Now that a whole week has passed since the airing of the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards, let’s pretend like I’m live-blogging the affair! But really, I’m just reviewing the tapes. Here are my thoughts about the events of the night, laid out on a (commercial-free) timeframe.

00:00:06 Jimmy Fallon and various television stars form a ragtag glee club and perform a rousing rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” Where else can you see Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, Tina Fey, Kate Gosselin, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Jane Lynch, Jorge Garcia, Nina Dobrev, Joel McHale, Randy Jackson, and Tim Gunn in one skit—and one that happens to be hilarious? It’s a TV junkie’s dream!

00:09:03 The comedy montage features such priceless moments as the “moon landing,” Mitchell vs. the pigeon, and “two things flaming at once” from Modern Family; Larry David vs. the swan, Jerry Seinfeld’s “icon/no-con” rant, and the wheelchair makeout from Curb Your Enthusiasm; and the paintball scenes from Entourage and Glee.

00:12:12 Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet rightly wins for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and has us all a little verklempt at the end of his speech.

00:17:26 The Office creator Greg Daniels does an uncannily good “I’m Rick James, bitch!” and 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon does a Liz-Lemon-style sexy dance.

00:21:57 Glee’s Jane Lynch wins for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and my predictions (read: hopes) are 2 for 2!

00:28:28 The Modern Family skit is so, so funny. If you’re a fan of the show, or even if not, YouTube it. Right now.

00:31:37 Jim Parsons and Edie Falco win Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang Theory and Nurse Jackie, but I watch neither! Jag!

00:36:49 The reality montage leans a little too heavily on the trashy side of reality programming, methinks.

00:39:35 The voice that introduces the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program nominees is comically gravelly.

00:40:16 One of the Top Chef producers trips (albeit hilariously) on the way up to the stage, but the jerkwad behind her a) doesn’t help her up, and b) steps over the shoe which flew off without picking it up. You can also see both Kyle McLachlan and Carrie Ann Inaba saying “Her shoe!” But, hey, hooray for Top Chef!

00:43:29 The drama montage makes me glad that its my bread and butter. Plus, it employs the ubiquitous Dragonheart theme. But man, so many good shows, so little time.

00:47:20 Team Darlton, showrunners for Lost, could really go into comedy. Boo-yah!

00:49:56 Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul wins for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and I’m pleasantly surprised! Then, later, The Good Wife’s Archie Punjabi wins for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and I’m pleasantly surprised! Maybe the only thing you need to win an Emmy is A.P. as your initials.

00:55:08 Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the third consecutive time. But this year, both leads for the show won! If only they had a trophy case in the meth lab.

00:57:39 The name of Gugu Mbatha-Raw (presenter and Undercovers co-star) is so fun to say.

01:01:10 Jimmy Fallon gives an impassioned musical “in memoriam” tribute to three shows we lost this year—24, Law & Order, and Lost—in the personas of Elton John, Boyz II Men, and Billie Joe Armstrong, respectively. Good on ya, Fallon.

01:05:42 “This year’s nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series all have one thing in common: they are terrifying—beautiful.” Tina Fey and Matthew Morrison’s banter is actually funny! (January Jones and Jon Krasinski, take notes!) Kyra Sedgwick wins for her work on The Closer. Again, I don’t watch the show.

01:16:01 Reliably, Ricky Gervais has the audience in stitches—and makes the ceremony a bit more Globes-ish by passing out booze.

01:27:29 George Clooney, accepting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, gives a graceful and articulate acceptance speech and calls for the media spotlight to shine on the right subjects.

01:30:47 Once again, the movies/miniseries montage makes me feel guilty for seeing none of the featured productions.

01:33:35 HBO’s movie Temple Grandin wins for the first of five times tonight. My mom thought this should have been the basis of a drinking game.

01:39:42 The actual “In Memoriam” montage is quite touching, especially with the addition of a weepy Jewel song.

01:52:52 Seeing him next to Alexander Skarsgård shows just how short Al Pacino, winner for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for You Don’t Know Jack, really is!

02:01:38 Mad Men wins for Outstanding Drama Series for the third straight year. It’s undefeated! I was rooting for Lost, but hey, I can’t quibble with this outcome.

02:04:02 Modern Family wins for Outstanding Comedic Series. I certainly can’t quibble here, either! And this year’s ceremony draws to a close. Well done, NBC! Well done, Jimmy! I’ll be excited to see how next year’s broadcast tops this year’s.

For those of you wondering where the latest installment of my Lost re-watch is, don’t fret. I’ve decided to take a two week hiatus after every two seasons just to publish a few other non-Lost stories for the non-Lost fans. (Blog post variety is the spice of life.) And here it is Emmy time again! As I said last year, I’m not predicting the winners here, mind you, but stating for whom I’m rooting. I haven’t seen all of the nominated shows and performances, but from what I have seen, here are my picks for some of the top categories.

Outstanding Drama Series
Lost

I know, this post was supposed to be non-Lost, right? But this show should be commended for providing a powerful and daring end to the Island saga—and one that was incredibly satisfying emotionally (if not mythologically). And as far as cultural touchstones for the decade go, Lost tops this particular list of nominees.

Outstanding Comedy Series
Modern Family

Based on the per-episode number of laughs-out-loud, this show takes the cake. If there were a category for comedic drama (or dramatic comedy, rather), then I’d give that award to Glee.

Outstanding Lead Actor – Drama Series
Matthew Fox (Lost)

His performance in the last hour of Lost alone merits this award, I think. Re-watching the show, I’m struck by how good of an actor he is in all scenarios. If he ever missteps, I certainly never notice.

Outstanding Lead Actress – Drama Series
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)

The show itself is a fascinating look into one person’s struggle to forgive and another’s struggle earn forgiveness. And Margulies—playing the former—is the anti-scenery chewer: she’s all internal, and yet we can somehow sense and understand every emotion.

Outstanding Lead Actor – Comedy Series
Matthew Morrison (Glee)

I half-hope Larry David wins, but Morrison’s combination of humor, emotion, singing abilities, dance movies, and—yes—hair gel is entirely far too winning to ignore.

Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series
Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation)

It’s a crime that the show as a whole wasn’t nominated, but I think a win for the much-deserving Poehler would adequately reward Parks and Recreation’s second-season reinvention into a show that is equal to (if not superior to) its predecessor, The Office.

Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series
Michael Emerson (Lost)

Again, I gotta stick by my love for Lost on this one. Emerson is an awe-inspiring actor, and somehow he and the writers transformed Ben from the show’s greatest villain to a tragic soul desperate for redemption who actually becomes likable as a person by the end.

Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

I’d be happy if any of the actresses nominated in this category won, but I think Moss showed the most range this past season. Peggy is coming into her own as a near-equal to the agency’s partners, yet Moss still plays her with the perfect amount of dorkiness and vulnerability.

