If you are engaged in a little friendly competition with your friends about who’ll take home two of the biggest prizes during this Sunday’s Emmy awards, you’ve come to the right place. I think I’ve figured out who’s going to win. See if you agree with me.
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad
Dexter
The Good Wife
Lost
Mad Men
True Blood
Will win Lost. I think READ FULL STORY »
These two races present different challenges to anyone trying to predict a winner. I think the lead actress category is wide open (in addition to my “possible upset” pick below, I wouldn’t count out Tina Fey). On the other hand, I’ll be shocked if my choice for supporting actress READ FULL STORY »
Emmy nominations: Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton — yay! Tony Shalhoub and Toni Collette — I’d have preferred new jack swingers Toni! Tony! Tone!
Yes, it’s that time to grouse about some of the shows that were neglected in major categories (Fringe, Sons of Anarchy, Justified) and praise the selection of worthies that were recognized (Friday Night Lights, The Good Wife).
The thing is, this was just about the best set of Emmy nominations we could expect, a mix of READ FULL STORY »
We’re half-way through the year; time to stop and take stock of the TV year thus far. Here is my mid-year Top 10, selected from shows airing during the period between January and July 2010. I’ve also added a few notes at the end about some other notable TV events. Happy holiday weekend to you.
1. Breaking Bad (AMC) No TV series this year has mixed READ FULL STORY »
What does it mean that I was more entertained by the pre-taped Alec Baldwin/Jack Donaghy monologue that began NBC’s up-front presentation today than I was by almost any of the shows from which the network showed clips? Having Baldwin’s Donaghy bad-mouth other shows while staying true to his 30 Rock persona — as when he dismissed Fox’s House by saying, “[Hugh Laurie] is faking being from this country, like our President” — was better than all of Baldwin’s recent SNL hosting gig.
NBC is working hard to give the impression that things are moving right along in its prime-time hit-factory, thereby avoiding the fact that it’s had no hits and a lot of Jay Leno to deal with over the past year. But that’s all changed! They’re opening their wallets and their READ FULL STORY »
Of the four NBC sitcoms on last night, I got the most pleasure from Parks and Recreation. It’s a measure of just how terrific P&R has become that even when it breaks its format with a mostly-outdoors episode, it still moves its ongoing story lines along briskly and provides a constant stream — a babbling brook, in Leslie Knopes’ case — of laughs.
The core plot was about READ FULL STORY »
Watching Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock last night, I was struck anew by the ways these once-and-future SNL stars, Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler, have crafted sitcoms that could not be more different in tone and philosophy from each other.
30 Rock is, like its title, very “New York,” granite-tough. Even when Fey isn’t onscreen, her comic tone — cutting; ruthlessness wearing the mask of whimsy — slices through most scenes, particularly anything involving Alec Baldwin’s Jack and his business dealings. It’s kind of amazing to me that Fey gets away with making such fierce fun of NBC corporate masters like GE and now Comcast/Xfinity, aka, Kabletown. Last night’s brutal assertion that Com… er, Kabletown is a cynical purveyor of on-demand porn incapable of (to Jack’s old-capitalist way of thinking) creating anything new was, well, magnificent. (It also helps explain why, when I just went to my home “Kabletown” DVR to record the 1971 Paddy Chayefsky-written movie The Hospital, the screen menu was offering stuff like Hot Nasty Girls just a few listings down the screen.)
By contrast, Parks and Recreation is frequently as sunny as Leslie Knope’s smile, and, increasingly READ FULL STORY »
