The Emmys: Who I Want to Win

I’m really bad at predicting Emmy winners, as I oftentimes allow my own personal preferences to cloud my judgment. Plus, it’s so very subjective this whole picking of winners thing. It’s really based on what you watch and what kinds of shows you like personally.

If you're not into sci-fi, for example, you won't give a hoot about Lost. Some people hate the slow-moving, subtle Mad Men and think it's overhyped. (I know, it's hard to believe, but the haters are out there.) You really don't know how many of those folks are Emmy voters. That’s why I think it’s difficult to prognosticate, with any degree of accuracy, for whom the folks in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will vote.


So this is not a list of predicted winners. It’s my list of who I think SHOULD win. Totally biased. Based on my preferences alone. An academy of one:

Best Comedy Series: The Office. I know, conventional wisdom says that 30 Rock’s a shoo-in, and I do love the Divine Ms Fey, but I thought that the Michael Scott Paper Company story arc, where Michael left Dunder Mifflin, was fantastic and rejuvenated a show that’s been around for a while.

Best Lead Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock. The Academy loves Fey, as do I.

Best Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. Hands down. He’s wickedly funny in this role. Last season, his scenes with Salma Hayek ("El Generalissimo") were hilarious.

Best Drama Series: Mad Men. This is the toughest category of them all. Seriously, it’s loaded with so many stellar entries. My heart wants Lost, as last season re-oriented the series around a new premise (moving from "Let's get off this island" to "We gotta go back") and was wonderfully steeped in religious and literary references -- even the time travel thing grew on me, but given that the voters base their votes on only one or two episodes (I can’t remember if it’s one or two), I don’t think Lost fares well when viewed out of context and seen by people who don’t already understand what’s going on. A stand-alone episode of Mad Men, however, is much more relatable. Mad Men was indeed extremely strong and smart in its second season. Plus there's Jon Hamm and January Jones goodness to enjoy.

Best Lead Actress, Drama: Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men. This is a category for which I have no real clue as to who the Academy voters will chose. None. But I’m rooting for Moss who has played the complex Peggy Olson character so very earnestly and believably.

Best Lead Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment. I have my favorites – Hamm and Hugh Laurie from House – but based on what I saw, Byrne was exceptional in the second season, particularly in the episode where his father died. Byrne provided a raw performance for which he deserves to be rewarded.

The only other category in which I’m very interested is the Best Supporting Actor, Drama for which I’ll pulling for Michael Emerson from Lost who plays the exquisite personification of evil that is Benjamin Linus. Go Ben!

For what shows, actresses, actors are you rooting to win on Sunday night?

Image credit: ABC.

NBC’s Thursday Night Slate Made Me Laugh

*Warning, spoilers ahead from recently aired premieres of NBC comedys*

I didn’t have high expectations when I turned to NBC last night. Didn’t expect to laugh out loud. But laugh I did. Hope it’s not an aberration.

Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation dramatized an awkwardly twisted parody of how penny-ante political scandals can spiral out of control in short order. Sure, a penguin marriage ceremony at the Pawnee Zoo is silly stuff with no substance, simply a shallow PR attempt to lure foot traffic. But it’s really not that unrealistic to have something as innocuous as a zoo event morph into a scandal. Such as when Leslie Knope inadvertently married gay penguins (she thought it was a male/female pair), making her a target of a conservative family organization that wanted her to annul the marriage, then resign and, simultaneously, a hero to her local gay community. Poehler absolutely pulled this off with aplomb.

I think that broadening the subject matter with which Leslie deals will only help. The first season was a bit bogged down in Leslie’s singular quest to transform a dirt pit into a park. (Hulu now has the season two premiere on its site.)

Speaking of Poehler, she also appeared on Saturday Night Live’s Update Thursdays and did a “Really!?! With Seth and Amy” segment on the recent spate of public incivility. Spot. On. Best line: Seth advising Kanye West about what to do if he sees an older woman holding a “World’s Best Grandma mug” and he thinks some other nana is a better grandma.



I likewise was laughing at The Office’s bizarro first scene. Parkour anyone? Seriously? There’s such a thing?



Community was kind of snappy and kept a running Gilmore Girls-ish loop of pop culture references throughout. Wonder if they’ll be able to keep up the meet-cute conceit and give this show some legs for the long haul.

Anyone else catch the 8-10 NBC slate? Thoughts? By the way, am I the only one who hasn’t heard of Parkour before?

Fall TV Preview Plus 'Grey's' Releases First 5 Minutes of Premiere

It begins in days. . . the fall TV season.

