Random Thoughts on the 2011 Emmy Nominations

Concise and succinct posts in The Foot are as rare as a dodo soaring in the afternoon sky. I'm content with writing 3,000 words if need be. Of course, it's the era of the short-attention span when people average only 20 seconds on a webpage. I should've been writing in the late 1800s when publishers paid one by the word (but I don't earn a coin from the blog anyway). I digress. In in the interest of the short-attention spans, I won't write 7,000 words on the 2011 Emmy nominations. I have few thoughts about the nominations. Here goes:

--Friday Night Lights earned a nomination for its final season. I doubt the show wins but, at least, the voters evolved into slightly less bumbling people. The series finale airs on NBC tomorrow night (it aired in February on DirecTV). The series should've been nominated after the first season; however, the Emmy voters consist of pretentious folk who reward name recognition over the quality of the content. Maybe FNL's nomination will pave the way for well-written-but-low-rated drams in the future. I doubt it, though. LOST earned the final season nomination as a courtesy. Emmy voters are merely throwing a bone to the critics with the FNL nom, and the critics are biting.

--Mad Men, The Good Wife, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and Dexter round out the other series in contention for Outstanding Drama. I'd like Game of Thrones to win; however, Mad Men will win their fourth consecutive Outstanding Drama Award and we'll have to watch Matt Weiner self-fellate himself on stage. Dexter, FNL and The Good Wife have zero chance of winning. Boardwalk Empire's a dark horse because of the Scorcese pilot and, also, Terrence Winters' involvement as creator and show runner. Game of Thrones is unlikely to win because of its genre, even though it emerged from the 2010-2011 season as the best written show on TV (the source material helps immensely). Mad Men will likely to continue to their streak. It's a great show but Weiner is insufferable. I'd rather Boardwalk Empire or Game of Thrones win.

--Boardwalk Empire earned two nominations for Outstanding Direction. Shouldn't there be a cap for each show? There are so many episodes of television during the eligibility period and yet Jeremy Podeswa's work on "Anastasia" bested many other deserving directors. I suppose it doesn't matter because Scorcese's already made room on his trophy stand for his emmy. The pilot of Boardwalk Empire is the best directed episode of the TV season. It was distinctive Marty. Tim Van Patten (also a writer/director on Empire) is nominated for the Game of Thrones pilot. Patty Jenkins received a nomination for the pilot of The Killing. Neil Jordan received a nomination for a Borgias episode.

--The nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series list two Mad Men episodes. Deservingly, "The Suitcase" is nominated. The other episode is "Blowing Smoke" (an episode I don't remember at all). Again, it's unnecessary to nominate a show two times. The Emmys don't reward outstanding writing. If they did, Terriers would've been nominated for any one of their episodes. Matthew Weiner will win for "The Suitcase" and I won't rant about that. The episode's one of the best written scripts in the eligibility period. Weiner deserves the win. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are nominated for "Baelor"--the insane 9th episode of the Game of Thrones' first season. Veena Sud and Jason Katims were nominated as well, respectively--Katims for "Always" and Sud for "Pilot."

--Community and Treme were ignored by the voters. I'm not surprised. I'd write about the acting nominations but any other site already wrote about acting. I usually don't write much about acting. I care more about the writing, directing, cinematography, art direction, sound etc. In case you're wondering, Boardwalk Empire will win the cinematography award because three separate DPs were nominated.

That's all I have to offer on the Emmys. Check back later for the Everwood post.