Monday, September 17, 2007

The Emmys

You'll forgive me if I don't have a clever or funny name for this post, but last night's show was so uninspiring that I can't even muster up the creative juices to write anything better.

Once again, the awards show that is meant to celebrate television's excellence was a mixed bag of confusing and frustrating results. There were the nauseating results for overhyped shows (Sopranos wins Best Drama, insert random whore from Grey's Anatomy here for Best Supporting Actress is a drama, Jeremy Piven for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy). Then you had the completely random winners (James Spader as Best Actor in a Drama? Ricky Gervais for Best Actor in a comedy??) Even the pleasant surprises were frustrating as they still seemed underserving. I mean, I'm glad 30 Rock was recognized as Best Comedy, but was it really better than The Office? And if so, why didn't Alec Baldwin or Tina Fey win for Best Actor/Actress in a comedy?

Then as for the show itself, it was a typical bloated affair. Seacrest was his usual smug, pandering self. The Sopranos tribute seemed unnecessary and ill-conceived. There were too many awards, particularly anything in the miniseries categories.

There were a few bright spots, not surprisingly involving members from The Office. Rainn Wilson competing against Kanye West in a kareoke contest was cute. Office cast members giving their "real thoughts" on Steve Carell was short and effective. And best of all we got a Daily Show reunion when Steve joined Jon Steward and Stephen Colbert on stage to accept Ricky Gervais' Emmy since he wasn't there.

All in all, I think it's becoming apparent that awards shows, even ones steeped in history like the Emmys, are becoming outdated and inconsequential.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How can you not mention Terry O'Quinn? Shame on you.

Adam Gutschmidt said...

Oh yeah, that's my bad. Although, he probably would have gone in the confusing surprise category. As much as I love Locke, Michael Emerson should have won. He had the much better acting year, I thought, than Locke this year.

Anonymous said...

I agree.