MTVP Emmys Coverage 2014: "The Aftermath"

“This year, we’re doing the Emmys on a Monday night in August. Which if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to get cancelled.”
-Seth Meyers

The quick version of the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards telecast is that the telecast itself had good production values and was (mostly) inoffensively entertaining, but the winners, for the most part, were as boring as could be. I’ve come to the conclusion that I enjoy slightly worse quality Emmy telecasts as long as they have interesting winners, but I don’t overly enjoy boring winners. The unexpected winner I’ve been rooting for gives a nice jolt of adrenaline, and there was very little of that this year. Instead we got about the repeat-y-ist line-up of winners I can recall in my years of blogging the Emmys here at MTVP.

Starting with the positive, I’ll say that “Late Night” host Seth Meyers was really a very capable host. I haven’t seen much of Meyers, so I really didn’t know what to expect. All I really knew was that he had taken over for Jimmy Fallon twice, first as Weekend Update guy on “Saturday Night Live,” and now as “Late Night” host. I guess you could add being NBC’s Emmy hosting choice as a third take-over, since Fallon hosted the last time NBC had the telecast. His intro monologue was full of general TV humor not really directed at any celebrity in general (celebrities tend to not like to be made fun of at award shows). It was very industry (and Emmy awards in particular) self-referential, and I found it funny only because I’m such a TV nerd. I’m not sure if a casual viewer would have really gotten the jokes, but I was amused.

There were some other funny comedy bits beyond the opening monologue, too. There was a video where “Billy on the Street” and Meyers went around New York City asking people questions about the Emmys and television in general. People had no clue what they were talking about most of the time, which was kind of an eye-opener for me. I live and breathe entertainment news since I work on this blog. A lot of people who know me are very surprised to learn that I have a rather encyclopedic knowledge of celebrity gossip. It’s my mindless hobby. I have other hobbies, too, though – no worries! There was also a bit where celebrities started asking Meyers random questions like “can I go to the bathroom” and “can I have Maggie Smith’s Emmy since she’s not here to claim it?” The best bit was the bathroom key with the very large, Emmy-shaped keychain!

There were some interesting moments courtesy of people other than Seth Meyers, too. Overall, Meyers relied a lot on his fellow “Saturday Night Live” alumni friends like Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, and Jimmy Fallon. There was also a bit where Weird Al made up lyrics to TV theme songs that don’t have lyrics (like “Game of Thrones” or “Scandal”). It was an awesome idea, but kind of suffered in the execution. The lyrics weren’t all that funny. I especially enjoyed the bit Chris Hardwick did when he presented an award. He basically went on a grammar rant about internet trolls. Specifically how they don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re. Which is so unbelievably true! The Colbert Report won for Outstanding Variety Series, and Jimmy Fallon came on stage and sort of stole Colbert’s acceptance speech. That bit got me laughing, too.

For the most part, as I’ve already said, the winners this year were extremely disappointing. Most had already won for the role in question, and if not, they had won for a previous role. Heck, Allison Janney won two Emmys just this year alone! I’m a fan of Allison Janney from her “West Wing” days. I think a lot of people are, which is probably why she keeps getting nominated for and winning Emmys. But that doesn’t mean that a mediocre Chuck Lorre show like “Mom” (for which she won the Emmy last night) is at all deserving. I call this “Emmy intertia.” I adore Jim Parsons and his “aw shucks” attitude about winning a ton of awards, but this was his fourth Emmy, and it’s too much. Parsons admitted as much in his awards speech, because, like I said, he’s awesome.

I’m also beyond tired of “Modern Family” and all their Emmy love. I was happy that they only had two guys nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy category. Given the two nominees and the fact that Tony Hale (yay “Veep!”) won last year, I had hope that we’d get another interesting win this year. Nope. Instead we got Ty Burrell. As you would expect, “Modern Family” also won Outstanding Comedy. I couldn’t believe that it won yet again in a year when “Orange is the New Black,” “Veep,” and even “Louie” were nominated. There is no way “Modern Family” should have had a fifth consecutive win. “Breaking Bad” won Outstanding Drama, and it’s a perennial awards darling, but since this was its final season, I was okay with that win.

The only surprising wins of the night belonged to “Sherlock.” I’m surprised that it took three seasons to get any Emmy love at all, especially considering the earlier seasons were better. First of all, Steven Moffat won Outstanding Writing for a TV Miniseries or Movie. As you probably can tell from this blog, I don’t love what Moffat has done to “Doctor Who” with all the overplotting. On the other hand, I tend to like his work on “Sherlock” more, for the most part. So I was torn on that win. I was incredibly amused that the Lead Actor and Supporting Actor wins turned out exactly as I hoped in my “The Players” post. Sarah said there was no way Martin Freeman would win, so I’ve been enjoying a little (probably ungracious) vindication! Sorry, Sarah! I’ll stop gloating soon, I promise! I wasn’t really all that invested in those awards, I just liked the fact that my off-the-wall predictions came true. I do wish that Freeman and Cumberbatch had been in Los Angeles to accept their awards. They seem like they would give good award speech.