Heroes premieres on Monday, Sept. 21 if there are folks who still care about the once sterling sci-fi drama. I'm still on board, despite the distinctly rocky roads it has traversed as of late.

Greg House will be in an asylum when House starts, also on Monday, Sept. 21.

ABC will try to hook us on a new Lost-like drama called FlashForward, with the fascinating premise: Everyone in the world blacks out and experiences a two-plus minute flash of themselves several months into the future. (Premieres Thursday, Sept. 23.)



Desperate Housewives will start its new season on Sunday, Sept. 27 with Lynette Scavo, who already has four kids, pregnant with twins, apparently trying to give Kate Gosselin a run for her money.

The Office returns to make us laugh with its uncomfortable awkwardness and news of Pam's pregnancy, as the health care debate makes us cry, on Thursday, Sept. 17. (I STILL miss the Michael Scott Paper Company.)



And then there's the Grey's Anatomy premiere on Sunday, September 24. We all know the behind-the-scenes casting stories. There are many of us -- including yours truly -- who felt manipulated by the season finale last spring when both Izzie and George coded and then met one another in that ethereal elevator scene. But, if you're like me, you're still willing to tune in for more abuse. In a surprising move, ABC has posted a sneak peek of the first five minutes of the season premiere on its web site and I've posted it below. It provocative to say the least, and I did tear up.



A couple of other new shows to which I'm looking forward to seeing include CBS's The Good Wife, the one about the betrayed political wife starring Julianna Margulies (premiering Tuesday, Sept. 22) and ABC's new comedy Modern Family, whose online clips have made me laugh (premiering Wednesday, Sept. 23).



My review of fall TV premieres which feature moms and families is up on Mommy Track'd this week.

What shows are you looking forward to seeing return this fall? Any new ones you're eagerly anticipating?

Season Finales Aren't What They're Cracked Up to Be

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from a variety of recent season finales*

I've come to the conclusion that, for the most part, season finales are serious let-downs. They almost never live up to the hype. And how can they, really? We viewers want drama, humor, the occasional sweet moment and cliffhangers . . . but not emotionally brutal cliffhangers that can sometimes appear out of left field. The networks just want one thing: Monster ratings, and they don't care how they happen. This means there's tremendous pressure to amp up the drama and conflict, even if they don't make sense as far as where the show has been throughout the season because without ratings there will be no show. This annually leaves us viewers with TV season finales that largely leave us disappointed and, sometimes irritated particularly if a naked, ratings-chasing maneuver is employed.

Take Lost's shocking season three cliffhanger finale. Now that was one hell of a finale. A beloved character, Charlie Pace sacrificed his own life in order to save his friends and, after three seasons of character flash-backs, Lost engaged in several flash-forwards, depicting Jack Shepherd in a future point in time longing to return to the island while, in the current time period, Jack was singularly determined to get everyone off of it. It was the gold standard of finales. A major character died in it -- doing something he thought would save the woman he loved -- but his death was beautifully and touching done. It was tough to watch Charlie drown, but it made sense for the larger story at the same time that it made viewers sad.

Compare that to Grey's Anatomy recent, fifth season finale, where it was left uncertain as to whether two of the show's original characters will live or die when season six begins. One character, Izzie Stevens, had been battling cancer, so if she had died it would've been understandable and, given the previous three-hankie episode where she was married, poetic and tragic. But instead, the show had Izzie AND George O'Malley facing death, as O'Malley was hit by a bus and potentially fatally injured. Tacky. Grey's fourth season finale ended on a much better, more uplifting note, with Meredith Grey committing to Derek Shepherd by making a "house" of candles on the plot of land Derek had picked out for their future home, even as O'Malley learned he'd failed his intern exam.

Grey's season finale notwithstanding, the rest of this year's season enders were all over the map as far as quality goes.

Lost's season ender was good, but I thought it opened up too many different and confusing themes. Whereas the season three flash-forward finale blew my mind, this season's ending frustrated me because I was (and still am) having trouble reconciling the religious imagery and overtones with the sci-fi time travel angle, plus I feel deceived about the whole John Locke-is-really-dead twist.

The 24 finale -- which had many gripping moments this season, loved President Taylor, Renee Walker and even by-the-books Larry Moss, liked the debate over the use of torture, adored the new Washington locale -- was a classic case of too much build up. The show seemed to sputter to a lackluster conclusion, particularly when there's not much drama in the Jack Bauer's-gonna-die question because we already know that Bauer lives because Kiefer Sutherland has signed on to take his 24-hour odyssey to New York City next season, provided his parole officer lets him out of LA. Kim Bauer sitting next to her father's hospital bed, coupled with the ambiguity of the resolution with the sinister Alan Wilson -- who apparently was behind all manner of badness for several seasons, including the plot against President David Palmer -- didn't hold a candle to previously powerful season finales like the death of Teri Bauer in season one, the apparent poisoning of President David Palmer in season two and Bauer being shipped off to China in the fabulous season five.

