The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards: A night of shocks and surprises, with
some of the most unpredictable results in recent years, but not without several
repeat wins. The show itself was rather disappointing, but not only because of
the presentation. Here’s why…
When the Primetime Emmys began this year, it was disappointing to see
host Neil Patrick Harris just sitting and talking to a bunch of TV screens that
had clips from shows over the year gone by. After his outstanding musical
performance at the Tony Awards earlier this year, everyone was expecting a
number. That always helps set the tone, with everyone feeling entertained and
upbeat. Good humor can also get the audience hooked instantly, but
unfortunately, the jokes barely made lips curve. When Emmy hosts from the
recent past interrupted his opening, I thought that it would build up to
something. However, beyond seeing big names like Jimmy Kimmel, Jane Lynch,
Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien up there, there was nothing that hooked me,
until Kevin Spacey went all Frank Underwood (HOUSE OF CARDS) and spoke directly
to the audience, with the past and present hosts fighting in the background.
That was hilarious. But…such moments were rather rare over the next three
hours.
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| Emmys hosts past and present, arguing |
THE HOST
When it was announced earlier this year that Neil Patrick Harris would
be returning to host the Emmys, I was excited, because I remembered what a
great job he had done the last time he had hosted the show. However, his bits
during the show, especially the opening, were poorly written, and even he
looked a little bored with what he was doing. The decision to have a musical
number midway through the show wasn’t a bad one, because by that point, we
really needed some nice, peppy entertainment. However, the performance was
nothing more than ordinary, and seemed pointless, because it didn’t say
anything about television; instead, it went on and on about being a midway
number!
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| The midway musical number |
THE PERFORMANCES
To be fair, NPH did give us some great moves in the choreography
presentation number, which did pay tribute to some of the big shows. It was
entertaining, because of the sheer talent, and because of the way the dancers
got into costume to represent characters from shows like BREAKING BAD, THE BIG
BANG THEORY, GAME OF THRONES, etc. The producers really should have expanded
this performance and scrapped the midway number. The choreography bit could
have even been a good opening number, and presenting the Emmy for that category
wouldn’t have been a bad way to start the show, especially given how it
actually began. The performances by Sir Elton John and Carrie Underwood were
nice, but didn’t quite wow the audience.
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| Emily & Zooey Deschanel presenting |
THE PRESENTERS
After the disappointing opening (except for Kevin Spacey’s bit), Tina
Fey and Amy Poehler took the stage to present the first award. But after seeing
those two doing such an excellent job at the Golden Globes earlier this year,
the material they worked with at the Emmys fell completely flat. In fact, the
producers could’ve just asked anyone off the street to say their bits and it
wouldn’t have made a difference. Other presentations were also disappointing,
especially those by sisters Emily and Zooey Deschanel, Diahann Carroll and
Kerry Washington, Claire Danes and Bryan Cranston, to name a few. Will
Ferrell’s appearance, with those kids, to present the Outstanding Series awards
at the end, was probably the worst of the evening. It was not funny, he has
very little to do with comedy and drama series, and the bits where he was
telling the kids not to blow it because ‘it’s the Emmys’ was just trying too
hard.
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her acceptance
speech with Tony Hale present
|
THE ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
Soon after the show began, we were thrown into the first shocker of the
evening—Merritt Weaver’s win for supporting actress, comedy. While a lot of
people think that her speech was the best, I thought that her “Oh my god! Thank
you so much… Umm, I gotta go. Bye!” was just terrible, especially as the first
acceptance speech of the evening. I personally think that if you’re getting a
chance to say something on winning, the least you can do is give the audience
something that’ll make them think, laugh, feel good about, or move them. But
anyway, moving on from that, I felt that most of the other speeches too were
boring and uninspired. Maybe that happened because most of the people that won
were completely unprepared for their victories, since they were all so
unexpected. The best acceptance speeches had to be those by Julia Louis-Dreyfus
(Lead Actress—Comedy, VEEP) and Michael Douglas (Lead Actor—Miniseries/TV
Movie, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA). With Tony Hale standing behind Louis-Dreyfus,
feeding her lines as she made her speech, thus recreating what is one of the
funniest character dynamics on VEEP, was absolute genius. And Douglas telling
costar Matt Damon, “This award is half yours. So what do you want? The top or
the bottom?” was probably the line of the evening, and one that no one will
forget about anytime soon.
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| Jane Lynch paying tribute to her former GLEE costar, the late Cory Monteith |
THE PRESENTATION
I understand that it’s best if the two biggest awards—outstanding
series, comedy and drama—are saved for the end. However, if that is preceded by
like an hour of variety show and miniseries/TV movie award presentations, it’s
bound to get rather boring, because by that point, most people are just waiting
for the final two awards. Moreover, the presentation didn’t even follow a
pattern wherein all the comedy categories were done first, and then the drama,
and so on. So it probably would have been best to evenly pace out the main
series awards with the variety show, etc awards, so as to sustain the
audience’s attention. What made it especially tedious was what seemed like
unending tributes to people who died over the last year. While ‘In Memoriam’ is
a segment of the show that needs to be there, individualized tributes didn’t
make sense, not just because of the very random selection of deceased artists,
but also because (with all due respect to the dear departed) of how boring it
became.