Outstanding Supporting Actor – Comedy Series
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)

It’s so hard to choose between the three Modern Family actors nominated, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any fan of the show who doesn’t list Cam among his or her favorite characters.

Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series
Jane Lynch (Glee)

No question. Sue Sylvester is the bitchiest, most fiendish, and most quotable characters to grace the small screen in years. Good on ya, Jane Lynch.

Outstanding Reality Competition Program
The Amazing Race

I know this show has won so many times before, but it’s just so thrilling, amusing, and even educational at times. I mean, who doesn’t want to compete on this show?

]]> http://primetimely.com/2010/08/2010-emmys-my-winners/feed/ 1 http://primetimely.com/2010/06/2010-pilot-watch-losers/ http://primetimely.com/2010/06/2010-pilot-watch-losers/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:59:52 +0000 Dan Clarendon http://primetimely.com/?p=473

Now that we’ve seen what shows will be on the air come fall, let’s get out our hankies and share a moment of silence for those that won’t—or, at least, those that sounded promising. It seems unlikely that any of the series below will make it to our living rooms, and that’s a damn shame. Not having seen a frame of any of these shows, I base my judgment solely on the synopses and cast information. Yes, I am a by-the-cover book-judger.

• The Rockford Files Wha’ happen? This show had so much buzz going into pilot season. People love them a good remake, and this one seemed likely to fit the bill. Re-imagined by House creator David Shore, this version starred Dermot Mulroney (The Family Stone), Beau Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys), and the effin’ ineffable Alan Tudyk (Firefly). So why did NBC give it the ole heave-ho?
• Untitled Medical Project First of all, who wouldn’t watch a show called Untitled Medical Project? John Wells, you rebel! But seriously, I know we already have umpteen medical shows on the air. (Well, umpteen minus Trauma, Mercy, Three Rivers, and Miami Medical. Peace out, guys!) But what set this one out from the pack is its cast, which I can only describe as eclectic. Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Janeane Garafalo (Reality Bites, other greatness), Skeet Ulrich (Jericho), Amy Smart (The Butterfly Effect), and Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center). I think that lineup sounds more awesome than CBS gave it credit for.
• Cutthroat “By all appearances, Nina Cabrera has a perfect life: a fantastic home in Beverly Hills, three beautiful children, great cars, great clothes. But… Nina Cabrera is also running a multi-million dollar Mexican crime syndicate.” So this ABC drama was like Weeds, but with crime instead of… weed. But with cast members like Mia Maestro (Alias), Peggy Lipton (Twin Peaks), and Francis Capra (Veronica Mars), I could have dug it.
• Tax Man This multi-camera sitcom revolved around the titular character trying to justify his reviled job, and I say kudos for trying to make a mundane setting like the IRS funny. Plus, awesome cast: Martin Short (SCTV), David Krumholtz (Numb3rs), Kerri Kenney (Reno 911!), Judy Greer (Arrested Development), and Orlando Jones (MADtv). But it must not have been funny enough for FOX’s standards. Alas.
• Our Show This single-camera comedy had one of the best premises I’ve ever heard—and one that I wish I had conceived, damn it! In this single-camera comedy, “a group of sci-fi fanboys in a small town shoot their own version of a canceled TV show.” Maybe it’s better that NBC didn’t pick this up, though—because had it gone on-air and then been canceled, would small-town fanboys have tried to shoot their own version of Our Show? Ah, the exponential meta-ness!
• The Strip This NBC sitcom focused on “a former child star turned Hooters-style bar owner on the outskirts of Las Vegas.” Funny enough premise, but it comes from the minds of Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, who were genius enough to come up with Reno 911! (The exclamation point is part of the show title. No, really. But I probably would have added it in anyway.) They also starred in the pilot along with former Reno co-star Cedric Yarbrough and former MTV VJ Dave Holmes, who incidentally also appeared on Reno. Bring on the next great Nevada comedy, guys!
• Nomads I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m excited about any show about the CIA. Even if the premise—broke, young backpackers earning money by doing covert missions—is wildly implausible. However, the CW, in its infinite wisdom (and yes, I’m still bitter about the untimely end of Veronica Mars), decided not to let us see how this one played out. Because they apparently needed that hour for Shedding for the Wedding. Ugh.
• Beach Lane Matthew Broderick. Small-town newspaper. Irresponsible millionaires. The Hamptons. Sounds like an enjoyable show to me. But NBC wasn’t on board.
• Matadors ABC described this show as a “sexy, absorbing legal procedural with epic sweep and a powerful Romeo and Juliet love story at its heart.” (Procedural? Sexy? ¿Qué?) Again, I turn to the cast: David Strathairn (amazing in Good Night, and Good Luck), Zach Gilford (apparently amazing in Friday Night Lights), Stephen Lang (bad-ass in Avatar), and Kiele Sanchez (eh, not so likable in Lost).
• The Station Hey, reader, remember when I said above that I’ll watch any show about the CIA? This one, though, is a bit kooky. FOX described it as a “workplace comedy which takes place in a covert CIA office in South America.” What an improbable mix of words in that sentence! I was intrigued. FOX wasn’t. (Even with John Goodman in the cast.)

Katherine Heigl, best known for her award-winning turn as Dr. Isobel Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy, has given us several reasons lately to dislike her. Two years ago, she opted to not compete for an Emmy, citing poor material that season on Grey’s. Last year, she griped to David Letterman last year about long days on the set—when apparently it was her movie-promoting schedule that caused the cram. And this year, she abruptly left the show to which she owes everything after finding success as a big-screen A-lister.

Katherine Heigl was actually the reason I started watching Grey’s five years ago, having been a fan of hers from Roswell. But all of those comments and actions alienated me and a lot of other fans. I didn’t even bother considering the possibility that they were taken out of context—that maybe there was another side of the story. But for the most part, there wasn’t.

And remarkably, Heigl practically admits as much in an interview with Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly. She takes full responsibility for those incidents. She understands her mistakes and why she’s perceived as, in Ausiello’s words, an “ungrateful diva.” And she apologizes to her fans in a way that seems humble and sincere.

She apologized for making her gripes with the writers of Grey’s after Season 4 public knowledge, saying, “I ambushed them, and it wasn’t very nice or fair.” She apologized for her comments on Letterman, saying that she didn’t realize at the time that the schedule was compressed to accommodate her press tour. And she apologized for the abrupt end to Izzie’s storyline, explaining that she’s leaving to spend more time with her newly-adopted daughter. ”And even though I know I’m disappointing the fans,” she says, “and I know I’m disappointing the writers and my fellow cast members and the crew, I just had to make a choice. I hope I made the right one…. It sucks. You wish you could have it all exactly the way you want it. But that’s not life.”

