Jmunney's Blog

Here are the best moments of this year’s Emmys:

1. That part when a woman tells Billy Eichner she can’t feel “it” regarding television’s biggest night:

2. That part where that guy in the orange shirt said that Jimmy Fallon is his favorite talk show host in front of Seth Meyers:

3. That part when Billy Eichner says that Hotmail has picked up Judging Amy in light of Yahoo! picking up Community:

4. That part when that guy with a beard confused Seth Meyers with Seth MacFarlane:

5. That part when Billy Eichner and Seth Meyers took donations for the cast of The Big Bang Theory:

6. That part when a woman had some … interesting guesses about what the Emmy trophy was:

7. That part when that old guy said “Who cares?” about something A LOT of people care about very much:

8. That part when Billy Eichner scared a woman shitless by shouting, “Elisabeth Moss was snubbed!”:

9. “DINKLAGE VERUS PATINKIN!”

10. That part when Billy Eichner thought a straight woman was a lesbian:

The 2014 Emmys are airing earlier than usual this year – tonight, August 25. (The nominees can be found here.) Here’s my rundown of who will most likely win, who should win, and who should have been nominated in most of the major categories:

Comedy Series
PREDICTION: Orange is the New Black
SHOULD WIN: Louie
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Review

Lead Actor, Comedy Series
PREDICTION: Ricky Gervais, Derek
SHOULD WIN: Louis C.K., Louie
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Andy Daly, Review

Lead Actress, Comedy Series
PREDICTION: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
SHOULD WIN: Julia Louis-Drefyus, Veep
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Ilana Glazer, Broad City

Supporting Actor, Comedy Series
PREDICTION: Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
SHOULD WIN: Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Danny Pudi, Community/Christopher Evan Welch, Silicon Valley

Supporting Actress, Comedy Series
PREDICTION: Kate Mulgrew, Orange is the New Black
SHOULD WIN: Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Alison Brie, Community/Toks Olagundoye, The Neighbors

Drama Series
PREDICTION: True Detective
SHOULD WIN: Mad Men
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Hannibal

Lead Actor, Drama Series
PREDICTION: Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
SHOULD WIN: Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen, Hannibal

Lead Actress, Drama Series
PREDICTION: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
SHOULD WIN: Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex (Caveat: I don’t watch most of these shows.)
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

Supporting Actor, Drama Series
PREDICTION: Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
SHOULD WIN: I don’t watch any of these shows.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Jordan Gavaris, Orphan Black

Supporting Actress, Drama Series
PREDICTION: Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
SHOULD WIN: The only show I watch here is Mad Men, and Joan didn’t have that much to do this season.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Emily Bett Rickards, Arrow

Miniseries
PREDICTION: Fargo
SHOULD WIN: Fargo

TV Movie
PREDICTION: The Normal Heart

Lead Actor, Miniseries or Movie
PREDICTION: Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo
SHOULD WIN: Martin Freeman, Fargo

Lead Actress, Miniseries or Movie
PREDICTION: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven
SHOULD WIN: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Allison Tolman, Fargo (She submitted as Supporting even though she was the Lead.)

Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie
PREDICTION: Matt Bomer, The Normal Heart
SHOULD WIN: The only one I watched here was Fargo. Colin Hanks was pretty good.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Bob Odenkirk, Fargo

Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie
PREDICTION: Allison Tolman, Fargo
SHOULD WIN: Allison Tolman, Fargo

For more Emmy info, check out this piece I wrote about a couple of the weirdest wins in Emmy history: http://www.starpulse.com/news/Jeffrey_Malone/2014/08/25/the_weirdest_wins_in_emmy_history

Who is going home with Emmy gold on Monday, August 24?  We’ll have to wait until then to know how the Television Academy members have voted, but right now we already know how an online community of TV addicts would vote.  The folks over at TVShow Time, a site dedicated to tracking and commenting on shows, has put together an infographic (below) about what their users have to say about the acting races in the drama categories.

For the Leads, the chatter is in favor of newcomers Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) and Matthew McConaughey (True Detective), while Supporting turns toward past winners Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad).

It seems that Dame Maggie may be in a league of her own regardless of the show she’s on, as the TV addicts look much less kindly on her costars Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, and Jim Carter.

The full list of nominees can be found here: http://www.emmys.com/sites/default/files/Downloads/66th-nominations-list-v2.pdf

Comedy Series: 5/6. The surprise inclusion of Silicon Valley teaches us to never underestimate the power of HBO (except for the fact that it replaced Girls.)

Drama Series: 5/6.  Despite speculation to the contrary, the Academy still loves Downton Abbey.

Lead Actor, Comedy Series: 5/6. The Academy loves Ricky Gervais like nobody else.

Lead Actress, Comedy Series: 5/6. No surprises here.  I didn’t predict Melissa McCarthy, but I considered it.

Lead Actor, Drama Series: 6/6.

Lead Actress, Drama Series: 4/6. Lizzy Caplan was a pleasant surprise, but not pleasant enough to make up for the fact that Tatiana Maslany will probably never receive any Emmy love for Orphan Black.

Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: 4/6. I wasn’t pulling for Fred Armisen (mostly because it’s the wrong category), but I won’t complain.

Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: 4/6 (plus partial credit for Kate Mulgrew, who was my 7th choice). Cool to see an SNL cast member get a nomination as early into her run on the show as Kate McKinnon is.

Supporting Actor, Drama Series: 4/6. Jon Voight, huh?

Supporting Actress, Drama Series: 3/6. Looks like I picked the wrong former nominee who didn’t really didn’t do much this season (Emilia Clarke instead of Christina Hendricks).

Recently, Comedy Bang! Bang! creator Scott Aukerman penned an op-ed directed to the TV Academy asking for the potential creation of a new Emmy category.  As it stands now, the Outstanding Variety Series is a catch-all that includes late night talk shows, sketch series, and most other breeds of comedy programs that do not fit in the Comedy Series field.  This category’s nominees are almost invariably filled by late night talk shows (and Saturday Night Live).  Aukerman proposes that, in light of the recent boom of critically acclaimed sketch and alternative comedy series, Variety Series be split into two categories: variety/talk program and sketch/alternative program.  If that split existed, what nominees would I be calling for this year in the Outstanding Sketch/Alternative Series category?  And would there be enough candidates to fill up four new acting categories: Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress in a Sketch or Alternative Program?  Or would there just be one or two acting categories?  Or would the performers, somewhat ill-fittingly, remain in the Comedy performing fields?

Here are the sketch/alternative nominees that would make my wishlist:

Sketch/Alternative Series
–Comedy Bang! Bang!
–Key and Peele
–The Eric André Show
–Kroll Show
–Inside Amy Schumer
–Portlandia

Lead Actor
–Eric André, The Eric André Show
–Keegan Michael-Key/Jordan Peele, Key and Peele
–Nick Kroll, Kroll Show
–Scott Aukerman, Comedy Bang! Bang!
–Nathan Fielder, Nathan for You

Lead Actress
–Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer
–Carrie Brownstein, Portlandia

Supporting Actor
–Reggie Watts, Comedy Bang! Bang!
–Kyle Mooney, Saturday Night Live
–Hannibal Burress, The Eric André Show
–Taran Killam, Saturday Night Live
–Beck Bennett, Saturday Night Live
–Tim Kalpakis, The Birthday Boys

Supporting Actress
–Aidy Bryant, Saturday Night Live
–Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Looking over the makeup of the acting categories, I think I would advocate for a single Sketch/Alternative Performer category, or a split of Sketch/Alternative Actor and Sketch/Alternative Actress.

The Emmy nominations will be announced on July 10, with the ceremony then taking place on August 25.  I am going to be running through my wish lists in most of the major categories, as well as offering predictions of the likely actual nominees.

As I mentioned in the Comedy portion of my Emmy preview, in years past, I have considered animated sitcoms alongside their live-action counterparts, but this year I decided to consider them separately, because there really are enough fundamental differences between the two mediums.  But the Emmy categorization isn’t really conducive to honoring animated shows in the same way that live-action shows are.  The nominees in Outstanding Animated Program are for single episodes, as opposed to the series as a whole.  But for the purposes of this wishlist, I am imagining what nominees would be deserving if the category were Outstanding Animated Series instead of Program:

Among the animated series I watched regularly in 2013-14, Rick and Morty set a hefty standard for itself in Season 1; Bob’s Burgers continued to be one of the most satisfyingly optimistic shows on television; Archer was mostly successful with its season-long Archer: Vice storyline; American Dad! remained a shining beacon of absurd experimentalism; and Futurama delighted hearts and minds with its second final season.

The Emmy nominations will be announced on July 10, with the ceremony then taking place on August 25.  I am going to be running through my wish lists in most of the major categories, as well as offering predictions of the likely actual nominees.

Normally I would not make predictions or wishlists about the TV Movie/Miniseries categories, but then I watched Fargo and I decided I would cover this field because I loved Fargo so much.  But then I realized that I watched hardly any other miniseries, and the only TV movie I watched was probably Sharknado.  So instead of a full wishlist, I’m just going to run through all the actors from Fargo I’d like to see nominated:

The You Betcha’s:
-Allison Tolman
-Martin Freeman
-Billy Bob Thornton
-Bob Odenkirik

The Almost You Betcha’s:
-Keith Carradine
-Colin Hanks
-Keegan-Michael Key/Jordan Peele

I am not going to bother with predictions too much, because there are a number of contenders here that I am not familiar enough with, so I’ll just predict who’s likely to be nominated from Fargo and the one other miniseries I watched this season: American Horror Story: Coven, which wasn’t very good, though the acting was fine-to-great.  (As for TV movies, The Normal Heart will probably have a strong showing.)

Probable Nominees From Fargo:
-Billy Bob Thornton
-Allison Tolman
-Martin Freeman
Probable Nominees From American Horror Story: Coven:
-Jessica Lange
-Sarah Paulson

Possible Nominees From Fargo:
-Bob Odenkirk
-Colin Hanks
-Keith Carradine
-Oliver Platt
Possible Nominees From American Horror Story: Coven:
-Kathy Bates
-Angela Bassett
-Frances Conroy