Emmy Nominations: The Good, The Bad, The What the Heck?!

The Emmy nominations came out today, and there were a lot, lot, lot of things to process.

While most TV fans could probably rant (and rave) about the nods, here are a few of the things sticking out in my mind…

•  Starting off on a nice note, I’m so glad BREAKING BAD’s (excellent) final season was appropriately acknowledged. But the exclusion of Dean Norris is just ridiculous. He had his finest body of work in the show’s final episodes, and it’s a shame he wasn’t acknowledged.
• Are you SERIOUSLY trying to tell me ARROW’s stunt team doesn’t deserve an Emmy nod? Really? I mean…I literally cannot think of a show that deserves the win more, let alone a freaking nomination.
• I’m so glad Lizzy Caplan, Allison Janney, and Beau Bridges got (rightful) nods for their work on MASTERS OF SEX, but it’s bittersweet since Michael Sheen and he series didn’t get nominated. (Sheen’s work when Bill broke down after his wife’s miscarriage is still one of the most gut-wrenching scenes I watched on television all of last season.)
• Look, the absence of ORPHAN BLACK’s Tatiana Maslany is ridiculous. The sheer amount of work she has to do each episode is incredible. Honestly, she’s so good that I almost wonder if it’s hurting her — it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the characters and completely forget that the same woman is playing all of the people on your screen.
• As phenomenal as SLEEPY HOLLOW is, I’m not surprised it couldn’t crack into the major categories. There’s an undeniable cable bias (and GAME OF THRONES is pretty much the only genre show able to crack the big categories at this point, and it’s a cultural phenomenon), and it’s just, occasionally unfortunately, the way things are right now. What is massively disappointing is that the show couldn’t crack the technical categories (aside from admittedly cool nod for “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music”)…like, to point to the super obvious, the show has great costumes. And every genre show needs top notch special effects teams in order to avoid looking cheesy. SLEEPY always looked great. (And so did SUPERNATURAL for that matter…and SUPERNATURAL got completely snubbed.) There are some great nominees for the “Outstanding Special And Visual Effects” category (ALMOST HUMAN and COSMOS were gorgeous — from what I’ve seen of GAME OF THRONES (and I am behind on that), it’s beautiful, too), but it’s a unfortunate.
• RECTIFY continues to fly under the radar, but Aden Young quietly gave one of the best dramatic performances of the year on the series. It’s almost certainly simply the issue of not enough people (or not enough of the right people for voting matters) actually watching the show.
• Yay for SCANDAL love, but where the heck were Bellamy Young and Jeff Perry?!
• No actor made me laugh harder on BROOKLYN NINE-NINE than Andre Braugher did, so I’m incredibly delighted he was nominated. But BROOKLYN NINE-NINE was one of the best comedies of the year, and its exclusion is just ridiculous. (And Andy Samberg should have gotten a nod, too.)
• I, unfortunately, figured THE GOLDBERGS was probably a long shot, but really, Emmy voters: no love for Wendi McLendon-Covey?!
• Okay, but to end things on a nicer note, so glad to see ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK got a lot of (really deserved) love.

Enough from me — is there an exclusion that has you particularly annoyed? (I also reserve the right to add more upsets in the comments because there are a lot of nods and a lot of good shows arguably could have been included.)

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