Dressed in an infantilizing bow-tie that made him look like a stand-in for Pee Wee Herman, “Breaking Bad” co-star Aaron Paul stood on a stage in Los Angeles this morning, accompanied by Neil Patrick Harris (a last-minute substitute for Kate Mara, who missed the announcement due to plane trouble), and continued the annoying tradition of announcing the nominees for the Emmy Awards at an unacceptably early hour of the morning.
Too bad Mara missed the presentation. “House of Cards,” the Netflix series in which she is a co-star, walked away with a Best Drama Series nomination, along with nods for Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Drama Series, respectively. These are game changing nominations, and their effect will be felt for years. A few months ago, the Netflix original programming model was nebulous and most people didn’t know if the streaming-service’s shows would even qualify for awards. Now we have our answer, and no doubt people are taking note. Network television executives are most certainly not happy with what is happening right now.
In the drama categories, the rest of the nominees are the usual suspects: “Breaking Bad,” “Homeland,” “Mad Men,” and “Downton Abbey” were nominated in most of the major drama categories. Vera Farmiga pulled in a nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series for “Bates Motel,” which I thought was a comedy, while Jeff Daniels, a fine actor, received the “we can’t keep ignoring you” nomination for “The Newsroom,” even though the show is pretty terrible. It’s also worth noting that Jonathan Banks was nominated for “Breaking Bad,” which is amazing, and maybe the most deserving nomination in the whole list of nominees. Too bad we all know he won’t win.
Wait, scratch that last part. Laura Dern was nominated for “Enlightened,” and now we can all laugh in the face of HBO for cancelling what was the best series on television. Imagine if “Enlightened” was on Netflix? It would have been huge! If you’re not into sexy vampires or dragons, I don’t understand why you would watch HBO anymore.
As for the rest of the comedy nominees, it’s much of the same thing. “30 Rock” is nominated for a bunch of awards, including Tina Fey for Best Actress. Lena Dunham is there too, along with Adam Driver, and a bunch of well-deserved nominations for the underrated “Veep” (I guess there’s one reason to watch HBO). Louis C.K. gets a rightful nod for “Louie,” but he will probably lose to Don Cheadle or Matt LeBlanc, who both star on shows that I and nobody I know has ever seen.
“American Horror Story” managed to squeeze a few nominations into the confusing mini-series category, even though it’s more of a traditional series than “Downton Abbey.” Either way, I appreciate its craziness, so it’s nice to see it show up here. Jane Campion’s excellent “Top of the Lake” received a bunch of earned nominations, which makes you feel better about “The Bible” being nominated.
All said, the nominations are pretty well chosen this year. Of course, I still have a few quibbles: No love for “Justified?” No nomination for Vincent Kartheiser? Why do some categories have more nominations than others? Do I need to watch “Scandal” and “The Good Wife,” or are those shows, as I’ve always suspected, catering to the Grandma demographic? I definitely never have to watch “Big Bang Theory,” right?
Watch video report on Netflix making Emmy history: