EMMY WATCH: Comedy Wishlist- Supporting Actor & Actress

With the Emmy nominations for the 2012-2013 season just a little over two weeks away, i thought i'd post my dream nominees for the major categories. Starting tonight, with the supporting actors in a comedy, here are my thoughts on who deserves to make the cut and then win the trophy. 

Dream Nominees- Supporting Actress:

  • Mayim Bialik- The Big Bang Theory
  • Julie Bowen- Modern Family
  • Anna Chlumsky- Veep
  • Kaley Cuoco- The Big Bang Theory
  • Jane Krakowski- 30 Rock
  • Jessica Walter- Arrested Development

This is probably the weakest field in any category, and i'm betting the nominations will be filled with repeaters. Julie Bowen has won the past two years for Modern Family and could do so again, if not for the weaker season she had this year. Her co-star Sofia Vergara will be in the mix, but doesn't deserve to be, so I replaced her with Anna Chlumsky, who does a great job with the difficult part of straight woman on Veep. Kaley Cuoco fills a similar role on Big Bang, but will likely be overlooked as well. The rest of them I do believe will actually get in and deserve to be there, but this field is so weak it was difficult to make out a full list of "dream" nominees. Jessica Walter is overdue and deserves to take this in a walk. If she somehow doesn't get in, it's probably Bowen for the third year in a row.

Dream Nominees- Supporting Actor

  • Will Arnett- Arrested Development
  • Michael Cera- Arrested Development
  • Adam Driver- Girls
  • Bill Hader- Saturday Night Live
  • Tony Hale- Veep
  • Nick Offerman- Parks and Recreation

Now, this category I filled with a whole list of people who probably stand no chance at nominations (except for Will Arnett- if he doesn't get in I will throw a massive hissy fit). Cera was the funniest he's ever been on AD for this fourth season, but will be passed over in favor of the "adults" on the show, while Bill Hader's surprise nomination last year was most likely a fluke. Plus, he had less screentime for his last season on SNL, but sentiment and love for Stefon could always drive a final nod. Tony Hale on Veep stands out from his cast in the second season, while Nick Offerman has always been wonderful on Parks and Rec, but who am i kidding- that show's in its fifth year and Emmy voters have never liked it that much. Finally, Girls is a show that I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate, but Adam Driver is the only person on it who is actually funny and whose character is complex, unique, and creepy- he deserves to be recognized for a bold and original performance. None of this will happen though, because the Modern Family guys aren't going anywhere- only one of them will be knocked out to make room for Will Arnett, who, like Jessica Walter, deserves to take this thing lying down and has the episode to do it. 

2013 Saturn TV Awards

Here's what the Academy of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror honored in TV last night. I'm really not sure which of those three categories Breaking Bad is supposed to be in, though. Maybe they just consider it a generally "out there" kind of show, and therefore it qualifies?

TELEVISION AWARDS

Best Network Series: Revolution

Best Cable Series: The Walking Dead

Best Presentation on TV: Breaking Bad

Best Youth-Oriented Series on TV: Teen Wolf

Best Actor on TV: Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) & Kevin Bacon (The Following)

Best Actress on TV: Anna Torv (Fringe)

Best Supporting Actor: Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad)

Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead) 

Best Guest Star: Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter) 

RECAP: Mad Men 6x13 "In Care Of"

Well, that wraps up another season, folks. It was quite an eventful episode, as we see major turning points for just about every main character tonight, so we'll start off with Pete before we get to Don's epiphany and what should be Jon Hamm's Emmy submission tape.

The side plot of this episode is a rather surreal and hilarious ending to the Bob Benson arc this year. Manolo apparently marries Pete's mother on a cruise at sea, then tosses her overboard to inherit her money, which of course she doesn't actually have. Pete and his brother are understandably upset about this, but only up to a certain point, as neither of them is willing to shell out the big bucks to hire a PI in order to solve their mother's murder. "She did love the sea," Pete rationalizes to himself in the office, as his brother agrees. Those Campbell boys are real prizes, aren't they?

After having to deal unpleasantly with an increasingly troubled Sally's hatred of him, Don gets drunk in a bar and ends up spending the night in jail after punching an offensive preacher, who implies the victims of this year's assassinations might have deserved their fate. This appears to finally be rock bottom for Don, as he admits he has to get a handle on his drinking and decides to steal what was Stan's idea to start anew in California, where the agency needs to set someone up solo. California as we know has always beckoned Don in the past, and he tells Megan, who tearfully agrees that they could be happy there again, in the place where they got engaged.

As he sets everything up for the transition though, Ted and Peggy finally give in to temptation, and while Peggy is ok for now with him being married, however unhappily, Ted is not, and that very night seems to have regrets as he climbs into bed with his wife after having been with Peggy. He then begs Don the next day to let him go to California with his family, in order to get as far away from Peggy as possible. Don doesn't agree at first but in the client meeting with Hershey, he suddenly decides to be honest about himself at work for the very first time, and describes in detail to the clients, Ted, Cutler and Roger that he grew up in a whorehouse and savored Hershey as the only sweet thing in his life. This stunning monologue is Jon Hamm's finest moment of the season, and if he was ever going to win the Emmy, it's another worthy reel to send in, but yeah- don't hold your breath. His best shot will probably be for the final season next year.

After this dramatic scene, Don gives the California spot to Ted after all, a decision which upsets Megan greatly, and despite his promise to her that they will be a bi-coastal couple, she seems to be heading out west in bitterness and the state of their marriage is left ambiguous. Don is then given an indefinite leave of absence by the partners the next morning due to his "behavioral problems," and the episode ends with him driving his kids to PA to show them the abandoned whorehouse he grew up in, and presumably open up to them about who he really is, answering Sally's question from a few episodes ago. There's a look of understanding exchanged between them in the final shot, and it's the first uplifting moment of the season. Is Don finally coming to terms with who he is and ready to live his life openly? Will he follow Megan to CA after all, since there's nothing stopping him now? You're never promised an answer to anything for sure on Mad Men, but that will never stop me from returning to this world every year to find out. It will be a momentous event when the final episode airs next summer. I can't wait to savor every moment of it.

Character Notes:

Pete- after Pete yells at Bob over the Manolo con, he claims no knowledge of it, and then humiliates Pete in front of the Chevy guys, which apparently gets Pete tossed from Chevy, as he either quits or is fired from the firm, because in his last scene he states that he's now going to CA too. This part was pretty muddled, as we never saw Pete getting fired or quitting, and I don't know if he's moving there on his own or is still involved in the business somehow. If anyone caught something that I didn't that explained this part, let me know, will you?

Roger and Joan- now that Bob Benson's war against Pete is over, he seems ready to start one with Roger, who warns him not to mess with Joan and her son, Kevin. Joan decides to let Roger to be in Kevin's life after all and invites him to Thanksgiving, where Roger encounters Bob at the table, cutting the turkey and defying him openly. I hope this isn't the beginning of some series ending arc where Bob Benson takes down the partners one by one and takes over the agency in record time next season, leaving everyone else out in the lurch. He's not nearly compelling enough to be that guy.

Peggy- when Ted dumps Peggy after spending the night with her, in what was really his first kinda dick move that we see, Peggy responds by showing up in Don's now vacated office in a Brady Bunch pantsuit, and laying claim to his chair as she surveys the city through the office windows. It looks to me like Peggy's rise to replace Don has officially begun, and all i can say to the poor, perpetually unlucky-in-love Peggy is you go, girl. Have at it.

REVIEW: "Hannibal" Season 1

NBC's Hannibal just wrapped its first, intensely gripping season on Thursday, and it  was quite a ride. I've mentioned a few times what "my kind of show" is, and this is an example of something that ordinarily would NOT be up my alley. Graphic murder and mutilation scenes and long in depth conversations about the nature of serial killers and mental illness is not exactly my cup of tea. In fact, the only reason I can even stomach it is because it airs on the content censored NBC- if this was HBO, forget it.

Hannibal-NBC.jpg

Despite the nature of the material though, Bryan Fuller is doing something different here, and his treatment of the story is why it can and does appeal to someone squeamish like myself. This is of course, based on the Thomas Harris books about Hannibal Lecter, but not yet the stuff we've already seen, like Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon. It's set before Red Dragon takes place and acts as a prequel to Hannibal's incarceration years, when he was out in the open and still a practicing psychiatrist. Fuller and his writers have the freedom to make up his backstory, while still using familiar characters to fans of the book. He plans to eventually enter the book stories and go all the way through (given enough season renewals of course), in order to create the definitive Hannibal Lecter screen adaptation. It's a pretty ambitious plan and not totally dissimilar to what Game of Thrones is doing, but with more freedom to play around in these early pre-Red Dragon years.

And he's got quite the Hannibal to pull it off. Played previously by Brian Cox and then of course to unforgettable heights by Anthony Hopkins, here it's Mads Mikkelson who takes on fiction's most notorious serial killer. When your goal is as lofty as trying to make people forget Anthony Hopkins, this would seem to be a difficult reach, but Mikkelson instantly inhabits and creates a brand new and mesmerizing Hannibal that's all his own. He's cold, suave, charming, but sincere and serious, even underplayed, in direct opposition to the way the films portrayed him. You're drawn in by him, wondering what his game is, what his angles are, when and if he's going to strike. Mikkelson has the benefit of course, of playing him while hiding in plain sight, rather than openly taunting his opponents from behind the glass, yet his charming sociopathy wins you over in even the darkest moments. It's thrilling to see Dr. Lecter in this new and insightful light.

But I should warn that the show will definitely try your patience. It's extremely cerebral and as I said before, much of it consists of long conversations between people about the philosophy of killers and people who can think like killers. Hugh Dancy is Will Graham, the first first FBI agent to go up against Hannibal Lecter, and he's actually the true lead of the show. In this pre-book era, he tracks murderers for the FBI and is a patient of Lecter's, whose assigned task is to keep his sanity functioning while he's constantly using his Sherlock-like abilities to inhabit the minds of killers. Of course, the ever lingering question is when will the truth come out, and I'm extremely happy to say that it is not Fuller's intention to let that drag on for years and years, as he has the complete saga in mind here.

There are however, some things that annoyed me about this first season. One is the extremely over the top, gruesome nature of the murders. Not the gore itself, but more the fact that there seem to be way too many insanely creative serial killers on the loose all at once, and every time they start to track a new one whose victims are showing up in the nuttiest and most public ways possible, I couldn't help but think this kind of thing happening every single week would make national news- not just everyday humdrum. It's not as if the show is happening in a total fantasy world here, it is still the United States in present day, right? The other factor is the slight repetition of the deterioration of Will's mental state, which (spoiler alert) seems to go on to the point of ludicrousness in the way the FBI insists on keeping him there, despite his own pleas to quit and requests for help. This continues for several episodes in a row (like 6-8!) and was starting to remove me from the story at one point, but any time a narrative plot starts to bug, Hannibal shows up to save the episode and captivate your attention once again. And with the finale, it ends on such a great cliffhanging high note, that it made me want it back so much I'm willing to forgive every slight that bothered me about the season. I personally cannot wait to see Clarice Starling show up in a hypothetical Season 5 and go toe to toe with THIS Hannibal Lecter. Any votes for who should play her? Mine's Jennifer Lawrence. It's a pipe dream, but hey, we've got years to get there.

Grade: B

Season Trailer: 

RECAP: Mad Men 6x12 "The Quality of Mercy"

Well, tonight seems to have finally wrapped up the mystery of Bob Benson. Turns out he was once a manservant (!!) from West Virginia and has adopted a new identity to climb his way up the ladder of success, ala Don Draper, as we all recall. Pete is once again the person who finds this out as he attempts to get rid of him after last week's encounter, by shipping him off to Duck, who reveals the truth about his background. Faced with history repeating itself, and despite veiled threats from Bob and increased harassment of his mother by Manolo (perhaps Bob's boyfriend?) Pete rather surprisingly decides to let this go and tells Bob to just steer clear of him. Of course, you never know what's behind Pete Campbell's motivations, but judging by the title of this episode, it could be that this is maybe a smidge of actual progress for his character.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Sally debacle last week, Don has fallen into his usual drunken abyss and has taken to sleeping on Sally's bed to while away his misery, ignoring Megan's attempts to engage him in the slightest conversations. When Don and Megan see Ted and Peggy at the movies in the afternoon, suspicions about the two of them are validated by their rather obvious flirtations in front of everyone at the office. Ted decides to go all in on Peggy's idea for a commercial for an account, even though it puts them over their accrued budget by no less than $35,000 dollars, and so Don decides to deal with the issue by humiliating Ted in front of said client. This invokes the wrath of Peggy, who storms into his office and berates him for what i think is the third time this season for being mean to Ted. Don is more or less right on this one, but nevertheless curls up in a ball on his couch in the final scene, duplicating his position at the start of the episode when he woke on Sally's bed.

Sally's disappointment in Don has made her decide she wants to go away to boarding school and is taken for an admissions interview by Betty, who for once is actually encouraging of Sally doing something, even if she doesn't yet know what's prompting Sally's desire to go away. While at the school overnight, Sally befriends a couple of the girls and invites her old pal Glenn to sneak over and visit. Glenn brings a pal of his own and when the guy makes an unwanted pass at Sally, he fights him to defend her honor, which secretly pleases Sally. It's a cute subplot, and always good to see the odd Glenn show up, even if this time around he seems to have grown into more or less of a normal teenager (a far cry indeed from his first creepy introduction way back in Season 1).

Well, one more episode to go- and whatever's going down next week is apparently so secret that we're not even allowed to see the chopped up, randomly intercut scenes that Mad Men previews are famous for, lest we see a person walking down a hallway for a split second and spoil the whole damn thing. See you next week, folks!

Character Notes:

Ken- the poor guy was shot in the face with buckshot in this episode and everyone proceeded to make fun of him or brush it off, even as he cried over it in front of Pete. Whatever growth Pete may have shown tonight was not extended in sympathy towards Ken, as he immediately clamored to take his place with the jerks from Chevy to increase his own importance. Poor Kenny. The one decent guy in the office never gets any respect

Megan- very little on the Don/Megan front this week, considering the fallout from last week's resumed affair with Sylvia. No Sylvia tonight either, so we also don't know if that was a one time thing on Don's part or what. No, this week just brought us more scenes of Megan trying to talk to him and being continually ignored, and i now have no clue what, if anything is going to happen in the finale, although i haven't given up my theory that Megan could still be having her own affair that we're just not seeing. It would certainly be understandable, given that everything we've seen this season tells me that Don seems to have no feelings for her whatsoever

Joan and Roger- as a side note, it occurred to me tonight as we saw the both of them for about 30 seconds each, that they seem to have had very little screen time overall this season. i know Joan had a story involving Avon just a couple weeks ago, but we've yet to see the result of that plotline, and Roger i feel we haven't seen much of since the first couple of episodes.