2013 Primetime Emmy Awards — Page 2

I am a fan of Merrit Weaver, but I was genuinely sad to see Jane Krakowski lose for the last season of 30 ROCK, where she did stellar work. Her acting in the last episode was sublime and her rendition of "Rural Juror" was hilarious. Oh well.
Some choices were brilliant and inspired, some were just confounding. Loved that Tony Hale won, he was my "SHOULD" pick but I never thought he had a chance, he was so great in VEEP, as was Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The most exciting win of the night came when Anna Gunn's name was announced, her performance in BREAKING BAD is unbelievable, and wow, I can't believe the show finally won for series.
I thought Claire Danes was good in "Q & A," but didn't feel she had to win a second time, Washington, Farmiga, Wright and Moss were all far more deserving, IMO. Though the win that pissed me off was Jeff Daniels', a terrible, obnoxious performance in one of the worst "prestige" shows on TV.

---

I'm so on the fence about Newsroom. There are many moments that are great and so many others that are so self-conscious and stuck on themselves. But when it's good, for example: Fonda's drunk scene, Waterston confronting his friend at Defense about being set up, Sadowski's many strong scenes this season, it knocks me out. Sorkin wavers between his smart, tough old-fashioned crackerjack best and self-parody at his worst. And Mortimer, although far too often saddled with the cutesy here, can do no wrong for me.

Updated On: 9/23/13 at 01:04 PM

i love Claire Danes and am glad she won. on a side note, that car commercial she does that calls out her BF Jordan is hilarious!!

http://perezhilton.com/2013-09-23-clare-danes-emmys-commercial-my-so-called-life-reference-jared-leto-emmys

Im just so disgusted that people on Twitter were calling it racist that she won.

http://twitchy.com/2013/09/22/kerry-washington-loses-emmy-to-claire-danes-inevitable-cries-of-racism-ensue/

---

Kerry Washington had the carry the flag for network TV acting and the Emmys cooled on The Good Wife while Scandal got a lot of momentum. I thought she had a shot. Plus Dan Bucatinsky won for Guest Actor for the show. But that whole Diahann Carroll segment in retrospect was pretty awkward, not to mention you had other moments like that where the telecast seemed to have the stars align but all for naught. Having 2 of Tina Fey's 30 Rock co-stars (Jon Hamm was of course, Dr. Drew Baird- the dumb, handless but handsome doctor) present in her category that she did not win was another.

But the Jeff Daniels stuff.... yikes. Of all the nominees to throw around the first-timer Emmy to... Why not Jon Hamm? I have to think AMC put its guns behind Breaking Bad as opposed to Mad Men, that felt under-represented in nominees, and mixed feelings on the season until that chosen submission episode for the finale cooled people who already signified they were tired of Matthew Weiner last year.

Merritt Wever is lovely so I have no complaints to her and she was a previous nominee so it was not too out of nowhere. I adore Krakowski but the finale as the submission episode was not the showcase to have her win. She had the song, yes, and that song is amazing, but she had nothing else that finale.

No complaints about Veep winning in its categories but I find it a little suspicious that HBO had four acting wins (JLD, Hale, Cannavale, and Daniels) and only one of them was considered a favorite in their category.

Modern Family seems to be following the Mad Men trajectory (except it got acting wins while Mad Men, crazily, has zero in its entire show history) of losing steam in nominations but becomes the consensus winner in the Comedy category. I feel like there was a window because Louie and Girls are still are too polarizing to win, Veep somehow got no writing nods that could have helped it, and apparently 30 Rock was only good to be nominated and not be singled out other than Tina Fey. Not to mention New Girl as a potential breakthrough to be the next contending show took a major step backwards and got no nominations despite having a better season. I am rooting for The Michael J. Fox show, or any new show- since current network shows like Parks & Rec and New Girl seem invisible to Emmy voters- to take it down (I loved Mad Men but FNL or Breaking Bad winning series earlier would've been acceptable for me around Season 3), and not just because Betsy Brandt, American treasure, is in it.

The telecast itself from little I saw of it, sorry y'all the Breaking Bad penultimate with Robert Forster was so worth it, seemed just terrible. Finding out the 'Highlights in TV from 2013' montage was cut in favor of dance numbers seemed to tell you a lot about the producers of that telecast than anything else. No clips for the In Memoriam (although Edie Falco speaking on behalf of Gandolfini legitimized that whole thing) or any real clips for the acting nominees just seemed pointless.

Also, I guess the Emmys are tired of American Horror Story/Ryan Murphy/it being in that category. James Cromwell winning and being its only win felt so disconnected, especially when Paulson (losing to Burstyn for that performance? Probably my most disappointing result after Hamm losing to Daniels) and Lange are trophy-less. Top of The Lake was not winning anything but Campion couldn't have won for writing over Abi Morgan?

'Q&A' winning for writing and Fincher for directing are not surprising. I frankly found Breaking Bad's nominations in both categories, sans Michelle MacLaren's excellent directing work for the finale, to not really be the best showcases for Season 5, even if 'Say My Name' was a submissions episode for 2 actors. 'Fifty-One' and 'Madrigal' easily could have been nominated in either directing or writing categories. Hopefully MacLaren and Rian Johnson's work from this season can both be nominated, because it felt odd that a DGA-winning, Johnson directed the 'Fifty-One' episode was not even nominated.

Yeah, I had no idea Sutton Foster was not with Bobby Canavale anymore, but he seemed to pretty assuredly call Rose Byrne the love of his life (too soon?).

I disagree that Krakowski shouldn't have submitted the finale, I thought she was weirdly the emotional anchor of the episode and she was hilarious throughout. She just had such an outstanding season, it's not that I dislike Weaver and in another year I'd have welcomed her win, I just felt Krakowski deserved an Emmy for one of the most ingenious, fearless comedic performances I've ever seen.
Just rewatched Julia Louis-Dreyfus' speech, she can sell a laugh like no one else, and Hale proved why he won by just standing there behind her, Chlumsky was great in that 2 sec shot. Maybe the three of them should host together, poor Neil seemed burned out from his best-of turn at the Tonys.

---

VEEP really did deserve series, though I'd have been happy with a 30 ROCK win. Really, I'd have been happy with anyone in that category winning except for MODERN FAMILY, which was truly awful and unwatchable last season, with every single adult character being as grating as possible. I'm certainly glad it didn't get any acting wins, and that series win almost felt like an afterthought. That's an interesting comparison between GIRLS and SIX FEET UNDER, the latter was a gazillion miles better, but I know what you mean, AC. I wonder if it'll ever win anything, it might just be too polemic for the kind of people who vote MODERN FAMILY for Best Series.
Oh, and re Kerry Washington, she got nominated because she is a truly gifted actress playing a hell of a character, and lifting it from Shonda Rhimes nonsense into an icon. She deserved that Emmy, regardless of the color of her skin. Of course, people of color who are successful are bound to always have their success defined by their race, meanwhile no one is talking about the fact Jeff Daniels simply won for being a straight white male in an incredibly misogynist show.

---