series’ traditional sense that past and present relate to our own time and the nostalgic view of the 1960s, instead reclaiming past, present and future for these characters and their glimpses into the future.

And now, before I end up reviewing the episode in its entirety, let’s get onto “The Rejected” in a bit more detail and see what some critics thought about it.

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Tagged as AMC, Analysis, Direction, Episode 4, John Slattery, Joyce, Peggy, Pete, Review, Reviews, Season 4, Television, The Rejected, TV, Zosia Mamet