Saturday, July 9, 2011

Thoughts on Emmy Nominations: Comedy Series

Here are my thoughts on the “series” nominations for the Comedy category.

Nominated Last Year
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm
  • Glee
  • Modern Family
  • Nurse Jackie
  • The Office
  • 30 Rock

All of last year’s nominees are eligible again this year, with the exception of Curb, which didn’t have a new season airing.

Will be nominated:
  • Modern Family
  • Glee
  • 30 Rock
  • The Office
  • The Big C
  • The Big Bang Theory

Returning shows should continue their momentum, despite the fact that neither Glee nor The Office really deserve to be here after wildly inconsistent seasons. I grew bored with Nurse Jackie, and perhaps voters will too, slotting in the newer and fresher of Showtime’s troubled female “comedies,” The Big C, in its place. They could nominate both, however, and leave out The Big Bang Theory, though I think it will get a nod as the only multi-camera sitcom (and as perhaps a show of support for Chuck Lorre after the Sheenpocalypse).

Should be nominated:

  • Archer*
  • Modern Family
  • Parks and Recreation
  • Louie
  • Community
  • Cougar Town

*Archer didn’t submit as a comedy, but rather as an animated series. Still, it belongs here, as it is the funniest motherfucking thing on television. Outside of Archer, surely everyone agrees that the two best sitcoms on all of TV are Parks and Rec and Community (in some order), right? If you don’t, then I probably don’t want to talk to you, and I pray to Anubis that you aren’t a Nielsen family. Like virtually everyone else, I stayed away from Cougar Town because of the initial premise. When I decide to check it out, though, I found an always entertaining, adult show about a bunch of grown-ups who swim around in their own neuroses and oceans of wine. Bravo. Then there’s Louie, the painfully funny (literally) single vision of a comedy auteur, firing on all cylinders.

Honorable Mention:

30 Rock, Brittany (can I just nominate the only consistently funny thing about Glee?), It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Big Bang Theory

2 comments:

  1. I only recently got Showtime, so I don't know anything about the Showime "comedies". That being said, I agree the "will be" list.

    Since Archer isn't actually eligible here (though you are right...nobody delivers more laughs per second), I would make the argument for Raising Hope instead. What I thought was going to be a disaster turned out to be one of the shows I look forward to most every week. If only we could get rid of Cloris Leachman. Garret Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton FTW.

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  2. I don't know what happened with Raising Hope and my DVR. You and several others suggested I watch it, I set the series to record, and got 1 or 2 eps. Which I watched and enjoyed (except for Leachman). then it never showed up again. Must have been a time slot conflict or something. I'll try to check it out again when it returns.

    I've given up on the Showtime comedies, though they are usually extraordinarily acted, if a little melodramatic and narratively trapped in amber.

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