Jeff Probst has already won three Emmys for his work on "Survivor," but is he a lock to win again in 2011?
The return of "End of the Week" in a moment. But first, time once again to delve into the huge list of nominations for the 2011 Emmy Awards and offer my predictions for about ten or so of them. In case you first the first part of this installment, in which I discussed the eight lead and supporting actor categories while also showing my affection for "Mad Men" and "Parks and Recreations" for the eighth millionth time, just click here. Otherwise, let's stop procrastinating and get this started...
OUTSTANDING MINISERIES OR MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Will and Should Win: "Downton Abbey"
When I first heard that this show was nominated for this category and that it also had received some solid reviews over the course of its run on both sides of the pond (ex: 92/100 rating on Metacritic), I decided to burn through all seven of its episodes over the course of this past weekend just to see what all the hubbub was about. My quick review: as a whole, there are some pretty obvious criticisms that one could find watching this show. For one, the majority of the plots from "Downton Abbey" have ranged from being too soapy to boring to even outrageous, with the "Downstairs" storylines being much more compelling than those from "Upstairs" (then again, maybe that just stems from the fact that I don't generally sympathize with individuals that either live in the upper middle class or enjoy privilege and the high life ever since they were born).Take the second episode, for instance, where the most dramatic moment of the show occured when the show's butler, Mr. Carson, revealed to have (gasp) been a dancing performer in his previous life, or when two episodes involved the tension between the abbey's valet, Mr. Bates, and his knowledge of one of the footman stealing a bottle of wine. Also, the show's two main villains (the footman Thomas and Lady Grantham's maid Sarah O'Brien) were two unsympathetic, one dimensional characters (Ed. note: I know that Thomas is gay, and his bitterness probably stems from years of oppression and suppression, but that still doesn't mean that the show couldn't have given us something to like about him).
On the other hand, I still found this miniseries, which aired on PBS during the winter, to be a fairly enjoyable program as a whole. The episodes were sharply well-written by creator Jullian Fellowes, and terrifically acted. Brendan Coyle was ever so graceful as John Bates while while Maggie Smith was classy as usual in her role as the Dowager Countess of Grantham (the Roger Sterling of the show in terms of her witty one-liners) and the young actress trio of Jessica Brown-Findley, Sophie McShera and Joanne Froggatt had some fine breakout performances. Furthermore, almost every single character on the show is interesting, while I think the fact that the show is set in such a revolutionary time (the Edwardian 1910s) could provide some interesting storylines over time, much like how I feel about "Mad Men" and its setting in the 1960s . Plus, I like how watching this show makes us, the early 21st Century viewer, feel a little smart knowing how naive and foolish these characters were about the inventions and changes that to us seem perfectly normal to us today (Ha, they're afraid of the sound of the telephone! And look how stunned they are that a girl wears pants! Oh, 20th Century aristocrats, if only you knew!) Current score of the first season, a solid 8.5/10 (which is much more than I can say for the dull "Mildred Pierce").
Other Thoughts:
a. So, this category is basically a two show battle between the British "Downton Abbey" and HBO's three part miniseries "Mildred Pierce," who had the most Emmy nominations out of any other program this TV season. I thought about giving "Mildred Pierce" my Will Win vote while just giving "Downton Abbey" my Should Win, but I have a good feeling that the Emmy's will continue their long history of admiration towards "Masterpiece Theater" shows and that they will find "Mildred Pierce" inferior to it in comparison, so there.
b. Hmm, no "Carlos." Interesting.
c. A grand tip of my hat towards the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for finally realizing what I and many others have realized before in that separating the miniseries and TV movie categories were pointless and that they should instead combine the two categories together. I know that the move had nothing to do with my mini-rant about it last year, but for the purposes of this blog I would just like to say that I did and move on without mentioning it ever again.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Will Win: Edgar Ramirez as Carlos the Jackal on "Carlos"
Winner of the Golden Globe of the same category earlier this year and outright frontrunner in the minds of pretty much everyone working in the TV industry. I see no reason to not choose Ramirez as my pick.
Should Win: Idris Elba as John Luther on "Luther"
Haven't seen Luther just yet, but after seeing his terrific three-season long performance as Stringer Bell on "The Wire" and hearing that he's fantastic once again on this show is good enough for me to root for an Elba victory this coming September.
