The Good, The Bad and The Emmy

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the nominations this year. Sure, there are a few glaring omissions (and a couple of glaring inclusions), but there's enough Good to make up for the bad.

The Good

South Park's choice of episode submission. Last year, I bemoaned their misguided pick, but this year they chose a good one.

Arrested Development getting noms for Jason Bateman and Jessica Walter, while dominating the Writing category. Now if only they could do something for Will Arnett.

Scrubs finally gets some recognition in the major categories (well, it picked up a Writing nom last year, but who cares about writers?). Perhaps John C. McGinley will fare better once Peter Boyle and Brad Garrett are out of the way.

Four out of five of my picks for Best Drama series made the cut, so no complaints there (maybe it's time I gave Deadwood another shot).

Good for Glenn Close, Alan Alda and Terry O'Quinn.

Project Runway is a pleasant, somewhat unexpected surprise. I figured The Contender and America's Next Top Model were ahead in the running, but this is an excellent choice.

The Bad

I don't usually notice the Dramatic Underscore on TV, but I distinctly recall watching the "Tuesday" episode of Alias and thinking that it was a sure bet for an Emmy nod in that category. Alas, it was not to be. At least Michael Giacchino wasn't completely shut out like he was at the Oscars this year, scoring a nomination for his work on Lost.

I know I should be happy with the nominations they did receive, but how could Arrested Development be shut out of the Directing category?

The entire Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy category. It's not that I dislike any of these performers (though Boyle, Garrett and Hayes have all done better), but there are so many more deserving actors out there.


STOCKARD !@#$ing CHANNING?!?! Did the voters even see her performance this year, because I didn't and I watched every single episode of The West Wing? There were guest stars who had more lines in one episode than Channing did all season. How they could consider her more deserving than the tragically overlooked Shohreh Aghdashloo and Yunjin Kim is beyond me.

And The What The !@#$ Were They Thinking?

Conchatta Ferrell? Really?

I guess I understand Desperate Housewives' 15 nominations, but Will & Grace's 15? Huh? Granted, five came from the Guest Actor categories (most of those undeserved as well), but still, why reward such mediocrity?