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| The cast of BREAKING BAD celebrates the big win |
THE RESULTS
Unlike last year, when HOMELAND swept the main categories, this year’s
Emmys gave us quite a mixed bag of results, a lot of which were unexpected. While
MODERN FAMILY might have won its fourth consecutive Emmy for Outstanding
Series, Comedy, it still didn’t make a clean sweep. None of the actors from the
show won this year; instead, there were surprise wins for Tony Hale (VEEP) and
Merritt Weaver (NURSE JACKIE) in the comedy acting categories. Additionally,
while many saw HOMELAND’s first-time nominees Mandy Patinkin and Morena
Baccarin as frontrunners in drama, Bobby Cannavale unexpectedly took away the
prize for supporting actor, drama. Even Anna Gunn’s win for BREAKING BAD was
not what many saw coming, especially since the other actors from the show
didn’t win. And while Jeff Daniels’ win for THE NEWSROOM took Bryan Cranston
supporters by surprise, BREAKING BAD did win Outstanding Series, Drama, which
most people did expect to happen. Other results that were expected were Claire
Danes’ win for HOMELAND, Jim Parsons’ for THE BIG BANG THEORY and Julia
Louis-Dreyfus’ win for VEEP. The awards for writing and directing in comedy and
drama were also evenly distributed over 30 ROCK, MODERN FAMILY, HOUSE OF CARDS
and HOMELAND, further preventing a clean sweep. Here are some of the results:
Outstanding Drama
BREAKING BAD
DOWNTON ABBEY
GAME OF THRONES
HOMELAND
HOUSE OF CARDS
MAD MEN
Outstanding Actress In A Drama
Connie Britton, NASHVILLE
Claire Danes, HOMELAND
Michelle Dockery, DOWNTON ABBEY
Vera Farmiga, BATES MOTEL
Elisabeth Moss, MAD MEN
Kerry Washington, SCANDAL
Robin Wright, HOUSE OF CARDS
Outstanding Actor In A Drama
Hugh Bonneville, DOWNTON ABBEY
Bryan Cranston, BREAKING BAD
Jeff Daniels, THE NEWSROOM
Jon Hamm, MAD MEN
Damian Lewis, HOMELAND
Kevin Spacey, HOUSE OF CARDS
Outstanding Supporting Actress
In A Drama
Anna Gunn, BREAKING BAD
Maggie Smith, DOWNTON ABBEY
Emilia Clarke, GAME OF THRONES
Christine Baranski, THE GOOD WIFE
Morena Baccarin, HOMELAND
Christina Hendricks, MAD MEN
Outstanding Supporting Actor In
A Drama
Bobby Cannavale, BOARDWALK EMPIRE
Jonathan Banks, BREAKING BAD
Aaron Paul, BREAKING BAD
Jim Carter, DOWNTON ABBEY
Peter Dinklage, GAME OF THRONES
Mandy Patinkin, HOMELAND
Outstanding Directing For a Drama
Series
BOARDWALK EMPIRE
BREAKING BAD
DOWNTON ABBEY
HOMELAND
HOUSE OF CARDS
Outstanding Writing For a Drama
Series
BREAKING BAD
DOWNTON ABBEY
GAME OF THRONES
HOMELAND
Outstanding Comedy
30 ROCK
THE BIG BANG THEORY
GIRLS
LOUIE
MODERN FAMILY
VEEP
Outstanding Actress In A Comedy
Laura Dern, ENLIGHTENED
Lena Dunham, GIRLS
Edie Falco, NURSE JACKIE
Tina Fey, 30 ROCK
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, VEEP
Amy Poehler, PARKS AND RECREATION
Outstanding Actor In A Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 ROCK
Jason Bateman, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
Louis CK, LOUIE
Don Cheadle, HOUSE OF LIES
Matt LeBlanc, EPISODES
Jim Parsons, THE BIG BANG THEORY
Outstanding Supporting Actress
In A Comedy
Mayim Bialik, THE BIG BANG THEORY
Jane Lynch, GLEE
Julie Bowen, MODERN FAMILY
Merritt Wever, NURSE JACKIE
Jane Krakowski, 30 ROCK
Sofia Vergara, MODERN FAMILY
Anna Chlumsky, VEEP
Outstanding Supporting Actor In
A Comedy
Adam Driver, GIRLS
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, MODERN FAMILY
Ed O’Neill, MODERN FAMILY
Ty Burrell, MODERN FAMILY
Bill Hader, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Tony Hale, VEEP
Outstanding Directing For a
Comedy Series
30 ROCK
GIRLS
GLEE
LOUIE
MODERN FAMILY
Outstanding Writing For a Comedy
Series
30 ROCK
EPISODES
LOUIE
THE OFFICE
Outstanding TV Miniseries Or
Movie
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
THE BIBLE
PHIL SPECTOR
POLITICAL ANIMALS
TOP OF THE LAKE
Lead Actress In A TV Miniseries
Or Movie
Jessica Lange, AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM
Laura Linney, THE BIG C: HEREAFTER
Helen Mirren, PHIL SPECTOR
Sigourney Weaver, POLITICAL ANIMALS
Elisabeth Moss, TOP OF THE LAKE
Lead Actor In A TV Miniseries Or
Movie
Michael Douglas, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
Matt Damon, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
Toby Jones, THE GIRL
Benedict Cumberbatch, PARADE’S END
Al Pacino, PHIL SPECTOR
A lot of things didn’t quite work for the Emmys this year, from the
hosting to the presenters, from the performances to the presentation, and so
on. But the awards itself were rather satisfactory. I was surprised when a few
of the winners’ names were announced, but I didn’t think that any of them were
undeserving of the awards that they won. I look forward to next year’s Emmys,
when all eyes will be on MAD MEN as it heads into its final season, while BREAKING
BAD will still be eligible, even though it is ending in a week.
What did you think of the 65th Primetime Emmys? Were you as
disappointed as I was? Do share your views…
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