Other Thoughts: Pretty packed category as a whole, with Elba, Laurence Fishburne, William Hurt and Ramirez leading the pack in nominees. Whoever wins, let's just hope that this year's winner at least gives a nice redemption to last year's TV movie actor award winner Al Pacino and his God-awful speech (easily the lowlight of the 2010 festivities) in the form of one that is at least interesting and not incoherent.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
Will and Should Win: Kate Winslet as Mildred Pierce on "Mildred Pierce"
Yeah, this one isn't even a contest. Winslet should probably just receive the award as soon as she steps onto that red carpet, 3/4ths away from her EGOT (if you replace "Grammy" with "Golden Globe," that is), and make her acceptance speech right there to preserve that three hour show running time.
Other Thoughts: None.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Will and Should Win: James Woods as Richard Fulk on "Too Big To Fail"
Because this really good adaptation of the book on the 2008 U.S. economic collapse needs to win an award of some kind, especially for its fine acting. Pearce and fellow "Too Big to Fail" star Paul Giamatti will provide some tough contention for Woods, but I thought that he had the stronger performance as the former CEO of Lehamn Brothers over the other two, so there's that.
Other Thought: Man, was this a tough category to decide! It's probably one of my few predictions that I will not be sad to get wrong if that time does come. Along with Woods, I could easily see every one of these actors nominated (well, maybe not Brian F. O'Byrne) be recognized as the winner come this September.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Will and Should Win: Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham on "Downton Abbey"
Well, it was pretty obvious watching "Downton Abbey" that executive producer and main writer of the show, Jullian Fellowes, loved having such a talented actress like Maggie Smith working on the set, giving her some of the show's funniest and most clever lines over the course of the first series ("What is a weekend?," "I have plenty of friends that I don't like," and so on), so I think that this love towards the experienced British will carry over come award giving time. Also, she's British, and you know how much American award shows love those actors.
Other Thoughts: If there is anyone that will be challenging Smith for the award this year, it's going to be the "Mildred Pierce" duo of Melissa Leo, who won an Oscar earlier this year for her role in "The Fighter" and was also great this year on the second season of "Treme," and Evan Rachel Wood, who was actually tolerable to watch in part three of the miniseries. Either way, 2011 will go down as a great year to be an actress playing a role in a miniseries set in the early 20th Century.
OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
Will and Should Win: "Top Chef"
I think that last year's victory for "Top Chef," the first in this category by a show not named "The Amazing Race," represented a changing of the guard moment. Sure, "The Amazing Race" is still a great program, but I feel that after going through the entire '00s undefeated, the Emmy voters just decided to give it a rest with their honoring of this show and move on to the fresher, better produced show in "Top Chef." At least, that's just my opinion (after all, the Emmys could've just gotten lazy and vote for "The Amazing Race" last year, but didn't).
Other Thoughts: None.
OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
Will Win: "Hoarders"
I feel that the American pop culture phenomenon on the subject of hoarding (just look at the amount of shows doing an episode with hoarding as a plot, from "South Park" in the episode "Insheeption" to "The Simpsons" in that Cheech and Chong episode) and the fact that this show is some damn riveting programming would propel to its first ever victory in this category. But then again, with 2010 winner "Jamie Oliver: Food Revolution" not nominated this year and two-time past winner "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" in the same list of nominees this year as "Hoarders," anything is possible in this category.
Should Win: "Mythbusters"
Well, it certainly hasn't stopped being entertaining in 2011, that's for sure.
Other Thoughts: Once again, this category is one of the most unpredictable categories of the year. That is why I would probably steer clear from betting on who will win this based on my totally half-assed explanation.
OUTSTANDING HOST FOR A REALITY OR REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
Will and Should Win: Jeff Probst as host of "Survivor"
They should rename this category the "Outstanding Jeff Probst for a Jeff Probst or Jeff Probst-Related Program." He's won this category every damn year since its beginnings, and until "Survivor" comes to an end because CBS decides that the show has become too non-profitable, I don't see the Emmy love stop.
Other Thoughts: Another nice surprise reading these Emmy nominations for the first time last Thursday was finally seeing Cat Deeley's name nominated for this category. I don't often watch "So You Think You Can Dance?" but in the small doses that I have, I was often impressed at Deeley's ability to maintain the energy of the show by herself and has a wonderful personality on camera. She seemed like she deserved it is what I'm trying to say.
OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES
Will Win: "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"
Another sharp, well-written, consistently great and well-executed year in the run of one of America's great 21st Century television institutions. 2010-2011 also featured another year of great moments, ranging from Stewart's post-Giffords shooting speech, calling out all of the FOX News lies corrected on Politifact since 2009, his interview with President Obama, his sequel to the terrific Glenn Beck parody of last year, and more. Expect the already eight time defending champion to making it nine in a row.
Should Win: "The Colbert Report"
Don't get me wrong, this is no shot against "The Daily Show." It's still a great show to watch and I look forward to it almost every weekday. It's just that I felt that in 2011, around October when Colbert appeared in Congress and in the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear that the show just took on a whole different level of quality. The one-liners seemed to get better and sharper, the attacks against G.O.P. politicians and Colbert was both brilliant and witty once again that it seemed at many times that the spawn of "The Daily Show" had actually exceeded its predecessor. Besides, "The Daily Show" had already won this award eight times. I repeat, eighth times! If "The Amazing Race" could finally lose last year, then why shouldn't "The Daily Show" lose to another deserving nominee?
Other Thoughts: Expect Comedy Central to rule this genre portion of the awards show once again in 2011.
OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SPECIAL
Will and Should Win: "The Kennedy Center Honors"
Let's just say that I've learned my lesson from the past two years when I voted against this program over something else. I will not lose this category three years in a row, do you understand me!
Other Thoughts: None.
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM
Will and Should Win: "Futurama": "The Late Philip J. Fry"
In what was the best "Futurama" episode of season 6.1 and the best overall since their final episode on FOX ("The Devil Hands are Idle Playthings") we saw Fry, Bender and Proffesor Farnsworth travel forward through time in hopes of coming to a time in human history where a backwards time machine was created so that Fry could get back in time to have a date with crush Leela, who was celebrating her birthday. The well-executed episode was simply a perfect mix of what makes "Futurama" great and a reason why I'm still very grateful to Comedy Central for bringing it back on the air. It was hilarious (my favorite parts was seeing Professor Farnsworth stopping twice to shoot Adolf Hitler and then failing the second time, shooting Eleanor Roosevelt instead, and then the final shot of Bener burying the bodies under the same bridge that Fry and Leela were on), it was sweet, it was touching (Leela's message at the cave), it was compelling, it was metaphysical, it had some great music (most notably that great "In the Year 2525" parody), and it had some great bits of animation (who didn't love the beautiful sequence where they showed billions of years of the Earth's history repeat itself before our eyes?). Honestly, I don't see what more you can ask for from an animated cartoon.
Other Thoughts:
a. If there was a main contender for "Futurama" in this category, it would be "South Park" for their episode "Crack Baby Athletic Association." It wasn't the best episode the show released this year, but it was still pretty great, from Cartman dressing up as a plantation owner to the reveal that Slash wasn't real (easily one of the best moments of the show in regards to its mythology, that I felt this a good job spreading the message of the hypocrisy of the NCAA. The darkhorse? Definitely "The Simpsons" (the only other multiple-time Emmy award winner) with "Angry Dad." Hollywood loves shows that have plots involving Hollywood and show business as a whole. Why else would you explain the past Emmy successes of "30 Rock" and "Entourage"?
b. Why an episode of "The Cleveland Show" was nominated over any episode of "Archer," "American Dad," "Bob's Burger," and even the "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" episode of "Community," I will never understand.
Be sure to come back later this week for the final installment of my 2011 Emmy predictions! And now, as promised, here is a new installment of "End of the Week" for this, the week between July 17th, 2011 and July 23rd, 2011:
END OF THE WEEK:
TV Premiere of the Week: "Breaking Bad"
The show that is arguably the best on television returned after a thirteen month hiatus with what was inarguably their season premiere this past week, and I will just state plainly (to the people who missed it or haven't started watching the show yet) that it didn't miss a beat, especially when it came to the show's notorious levels of suspense and intensity. Let's just say that the record breaking audience that watched the show and it's biggest "Holy Sh*t!" moment will never look at box cutters and Kenny Rogers T-shirts the same way again. Also, I think it speaks well to the show's acting where Giancarlo Esposito can only have one line the entire time and Aaron Paul doesn't say anything period for the first forty-five minutes, and they were both just as brilliant as Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, and the rest of the cast who had the most lines. As you might have guessed from reading this paragraph, I am so glad to have this program back into my life.
