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The Emmy Awards 2015

The 67th Emmy Awards aired tonight. Historically, this show is the weakest of the award shows during which there are few surprises.

Andy Samberg was the host. His opening montage was clever and witty. Not shying away from the fact that there is too much on television to see it all, it was fun to watch. Unfortunately, the song morphed into his opening monologue which, while not the worst I have ever seen, was far from the best. Clearly nervous, his jokes became more forced as the laughs were not what he expected.

As the show went on, the jokes became more dire. The opening exchanges between presenters were just awful and the brief sketches were strained. They were not offensive or in bad taste, just not funny.

There were some good moments. A montage of shows that went off the air this year was strangely moving, even though many of the shows I had stopped watching years ago. A highlight for me was a John Oliver riff on Jeopardy that made me laugh out loud. But, the most unforgettable moment was Viola Davis's acceptance speech. It was impeccable.

As so often happens with the Emmys, a few shows swept all the awards. At least we were spared another year of Modern Family. The winners, in the order televised, were:

Comedy:
Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for Mom
Writing: Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche for Veep
Supporting Actor: Tony Hale for Veep
Directing: Jill Soloway for Transparent
Lead Actor: Jeffrey Tambor for Transparent
Lead Actress: Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep

Reality:
Competition Show: The Voice

Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special:
Writing: Jane Anderson for Olive Kitteridge
Supporting Actress: Regina King for American Crime
Directing: Lisa Cholodenko for Olive Kitteridge
Supporting Actor: Bill Murray for Olive Kitteridge
Lead Actress: Frances McDormand for Olive Kitteridge
Lead Actor: Richard Jenkins for Olive Kitteridge
Limited Series: Olive Kitteridge

Variety:
Writing: The Daily Show
Sketch Show: Inside Amy Schumer
Directing: John O'Neil for The Daily Show
Talk Series: The Daily Show

Drama
Writing: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for Game Of Thrones
Supporting Actress: Uzo Aduba for Orange Is The New Black
Directing: David Nutter for Game Of Thrones
Supporting Actor: Peter Dinklage for Game Of Thrones
Lead Actor: Jon Hamm for Mad Men
Lead Actress: Viola Davis for How to Get Away with Murder

Outstanding Comedy Series: Veep
Outstanding Drama Series: Game of Thrones

As you can imagine, there are so many categories that a fair number of them are not televised. For a full list, click here. And, as always, I would like to thank sunbunny who tweeted for Doux Reviews and made me laugh far more often than the show did. Once again, we proved we are in sync by sending out almost identical tweets at the same moment.

So, now it's your turn. What did you think? Did the right people win or not? And, what's up with Olive Kitteridge? If anyone has seen it, let us know if we need to check it out.

ChrisB is a freelance writer who spends more time than she ought in front of a television screen or with a book in her hand.

5 comments:

  1. As far as I know the host was Andy Samberg and not Andy Sandler.

    On another note: Jon Hamm! Finally, well deserved and overdue. Unfortunately no other love for Mad Men.

    And as much as I like Peter Dinklage but this award should have gone to Johnathan Banks, Michael Kelly or Ben Mendelsohn.

    It's obvious that the voters don't really watch the submitted episodes and that's a shame, because then they just vote for the name and not the performance and you get an Emmy for Margo Martindale's 2 minute performance or Peter Dinklage's 2 scenes. Too bad...

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Los Angeles Daily News did a piece on Viola Davis here:

    http://www.dailynews.com/events/20150920/emmys-2015-viola-davis-becomes-first-black-woman-to-win-outstanding-lead-actress-award

    And at the bottom, it has "check out social media reaction here". Doux Reviews is one of eleven quoted! (I got a tweet about it.)

    https://storify.com/LADNMarMendoza/viola-davis-makes-history-with-huge-win-at-emmys-2

    The quote is: ​I don't like #HTGAWM but Viola Davis is the reason I gave it as many episodes as I did. She is amazing. #Emmys

    Woo hoo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous -- all corrected. Thanks for catching that. I shouldn't try to post past my bedtime.

    Billie -- how amazing! sunbunny's tweets were all great. How wonderful that one got picked up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Must admit, I'm really happy to see the continuing love for Game of Thrones, just cause it's so hard for SFF to get recognised - as far as critical appreciation goes, it's basically 2001 A Space Odyssey, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, and that's it. It's also the only one of these shows I've seen apart from Orange is the New Black (and maybe 3 episodes of Mad Men). And yay for Uzo Aduba and Viola Davis :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Olive Kitteridge" was a mini-series (four hours) based on a terrific book by Elizabeth Strout. The book is amazing, 13 short stories based on and around Olive. In a few of the stories she has only a cameo or just mentioned in passing. It's a brilliant book. The min-serie does a good job but not great job of covering the essence of the novel. Francis McDormand (as Olive) and Richard Jenkins (as her husband) are excellent. Bill Murray was only so-so. I guess i'm recommending the book more than the min-series.

    Turnipseed

    ReplyDelete

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