The finale for House, however, was a nice departure from the pressure to be overly, out-of-one's-depth dramatic with the last show of the season. The tone of the final 2008-09 episode was well balanced all the way through to its "what the?" ending where we learned that Greg House didn't actually have relations with Lisa Cuddy and that his hallucinations had become so severe that he checked himself into a psychiatric facility.

Friday Night Lights capped a poignant season with an episode that jumped a few months into the future and unceremoniously had Eric Taylor dumped as the Dillon Panthers' coach and instead, assigned to run the football program for a new high school whose most talented players had already been poached by Dillon. There were way too many holes and unexplained questions as to how or why the town that had been behind Taylor -- who led his team to the State Championship that season -- would so easily fire him. I'm sure next season will be just as good as previous ones, but the finale felt abrupt.

The Office ended quietly with an insane Dunder Mifflin company picnic -- and the delightfully awful Michael Scott/Holly skit where they inadvertently informed an entire branch that it was being shuttered -- where the closest thing to a cliffhanger was Pam's visit to the ER. Viewers were led to jump to the conclusion that Pam is pregnant, but that's just an inference without overt confirmation.

Contrast the low-keyed Office finale with the over-the-top Private Practice finale, where there was an accidental embryo switch leaving two women pregnant with the other's baby, the ob/gyn for a patient with a high risk pregnancy was caught making eyes at the patient's husband in front of said patient, and a pregnant shrink (who refused to figure out which of her two lovers is the father of her baby) was rendered paralyzed by a shot administered by a patient who plans to cut the therapist's baby out of her belly. This wasn't a series of episodes. These events didn't unfold over a period of weeks. It was in one finale. And it was all too much.

I'm convinced that the ratings pressure is the biggest culprit for the zany finales and the reason why viewers inevitably feel disappointed by the aggressively-promoted season finales, many of which fail to justify the hype because either they're artificially crammed with manufactured drama or because the writers have things happen that they normally wouldn't.

What recent season finales did you like? Which ones let you down?

Image credit: Fox.

Finale Madness: House, Lost, Grey's, The Office, 30 Rock, Housewives, 24

It's a bit too much for one eight day period -- including one in which the home town hoop team is in the playoffs, and there's baseball on -- all these season finales at once. And you know that if you don't watch the finales on time (even in the DVR/TiVo era) you're likely to get something spoiled or you might stumble upon something accidentally on the internet.

If you don't want to miss some of the big finales and/or need to set the DVR, here are a few of note coming up over the next week:

House, Monday, Fox. Huddy. The combo of House and Cuddy. Doesn't exactly seem like the beginning of a beautiful relationship. One with power plays, resentment, lack of communication and co-dependency: Yes. Loving commitment: No. Huddy aside, I'm wondering if House has been suffering from Izzie Stevens syndrome, only the deceased person he's been hallucinating wasn't his one-time fiance, but his buddy's gal. Hmmm.

Lost, Wednesday, ABC. The big kahuna of all finales. Two-hour extravaganza. Jack. With an H-bomb. Threatening to blow up what in the future will become the Hatch. Kate not supporting Jack (again). Sawyer/LaFleur in another love triangle. Locke setting out to murder a mysterious character (who may or may not be among the living). I know that my expectations are way out of proportion with what the writers can possibly deliver, but, seeing that it's Lost, I simply don't care. Hope I'm not bitterly disappointed on Wednesday night.

Grey's Anatomy, Thursday, ABC. Yes, I was tearing up at the Izzie-Alex wedding switcheroo, particularly Alex's beautiful vows. ("Today I become a man. Today I become a husband . . . Today I become accountable to you, to our future.") After five seasons of this wildly uneven though always entertaining show, I'm planning on having a big tissue box next to me when I watch the finale. I'll also be crossing my fingers that there will be no more sick/dying/dead children. I've had plenty this season, thank you very much. If you believe the rumors, George O'Malley may or may not be leaving Seattle Grace. Izzie may or may not be dying/losing her memory post-surgery. We shall see. They've reserved two hours.

The Office, Thursday, NBC. Other than me continuing to miss the oddball nature of the Michael Scott Company. I have no earthly idea what'll happen. Maybe an explosion at Dwight's beet farm?

