Life After Jacob's Foot: Emmy Talk

I want the world, the whole world, to stop and listen to me. Oh, allright. I'm quoting the opening lyrics of The Jackson's "Living Together." Naturally, the song makes me think of LOST but I'm digressing.

The Emmy Ballot was released a few days ago. It's not the final Emmy ballot. All the ballot is is a list of the official entrants for different categories. Soon the Emmy crew will boil it down to the final nominees. There's a good chance that every thing I write about here will not be included on the final ballot. Today, I return to the bullet points in order to write about each thing swiftly and concisely. I'll share my opinions on why a certain series/writer(s)/director/actor/actress should be on the final ballot and, perhaps, why they should win and vice-versa.

--Many, many shows entered for Best Drama series. Not all can be nominated and only one can win. LOST, obviously, should be nominated. My old Official LOST Rankings partner considers the sixth season the best season of the show. Season 1 holds that honor for me though. They haven't won the award since season one. I do think they'll be nominated considering it was their final season. I think they'll win many awards but I don't think they'll win Best Drama.

--Here are the other shows that I think will be nominated for Best Drama besides LOST: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Mentalist and, eh, Smallville (that means I have no thoughts on the final Drama to be nominated). I'm working my way through Mad Men so I have zero idea what kind of season they had. I hear Breaking Bad has been out-of-this-world GOOD this season and I have no reason to doubt it. I could've put Treme in the final spot (are there just five nominees? have I gotten the numbers wrong) but I think the show will be ignored like The Wire was. The last epiosde of Treme has been their best, in my opinion. I digress. I know CBS promotes the heck out of The Mentalist so it seems like they'd get a Best Drama nod. I have no idea. If I were a betting man, I'd bet Breaking Bad to win.

--Best Drama Director is a category that excites me. There's so many entrants and so many episodes by these directors that I haven't seen. But I'm one of those geeks who recognizes a director's name. I've seen zero episodes of Breaking Bad. I have to make that clear once again. I noticed Rian Johnson is an entrant for this category. He directed an episode titled "Fly" of Breaking Bad. Rian Johnson directed Brick and The Brothers Bloom. The challenge of any television director is entering a show with an established look while adding a certain touch yourself. On name alone, I'll predict Rian Johnson gets nominated. Allison Liddi-Brown directed a really good FNL episode entitled "The Son," about the death of Saracen's dad; however, FNL is always ignored so I doubt she or any of the other directors get nominated and that includes Peter Berg. Again, based on name alone, Greg Yaitanes could get a nomination for his "Help Me" episode of House. I've never seen the episode so consider this a hunch or a gut feeling. Nathaniel Jay Goodman directed "Once Upon a Time in Texas"--a HEROES episode. The writing was never a particular strong point of the show but the direction was always solid. Goodman's episode accomplished a lot because it was an episode that, literally, went back to season one. There's no way he'll be nominated but I felt compelled to say one good thing about Heroes even though I hate that show so much.

--This is all just a preamble so I can talk about Tucker Gates and Jack Bender of LOST. Tucker Gates directed "Ab Aeterno." In my review of the episode, I demanded an emmy for Tucker Gates. The scope of the episode was so gigantic. Jorge Garcia (Hurley) had a podcast called Geronimo Jack's Beard. He mentioned that Tucker Gates directed "The Substitute" because he said Tucker used a lot of lenses that was different from the norm of LOST. But then Jack Bender comes along with directing the series finale--basically a full-length movie shot in two weeks. I think both should get nominted. I think Bender is a lock for a nomination and I think he could win it as a way of not only celebrating the work he did on "The End" but for the work he did throughout LOST. He's responsible for the look of the show. Anywho, there's my two cents for Best Drama Director. Wait. Some Mad Men directors deserve a nod. I just haven't seen the episodes to specify.

--Best Writing. Once again, many episodes entered I have not seen. But again, I'm a geek and I recognize television writers. While I have never seen In Plain Sight, I hope Lynne Litt (writer of Claire's first LOST flashback story) gets nominated just because she wrote an episode of LOST six years ago. There's so many entrants in this category. Of the LOST writers, I would nominate Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz for "Dr.Linus" as well as Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for "The End." Once again, I hear Breaking Bad is mind-blowing so use this ________ to insert a writer's name and the episode they wrote for that show. I'm a huge Jane Espenson fan so her episode of Caprica deserves considerable consideration. Of course, I've never seen Caprica. David Fury's been entered for a 24 script. Eh. Nah. I haven't seen. The creator of Spatacus: Blood & Sand is Steven S. DeKnight. The episode he wrote for the show (Kill Them All) has been entered. DeKnight is jaboy from the ANGEL days.

--Best Supporting Actress. Yeah, Yeah. I know I'm skipping several categories. But I want Emilie de Ravin to get nominated and win. She won't though because people don't appreciate her Australian-ness nor her talent.

Good day.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF DAY