Her most telling response, however, was when Ausiello asked her about her reputation. “The ungrateful thing bothers me the most. And that is my fault. I allowed myself to be perceived that way because I was being whiny and I was griping and because I made these snarky comments. So much about living life, to me, is about humility and gratitude. And I’ve tried very hard to have those qualities and be that person and I’m just so disappointed in myself that I allowed it to slip.”

The excerpts above are only a fraction of the entire interview, all of which is an interesting read. I don’t hold any grudges toward her after reading her reflections—I’m a fan of hers again. Of course, the cynical side of me says that she could just be reciting lines provided to her by someone skilled in image rehab. But my intuition says that these words are hers—this is how she really feels.

And I respect her for owning up to her past mistakes. She didn’t try to pawn them off on other people (like Chloë Sevigny did after criticizing the latest season of Big Love). I hope her efforts at atonement don’t go unnoticed. But even if they do, as long as she upholds the humility and gratitude she claims to value, the public will forgive and forget—and focus on her talent.

1. Breaking Bad
2. Mad Men
3. Lost
4. Battlestar Galactica
5. 30 Rock
6. True Blood
7. Modern Family
8. Fringe
9. Glee
10. Dollhouse

Aloha, dear TV junkies.  I may be on vacation, but thanks to some coffeshop wi-fi, I’m still able to update this here blog with cinnamon-bun-sticky fingers.  Surely you didn’t think I’d forgotten about honoring the best small-screen moments of 2009!  Listed below are my favorite episodes across the airwaves from all of last year.  Is the list comprehensive?  Maybe not.  Does the order tend to be arbitrary?  Perhaps.  But still, I believe this to be a pretty good representation of 2009’s highlights.  Writers and directors of the below episodes, I raise my iced-coffee cup to you.

1. Battlestar Galactica “Daybreak, Part 2″  No matter if you loved the end or hated it, the final two hours of this show boldly went where no show has gone before. A catastrophic first hour was followed by a contemplative second. The epic space saga went out with a bang and then a whisper.
2. Mad Men “Shut the Door, Have a Seat”  After an intense season of smoldering interpersonal drama, this episode was one of the most light-hearted and cathartic. In the vaguest terms I can use, Don closed some doors and opened others. He reinvented himself, and the show was reborn anew.
3. Breaking Bad “Phoenix”  Often the penultimate episode of a season is just as climactic as the finale, as proven by Breaking Bad. Without spoiling anything, it was Walter White’s inaction during a gut-wrenching dilemma that made this episode so powerful.
4. Glee “Sectionals”  Between Mercedes’s powerful “And I Am Telling You” rendition, Rachel’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade” showstopper, and the club’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” dedication, the musical numbers in this fall finale were brilliant enough to tide us over until the show’s return in spring.
5. 30 Rock “Apollo, Apollo”  It’s hard to top Jack Donaghy’s excitement-puking and Kenneth’s Muppet-vision, but what made this episode the best of its season was the Polish singles’ line commercial that a young Liz Lemon debased herself by appearing in. Remember, just call 1-800-OKFACE.
6. Dollhouse “Omega”  After the startling return of rogue-doll Alpha at the end of the preceding episode, this episode shows the making (read: programming) of a maniac. The Dollhouse made its bed, and now it might have to die in it!
7. Breaking Bad “Negro y Azul”  Any episode that starts with a mariachi band and ends with an exploding turtle surely deserves a spot high on this list.
8. Lost “Dead is Dead”  It’s Judgment Day for the conniving Benjamin Linus as “the Island” takes him on a painful trip down memory lane. By the end, his relinquishing of power leaves him impotent… and dangerously desperate.
9. Glee “Pilot”  FOX was so excited about this episode, the network aired it four months before the series even started. With the well-crafted song-and-dance numbers, the satirical commentary on the high school food chain, and the hilarious immaturity of the show’s adult characters, I could not stop believing that Glee would be a hit.
10. Grey’s Anatomy “Here’s to Future Days/Now or Never”  This show may be showing its age, but watching the end of this fifth-season finale was tantamount to mainlining adrenaline when the identity of the heroic (and doomed) John Doe was realized.
11. Californication “The Apartment”  A day of reckoning comes for Hank Moody when all the major players in his life coincidentally convene under one roof. In true farce-like fashion, he scrambles to accommodate his girlfriend, his mistresses, his mistress’s husband, his daughter, his best friend, a few random prostitutes, and Rick Springfield, all the while trying to keep his indiscretions under wraps.
12. Modern Family “Pilot”  The premise is simplistic—the daily travails of three families that are “nuclear” for the new millennium—but the writing and acting is refined. Oh, and the show happens to be hilarious. With this episode alone, this show skyrocketed to the elite of half-hour comedies.
13. So You Think You Can Dance “Top 20 Showcase”  This was an episode without missteps—just the top twenty competitors dancing in their own genres, resulting in routines that were almost unmatched by the rest of the season. (Almost.) What was otherwise a filler episode turned into the best hour of the season.
14. Fringe “There’s More Than One of Everything”  John Noble’s most impressive acting came when his character revisited the memories of a beach house with his son. And the alternate-reality story thread tangles as Olivia finds herself in the most improbable of locations in the ballsy cliffhanger.
15. Lost “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”  At last, we discover how He Who Shall Be Named Jeremy Bentham died. Frustrated by his failure to get the gang back together and feeling spurned by destiny, he decides to take his own life. But his real cause of death, which we find out minutes later, is even darker.
16. Parks and Recreation “Beauty Pageant”  One of the first episodes of the season, this installment solidified Parks and Recreation’s status as suddenly brilliant. Example Leslie Knope line: “This [mural] depicts a famous fight between Reverend Bradley and Anna Beth Stevenson, widowed mother of seven. The original title of this was ‘A Lively Fisting.’ But, you know, they had to change it… for obvious reasons.”
17. Damages “Trust Me”  Flash-forwards as a narrative technique are a hot ticket right now, but Damages uses them in a brilliantly manipulative way, revealing a little more of certain scenes in each episode. And in “Trust Me,” all the cards are laid out in this punch-out ending to a gripping season.
18. True Blood “I Will Rise Up”  It started with an act of terrorism perpetrated by humans and ended with an act of tenderness by a human—Sookie Stackhouse—surprising the millennia-old Godric, who had seen the worst of our race’s behavior in his lifetime. Plus, this episode featured another dialogue gem from Lafayette: “I don’t know what you is, but I’m feelin’ you, and you a soulless bitch.”
19. Top Chef “Finale, Part 1″  No matter what you thought of this season’s winner (or even the order of the runners-up), all Top Chef viewers could agree that Keven, Jennifer, and the Voltaggios were the four best contenstants. And to see them duke it out in Napa Valley (aboard a moving train, no less) was a treat.
20. Lie to Me “The Core of It”  Like Parks and Recreation, this procedural drama also came back from its hiatus creatively reinvigorated. In this episode, Cal Lightman and his group have to contend with a murder witness with multiple personalities. Not only do they have to figure out which of her multiple personalities saw the crime, but they also have to find a way to trigger that personality. Guest star Erika Christiansen is scary-good as Sophie/Trisha/Jessie/RJ.

