Another year, another Emmy telecast that fails to live up to the standards of 2009’s Neil Patrick Harris helmed effort or even the Jimmy Fallon hosted telecast in 2010. It was a night of mostly predictable wins and one downright nauseating (yet not really predictable because it was so horrible) win. Even ten time winner Jon Stewart complained at how predictable the whole thing has become. There was not one award that made me truly ecstatic to see the winner. On top of that, the telecast itself was nothing special. It was a run-of-the mill awards show. Not terrible, but nothing unique either. I guess that host Jimmy Kimmel must just not be a very original performer in his own right. So yeah, while I love the idea of the Emmys every year, and I kind of desperately want to host an Emmys party as a couple weeks early 30th birthday party next year, this year wasn’t one of the better ones. But I’m nothing if not giving to my (one, maybe two) readers, so on with the Emmy’s commentary!
Jimmy Kimmel’s not a song and dance man like Neil Patrick Harris or a comedic musician like Jimmy Fallon, and he really didn’t have anything else to truly make this telecast his own. What he did was include little video sketches here and there throughout the telecast. One of those sketches, which was mildly funny, opened the show. It involved Kimmel crying in the women’s bathroom and several of the nominees finding him after walking in on several naked Lena Dunhams eating cake. The good part about the opener was that it made fun of the disastrous last time ABC hosted the telecast (all of the co-hosts from that year pop up at one point and offer to host). I think I liked that because it was a joke only a true Emmy nerd who specifically remembers the 2008 telecast would pick up on. I also liked that there was a little dig about people mixing up Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon (the latter of which is pretty clearly more talented). Another great video skit involved some of the cast of the Big Bang Theory. Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny are watching the telecast, and of course Sheldon’s favorite bit is the introduction of the accountants who calculated the votes. It was the cleverest way to shoehorn in the accountant bit that I’ve seen since Dr. Horrible made an appearance in 2009.
Another largely positive aspect of the telecast was that it kept with the organization by genre which first appeared in the 2009 Neil Patrick Harris-hosted telecast. I prefer organization by genre for a reason that the Emmy producers probably don’t like. I can pay less attention during the segments for genres that I don’t care so much about (Reality, I’m looking at you). Of course the really big awards, Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, were saved for the very end, though. ABC put one little twist on the organization that I found just a touch shady and self-serving. Usually the last award of the night is Outstanding Drama Series. This year it was Outstanding Comedy Series. “Modern Family,” which airs on ABC was pretty much a lock to win its third Outstanding Comedy Emmy in a row. It was quite nice for ABC to be able to end the telecast with one of their own shows winning. Not saying that was definitely the case, it just looked shady. I also found it odd that all the comedy and drama awards (you know, the ones people care about) except for the series awards were given out before the Movie/Mini-series awards were given out. I’m guessing here (no proof) that the Powers that Be were hoping that acceptance speeches from the big movie stars who sometimes do TV movies and mini-series would shore up the ratings for the final hour.
The whole thing, as I’ve alluded to before, was really a straight-up awards show with no gimmicks (Ricky Gervais, in his obligatory presenter slot, didn’t even get to serve the audience beer). The only entertainment was really the sketches, and those were all too infrequent. To put it simply, the telecast was just plain boring. There were some presenters that were endearing. Jim Parsons and Zooey Deschanel, both of whom bring the “aww” factor, presented together. And Damon Wayans, Jr. made a crack about the Patriots/Ravens game being 3-0 Patriots (I can forgive him for that since my Ravens would eventually come back to win 31-30…and he was awesome as Coach in the “New Girl” pilot). None of the presenting bits really blew me away, though. But then there was utter dreck like Jimmy Kimmel making fun of the In Memoriam segment by having an In Memoriam all about himself (the idea being that we should honor people while they’re still alive to appreciate it). I got his point but you don’t make a joke out of the In Memoriam segment. Seriously. Oh and then there was Kimmel kicking his parents out of the theatre after he lost his variety show award because they lied when they said he could achieve any dream. That was just plain stupid and predictable.
I wouldn’t have minded the boring telecast so much if any of the winners had excited me. So many of the winners were repeats. We had Modern Family taking both of the Supporting Actor Comedy trophies (I was pissed that Max Greenfield didn’t win for his portrayal of Schmidt on “New Girl,” I’ll admit it…oh and Mayim Bialik lost too…another boo). Julia Louis Dreyfus, who has already won two Emmys, won Outstanding Lead Actress for “Veep,” which I have not seen, although I understand it’s been critically well reviewed. She may have been deserving, but I feel like we were just being transported back to the 1990’s. The one win that excited me was Tom Bergeron winning for Reality Competition Host. That’s always been Jeff Probst’s award, and to see the affable Bergeron, who I always enjoy for his dry wit on “Dancing With the Stars” win the trophy was fun. It was also reasonably nice to see “Homeland” get a lot of recognition. They took the trifecta of big Drama awards, depriving Mad Men of yet another Outstanding Drama Series trophy, which couldn’t make me happier. I do need to watch “Homeland,” at some point, but I haven’t yet. The moment that completely killed the show for me, however, was Jon Cryer winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. Even Jon Cryer thought it was ridiculous (which actually made it slightly more palatable). His and his wife’s WTF faces when his name was called were kind of priceless. That doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of the field, which included the likes of Don Cheadle, were deprived of a win.
And so we close the book on yet another Emmy telecast. Frankly, I’m glad this one is over. I can hope for a better telecast next year when CBS has the reigns again. I’m hoping they invite Neil Patrick Harris back again, even if there is no season 9 of HIMYM. Really, the only reason I at all want a season 9 of HIMYM is so that Harris will be a lock to host again. Is that sad? Sure that wouldn’t fix the problem of disappointing wins, but at least I’d be entertained for three hours. And surely “Modern Family” has to end someday. Or at least the absurd Emmy love has to. Right? Right? Anybody?
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