30 Rock, Thursday, NBC. Liz. Jack. Jenna. Tracy. Kenneth. It'll be a long, laughless, special guest star-less summer without them. The finale promises Donaghy daddy issues with guest star Alan Alda. Kidney anyone?

Desperate Housewives, Sunday, ABC. Let's hope Dave Williams goes bye-bye, Susan Mayer and Mike Delfino stop teasing us (and leading on clueless Katherine Mayfair) and that the Scavos get some decent material. Maybe Bree will decide to go into the burglary biz, as long as she stops renting storage units under her own name in which to house her ill-gotten-gains.

24, NEXT Monday, Fox. Jack Bauer's latest bad day comes to a close next Monday in a two-hour extravaganza. Maybe Jack will finish off the bad guys with a fierce headbutt . . . no wait, that's Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who plays Jack, and unsuspecting fashion designers. Maybe Sutherland just got confused and THOUGHT he was Jack and that the designer was really Tony Almeida in disguise.

Image credit: ABC.

I Miss the Michael Scott Paper Company

I miss the Michael Scott Paper Company. Already. It completely rejuvenated The Office. It made us see the nutty, clueless boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) -- who couldn't get his own grandmother to invest in his start-up company -- in a different light, as it did for Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) who became more than a phone-answering secretary.

The Dunder Mifflin salespeople got a boost from it as well. They actually had to work to try to actively save their clients, whose accounts they wanted to keep away from the clutches of the Michael Scott Paper Company's eager sales associates. Sure, you expected Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) to tussle with Michael, Pam and Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) over clients. Dwight would go to the mat over a lost paperclip.

And just as I was hoping that the Michael Scott Paper Company would actually take off from their puny closet/office, Michael, Pam and Ryan returned to the comfort of the Dunder Mifflin fold (although Ryan's stint in sales was short lived). Now I fear that The Office will lose the creative mojo it generated with Michael's departure from Dunder Mifflin and things will simply revert back to the way they were.

Here's to hoping my fears are unfounded.

Image credit: NBC.

'Desperate' Mondays: Rose's Turn

Maybe it's because I was spoiled by three consecutive days of thrilling baseball in the form of the Boston Red Sox kicking the New York Yankees' collective behinds. Ground rule doubles. Fastballs at 99 mph. A grand slam. STEALING HOME PLATE. What's better than that?

Maybe it's because HBO's In Treatment (which I'm going to write about in a separate blog item) is so gripping and exquisite, even when you're watching nothing but people talking.

Maybe it's because many other TV shows have been so good lately, such as Lost, Rescue Me, House, The Office, experiencing a rebirth of sorts with Michael's upstart company. (I'm currently irritated that Grey's Anatomy has become a showcase for dead and dying kid scenes. Seriously, as the mom of young kids, I can't take these kinds of scenes each week. I'm begging ya Shonda, please have Dr. Bailey get out of pediatrics, NOW!)

Whatever the cause, I do know that I've lost my Desperate Housewives' mojo. I've been writing about the show on this blog after each new episode but have been rapidly losing interest, despite the fact that the show's continuing to get good ratings. I, personally, don't find it a "must-see" anymore. Stories are becoming repetitive, characters too predictable.

How many times is Bree going to be betrayed by her husband/lover? (Rex cheated. The creepy pharmacist guy wooed Bree after killing Rex. Orson swooped in, knowing full well he'd already tried to kill Bree's neighbor Mike. I could go on and on here. Bree's unlucky in love. We've got it. But how many times are we going to see her go to war with the man who she once loved?)

How many episodes are going to feature the theme that people routinely hide things from one another? (Wasn't that the theme of the pilot episode, that Mary Alice was hiding her pain when her life looked pristine and perfect from the outside just before she committed suicide? Katherine "confessing" that she was hiding her desire for Mike to commit to her? Duh. Of course she'd want commitment. It would be out of character for her not to.)

How many times are we going to witness one spouse get jealous of another? (Tom getting upset that Lynette took a shower at the office? Like Lynette's really going to cheat on him with Carlos. Tom is feeling emasculated -- AGAIN -- because Lynette is working and comes home tired and uninterested in sex. Tom's looking to validate himself, make himself feel better. Why not have him buy a midlife crisis-mobile. Oh, wait. Already did that. How about have him join a rock band? Did that too. Flirt with a horny neighborhood housewife? Now he can check that off his list.)

Bah!

