It rained cats and dogs in the Chicagoland area last night as well as early this morning, causing floods all around the area. Add that to the high humidity outside now that it's sunny with temperature in the low nineties and it's just become impossible to do anything outside. In other words, it's the perfect time to do some blogging. Here now is a bonus edition of my 2010 Emmy predictions. It might not have predictions for the big awards, but it does have some good ones ranging from categories such as best writing to best directing. For parts one and two, click here and here. Let's begin:
OUTSTANDING COMMERCIAL
Will Win: "Coke Finals"-Coca-Cola
This one took too much time than it should have. Personally, I would vote for Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" a million times. But I know that the Emmy committee will be going in-depth at the commercials before picking a winner, meaning they'll look at things like the message, the writing, the directing, the acting, etc. So while the Old Spice commercial is funny and Isaiah Mustafa is awesome in it, it sadly won't get the award. Neither will the Snickers' commercial with Betty White or the Audi "Green Police" commercial. So, that leaves three: Coca Cola's "Finals," Nike's "Human Chain," and Absolut's "Anthem."
In the end, I felt that the Coke commercial was the best. It's creative and really well done. Not to mention that it has quite a lot of fun things jammed into a minute.
Should Win: Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
Come on! The guy's on a horse! And it's awesome!
OUTSTANDING MADE FOR TELEVISION MOVIE
Will Win and Should Win: "You Don't Know Jack"
I didn't watch the movie until some late Sunday morning re-airing in early June on one of the many other channels HBO gives. And I gotta say, it was a pretty good one. First of all, it helps that the actual Jack Kevorkian was as colorful as he was, making Al Pacino's and Barry Levinson's respective jobs in the movie much easier. Besides that, everything seemed to be in ti top shape, from the acting to the writing and everything else. So, I give this a really good chance.
Other Thoughts: Another reason why the best miniseries and best movie category should be combined that I forgot to say on Sunday: every other minseries/movie category is combined, so why not this one? How about make it a new category, like "most outstanding fictional non-series"? Once again, it's a little too outdated at this point to separate the two.
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Will Win: Ryan Murphy: "Glee"- "Pilot"
I could have been an a-hole and just gone with "someone who directed a pilot episode" since the last time this category has been won without someone directing a show's pilot episode was in 2001. But that would have been lazy and an abuse of this column. So, I'm just gonna go specific and go with Murphy for the director's cut of the "Glee" pilot. Murphy featured numerous covers of songs and was a great job done with worse acting than the "Modern Family" or "Nurse Jackie" pilot. Also, I don't know why, but I think the fact that it's a director's cut has to be big...right? Right?
Should Win: Jason Winer: "Modern Family"- "Pilot"
This pilot had better acting and more funnier scenes than the "Glee" pilot. But does it att
ribute more to Winer, or just that the writing and acting was just that good?
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Will Win: Jack Bender: "Lost": "The End"
While the ending of the show will have fans arguing about it for years to come, I'm pretty sure that if you just base the episode on just what it is, a single episode, that even the most casual viewer can agree that it was pretty darn good. And you got to give it up to Bender for leading the way to making it that good.
Should Win: Agnieszka Holland: "Treme"- "Do You Know What it Means" (Pilot)
I fell in love with "Treme" from the very beginning. One big reason was the great pilot, probably one of the best episodes on TV I've seen this year. I loved everything about it: the visual effects, the music played, the cinematography, you name it! And since the director (Holland) had a big say in what to do with the pilot, I'm gonna root for her to get this award.
OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Will Win and Should Win: Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd: "Modern Family"-"Pilot"
There are two big reasons why "Modern Family" went off to such a great start. One, as I wrote about on Sunday, was the heavy promotion over the summer by ABC who desperately wanted a good comedy to rival CBS's comedies in ratings and NBC's comedies in hilarity. The other, of course, was the pilot. It's why critics loved the show immediately and called it the best new show of the season and how it hooked millions to watch it weekly.. And what was the big reason behind it being such a good episode? First, the acting, which I can never praise enough. Second, and most importantly, was the script written by Levitan and Lloyd. Not only was it the best written pilot of all the other new shows this season (and that includes shows like "Community" and main competitor for this award "Glee"), it was also the funniest. Not bad for the guys behind "Back to You."
OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Will Win and Should Win: Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy: "Mad Men"- "Shut the Door, Have a Seat"
Come on, do I have to praise this episodes any more? I'm starting to get annoyed about writing how good of an episode it was, and that includes the writing. Let me just say that it would be a damn shame if the two weren't winning this award. It really was that good!
OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES
Will Win: Steve Bodow, Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, David Javerbaum, Elliot Kalan, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross and Jon Stewart: "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"- "#15040"
It's the one where Stewart spends fifteen minutes doing an awesome Glenn Beck impersonation. 'Nuff said.
Should Win: Mike Sweeney, Conan O'Brien, Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Deon Cole, Josh Comers, Dan Cronin, Kevin Dorff, Andres Du Bochet, Michael Gordon, Berkley Johnson, Brian Kiley, Rob Kutner, Todd Levin, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Matt O'Brien, Andy Richter, Brian Stack and Andrew Weinberg: "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien"- "#146" (a.k.a. the last episode)
Same reason as why I think the show should win most outstanding variety, music or comedy series: the possibility of O'Brien winning an Emmy on NBC? Priceless. Plus, it wasn't a bad episode either. Not the best out of the last two weeks of the show, but still great...with an awesome ending to go with it.
OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Will Win and Should Win: Neil Patrick Harris as Bryan Ryan in "Glee"
(Note: this took me an hour to decide as I had to watch all of Harris's and O'Malley's scenes in the episodes they were nominated for). Being a guest star on "Glee" was a smart move by Neil Patrick Harris. If you can't win one Emmy, try winning another one. And that's what is probably happening to Harris on Emmy night when the outstanding guest actor in a comedy series award will be presented. After all, he had more airtime than 4/5th of the other nominees since "Glee" is an hour long and was in more scenes than fellow "Glee" nominee Mike O'Malley. He was able to show much of his talents in the episode like singing, dancing and the funny one-liners. It was a great performance by him and in the perfect setting. And it's also about time he gets an Emmy, too! After all, 20 years on TV is a long time without an award.
OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Will Win and Should Win: Betty White as a guest host on ""Saturday Night Live"
The host on one of the show's top three episodes of the season (the other two being Jon Hamm and Tina Fey). Not only was she supported by great writing but also a stellar cast of guest stars that included Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, which didn't give her a lot of pressure to do a great job. She also exceeded the expectations of what many thought the 88 year old's performance would be. Finally, the Emmy committee loves her. This is already the 20th Emmy she's received in a fifty year period, and I think she wouldn't received the nomination if she just gave half as good of a performance she did last time. And to think, none of this was possible without a Facebook fan page...
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SPECIAL
Will Win and Should Win: Louis J. Horvitz: "The Kennedy Center Honors"
The Kennedy Centers is the king of the variety, music or comedy specials. Year in, year out, it's always nominated for the top awards in this category. A big reason why is because of the yearly directing. And this year's show is not an exception as Horwitz and crew did another great job preparing and showing the show to the viewers watching on CBS.
So there you have it. In three separate posts, I have given you prediction on nearly thirty of the categories. And congrats to all nominees on all of the Emmy categories. Even though there were some that I think should not have been nominated, the Academy saw something that I didn't and that's all that matters. Be sure to check back to these post after the awards ceremonies to see which of the categories I got right (and by right, I mean if one of my "will wins" or "should wins" take the prize).
Now, to wrap up Emmy predictions week, here now is this week's edition of "End of the Week," featuring Lindsay Lohan, a humongous whale and an ex-USDA employee. Enjoy:
END OF THE WEEK:
Picture of the Week: 40 Foot Ton Whale Jumps on Top of South African Couple's Yacht
The fact that a person would have the camera ready and quickly take a 1 in 1,000,000 picture like that of the whale is remarkable. Nice job by the photographer.
Video of the Week: Proof That the 40 Foot Ton Whale Did Jump on Top of South African Couple's Yacht
You know, just in case you wanted to know if this was photoshopped. By the way, how terrifying must it have been for the couple? Not only did the whale just come at you, but you also had to scramble out of the way in time to survive. I think I would have been traumatized for life if it was me.
Stories of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: U.S. Aircraft Carriers Ups Pressure on North Korea
Yawn. Wake me up when WWIII is near. As of now, this is nothing new.
-The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Man Dressed As Darth Vader Robs Bank in Long Island
As you can see, he has not done well financially since allowing the Death Star to blow off.
Jailbird of the Week: Lindsay Lohan
,who was sent to jail on Tuesday. She's only expected to be at the Lynwood prison for only 13 or 14 days of her 90 days sentence, thanks to prison overcrowding and with her crowd being non-violent. But one thing out of this will last forever...her mugshot. Behold!
Person of the Week: Ex-USDA Worker Shirley Sherrod
Person of the Week: Ex-USDA Worker Shirley Sherrod
for redeeming herself (while earning her fifteen minutes of fame) this week after being forced to resign her job by the White House. The whole story began late in March when Sherrod, then about to wrap up year one of her job as Georgia director of Rural Development, was caught on tape speaking to a local Georgia NAACP chapter and telling them that she did not give a white farmer "the full force of what I can do" after he asked her for assistance. After the tape was leaked, most people thought that Sherrod said that a person of power such as herself not giving aide to a farmer because of his race. The White House immediately went into action demanded that the USDA contact her and force her to resign. Sherrod did so on Monday after talking to USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook, which she did by pulling over and submitting her resignation via-Blackberry.
Now, here's where the so-called racial controversy becomes interesting. Sherrod claims that her statement was taking out of context, saying that she said it to prove a point that working with the farmer showed her that it wasn't a black-and-white thing, that it happened all the way back in 1986 and that she ended up working with the farmer for two years to avoid foreclosure. The wife of the farmer ended up confirming that story to CNN, saying that Sherrod even ended up saving her family's farm. So, big mistake by the White House.
The White House did end up apologizing her removing Sherrod before she was even proved guilty of her actions. So, there you go. In less than a week, Sherrod went from being just a Georgia USDA employee to one of the top names talked about by the media. She also went from being bashed by the right and the NAACP as well as fired by the White House to getting apologies from all of them (in the White House's case, it came after a reporter said that Sherrod was watching it live on CNN). Not bad. It just also goes to show you how little people use "innocent until proven guilty" while judging people and stories.
Runner-Up: Nerds (Comic Con took place this week)
And that's the way it is! Enjoy your weekend, and don't forget about the season premiere of "Mad Men" on Sunday!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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