Shadow and Flame with Magik

So the Emmy’s will air on a Monday, August 25, 2014.  The nominations were announced on Thursday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Primetime_Emmy_Awards

Like the Oscars, apparently, my wife and I are not watching critically adored shows.  If a show we do watch is nominated, it feels like dumb luck.   That is one of the reasons why I like the MTV Movie Awards, at least those are the movies I watch or want to watch.  The same is true for the People’s Choice Awards.

Here is who I hope wins or just what shows we watch – thus, only those should win.

Programs

Outstanding Comedy Series

•     Big Bang Theory
•     Modern Family
•     Orange is the New Black
•     Silicon Valley (I watch this one on my own)

Of those four shows, I hope Orange is the New Black wins it as that will encourage Netflix to really put some money behind the Marvel series that are coming.  Plus, it is a good show and I believe it won last year.  I really liked Silicon Valley, it was a short season but I liked where it was going towards the end.

Outstanding Drama Series

•      Downton Abbey (my wife watches this)
•      Game of Thrones (my wife watches this, I have to eventually – she started without me and now its too late for me)
•      Mad Men (my wife watches this)
•      True Detective (we started this and saw the first four episodes and the rest are sitting on our DVR)

This has to be the last year Breaking Bad wins, right?  I thought that was true of last year but here it is again.  I’m hoping True Detective wins, just because it is the only show I’ve seen.

Outstanding Variety Show

•      Saturday Night Live

It really is the only series nominated that I follow.  I tried Fallon but like all late night shows (besides Conan) I only watch pending on the celebrity guests.  Does anyone watch every episode?

Outstanding Miniseries

• American Horror Show : Coven (we saw the first four episodes, the rest are on our DVR)

Again, just the one show we saw – sort of – so here’s hoping it wins.  Actually, I want to say that we deleted them and gave up on it.  The first two seasons were pretty good but we had a lot of shows and not enough time to watch them all.  We are thinking of switching to Hulu at the end of the summer, so maybe we can do more shows that way.  No interest in the Clown season that is coming up.

Outstanding Television Movie

• Killing Kennedy
• The Normal Heart

Glad Normal Heart was nominated as I only watched it as I thought it would be.  Still rather have Killing Kennedy win, shout outs to Bill O’Reilly!

Outstanding Reality – Competition Program

• Amazing Race
• Dancing with the Stars
• Top Chef
• Voice

Not sure why Big Brother is never nominated, though last season makes sense as it was full of racists and fools.  That’s a tough category.  My vote would be Top Chef, next Voice, Amazing Race then Dancing with the Stars.

Acting

     Lead Performances

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

• Don Cheadle as Marty Kaan on House of Lies
• Matt LeBlanc as Himself on Episodes
• William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher on Shameless
• Jim Parsons as Dr. Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory

I do love LeBlanc being nominated for playing himself.  He won last year so it could happen again.  Macy and Parsons, these two are tough as they are both my least favorite characters on their respected shows.  The Mace did some amazing acting this year though, so he should probably win it.  It dawns on me now that NPH never won an Emmy for HIMYM.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

• Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman on Orange Is the New Black

To be honest, we still haven’t seen the final episode of the first season.  I heard that someone was leaving with the first episode of season two (which I believe turn out to not to be true) so we wanted to wait and watch them both back to back.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

• Jeff Daniels as Will McAvory on Newsroom
• Matthew McConaughey as Rustin Cohle on True Detective
• Woody Harrelson as Martin Hart on True Detective

If McConaughey wins, he will have to on a very short list of people who have won an Oscar and an Emmy in the same year.  Right?  I see another year of Charlie Hunnam being completely overlooked for Sons of Anarchy.  I swear, the stuff the show has Jax Teller do and how beautifully Hunnam handles it, he should be nominated every single year.  With the next season being the last, hopefully he can get nominated eventually!  My choice to win would be Jeff Daniels.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

• Lizzy Caplan as Virginia Johnson on Masters of Sex
• Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison on Homeland

To be honest, I had to stop watching Masters of Sex, with maybe five episodes left.  I just couldn’t fit it in as my wife didn’t want to watch it and it felt pervy to me to watch it on my own so late at night.  Was a good show though and Caplan deserves to win.  With Danes’ nomination, I notice that my least favorite characters’ actors keep getting nominated.  What does that mean?

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie

• Mark Ruffalo as Ned Weeks on The Normal Heart

This keeps paying off!

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

• Jessica Lange as Fiona Goode on American Horror Story : Coven
• Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Goode on American Horror Story : Coven

I do not see why people love Lange so much on these AHS series, she’s horrible and not so horrible that she is amazing, I just don’t like her characters.  Paulson should be winning instead.

