All in all, last night's 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards were better than usual. There were more new faces than usual, a couple big surprises (Top Chef, Archie Panjabi, etc), and at least the repeats were well-deserving. I'll go down the list of categories that people actually care about and put in a few words.
Outstanding drama series
"Breaking Bad" (AMC)
"Dexter" (Showtime)
"The Good Wife" (CBS)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"True Blood" (HBO)
Mad Men for a third time... It's great and all, but Breaking Bad had a mindblowing season and should get recognition. As far as Lost not winning, I wasn't too surprised. My rankings would have been: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Good Wife, Lost/True Blood, Dexter.
Outstanding comedy series
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO)
"Modern Family" (ABC)
"Glee" (Fox)
"Nurse Jackie" (Showtime)
"The Office" (NBC)
"30 Rock" (NBC)
Modern Family prevailed in its first battle against Glee.
Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory"
Larry David, "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Matthew Morrison, "Glee"
Against all the big names, Jim Parsons comes out on top with a victory. Bazinga!
Outstanding lead actor in a drama series
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"
Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights"
Hugh Laurie, "House"
Matthew Fox, "Lost"
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Again, it's annoying to see people win for the third time in a row when there's plenty of other deserving people. On the upside, Breaking Bad won't be eligible next year, so there has to be a different winner.
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series
Lea Michele, "Glee"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine"
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"
Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Toni Collette, "United States of Tara"
Lame. Like I said on Twitter, congrats to Carmela. Edie Falco herself admitted she wasn't funny.
Outstanding lead actress in a drama series
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
Glenn Close, "Damages"
Connie Britton, "Friday Night Lights"
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"
Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: SVU"
January Jones, "Mad Men"
Did not see this one coming at all. As you can see from my reaction on Twitter last night, I has utterly shocked. My reaction was tempered by Kyra Sedgwick saying the trademark, "Thank you, thank you so much." But yeah, I guess she would get it eventually after all those nominations and the episode with her real-life daughter last season was intensely emotional. Julianna Margulies will have to wait another year.
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series
Chris Colfer, "Glee"
Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother"
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, "Modern Family"
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men"
I'd expected Modern Family to split the vote, leaving the award to Neil Patrick Harris, but the voters apparently love Cam as much as we do.
Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series
Aaron Paul, "Breaking Bad"
Martin Short, "Damages"
Terry O'Quinn, "Lost"
Michael Emerson, "Lost"
John Slattery, "Mad Men"
Andre Braugher, "Men of a Certain Age"
I thought Lost had this one in the bag, but I guess Emerson and O'Quinn canceled each other out.
Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series
Jane Lynch, "Glee"
Julie Bowen, "Modern Family"
Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family"
Kristen Wiig, "Saturday Night Live"
Jane Krakowski, "30 Rock"
Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men"
Expected and deserved.
Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series
Sharon Gless, "Burn Notice"
Rose Byrne, "Damages"
Archie Panjabi, "The Good Wife"
Christine Baranski, "The Good Wife"
Christina Hendricks, "Mad Men"
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men"
Big shocker, perhaps the biggest of the night along with Amazing Race losing. There wasn't a clear lock for this, but I was almost positive Mad Men would take this. Somehow, Archie Panjabi won against all odds.
For my Emmy predictions, I thought I did okay, getting 4 out of 10 right, and I would have done better if I filled out a complete ballot with the gimmes included. Additionally, two of my "should wins" won, so I underestimated the Academy at certain points and overestimated them at others.
It was disconcerting to see all these people cheering and clapping for Jack Kevorkian. They do know what he did, right?
Aaron Paul was almost exactly like Jesse Pinkman when he went up to get his award. Hopefully he didn't have any of that meth.
Interesting to see Glee get a huge promo in the beginning when it'll be up against NBC's saving grace, The Biggest Lost, in the fall.
There were a couple funny things in the Emmy, but award shows are still pretty dumb. I still wish the awards could have been condensed into 30 minutes.
Also, here's a promo for the September 10 Stand Up To Cancer fundraiser on the 4 major broadcast networks.