1. Sue Sylvester (Glee) When Sue swaggers onscreen in one of her splashy tracksuits, you know that she’s say something both wildly inappropriate and gut-bustingly funny. The malicious comments she deploys in her jihad against McKinley High’s glee club almost makes you root for her. Played by Jane Lynch.
2. Ron Swanson (Parks and Recreation) The reluctant supervisor of Pawnee’s parks department had a breakout season that had him facing off with his domineering ex, presiding over the breakfast buffet at a strip club, enjoying a shoe-shining a bit too much, and having his scalp leaded with buckshot. Played by Nick Offerman.
3. Walter Bishop (Fringe) Last season, we saw the charming kookiness behind Walter’s mad-scientist-ness.  Now we’re seeing the vulnerability behind that charming kookiness. What layer will be unearthed next? Played by John Noble.
4. Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica) Love her or hate her, you have to acknowledge that Starbuck’s so-called destiny directly influenced the fate of humankind… in a way that’s very open to interpretation. Played by Katee Sackhoff.
5. Manny Delgado (Modern Family) One of the youngest and yet most mature members of the Pritchett clan, Manny is wise beyond his years—and quite the fencer, too. Played by Rico Rodriguez.
6. Benjamin Linus (Lost) In a show that specializes in shades of gray, it’s no surprise that Ben isn’t relentlessly villainous. We’ve seen glimpses of his humanity. But just before we start to like him, he does something like staging a character’s suicide—and we’re reminded of how much we hate him (and love to hate him). Played by Michael Emerson.
7. Arizona Robbins (Grey’s Anatomy) She’s often viewed as the happy-go-lucky pediatrics doc, but between her anguish over little Wallace and her blurting out “I love you” to Callie in the episode “Invest in Love,” she won me over. Played by Jessica Capshaw.
8. Troy/Abed (Community) Some of the funniest moments of Community came in the final minute of each episode when the credits were rolling—an end tag that became the Troy and Abed Show after the hilarious Spanish 101 rap (a.k.a. “La Biblioteca”). Community has been uneven so far, but Troy and Abed represent reliable comedy. Comedy you can believe in! Played by Danny Pudi and Donald Glover, respectively.
9. Saul Tigh (Battlestar Galactica) For reasons too spoilery to reveal here, ole One Eye Tigh had some of the most tumultuous internal conflict in Battlestar’s final season. Let’s just say that he found himself intimately associated with those who were once his enemies. Played by Michael Hogan.
10. Jenna Maroney (30 Rock) Ditzy fame-whore Jenna is everything that Liz Lemon isn’t, but just as much of a dysfunctional human. Her constant oversharing gives us mere glimpses into her bizarre life. (For example: “The reason I speak with a slight English inflection in my voice is because I lost my virginity to the My Fair Lady soundtrack.”) Played by Jane Krakowski.
11. Lester Patel (Chuck) Lester went from neurotic tech nerd to neurotic tech nerd and rock star with the debut of cover band Jeffster, performing awesomely bad versions of 80s classics like “Africa” and “Mr. Roboto.” True, Lester is only one half of Jeffster, but his bandmate Jeff is just too out-there for this list! Played by Vik Sahay.
12. Victor (Dollhouse) Besides a few face slashes here or there, Victor is the doll with the most fun: his “imprints” involve bedding boss Adelle DeWitt, acting like an exact clone of tech-whiz Topher, or channeling his inner sorority girl. And hey, those cuts healed remarkably fast, didn’t they? Played by Enver Gjokaj.
13. Hoyt Fortenberry (True Blood) As one of the only truly good residents of Bon Temps, Hoyt became more than just a background player this season when he fell in love with newly-vampirized Jessica, much to the dismay of his oppressively devout mother. His evolution from (momma’s) boy to man was great to see. Played by Jim Parrack.
14. Walter White, Jr. (Breaking Bad) His relationship with his emotionally-elusive dad is tenuous, but Junior still went to incredible (and touching) lengths last season to raise money for Senior’s cancer care. Played by R.J. Mitte.
15. Anna (V) Leader of the Visitors, Anna is alternately calculating, eloquent, manipulative, and alluring. A wolf in sheep’s (well-tailored) clothing. Played by Morena Baccarin.

Note: The following post first appeared as an article by the same name in The Climax, Hampshire College’s newspaper. Also, some of these micro-reviews may exceed 140 characters—my bad!

I am a student of television. Writing television scripts is my Division III [a senior project, in Hampshire speak]. So I have no shame in the fact that I watch all of the shows below religiously. I study the craft, folks. That’s a lie—I am ashamed of some of them, but I’m feeling forthright in my fourth-year-ness. Anyway, I only assumed that I couldn’t review all my shows for The Climax before I graduate. And then it occurred to me: I could review each in 140 characters or less. (Arbitrary number, I swear.)

