Snubbed

We need to talk about the Emmy nominations. There was a lot about them that I agreed with, including nominations for the shattering back half of season five of Breaking Bad and acting nominations for the excellent cast of Orange Is the New Black.

But Captain Negative isn’t here today to talk about the positive. He’s here to talk about the snubs.

For the second year, except for a Guest Actress nomination for Margo Martindale, The Americans has been shut out of the drama categories. The show didn’t even get a nod for hairstyling even though the wigs are some of the best things on it. Season two was maybe even better than season one and the last episode had revelations that left me rattled and had disturbing implications for season three. It should have been a Best Drama nominee in place of the entertaining but really stupid House of Cards.

Where are the acting nominations for The Americans? Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys give high-wire performances within performances as spies who take on multiple roles and bring their own anxieties into their disguises to the point where it’s hard to tell if the characters are acting or not. Noah Emmerich and Annet Mahendru are equally fantastic as characters with complex motivations who are ultimately unknowable. Not a lot of people watch The Americans but the critics love it so I don’t understand why the Emmy voters don’t.

I am happy Mad Men got its nominations but the only acting nods seem to be for Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks. I love Hendricks but Joan hasn’t had much to do in season seven. I’m surprised Elisabeth Moss didn’t get a Best Actress nomination since she was wonderful again, particularly in her all-nighter with Don and her Burger Chef pitch. They can’t let Peggy walk away without an Emmy. It’s criminal that nobody on Mad Men has won an acting Emmy but I guess they ran into the acting buzzsaw of Breaking Bad. Maybe next year, Jon Hamm.

Speaking of Breaking Bad, it’s a shame that Dean Norris and Betsy Brandt will go unrecognized. I really like what they did with their characters over the years. It would have been nice to spread the awards around to as many cast members as possible.

The Emmys showed way too much love to American Horror Story. It was entertaining to watch Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett and Frances Conroy chew the scenery but it was not a good season by any definition. When I saw the Big Revelation of who was the new supreme, my reaction was, “Oh. It’s the daughter. Yawn.” The show should lose points for the actress who played Zoe because I can’t staaaaaand her. In two seasons, she has shown one facial expression: sad sack. They should play a sad trombone whenever she walks in the room.

Other than all that, I liked the nominations.