I didn’t watch the Emmys, because who the hell cares? There is ONE award that means anything, which is of course the Oscar, and even that doesn’t really mean anything because Crash won Best Picture. (So did The Departed. Have you re-watched that movie recently? I’ve seen fewer plot holes in cemeteries.) But Nikki Finke watched.
If you don’t know who Nikki Finke is, she’s the scribe behind Deadline Hollywood, a biz blog that gained a dedicated readership during the writer’s strike. She has a by-category reaction to the show up on her site, and she’s not pulling any punches. The choicest bits:
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (NBC)
This is such a safe “critic-approved” selection that I sometimes wonder if the Emmy voters think there’s a hidden camera trained on their ballots. I’m sorry, but 30 Rock isn’t the laugh riot everybody thinks it is (or at least the 25 viewers who actually watch it weekly judging by the still-low ratings). But since these are TV awards, voted on by TV people, in a TV-dominated town, then a sitcom sending up TV is to them a hoot and a half. Get over it already. After all, the sitcom is a dying genre. You exhausted comedic premises like friends and families and now network TV. Go forth and find yucks in more original arenas. Like showbiz bloggers who get flamed for saying they don’t like 30 Rock. I would have given the Emmy to The Family Guy. For no other reason than it would have pissed off viewers a lot more than even that inexplicable clip of Brian The Pup as a bloody pulp. Poor Choice.
ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
ATAS voters, you’re only encouraging him. Baldwin isn’t that good in it. Or maybe it’s just an age/failure thing. Potential movie leading man who never achieved superstar status, who used to be hot and now isn’t, is enough of a sad story that his peers want to reward him. (As Alec said to presenter Rob Lowe, “I’d trade this to look like him, I really would, actually.”) On the other hand, The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons should have won. But he’s a newcomer to the TV scene. And his career is just beginning, not on its last legs. Is that the reason, voters? IS IT? Poor Choice
WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Matt Hubbard, “Reunion”, 30 Rock (NBC)
Of the five nominations, 4 were writers from 30 Rock. How’s that fair? Especially when writers on other networks who aren’t writing television about television don’t have as much home-grown material. Both Ben Silverman and Jeff Zucker are probably getting royalties from last season’s shows. Fixed
Chick’s not a 30 Rock fan, is what I’m getting at. To which I say: 30 ROCK ISN’T A LAUGH RIOT?! “A BLAFFAIR TO REMEMBLACK”?!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
No comments yet.