• 24 Some seasons fire on all cylinders, and some make you want to shoot yourself in the kneecap. But I’m still a fan of the Bauer Power Hour.
• 30 Rock Is Tina Fey God? Even if not, this show is in my pantheon. 22 Emmy nominations this year alone. What the what?
• The Amazing Race A competition show and a geography lesson all in one. Plus the race just looks like such a globetrotting thrill.
• Breaking Bad Brilliance you’ve likely never seen. Bryan Cranston (as a reluctant meth dealer) and Aaron Paul (as his witless lackey) are a wondrous team.
• Brothers & Sisters Created by playwright Jon Robin Baitz, powerful character drama pervades this series about the virtues and frustrations of family life.
• Burn Notice Ex-spy Michael Westen is a MacGyver for the new century. Plus he narrates his creative process! Plus Bruce Campbell plays the sidekick!
• Californication Man-child Hank Moody is David Duchovny’s (comedic) role of a lifetime. And the show featured Hampshire band Bubonic Souls last week.
• Chuck Put a self-described nerd in a world of government conspiracies and sexy secret agents, and hilarity ensues. Such a lovable show.
• Community A comedy about a community college study group that’s not quite up to snuff but getting better each week.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm Schadenfreude at a fever pitch. Larry David is such an incorrigible ass, but you can’t help siding with him in all of his curmudgeonliness.
• Damages Vicious legal thriller with Glenn Close and Rose Byrne. Season 2’s powerhouse cast included William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, and Ted Danson.
• Desperate Housewives What do I have in common with middle-aged, lovelorn women? Uh, not much. But this show is still a fun look at the seediness of the suburbs.
• Dollhouse Engineered personalities, ethical perversions, and intense action make this (cancelled) show radically different. Well done, Joss Whedon.
• Entourage Not the sharpest tool in the shed, but still a comical insight into the biz and a testament to lifelong friendship. (“Lloyd!”)
• FlashForward An ambitious fate-vs.-free-will drama with a laudable cast. But can its premise sustain it for more than this season?
• Flashpoint This Canadian import, about a hostage negotiation team in Toronto, is edge-of-your-seat tense. Plus Veronica Mars’s dad is the lead!
• Fringe Like The X-Files, only with a more mind-warping mythology and the addition of one raving-mad, madly-funny scientist. Freaky good times had by all.
• Glee This high-school satire is so much fun, thanks to a stellar cast, its show-stopping covers of pop songs, and the incomparable Jane Lynch.
• The Good Wife What makes this legal drama intriguing is that the protagonist—played by Julianna Margulies—is the jilted wife of an adulterous politician.
• Gossip Girl Used to be a salacious indulgence. But they had to match everyone up in an endless cycle of hook-ups and break-ups. What a mess.
• Greek If Gossip Girl had a sharper, wittier, more accessible, yet less popular twin sister, her name would be Greek.
• Grey’s Anatomy Melodramatic, yes, but the relationship drama is sophisticated and smartly executed. But its hard to watch if you’re single, dammit!
• Heroes Holy Hiro, what the hell happened to this show? This once-great serial has suffered bloated storylines and botched mythology. Shut it down.
• Lost The most revolutionary show on this list, nay, of the decade. Season 5 was a creative resurgence that was so awesomely challenging to watch.
• Lie to Me An unconventional procedural drama that’s proven to be surprisingly un-formulaic. And Tim Roth doesn’t even have to use an American accent!
• Mad Men If you’re not in love with this elegant, introspective, and smoldering drama, you just haven’t seen enough of it.
• Men of a Certain Age Three old friends have midlife revelations. This show just started, but I like what I’ve seen. It’s like Garden State—plus twenty years.
• Modern Family Funniest new show of the season. Believe it.
• Nip/Tuck Not as deeply cutting as it was in its youth, but now it’s superficially fun and bat-shit crazy. Can’t complain too much.
• The Office Just when I think it has lost its mojo, it pulls a “Koi Pond” episode or “Subtle Sexuality” webisode to remind us all of its wit.
• Parks and Recreation Started off as an Office clone but came back roaring in its second season. Now it rivals its predecessor for laughs.
• Private Practice A spectacular cast and interesting storylines, but I still wish Addison would go back to Seattle Grace. Maybe everyone can go along!
• Project Runway I’m probably not the right demographic for this catty show, but who cares. I just hope Tim Gunn would approve of my wardrobe.
• Smallville Never “super” but never terrible, Smallville is reliable entertainment even after eight years. One of the only good things the CW can offer.
• So You Think You Can Dance The most legit and diverse dance competition. The talent gets more absurd each season. YouTube “Ellenore & Jakob – Contemporary” for proof.
• Top Chef In a world of hamburger reality shows, Top Chef is a filet mignon with escargot, grilled ramps, chanterelle mushrooms and yuzu—i.e. refined.
• Top Chef Masters The nation’s top chefs compete. Of course it’s good.
• True Blood I reviewed this show already this semester! Suffice it to say, it’s addictive.
• Ugly Betty In this refreshing comedic drama, Betty maintains a beautiful can-do spirit as she navigates the (hilariously) bitchy world of fashion.
• V This series about tensions between humans and alien “Visitors” is off to a promising start, but lamely, we only get four episodes this year.
• Warehouse 13 Undecided about this show. I dig the whole “America’s attic” notion and the leads’ chemistry, but some of the episodes have been, uh, hokey.

Lately I’ve really gotten into The Amazing Race. Add it to the elite list of reality shows I find respectable. I have to say, I’m seduced by the globe-hopping adventure aspect. (Maybe it speaks to my love for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?) I mean, who wouldn’t want an all-expenses-paid whirlwind tour around the globe? Sure, participants don’t exactly get a chance to sight-see. But what is sacrificed in the quality of their tour stops is compensated by the quantity. Already this season, participants have been to Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Dubai, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Prague. And at each stop, the participants—and we, the viewers—learn a bit about the region’s culture, history, and geography. (Hey, sounds a bit like Carmen Sandiego!) What else is fulfilling about The Amazing Race is that the competition (usually) a bonding experience for the teams—by the end, at least. During the race, yelling, arguing, bickering are par for the course. But by the end, the couples or friends or relatives are usually much tighter than they were before crossing the starting line. So, with exotic locales, enjoyable challenges, and tearjerking moments, what’s not to love? I’m only sorry I’m getting onboard now, during the 15th season. But if the show remains as enlightening as it is entertaining, here’s to another 15 races.

“Firefly is about nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.”

That’s apparently how Joss Whedon—creator of Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse—pitched the show to Fox back at the beginning of the decade. Now, as we approach the end of the decade, I’ve finally watched it on DVD. And while I didn’t love it as arduously as others, I do understand the appeal.

That pitch above is apt, because the main characters—the crew and passengers of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity—and specifically the differences between them are make the show. Granted, the concept is cool: the show is a hybrid of two genres, sci-fi and western. Aside from the aesthetic appeal of the mash-up, it also united our past and a (possible) future to comment upon our present.

The show is set in the future, after the two remaining superpowers on “the Earth that was” tried to unite all of mankind under one government called the Alliance. Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillon) was a war hero of the failed resistance and now commands Serenity. Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) served alongside him in the war, and the two share a camaraderie that not even Zoe’s husband Hoban Washburne (Alan Tudyk), pilot of the ship, can compete with. Also on the crew are mechanic Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite) and the duplicitous Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin). Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) rents one of the ship’s shuttles for her business as a “Companion”—i.e. a classy prostitute. And the ship’s passengers include Shepherd Derrial Book (Ron Glass), quite literally a man of the book; Simon Tam (Sean Maher), a young doctor; and River Tam, Simon’s tortured younger sister. The gang runs smuggling operations on the Serenity—often philanthropic, usually greedy—and try to stay one step ahead of the Alliance.

The show lasted for 11 episodes on Fox before getting the boot, and to say it got a raw deal from the beginning would be an understatement. Not only was the pilot episode, with all of its character introductions and backstories and other useful information, not shown until near the end of the run, but the rest of the episodes were switched around so much that it’s a wonder anyone followed the storyline. Nevertheless, the fan reaction was so avid that feature film Serenity and two comic-book series were released to fill the void. And all 14 episodes are available on DVD and Blu-ray.

I haven’t seen Serenity yet, so I don’t know the complete story, but I can comment on what aired on television. I’m interested to read that fans disputed its branding as an action-comedy instead of a character study. I am more of the mind that it straddled the line. Yes, it had weighty, emotional moments and interesting internal conflicts; but I remember it more for the rollicking adventures and clever schemes and general badass-ness. I haven’t seen a lot of Whedon’s work, so maybe I missed his emphasis on the human condition. But with Dollhouse, the character-driven storylines came into play later in the first season, so maybe the same would have happened with Firefly. Maybe it was just gearing up to really plumb the depths of these characters’ psyches.

