My Emmy Choices for this year's awards, for 2009
Telecast live, Sunday, Sept. 20th
Most Nominations: 30 Rock (22), Grey Gardens (17), Mad Men (16)
Updated with winners [looks like 5 of my 11 prime time choices won, and I'm happy for Chenoweth and Gleeson, both overdue] Here's the official Emmy winners at their site
Comedy Series: **WINNER: 30 Rock**
(1) 30 Rock (2) Entourage
[Flight of the Conchords wasn’t as good as year one. Same with Entourage, new chapters, same story. 30 Rock has maintained its sharpness and creativity each year. Witness this Baldwin quote, "The postmaster general and I had a falling out over the Jerry Garcia stamp.. I mean, if I want to lick a hippie I'll return Joan Baez' phone calls". rock, sex, and right wing humor all in one line.. now THAT is comedy!]
Drama Series: **WINNER: Mad Men**
(1) Mad Men (2) Big Love (3) Dexter
[Damages, likewise, a better year one but still engrossing and worthy; for some reason, I find Mad Men maddingly addictive, but all three of these are worthy candidates. You have to love Big Love, produced by Tom Hanks - you get all the viewpoints on polygamy and Mormans, who have always been 'under attack' from the repressive U.S. government. In fact, the first woman in the U.S. arrested for 'terrorism' was a Morman woman who bombed the feds, circa 1910?]
Lead Actor/Comedy: **WINNER: Alec Baldwin**
(1) Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
(2) Jemaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords
[This should be a Baldwin runaway, he’s brilliant in this, absolutely perfect timing for comedy. Jemaine doesn't act, but is kinda funny in a nerdy, perverted way]
Lead Actor/Drama: **WINNER: Bryan Cranston** - back to back
(1) Michael C. Hall, Dexter
(2) Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
(3) Jon Hamm, Mad Men
[Cranston is brilliant, a former Broadway musical star - deserved Emmys for Malcolm in the Middle, but he got his last year for this role. Hall deserves at least one for Dexter, he’s better in this than in Six Feet Under, and makes homicide enjoyable. Hamm is an Arrow shirt ad, circa 1955, but I think wife January Jones is the better actor]
Lead Actor/Miniseries of Movie:
I haven’t seen these but I love Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm), he’s long overdue. You may know him from In Bruges with Colin Farrell last year. Kenneth Branagh and Ian McKellen are both nominated, and both Shakespearean, either would be a good choice.
**WINNER: Brendan Gleeson** - Yea!
Lead Actress/Comedy: **WINNER: Toni Collette** - this series bothers me, like when, as a man, she had a fistfight with a high school boy; they call this comedy? about a true schizoid person w multiple personalities?
(1) Sara Silverman, Sarah Silverman Program
(2) Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
(3) Tina Fey, 30 Rock
[Mary-Louise is overdue for Weeds, but I have a crush on Sara Silverman, who was voted 50th in Maxim’s “hottest 100 women” poll. She said, "great position - I'm not so high that I have to maintain myself, but I'm ahead of 50 others that I can say I'm 'hotter than.." She also told “The Aristocrats” joke the most erotically in that film, and deserves something for that!]
Lead Actress/Drama: **WINNER: Glenn Close** - 2 for 2, she's just too good
(1) Glenn Close, Damages
(2) Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
(3) Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
[Close is perfect, and scary, but won last year. Moss is the best actor in a large and talented cast and is very understated. Field has won enough, and Hunter is a life-long favorite and from the same town in Georgia, Athens]
Lead Actress/ Miniseries or Movie:
I haven’t seen these but I love the underrated Chandra Wilson, from Grey’s Anatomy. She’s up against two former Oscar winners, in Jessica Lange and Shirley Maclaine, also Sigourney Weaver and Drew Barrymore.
**WINNER: Jessica Lange**
Supporting Actor/Comedy: **WINNER: John Cryer**
(1) Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock
(2) Kevin Dillon, Entourage
[Looks like Piven retired himself to give co-star Dillon a shot, but I get more laughs from Tracy Morgan myself, and this is comedy, not dramatic acting, Johnny Drama!]
Supporting Actor/Drama: **WINNER: Michael Emerson** - I hate this show, can't watch it
(1) John Slattery, Mad Men
(2) William Hurt, Damages
[both are just what the part calls for, Slattery is overdue for some award]
Supporting Actress/Comedy: **WINNER: Kristen Chenoweth** - they got this right, and she cried the whole time!
(1) Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
(2) Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
(3) Elizabeth Perkins
[Chenoweth is a huge talent, for both music and comedy; it’ll be a crime if she doesn’t get one award for the early cancelled but underrated fantasy. Krakowski is funny but I don’t see a lot of acting, same with Perkins & Poehler]
Supporting Actress/Drama: **WINNER: Cherry Jones** - 24 is still on? (hey, I have a "cherry jones" myself, esp. on ice cream)
(1) Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy
(2) Rose Byrne, Damages
[Chandra is overdue for an Emmy for this; she has a SAG Actor. Dianne Wiest is an old fave but has 2 Oscars already]
Supporting Actress/Miniseries or Movie:
I haven’t seen these but I love Janet McTeer, a best actress Oscar nominee as well, for Tumbleweeds.
**WINNER: Shohreh Aghdashloo** - a surprise winner from Iran, and she was truly gorgeous, wasn't she? one of the classiest winners..
Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Programming: (already awarded)
The Memory Loss Tapes, Shari Cookson and Nick Doob, producers
[This was brilliant, pt 1 of the Alzheimer’s Project for HBO, I was glad they won. This is the equivalent of "documentary", but AMPAS 'owns' that word, tv can't use it - how silly, eh? How can people get a legal hold on nouns, like 'windows' and 'apple'?]
There are some reality show awards, but I don’t care – they could lose all those, imo, and just show more live music and comedy from around the planet, that would be the best reality. Let's just mount cameras in all the blues, jazz, and other music venues around the world. I think we should also put cameras all over Tiger Woods' house, and pay him another 100 million a year..