So now, if the heavy-handed foreshadowing at the end of this episode goes where I think it's going to go, we're going to see nutty, lying Dave try to kill Susan and Mike's son in order to pay Susan back for accidentally killing Dave's first wife and child? An injured or dead/dying kid, what is this, Grey's Anatomy? Good grief. Maybe they should just call an end to the season right now so the writers can re-group.

Image credit: ABC.

Fans Rallying to Save 'Lipstick,' 'Mad Men's' Hamm to Guest on '30 Rock'

NBC has renewed the comedies The Office and 30 Rock, but still hasn't decided what to do with Lipstick Jungle, the embattled Brooke Shields drama about three fortysomething, successful gal pals in NYC, a show for which I've been cheerleading for a few weeks.

According to Broadcasting & Cable, an NBC honcho said of Lipstick, "We have to wait and see what our pilots are and what the mix of shows are." Whatever that means.

If you want to try to save the show, you could always join the rabid fans who, in addition to mailing tubes of lipstick to NBC, have started:

-- An online petition which says in part, "We are loyal fans that feel that Lipstick Jungle deserves a chance to stay on the air. It is a show based upon friendship, fashion, relationships and successful career driven women and it is what television needs nowadays. There are too many reality shows that people cannot relate to. Women can relate to Lipstick Jungle and relate to aspects of their lives. If you cancel the show you cancel a truly amazing show that deserves time to develop and progress the storylines."

-- Another petition says, "We, the undersigned, have greatly enjoyed NBC's Lipstick Jungle TV show. We are extremely disappointed that the series has been cancelled. We ask that you continue to produce more episodes so that it will have a chance at growing a larger audience."

-- A Facebook page which also attempts to rally supporters.

Meanwhile, images from Jon Hamm's (aka Don Draper) upcoming three-episode stint on 30 Rock as Tina Fey/Liz Lemon's love interest are cropping up on the internet. The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan reports that Hamm will play a doctor who lives in Lemon's building and that his first episode will air on Feb. 5.

Image credit: Contactmusic.com.

Fall TV, Plus Emmys and NBC Premiering 'Lipstick Jungle' Online

House has already premiered its new episode. The new J.J. Abrams show Fringe has begun creeping out audiences nationwide. But in the coming days, many more TV shows will premiere including Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Heroes and The New Adventures of Old Christine. I preview some of the shows that feature moms -- including 30 Rock which will (*spoiler alert*) reportedly have an adoption storyline this season-- over at my Mommy Track'd in this week's Pop Culture & Politics column.

If you just can't wait until the official premiere dates for some NBC shows, you can go directly to the network's web site and view a handful of complete episodes for free before they air. I've already watched the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle (highly recommend it for mind fluff to stop you from obsessing about Wall Street woes). Kim Raver's storyline was well done.

Oh, and don't forget, the Emmys are coming on Sunday night. Mad Men will be a repeat, thus no Mad Men Monday installment here at Notes from the Asylum. Speaking of the Emmys, who am I rooting for to take home awards (versus who I think will actually win, which is a distinctly different animal):

Best Drama: Is there really any question here? I've got my Mad Men pom-pons out. My second favorite: Lost.

Best Comedy: This is a toughie. I love Steve Carell and Tina Fey equally, but I'll go with The Office for comedy and root for Fey to take the comedic actress statute.

Best Actor in a Drama: I so want Jon Hamm to win this for his heroic portrayal of a 1960s haunted man who seemed to have everything (remember, this is an award for season one, before he became the dark shadow known as Don Draper). However I wouldn't be upset if Hugh Laurie walked away with it for House . . . though he's already won this award previously, so spreading the Emmy goodness would be kind of nice.

UPDATE: I just noticed that Hugh Laurie has NOT received an Emmy, having been nominated twice. He's won Golden Globe awards and a Screen Actors Guild award, but not the Emmy. My bad.

Best Actress in a Drama: Holly Hunter in Saving Grace. Savagely good.

Best Actress in a Comedy: The divine Ms. Fey.

Best Actor in a Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock.

Best Supporting Actress in Drama: Chandra Wilson, Grey's.

Best Supporting Actor in Drama: Ben, the evil, twisted Benjamin Linus from Lost should prevail Sunday evening, in the persona of actor Michael Emerson. Benjamin Linus is a true television enigma.

Best Supporting Actress in Comedy: Poeh-ler. Poeh-ler. Poeh-ler.

Best Supporting Actor in Comedy: Rainn Wilson, of The Office. Dwight's deadpan shtick. Gets me every time.

Who do you want to win? List your Emmy hopefuls below.

Image credit: NBC.