I think Whedon was successful in his mission to show nine very different people and their different outlooks on life. I have nothing but love for The West Wing, but I had to admit that my screenwriting professor is right in her assessment of that show: everyone is playing the same character. This isn’t the case with Firefly. They’re not one big, happy family. They work together and fight the same fight, but they all have their issues, with each other and with themselves. And this is exacerbated by the fact that they can’t escape from each other, lest they jettison themselves out into space. I have to say, too, that I think the cast owned their roles. The casting is spot-on. At the time this aired, they were all still flying under the radar but now they’re finding success on other shows. (In fact, we just saw Baccarin and Tudyk last week on V.)

And Whedon sure knows how to sustain a suspenseful, twisting story. From the work of his that I’ve seen, I think he has mastered the “WTF” moment. When you watch as much television as I do, it’s easy to spot a lot of twists coming. But with these episodes, I was pleasantly surprised that I was being surprised again and again!

The series was smart, inventive, well-acted, and a lot of fun. So why don’t I love, love, love it as so many others do? Good question. My only guess is what I’ve deemed Dark Knight Syndrome: it’s been so hyped up by friends of mine that it could never have lived up to my expectations. I was doomed to only like it from the start. Alas.

So I will not overhype it for you. Watch it. You may enjoy it. Heck, you may even love it. If not, at least you’ll at least know what good (and underrated) television looks like.

What if Lost were presented like 24, replete with a ticking timecode and split-screen? YouTube user pyram1dhead gives us the answer, and it is done incredibly adeptly—so much so that you almost wish you could watch the whole series this way. Culling footage from (by my count) six episodes and one webisode, this video represents a comprehensive timeline of the crash of Oceanic 815 and what happens on the island before, during, and after.

(Spoiler warning! Read no further if you’re interested in watching the first three seasons.)

We see Juliet burning her muffins, talking to Amelia about Ben’s nefarious activities, hosting her book club, and being interrupted mid-sentence by the earth shaking. We see Desmond confront Kelvin, inadvertently kill him, and rush back to the Swan to reset the 108-minute countdown. We see Jack flirt with the flight attendant and comfort row-mate Rose when things get bumpy. We see the marshal irritating another flight attendant and taunting Kate. We see Kate showing her humanity by giving her captor his oxygen mask. We see Charlie suffering through detox before barricading himself in the bathroom for another hit. We see the crash, as seen from various vantage points. We see Jack waking up in the bamboo and Ana Lucia the other “Tailies” emerging from the water. We see the freshly-resurrected Christian exerting his creepy influence over the Vincent the dog. And we see Ben pulling his puppet strings mere seconds after witnessing a plane falling from the sky.

And it’s all synchronized effectively, thanks in part to the writers/directors/editors and in part to pyram1dhead. It gives the events a much stronger documentary-like feel, what with the overlapping dialogue and the multiple camera angles. And you can watch it again and again, discovering new facets of the chronology each time since there’s always so much going on at any given time. This storytelling format was novel of 24 to introduce, and pyram1dhead’s use of same for Lost was both innovative and deftly engineered. View the ten-minute video below:

Rarely do shows get to end on the creators’ own terms, especially those that are cancelled. And even though Bryan Fuller surely would have preferred a more robust ending to his much-beloved fantasy noir Pushing Daisies, the show didn’t exit on a cliffhanger or, worse, with the whimper of a total non-ending, as some do.

No, he was able to whip together an epilogue to tack on to the cliffhanger ending of “Kerplunk,” the last episode to air. But, as he says in an interview with TheTorchOnline.com, he couldn’t even shoot new footage. So he instead devised this CGI tour of the town of Coeur d’Coeurs and its environs—and of many of the settings used for the show, including the windmills, the convent, the Aquacade, the cemetery, the lighthouse, and, of course, the Pie Hole itself. This impressive work of digital wizardry would have cost him in the neighborhood of $90,000, Fuller says, but the visual effect houses liked the show so much, they only paid $8,000 for the shot. And, best of all, the whole sequence ends with a sweet moment between Ned and Chuck and a shot of Digby running happily through a field of daisies. It may not be the ending that Fuller envisioned, but it’s an ending. And in the television world, that’s no small blessing.

The video is included below, and I’m happy to say that it’s spoiler-free, thanks to some crafty editing and dubbing.

Note: The following review first appeared as an article entitled “True Blood: HBO’s newest (and most misunderstood) hit” in The Climax, Hampshire College’s newspaper.

Enough vampires, you say. And you’re entitled: pop culture is oversaturated with blood-sucking stories these days. True Blood might have been white noise amongst other fang-bearing works. But Twilight it ain’t. Part pulpy horror flick, part gothic love story, and with pervasive social commentary, HBO’s first post-Sopranos hit series defies categorization. And—forgive me for this—it’s bloody good.

Based on the book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, True Blood revolves around the character of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a watering hole in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. In the first episode, she falls in love with Bill Compton, a 150-year-old vampire, whose blood heals her after she is viciously beaten. Even though Sookie and Bill are presumably the central characters of the show, any fan will tell you that the supporting characters are the fan favorites: Tara, Sookie’s quick-tempered but loyal best friend; Lafayette, Tara’s sassy cousin with swagger to spare; Sam, the bar owner with a murky past; Eric, an imposing, centuries-old Scandinavian vampire and Bill’s maker; Jason, Sookie’s promiscuous, simple-minded brother; and a whole bevy of other colorful characters.

When we first join the story, a synthetic blood beverage called “Tru Blood” is making it safe for vampires to come out of the coffin. Some humans welcome the vampires into mainstream society, most are leery, and some are downright hostile. The central conflict of the first season is a murder mystery: a serial killer is on the prowl in Bon Temps, and women—specifically women associated with Jason Stackhouse—are dying left and right. The slayings coupled with Bill’s arrival (as Bon Temp’s first resident vampire) have the whole town on edge. No sooner is the mystery is resolved at the end of the season than an alluring woman arrives with what seem like bizarre voodoo powers, causing the town to devolve into lawlessness and rampant orgies. To make matters worse, the vampires of the area have to fend off the attacks of an extremist Christian cult called The Fellowship of the Sun. Thus wars are waged on multiple fronts, and the body count soars. But even amidst this chaos, a solid dose of humor and romance gives us a chance to exhale.

True Blood has a rabid and vocal fan base, and everyone bows at the altar of Alan Ball, the creator of the show. With this series and his previous one, Six Feet Under, Alan Ball has vaulted into the pantheon of television masterminds—the likes of which include J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, and Bryan Fuller—whose visions are so unique (and so niche) that the creators receive almost as much fanfare as the on-screen talent. And that’s high praise, because Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Sam Trammell, Alexander Skarsgård, Ryan Kwanten, and the rest of the cast act the hell out their roles (and look good doing it, to boot).