Internet Meme of the Week: The "Two and a Half Men": Season 9 Ad Parodies
In preparation for their first (and possibly only) season in the post-Charlie Sheen era, the marketing geniuses at CBS decided it would be a good idea to have the three stars of "Two and a Half Men" (Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones, and Ashton Kutcher) pose nude (including the 17 year old Jones) behind a white board saying "All Will Be Revealed... 09.19.11" Since the ad is just too perfect for photoshopping, the Internet had fun with it by writing their own advertisements on the poster's board. You can find some great photoshops over at Warming Glow, and the AV Club. My personal favorite is the one shown above.
Stories of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: Norway Devastated With Oslo Bombings, Youth Camp Shootings
Such a horrible tragedy. In the span of 24 hours, a relatively peaceful country was struck with not only a devastating terror bombing in its nation's capital but also a terrifying shooting to schoolchildren if you'd believe me (and from the same group of people). The total amount of deaths: at least 92 (and, sadly, probably counting). Thankfully, the person responsible for this massacre has been captured, so at least there's one bright side into all of this.
-The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Konrad Schmidt, Suicidal Son, Crashes Plane Into Mother's House With Her In It
I don't know what's worse: the fact that he went on a kamikaze mission to kill his mom, or that he ended his life with such a bad pun like "Are you there, Mom? I'm just about to drop in." For shame, sir!
Record Breaker of the Week: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"
for breaking several box office records in the span of less than 10 days, including the record for highest gross of an opening midnight screening ever ($43.5 million domestically, easily surpassing previous record holder "Twilight: Eclipse"), the record for best opening weekend domestically (around $169.2 million, beating 3 year long record holder "The Dark Knight" by around $10 mil.) and in the foreign markets (around $314 million) and the record for the 3rd largest opening week ever ($226.1 million domestically). The movie also became the fifth ever in cinema's 120 year history to reach $200 million domestically in five days, joining "The Dark Knight" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" in that exclusive movie club. Skeptics and cynics nationwide have been trying to bring down this significance of these records, citing inflation and the high prices of tickets these days (especially 3-D movies). No matter what you think of the record, though, I think we can all agree that this past week and a half have shown exactly how big the Harry Potter franchises exactly is in the United States and around the world and how much people are willing to pay to watch their beloved wizard fight Voldemort on the silver screen one last time (that is, until some greedy movie executives decide to re-boot it 30 years later).
Video of the Week: "Best Penalty Ever! Awana Diab (UAE) vs. Lebanon via Backwheel"
The small level of difficulty it took for this man to score this show makes you question the U.S. Women's Soccer Team's PK loss to Japan Sunday more and more.
Death of the Week: Singer Amy Winehouse
Well, this is some sad piece of news. Can't say that I'm surprised, though. A woman with that many substance abuse problems over the years was bound to do some serious damage to herself eventually. Still, such a waste of Grammy award-winning talent. R.I.P.
Person of the Week: Comedian Jonnie Marbles
for three simple reasons:
1) Throwing a pie at the face of Mr. Rupert Murdoch, a.k.a. the chairman of Newscorp. and real life replica of Mr. Burns, during his hearing at the British Parliament this week in regards to the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
2) Introducing the world to Mrs. Rupert Murdoch, a.k.a. Wendi Deng, who famously sprang up from her seat to defend her husband like a guard dog the second he was about to throw the pie in his face (and doing so after countless minutes of her looking angrily at the Parliament members asking him questions during the hearing). Now that is one feisty Tiger Wife any man would like to have!
3) Doing something that nobody thought possible at the time of the hearing: actually make Rupert Murdoch sympathetic in the eyes of the media, the members of the British Parliament at the time of the hearing and precious Newscorp. stock holders. Here's Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report" with the more detailed explanation:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Humanized by Pie | ||||
| ||||
To recap: not only did many cable news pundits feel sorry for him, but the British Parliament members apologized to the man (who they were basically bashing mere minutes ago) and the Newscorp. market value went from a loss of $7 billion in four trading days to gaining $395 million in five minutes. Hmmm, interesting. Apparently, embarrassing moments do bring you pity! Whodathunkit!
And that's the way it was! Be sure to stop by to this site next week, when I will not only have the final installment of my 2011 Emmy awards predictions but also will be celebrating the blog's 2 year anniversary by introducing the 2011 class of The mj15 Blog Hall of Fame. It's poised to be one of the best weeks on the blog all year, so don't miss a post! But until then, enjoy a nice, comfortable weekend, everyone!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment