Apologies for the delays. Between scheduling conflicts and technical difficulties with the site, it took a little longer to get this one out there.
COMEDY SERIES
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) – Season 7
Louie (FX) – Season 4
Modern Family (ABC) – Season 5
Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) – Season 1
Silicon Valley (HBO) – Season 1
Veep (HBO) – Season 3
Should have won: Veep
Not even nominated: Community (NBC)
Another ruthless and outstanding from Veep was easily the best of this bunch, as Selina’s began her ignominious presidency. The other nominees were certainly solid, but not nearly as sharp.
And while the fifth season of Community was hardly its best, a rebound from a misbegotten fourth season is much better than whatever Sheldon Cooper and friends were up to.
ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louis C.K., Louie (“Model”)
Don Cheadle, House of Lies (“Wreckage”)
Ricky Gervais, Derek (“Episode 6”)
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes (“Episode Six”)
William H. Macy, Shameless (“Lazarus”)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (“The Relationship Diremption”)
Should have won: William H. Macy
Not even nominated: Stephen Merchant, Hello Ladies
In a category filled with shows I didn’t watch, this one’s a little tricky. While I never fell in love with Shameless – which still has a large fanbase – there’s no denying William H. Macy’s astonishing performance as the slovenly, alcoholic patriarch of the Gallaghers. He deserved to win at least once.
I was probably the only person to watch Stephen Merchant’s melancholy rom-com Hello Ladies, but he deserved a nomination over any of these gentlemen.
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Lena Dunham, Girls (“Beach House”)
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie (“Super Greens”)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (“Crate”)
Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly (“Mind over Molly”)
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation (“Recall Vote”)
Taylor Schilling, Orange Is the New Black (“The Chickening”)
Should have won: Taylor Schilling
Not even nominated: Mindy Kaling, The Mindy Project
Was Orange Is the New Black really a comedy? Honestly, it depends on the season and the episode. In its first season at least, it definitely was. And while JLD deserved every single one of her awards, they should have spread the love. Schilling was the audience surrogate to a world many didn’t know, and she perfectly captured the horror and joy of her new experiences.
This category had a lot of stagnation in this era, one that easily could have been broken up by Mindy Kaling, whose show hit its stride in the second season.
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Fred Armisen, Portlandia (“Pull-Out King”)
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (“Christmas”)
Ty Burrell, Modern Family (“Spring-a-Ding Fling”)
Adam Driver, Girls (“Two Plane Rides”)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family (“Message Received”)
Tony Hale, Veep (“Crate”)
Should have won: Andre Braugher
Not even nominated: Keegan-Michael Key or Jordan Peele, Key & Peele
This category might secretly be the worst for the Emmys in the 2010s. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ed O’Neill never got to share in their co-stars’ glory. They never even nominated Nick Offerman. And not only did Andre Braugher never win as Captain Raymond Holt, he was only nominated half the time! So while Hale and Ferguson may have stronger claims for this particular race, I’m giving it to Braugher for his overall work on the show.
I do find Portlandia amusing, but Fred Armisen could easily have been swapped out for another sketch performer (or two). Keegan-Michael Key did pick up nods the next two years, but Jordan Peele never got noticed. (I guess the Oscar makes up for that.)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory (“The Indecision Amalgamation”)
Julie Bowen, Modern Family (“The Feud”)
Anna Chlumsky, Veep (“Detroit”)
Allison Janney, Mom (“Estrogen and a Hearty Breakfast”)
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live (“Host: Anna Kendrick”)
Kate Mulgrew, Orange Is the New Black (“Tit Punch”)
Should have won: Kate Mulgrew
Not even nominated: Kaitlin Olson, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Janney kicked off a strong run here as recovering addict Bonnie Plunkett, eventually getting her typecast as a foul-mouthed mother. (But hey, it got her an Oscar, too.) While I would have given her one of her wins, I think Mulgrew is the best choice here. As mercurial mother hen Red, she’s arguably the strongest character in the first season.
Voters have had a permanent blind spot – or bias – against It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, one of the most reliable comedies of the last 20(!) years. So it’s not surprising they never nominated any of the performers. But Olson maybe gave her strongest performance in the show’s entire run in its ninth season premiere, when her dreams of stand-up glory are built up and destroyed when “The Gang Broke Dee.”
WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Episodes (“Episode Five”)
Louie (“So Did the Fat Lady”)
Orange Is the New Black (“I Wasn’t Ready”)
Silicon Valley (“Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency”)
Veep (“Special Relationship”)
Should have won: Silicon Valley
Not even nominated: Community
If Louie can win for ending an episode on a fart joke, Silicon Valley can certainly win for climaxing (pun intended) with a dick joke. The first season finale features some of the filthiest and cleverest writing this category has ever seen, providing some of my hardest (pun intended) laughs ever.
And while I don’t know what episode NBC would have submitted for a show they canceled, but I’m going to assume it had to be “Cooperative Polygraphy,” which may be the only episode I laughed more during than my choice here.
DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Episodes (“Episode Nine”)
Glee (“100”)
Louie (“Elevator, Part 6”)
Modern Family (“Las Vegas”)
Orange Is the New Black (“Lesbian Request Denied”)
Silicon Valley (“Minimum Viable Product”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Community
Many of the winners in this category – back when sitcoms had multi-camera set-ups – found the right way to create controlled chaos on a show’s fixed sets. Despite being partially filmed on location with just one camera, this win is very much in the spirit of those, with the Pritchetts and Dunphys getting caught up in an absurd amount of adult hijinks. It must have taken a ton of rehearsal and precise execution, and it resulted in one of the best episodes of the show.
Again, I don’t know if NBC even bothered submitting Community here, but if I had to venture a guess, it would have been for Donald Glover’s final episode (“Geothermal Escapism”), which finds Greendale enveloped in a school-wide game of The Floor Is Lava.
DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad (AMC) – Season 5, Part 2
Downton Abbey (PBS) – Season 4
Game of Thrones (HBO) – Season 4
House of Cards (Netflix) – Season 2
Mad Men (AMC) – Season 7, Part 1
True Detective (HBO) – Season 1
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: The Americans (FX)
That first season of True Detective has become a prestige TV bro classic, but there’s really no competition here. Breaking Bad‘s breathless final half-season is about as good as TV gets, especially that last stretch. And while none of the other nominees were showing signs of fatigue, The Americans was delivering its single best season in its second outing, taking its place among the great dramas of the 21st Century. It’s why I’ve highlighted the performances of Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell and Noah Emmerich below.
ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (“Ozymandias”)
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom (“Election Night, Part 2”)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (“The Strategy”)
Woody Harrelson, True Detective (“The Locked Room”)
Matthew McConaughey, True Detective (“Form and Void”)
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards (“Chapter 26”)
Should have won: Matthew McConaughey
Not even nominated: Matthew Rhys, The Americans
I’m on the record as thinking “Ozymandias” is probably the greatest single episode of TV to air in the 2010s. But Cranston already won three times before. And even if none of those were for “Crawl Space,” McConaughey was the most compelling thing on our screens the entire eligibility window. Plus, there really was nothing like his awards run that fall and spring, with great speech after great speech.
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex (Pilot episode)
Claire Danes, Homeland (“The Star”)
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey (“Episode One”)
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife (“The Last Call”)
Kerry Washington, Scandal (“The Fluffer”)
Robin Wright, House of Cards (“Chapter 26”)
Should have won: Lizzy Caplan
Not even nominated: Keri Russell, The Americans
“The Last Call” remains one of the The Good Wife‘s most beloved episodes, but Margulies had already won for playing jilted lawyer Alicia Florrick. (And the less said about her lately, the better.) Dockery, Washington and Wright are fine actresses, but I feel like Caplan deserves this the most. She’s probably the single most underrated TV performer of this era, having turned in great smaller runs on True Blood and New Girl, and making me swoon as the flawed romantic lead of Party Down. As sex researcher Virginia Masters, she’s always interesting even in a show that’s not always worthy of her.
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jim Carter, Downton Abbey (“Episode One”)
Josh Charles, The Good Wife (“Hitting the Fan”)
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones (“The Laws of Gods and Men”)
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland (“Gerontion”)
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (“Confessions”)
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan (“Fite Nite”)
Should have won: Josh Charles
Not even nominated: Noah Emmerich, The Americans
Everything I said about Caplan applies to Charles as well. He was phenomenal on Sports Night, arguably the strongest performer in the ensemble. Equally adept at comedy and drama, he never really got the acclaim he deserved. But he was at the center of two of the most shocking episodes of The Good Wife, including this one, so let’s give him this instead of Paul and Dinklage again and again.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife (“The Last Call”)
Joanna Froggatt, Downton Abbey (“Episode Four”)
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad (“Ozymandias”)
Lena Headey, Game of Thrones (“The Lion and the Rose”)
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men (“The Strategy”)
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey (“Episode Eight”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Olivia Munn, The Newsroom
Screaming isn’t always the sign of good acting, even though both the TV and motion picture Academies tend to think so. But Gunn really is that good in “Ozymandias,” and the show as a whole.
And I’ll never understand how Jeff Daniels was the only one to get nominated from The Newsroom, a show that – at least in its first two seasons – was just as riveting (and yes, embarrassing) as The West Wing, which dominated the Emmys for four seasons. Munn really proved what a capable actress she was in the show’s even better second season, particularly in the show’s best episode (“News Night with Will McAvoy”).
WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad (“Felina”)
Breaking Bad (“Ozymandias”)
Game of Thrones (“The Children”)
House of Cards (“Chapter 14”)
True Detective (“The Secret Fate of All Life”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: The Newsroom
Nothing much to say here. “Ozymandias” is the G.O.A.T., and The Newsroom deserved more love.
DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire (“Farewell Daddy Blues”)
Breaking Bad (“Felina”)
Downton Abbey (“Episode One”)
Game of Thrones (“The Watchers on the Wall”)
House of Cards (“Chapter 14”)
True Detective (“Who Goes There”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Hannibal
The oner in True Detective‘s fifth episode was astonishing for TV at the time, and spawned a whole host of imitators who couldn’t match the technical and thematic feat Cary Joji Fukunaga pulled off. It’s the only right choice here.
But that’s only because Hannibal, in its astonishing second season, wasn’t nominated for this, or even any technical Emmys. Voters who snubbed deserved to be grilled and eaten.