Despite the hype and the marketing surrounding the show, vampirism is only one facet of the story. Indeed, only three of the series regulars play vampires. The rest portray the humans (and other supernatural beings) of Bon Temps. More than the things that go bump—or, in some cases, hump—in the night, the show is about the townsfolk’s reaction to these “supers,” which is often horribly bigoted and ugly. To call True Blood a metaphor would be an understatement, and in fact, Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball seem to make the parallels between that world and ours all but explicit. True Blood is an entertaining show, but Ball also makes it a compelling allegory of intolerance. For in the town of Bon Temps, it’s often the humans who are the real monsters.

A year ago in this publication, I picked True Blood as one of six new shows to watch, but I never foresaw how fiendishly watchable it would be. It’s lurid, it’s graphic, the plot moves a mile a minute, and it’s compelling as hell. Plus it sports a rollicking honky-tonk soundtrack and a killer title sequence. With all these winning elements, it’s no wonder the Television Critics Association named it Outstanding New Program of the Year. Find it on DVD or on iTunes, pour yourself a tall glass of tomato juice, and find love at first bite.

Now that I’ve finally watched the last hour of the 61st Annual Emmy Awards, I can confidently say that this year’s broadcast was one of the best in recent history. And here are my favorite aspects of the big show:

• Neil Patrick Harris. Coming off of last year’s terrible hosting job by otherwise talented reality-TV hosts, Neil Patrick Harris did a hell of a job as emcee. I haven’t seen much of his work, but I enjoyed his jokes, his reverence for television, and especially…
• The opening number, in which he poked fun at the industry and at viewers, hit on both Christina Hendricks and Jon Hamm, and blazed through a long list of television networks in record time (begging for “Oxygen” by the end!). Props to Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for writing the number.

• The set. Not only was the band onstage, but the control room was, too. Fitting—and cool. Plus, the moving screens provided a departure from the standard Jumbotron, crowning the stage with an an ever-changing prism of video.
• The announcer, (“PC Guy”) John Hodgman, whose blend of factual and fictitious factoids about each winner gave a fun twist to an otherwise mundane aspect of the show.
• The genre-based order, and each genre’s montage: The new-found organization was a welcome change. And the montages before each segment were fair representations, I thought. The comedy montage reminded me why I watch some shows and not others. The reality montage emphasized the difference between genuine and trashy reality shows. The minseries/TV movies montage made me wish I’d seen more any of those performances. The variety montage played up the spectacle and “wow” moments of those shows. And the drama montage gave me more respect for shows I’ve dismissed (like CSI and Law & Order) while honoring shows that the Academy snubbed (like Battlestar Galactica).
• Amy Poehler’s contribution. She gave each of the nominees for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series funny glasses to wear. EW.com hated that Vanessa Williams refused to participate, but I found that priceless, and I think it was all part of the bit.  (Update: I was right, according to costar Michael Urie’s tweet!)

• Kristin Chenoweth’s win in that category, which I thought was the biggest surprise of the night. I was rooting for her, of course, but I didn’t think she’d win. Her acceptance speech was squeaky, endearing, and droll. “I’m unemployed now, so I’d like to be on Mad Men,” she said. “I also like The Office and 24.”
• Cat Deeley, who, despite being snubbed in the reality host category, was still in attendance to announce the “Breakthrough Moment” award.
• The dance number. Again, EW.com hated it, saying it had no place at the Emmys. But given the number of dancing shows on television, I say it does. And it was neat to see the ballroom stylings of Dancing with the Stars’s Maksim and Karina remixed with the hip-hop/breaking moves of dancers like So You Think You Can Dance contestants Hok and Joshua. (And Katee, too?)
• Surprise wins. It was nice to see a win for Shohreh Aghdashloo, whom I’ve respected ever since her roles in House of Sand and Fog and 24, as well as Emmys for 24’s Cherry Jones and Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston (who proclaimed that he felt like “Cinderfella”).
• The Bob Newhart/Tina Fey smooch, inspired by the one shared between “Hailey” Berry and Adrien Brody. It’s just too bad the cameras cut away too soon. Coulda been a scorcher. (Probably not, though!)
• The interruption by Dr. Horrible, in which he provided damning examples of the drawbacks of watching shows online. This is just further proof that I really need to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But hey, Whedonites, I’m watching Firefly and Dollhouse, so put down those pitchforks.

• Jimmy Fallon. My mom told me to be on the lookout for his bit, and it truly was a highlight. How can you not laugh at a (prat)fallen man when his pleas for help are being Auto-Tuned. (Also, I’ve never seen Steve Carell laugh so hard.)
• Ricky Gervais, proving once again that he needs his own hosting gig, had the audience in stitches when he said that TV people make him feel “above-average” in appearance.
• The In Memoriam segment, just because Sarah McLachlan is too talented in the weepy-music department.
• Matthew Weiner, who was nominated four different times in the dramatic-writing category! The Mad Men creator also gave a nice ego-boost to aspiring television writers, telling us all to “hang in there.” I had to hunt down his co-winner, Kater Gordon, on IMDb because she seemed to be not much older than myself. And sure enough: she went from writing assistant to Emmy-winning writer in a year’s time. Talk about an inspirational success story!
• Giving all the writing/directing nominees time to speak, regardless of whether or not they won. Even if the questions they had to answer were a touch vapid, it was nice that each nominee had a moment in the limelight.
• Repeat winners. 30 Rock and Mad Men took home top honors for the second year running, as did actors Bryan Cranston, Glenn Close, and Alec Baldwin. What a testament to their skill and staying-power.
• Sarah Silverman’s moustache. ‘Nuff said.

The Emmys snuck up on me this year, but ever since I learned that the ceremony was tonight, my plans were set. (That said, an hour’s intermission for Mad Men might be in order.) I’m not predicting the winners here, mind you, but stating who I’m rooting for. I haven’t seen all of the nominated shows and performances, but from what I have seen, here are my picks for some of the top categories:

Outstanding Drama Series
Breaking Bad

No other show in the category is under-subscribed as this one, and yet it’s one of the most nuanced, emotionally profound series on television. It would be a real coup if it won.

Outstanding Comedy Series
30 Rock

From Oprah hallucinations to Night Court reunions to Muppets in space to Salma Hayek saying “coco for cuckoo poops,” this show continues to outdo itself season after season.

Outstanding Lead Actor – Drama Series
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

…for a man who makes being emotionally distant look so cool. A furrowed eyebrow is the biggest response you’ll get out of him.

Outstanding Lead Actress – Drama Series
Glenn Close (Damages)

…for being alternately—and believably—vulnerable and terrifying. (And when I say terrifying, I mean she’s almost as scary as her character in Fatal Attraction.)