Supporting Performannces

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

• Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy on Modern Family
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson as MItchell Pritchett on Modern Family

I do like how Modern Family’s cast does nominations like how Friends apparently did, where they nominate everybody.  Modern Family fails at this by renominated those who have won in the past.  They seem to have finally stopped that for this year.  Here’s hoping Burrell wins.  Phil and Alex are two of my favorites on the show.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

• Mayim Bialik as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Fang Theory
• Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy on Modern Family
• Kate McKinnon as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live
• Kate Mulgrew as Galina “Red” Reznikov on Orange is the New Black

My wife will like Bialik being nominated.  She loves saying “Amy Farrah Fowler.”  She really is the best part of Sheldon.  Surprise McKinnon got nominated as she was barely in most of the episodes, at least, towards the end.  Mulgrew would be cool as I doubt she was ever nominated for Voyager.  My vote would probably be for Bialik.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

• Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson on Homeland

I guess Patinkin is my choice to win

Took until Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series before I didn’t have a choice.  Probably Christina Hendricks in Mad Men, as I’m that guy.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie

• Matt Bomer as Felix Turner on Normal Heart
• Joe Mantello as Mickey Marcus on Normal Heart
• Alfred Molina as Ben Weeks on Normal Heart
• Jim Parsons as Tommy Boatwright on Normal Heart

Wow, did that ever pay off!  I will be all for Molina getting the win here!  It was crazy seeing Hulk and Doctor Octopus on screen at the same time.  Like watching Sally Field (Aunt May) and Molina go at it in, Not Without My Daughter.  Parsons winning would be another one of those short list things, winning two awards, one in Comedy, the other in Drama – that has to not have happen to often.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

• Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau on American Horror Story : Coven
• Kathy Bates as Delphine LaLaurie on American Horror Story : Coven
• Ellen Burstyn as Olivia Foxworth on Flowers in the Attic
• Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow on American Horror Story : Coven
• Julia Roberts as Dr. Emma Brookner on Normal Heart

Once I saw Julia Roberts was in that movie, I knew she was going to be nominated.  It is the type of role that the Academy are suckers for.

Directoring

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

• Episodes (Nine) by Iain B. MacDonald
• Modern Family (Las Vegas) by Gail Mancuso
• Orange is the New Black (Lesbian Request Denied) by Jodie Foster
• Silicon Valley (Minimum Viable Product) by Mike Judge

I like Louis CK (Home Movies represent, yo!) being nominated but I don’t watch that show – I know, I’m horrible.  Jodie Foster is probably going to win for being Jodie Foster.  I want to say I notice her name in the credits, as I’m that guy who looks for names I recognize in opening credits of television shows).  Mike Judge created Silicon Valley so I would like him to win something for it.  Also, Pamela Fryman didn’t win for HIMYM, flipping Academy of fools!

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

• True Detective (Who Goes There) by Cary Joli Fukunaga

Well, that was easy!

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series

• Saturday Night Live by Don Roy King

I suppose it takes a lot of work to make it all run smoothly but is that his job or someone else’s?

Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special

• American Horror Story : Coven (Bitchcraft) by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
• Normal Heart by Ryan Murphy

I’ll go for Glee and AHS creator, Ryan Murphy – then everybody wins.  Sort of.

Writing

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

• Episodes (Five) by David Crane
• Orange is the New Black (I Wasn’t Ready) by Liz Friedman & Jenji Kohan
• Silicon Valley (Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency) by Alec Berg

I like Crane winning as he co-created this show and Friends.  Same for Kohan creating her show and Weeds.  If Tip-to-Tip is the series finale, then Berg totally deserves the win.  Probably Louie CK will win for Louie.  He usually does.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

• True Detective (Secret Fate of All Life) by Nic Pizzolatto

Show creator, as well, if I remember my HBO First Look, correctly.

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series

• Inside Amy Schumer

Its a good show!  Maybe not every segment but at least two good ones per.  Which is better that most weekly variety series.

Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special

• American Horror Story : Coven (Bitchcraft) by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk
• Normal Heart by Larry Kramer

Probably go more for Normal Heart for this one.  Though there were a slew of unlikeable characters.  I wonder why ‘Dramatic’ isn’t the go to word for all of these categories.  In a Dramatic Series looks and sounds more right than In a Drama Series.  Maybe it is just me.

This year, I was able to do this based off of the shows we actually watch.  Usually, I open it up to the actors or creative types that I like – which is what I have to do for the Oscars, as we can’t see every movie that is nominated and some of those films – to be honest – have no appeal to us.  But once it comes on HBO or Showtime, we record them.  Which is how we are going to watch Gravity this weekend.

My favorite Emmy’s moment is the Jimmy Fallon and Friends Born to Run.

Thanks to YouTuber Springsteen.

The Friends are – Tina Fey, Randy Jackson, Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia, Nina Dobrev, Kate Gosselin, Randy Jackson and Betty White plus the Glee Gang with an appearance by the Tim Gunn!

The one I always forget is Nina Dobrev.

The song starts at the 2:36 mark.