Monday, September 24, 2012

Primetime Emmy Awards 2012 Recap

Hi everyone! Just a quick follow-up on last night's Emmy Awards ceremony. If you're looking for more info, you can check out my live blog from last night!

Starting with comedy, these winners were mostly expected. The writing and directing wins (Louis CK for Louie and Steve Levitan for Modern Family, respectively) were a little odd, considering I was predicting CK for directing, I thought Lena Dunham was a clear favorite in writing, and I didn't think Modern Family had a chance in the directing category. Still, deserving winners, I guess. Eric Stonestreet's win was definitely well-deserved, but I thought Ty Burrell or Jesse Tyler Ferguson would win the award this year (and to a lesser extent, I thought Max Greenfield might surprise). Julie Bowen's win was also predicted, although I thought Kristen Wiig's final nomination for Saturday Night Live might prevail, and I also feared that Kathryn Joosten might be posthumously rewarded for Desperate Housewives.
In the night's biggest WTF win, Jon Cryer took home the Lead Actor award. Methinks this has more to do with behind-the-scenes drama than his actual performance. Julia Louis-Dreyfus expectedly won the Lead Actress award, although a part of me was rooting for Amy Poehler with all my heart. Their little speech mishap was one of the highlight's of the show, though. Finally, Modern Family's win for Best Comedy Series was trite and expected, but fine nonetheless. Still, the show needs to have a great fourth season to keep up the winning streak as Parks and Rec, Girls, New Girl, The Big Bang Theory, and the final seasons of 30 Rock and The Office look to up the ante this year.

The reality winners were basically expected. The Amazing Race wins this award once again, and no one cares. Tom Bergeron wins Reality Host, after the only person to ever win this category, Jeff Probst, wasn't even nominated this year.

The variety winners are kinda there and don't add much to the show. Louis CK picked up another award for writing for his stand-up special. Glenn Weiss, who was directing this ceremony while winning an Emmy, made for some fun moments. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart wins Variety Series, making it a decade of winning, and my God, is that boring! Still, Stewart keeps it alive with that funny brawl with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.

The TV movie/miniseries winners were also pretty expected, for the most part. Game Change was the big winner here, taking writing, directing, and lead actress (Julianne Moore), in addition to the big award: Best Miniseries/TV Movie. American Horror Story only picked up one win in the main ceremony for Jessica Lange, but there's no surprise there. Tom Berenger and Kevin Costner picked up a pair of wins for Hatfields and McCoys.

Finally, on the drama side of things, we had a mix of the expected and welcome surprises. Boardwalk Empire took home the directing award, inexplicably, considering the much stronger episodes it was up against. Maggie Smith won Best Supporting Actress, and that's not a real surprise either, considering she was one of the frontrunners and she's Maggie freaking Smith. Aaron Paul provided Breaking Bad with the night's only win for Breaking Bad, even though many thought Paul's co-star, Giancarlo Esposito, would take home the award (I thought Paul's tape was better, but Esposito's buzz couldn't be conquered, and unfortunately, I was wrong!).
However, the big news of the night came from newcomer Homeland which took home awards for writing, Lead Actress (the incomparable Claire Danes), Lead Actor (Damian Lewis, finally getting well-deserved recognition), and a Best Drama Series win. That's right - Mad Men's streak was finally broken! It wasn't a good night for that show, by the way. In addition to continuing it's acting losing streak to 0-25, the show went 0-17 this year, making it the show with the most nominations and no wins in a single year. Ouch! The shimmer of this once unbeatable show seems to be gone, and now, this race got interesting. It'll be back next year, in addition to hot new seasons of Homeland and the still unrewarded Breaking Bad, in addition to Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, The Good Wife, and other potential nominees.

Overall, it was a good ceremony. Host Jimmy Kimmel was pretty good, having equally good and bad moments. The opening was pretty good, but none shall ever beat the Born to Run opening with that eclectic group of TV stars (featuring Tina Fey, Joel McHale, and the cast of Glee, among others) from 2010. Little pre-taped bits were pretty good, especially the Breaking Bad-Andy Griffith show mash-up and the Modern Family bit about the terrorizing little girl that plays Lily. What did you think of the ceremony and, more importantly, the winners?! Let me know below in the comments section!

Evan

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