Outstanding Lead Actor – Comedy Series
Steve Carell (The Office)

Emmy voters love characters with moral ambiguity, and you can never tell of how much of his own assholiness Michael Scott is aware. Plus, this is Carell’s fourth consecutive nomination in this category. Clearly he’s doing something right!

Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series
Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)

If we can’t have Samantha Who? on our screens, we should at least honor the star, whose performance of the sunny, optimistic Samantha made losing one’s memory almost look like fun.

Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)

A win for him seems like a long shot, but Aaron Paul’s performance won me over this year. He made an imbecilic druggie a character you can root for—and feel for during the devastating conclusion to the season.

Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series
Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy)

Bailey is the most rational, sage character in a hospital brimming with angst and impulsive behavior, even when her own life is imploding. Besides, this is Wilson’s fourth consecutive nomination in this category. Clearly she’s doing something right!

Outstanding Supporting Actor – Comedy Series
Tracy Morgan (30 Rock)

…simply or making Tracy Jordan the craziest person you’d ever want to be your best friend.

Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series
Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies)

How is so much talent contained in such a tiny lady? I have no idea, but her portrayal as the hopelessly-devoted Olive Snook almost makes you want to break up Ned and Chuck. Almost.

Outstanding Reality Competition Program
Top Chef

…for being one of the classiest, most respectable reality shows on the air, and for making us all want to become food savants.

]]> http://primetimely.com/2009/09/2009-emmys-my-winners/feed/ 1 http://primetimely.com/2009/09/alan-alan-alan-alan/ http://primetimely.com/2009/09/alan-alan-alan-alan/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:26:32 +0000 Dan Clarendon http://primetimely.com/?p=206

Thanks to a link Christina Applegate posted to Twitter, I’ve been exposed to some of the funniest comedic anthropomorphism on TV since the claymation stylings of Creature Comforts. It’s a show called Walk on the Wild Side, in which up-and-coming British comedians (and, on occasion, established talent like Stephen Fry and Sir Tom Jones) give voices to animals captured in nature footage. There’s just one problem. It’s only available on BBC, and it doesn’t seem to be coming Stateside any time soon (unless, of course, we try to import it). But for now, we can relish YouTube clips of the show like the two below. (The monkey dentist in the second clip gets me every time.)

Per usual, all five of the Emmy nominees for Main Title Design are stellar achievements—and nice counterpoints to the the title card some shows display in lieu of an actual sequence. But the most captivating of these year’s contenders is the one Digital Kitchen designed for HBO’s True Blood.

Pulsating, lascivious, and kinetic, the sequence is a whirlwind tour of the South—its culture, its environment, and its seedy underbelly. I love so much about this sequence: the music (Jace Everett’s “Bad Things”); the rough-hewn, custom-made typeface; the frenetic editing; the images of life and death, the juxtaposition of religious and sexual ecstasy, et cetera, et cetera. See for yourself:

And, if you’re interested in how Digital Kitchen developed this magnum opus, you may find Creative League’s “Making Of” article (from whence the title of this post came!) and its accompanying video interesting.

Start with The West Wing. Now make the democracy an autocracy. Place that autocracy in a fictional country. Throw in marital strife, filial betrayal, oppressive corporations, hostile nations, wearisome wars, a young hero, and a tyrannical ruler. Pepper in some biblical references and glaze with poetic words structured in antiquated syntax. Do all this, and perhaps you’d have Kings, one of the most promising shows to have been cancelled this year.

I watched the first episode when it premiered in March, knowing little more about it than the premise: a modern-day retelling of the story of David and Goliath. The “high-concept”-ness of that pilot episode intrigued me, but it was the second episode, “Prosperity,” that really impressed me—with its elegance of narrative and of style and with the quality of acting from Ian McShane, Christopher Egan, and the rest of the cast.

Sadly, the show was doomed from the premiere—that first episode only attracted less than four million viewers, and the ratings only went downhill from there. The show was relegated to Saturday nights, effectively being put out to pasture by NBC. And then the last episodes were delayed until the summer (when, too, the final episodes of other canceled series aired).

I don’t often watch a new show when I know its fate has already been sealed. But Kings had captivated me so much that I watched all thirteen episodes. Luckily, the last episode aired was, in fact, the season finale and thus gave a modicum of closure to us fans. It’s a shame that more viewers did not, for whatever reason, tune in to this epic series, but at least it will endure on DVD and (until September 20) on Hulu.

The following post was originally published on my old blog on July 7, 2009.

After watching the second-season finale of Breaking Bad, the dramatic series about a chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-dealer desperate to not let his cancer treatment bankrupt his family, I had one thought: thank God this show is on AMC.

With the premiere of Mad Men two years ago, AMC went from musty movie channel to leading cable destination overnight. And now with the network’s second dramatic series Breaking Bad attracting its fair share of critical acclaim (and even a leading-actor Emmy win for Bryan Cranston), AMC is establishing itself as a network that values quality over quantity. Unlike the broadcast networks, it has no reason to fill its primetime schedule with series each fall and hope that at least a few are commercial successes (let alone critical success). It has the freedom to develop series more thoroughly and thoughtfully.

And shows on AMC risk virtually no chance of cancellation. If a show on any of the big four networks pulled in Breaking Bad’s numbers (around 1.4 million viewers on average), it would be axed instantly. But 1.4 million viewers, for a previously-obscure network like AMC, is a windfall. So with no threat of extinction—and a supportive network, to boot—AMC seems like a writer’s and producer’s paradise, as long as those writers and producers don’t mind small audiences.

The second season of Breaking Bad was even edgier, more stimulating, and more tragic than the first. If this were a broadcast network show, I’d be sweating about whether a third season would ever transpire. But the show was renewed four episodes into last season. Thank God this show is on AMC.

The following post was originally published on my old blog on June 28, 2009.

Lately, the trend regarding opening titles has been to make them as short as possible. Gone are the days of ones lasting a minute-and-a-half. And rapidly going are the days of ones lasting thirty seconds. For example, both Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives once had excellent sequences—a satirical look of the representation of women in art, and a clever montage of love lives and professional lives intermingling. But both sequences have been replaced by mere title cards lasting five seconds, tops.

That’s why I was so pleased to see that A&E bucked the trend starting with the second-season premiere of The Cleaner. This was a show that used to display a simple title card. But now, it has been granted a luxuriously long—and damn good-looking—title sequence, which you can view here (so long as YouTube doesn’t yank the video). The imagery is stunning: oblique glances at Los Angeles locales captured in reflections from broken glass and drug paraphernalia, all culminating in a shot of William Banks approaching a soon-to-be interventionee’s car. And now we can hear more than just a snatch of the theme song, Sharon Little’s “Follow That Sound.”

Maybe this upgrade was only possible because cable shows have more latitude than networks ones, but all producers should take note: quality shows deserve quality introductions.