Emmy Thoughts

As a TV fan, I was mostly pleased at the Emmy nominations, but, of course, we can never be satisfied.

• Lost got rewarded, including the key trio of actors for the last season: Matthew Fox, Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson, although Emerson had far more interesting work in previous seasons.  O'Quinn's dual roles as Locke and MIB showed his range, and re-watching the series all over again reminds me of how wonderful he was throughout its run.  Elizabeth Mitchell was nominated for Guest Actress in a season where she did very, very little besides die and then meet up with James at the candy vending machine.  She was great, but other folks in other roles may have deserved it more.  I think this is more like a makeup call for missing her impressive performance the previous season.
• Nice to see Modern Family get heaps of noms even if Julie Bowen broke Jack's heart on Lost.
• Mad Men's last season was a while ago, but it was good that the voters did not lose track.
• Most importantly, Friday Night Lights got some well-deserved, if belated, love with noms for Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.  Just as Conan's nominations poke at NBC, shouldn't NBC not take credit for FNL's nods since the show continues to exist thanks to DirectTV?
• Speaking of nights, Saturday Night Live was over-rewarded for a weak season.  Giving Kristen Wiig a nomination may only reinforce an unfortunate habit to give her too much time on the show and the other women too little.  Wiig is very talented and can be great, but over-using her is a real problem.
• It was good to see new shows do well, although having any awards now for Monk and for Jon Cryer seems to suggest that Emmy voters have some habits that are hard to break.
• EW noted that four of the six best supporting actors for comedy either played gay characters or are openly gay (led by a rockin' Neil Patrick Harris).  This might not be that notable today, but it shows a great deal of progress in my lifetime.

No love for Chuck, unfortunately.  If I had been able to watch Justified, I would probably be a bit more disappointed about the nominations.  Oh well.