65th Emmy Award Winners and Reactions

So prattling idealistic nonsense at 100 miles a minute is apparently the way to win an award. Congratulations, Jeff Daniels. This was definitely the most shocking award of the night as Daniels beat out fellow movie star Kevin Spacey and Bryan Cranston for best lead actor in a drama series. While there isn’t anything wrong with Daniels’s performance for HBO’s first season of the much maligned The Newsroom it certainly didn’t stand out. Apparently the Emmys found something amidst his grumpy idealism, his ever-crescendoing voice in arguments, and his general dickishness to award. Sure, Spacey has played an amoral and power wielding jerk before but that doesn’t take away anything from his stellar performance as Frank Underwood in House of Cards.

Luckily the Emmys are capable of good surprises as well by awarding Tony Hale the best supporting actor for comedy for his role in Veep. The definition of supplicating assistant, Hale’s Gary Walsh is the proper balance of pathetic without being annoying and awkward without cringing. Hale may have been the most deserving winner of everyone from the night.

Pantsless in the Chihuahuan Desert

Breaking Bad finally wrested control of the best drama Emmy in a year where Mad Men had a bit of an off season. It managed to stave off both House of Cards and Game of Thrones. Anna Gunn also won for best supporting actress for a drama series.

Breaking Bad has always been a tad overrated in my eyes. The main storyline that revolves around Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and their bumpy rise to meth kingpins is perhaps the most compelling single story arc of any show in quite sometime. Where the show becomes much less pure is in its subplots and supporting characters. Hank’s arc was never compelling. Skyler aimlessly flip-flops whenever she feels like it. To me it was never as cohesive a show as Mad Men usually is, which is why it hasn’t won best drama series until this year.

And now to get to Anna Gunn, this year’s winner for best supporting actress. Let me first put out a disclaimer that I am not a Breaking Bad fanboy that hates Skyler because her sole purpose in the show is to stand in Walt’s way. In fact, I’m guessing that’s why she was awarded the Emmy this year seeing as how all those fanboys love sending her hate tweets. Gunn has always been uninspiring. She’s a pony with two tricks, neither of which she does amazingly well. It is still a shame that Christina Hendricks has not won for Mad Men. But her reduced and not as complex a role in this past season certainly did not help her chances this year. Cannavale was deserving as best supporting actor for being the easily angered villain in Boardwalk Empire but was also probably helped by some vote splitting between the two candidates from Breaking Bad in Aaron Paul and Jonathan Banks.

The Kings Stay The Kings

Claire Danes for Homeland; Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep; Jim Parsons for Big Bang Theory; and Modern Family all repeated for their respective categories. HBO also won best movie/miniseries and lead actor for a movie/miniseries with Behind the Candelabra and Michael Douglas. Thus proving that the Emmys had the good sense not to reward the much ado about nothingness of Girls but also can’t quit Modern Family for whatever reason. Although with the rest of the aforementioned awards the Emmys definitely got it right.

While I wasn’t as into Behind the Candelabra as some, it was still a very good movie that felt bigger than the screen it aired on. HBO has slowly legitimized TV as a worthwhile medium over the years and Behind the Candelabra may be the crown jewel in HBO’s crown. Had Scott Bakula received more screen time, or Matt Damon been listed for supporting actor in a movie/miniseries I have no doubt they would have won the award as well. And whatever you think of the movie itself, the importance of it being released first and only on television cannot be downplayed.

Perhaps the word “Emmy” is actually an acronym for Elisabeth Moss’s Melancholy, Yearly – celebrating Elisabeth’s performances without ever actually awarding her. As usual she was nominated for lead actress in a drama, losing out to Claire Danes. But this year the Emmys nominated her for lead actress in a miniseries/movie for her performance in the miniseries Top of the Lake. I thought that the Emmys may have awarded her the miniseries/movie award with a bit of a wink, acknowledging her great work for Mad Men over the years but never winning. Instead the great Laura Linney brought home another Emmy and Elisabeth Moss is now 0 for 6 with Emmy nominations.