Potential Emmy nominees are everywhere,
D2
The next time someone tells you television is tripe and that nothing on TV is worth watching, tell them that they haven’t been to the movies lately. The Emmys recently expanded the number of potential nominees in major categories to six, from the previous five.
The problem this year, in the marquee category of outstanding drama series, is not that it’s impossible to find six candidates worthy of the label “outstanding drama,” but that it’s nearly impossible to limit the choices to six.
The truth is there is a good chance that either the 2012 Emmy winner for outstanding drama series or 2011’s winner might not even be nominated when this year’s short list is announced on Thursday, July 18.
Instead of Homeland or Mad Men, you might well see The Americans, Rectify or House of Cards instead.
This year’s race for outstanding lead actress in a drama series could conceivably feature six first-time nominees. Unlikely, but possible.
It’s been that kind of a year, and it has the potential to set the stage for an unusually unpredictable Emmy ceremony when the awards are officially handed out Sept. 22.
DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders: The Americans, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Mad Men
What’s truly remarkable about this year’s drama contenders is you could drop any of these programs, replace them with either The Good Wife, Justified or Rectify, and still not find room for Boardwalk Empire.
The Americans is the clear outsider, a first-year Cold War spy drama set in Reagan-era Washington, D.C., and a long shot to make the top six.
The betting here, though, is that it will because, for all their headscratching decisions in the past, Emmy voters like to embrace the new over the old, at least in the early, nominations phase. Past contenders like ER, The West Wing and Lost made their biggest impression in the first year they were eligible, a pattern that dates all the way back to Hill Street Blues.
As for what’s truly deserving, it’s hard to find any basis for comparison between Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones except that they’re each unique, and special in their own specific way.
LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Damian Lewis, Homeland; Timothy Olyphant, Justified; Matthew Rhys, The Americans; Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Emmy voters have a weakness for movie names, so Spacey would warrant consideration even if House of Cards weren’t that good.
As it is, House of Cards signalled that Netflix is as discerning of quality as it is eager to sign up new subscribers, and Spacey is the kind of name that makes Emmy voters take notice.
Hamm and Lewis prove that good acting doesn’t take a holiday because the season isn’t as compelling as past seasons.
Rhys has the potential to be a spoiler, especially if Emmy voters respond to The Americans this year the way they did to Homeland last year. And Cranston is there by default, and may well win again when the awards are handed out in September.
LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders: Claire Danes, Homeland; Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey; Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel; Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife; Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black; Keri Russell, The Americans
Film actresses often say the best roles for women — the most adult, thoughtful, intelligent roles that aren’t just the wife or girlfriend — are found on the small screen, and this year’s list of Emmy contenders is the proof.
Even a drama with a name like The Good Wife isn’t so much about the wife as it is a character study of a mature woman who returns to a high-powered law firm after a prolonged absence from work, and runs roughshod over the competition.
Danes is riveting, sensational, heartbreaking even, in Homeland, and is a shoo-in at another nomination, though it will be harder for her to win this time.
COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders: Arrested Development, The Big Bang Theory, Girls, Louie, Modern Family, 30 Rock
Netflix strikes again. The bane of the TV’s industry’s existence — where the broadcast networks and cable TV channels are concerned, anyway — has a potential winner in Arrested Development.
Emmy voters still harbour fond memories of Arrested Development’s past years, when it won the Emmy once before as a sitcom on Fox.
These just-released episodes are just fresh and new enough, though, that it will seem to voters as if they are rewarding creative thinking that’s out of the box.
Perennial winner Modern Family will land a nomination by default, but it might not win this time. Louie and Girls represent the Mars and Venus of hip, sharp-edged cable comedies — they hail from FX and HBO respectively — and 30 Rock will probably earn a nod based on past reputation.
LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Jason Bateman, Arrested Development; Don Cheadle, House of Lies; Louis CK, Louie; Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory; Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Baldwin has a lock on a nomination. He plays an industry insider in a show industry insiders — read: Emmy voters — can’t seem to get enough of, and there’s nothing to suggest that will change this time.
LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders: Julie Bowen, Modern Family; Zooey Deschanel, New Girl; Lena Dunham, Girls; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep; Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope; Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
Poehler and Bowen are natural choices, even though, this time, they may be long shots for the win.
Deschanel is a dark horse. Some may find her Jess Day mannerisms, quirks and eccentricities irritating, but it’s also true that without Deschanel’s winsome, winning presence, New Girl might not exist. Without her it certainly wouldn’t be the show it is.