Addison Thomas Wong
We’re gazing into our crystal ball. Who’ll win at this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards come Sep 17 morning (Singapore time)? We’re looking deep. But all we see is… a dreary blur!
Oh, it’s just as well. The American television’s highest honours have always been tough to predict with a guaranteed string of unexpected (or undeserving) wins each year. They may not necessarily leave us with “What the hell?!” comments, but huge question marks dangle overhead in the wake of results.
Remember when Everybody Loves Raymond beat the then mega-phenomenal Desperate Housewives for the top comedy prize in 2005? Or Tyne Daly’s undeserving win in 2003 for “Supporting Actress in a Drama” in a year when there were definitely more deserving performances (like Rachel Griffiths in Six Feet Under or Lena Olin in Alias)? Or how Alan Alda was the only cast member of The West Wing to be honoured during 
the show’s final season even though he joined the team late? We suppose Mr. President (Martin Sheen), who had been nominated 6 times since the show was eligible for nomination in 2000, had a lot to say about Alda’s honour, when Sheen himself, never won an Emmy.
Speaking of overdue recognition, remember how it took the academy 6 long years to finally hand an Emmy to Sarah Jessica Parker in 2004 for her lead performance in Sex And The City? And has anyone given Jane Kaczmarek hers for playing Lois in Malcolm In The Middle? After being nominated 7 years in a row, Kaczmarek still hasn’t received an Emmy, even when she was nominated for a final time last year after the series ended its run. Too little, too late, Academy!
Yes. We’ve made our point clear. The Emmys are sometimes too random for even the pundits to feel the slightest confidence predicting.UrbanWire expecting this year’s ceremony to be no exception. So we won’t try to foretell who will take home the gold come Emmy night, because chances are we’d be left stunned again. Instead, we’ll give you our professional opinion on who and which series we think should win in the following major categories:
Outstanding Drama Series 
It has to be Grey’s Anatomy. There’re so many aspects to this jazzy – almost slutty, yet absolutely warm – medical drama for us to fall in love with. The glorious combination of downright witty scripts, absolutely brilliant casting and characters we’ve become addicted to in the past 3 years have pushed us so far to the edge of our living room couches and forced buckets of tears, from laughter and sorrow, out of us that we can’t help but scream “bravo!” in their faces.
After last year’s snub in this category (understandably to a deserving 24, which was honoured 4 years late), we say Meredith and gang should finally get their due while the show is at its peak. Not that we’re suggesting it’ll ever lose its appeal, but with many other series facing such situations in the last few years (*cough, cough* Desperate Housewivesand Lost), we say just give it to Grey’s Anatomy now! We know it’s The Sopranos’ final season and it’s a fabulous show with its dark and hard-hitting theme. But the academy should stop handing out goodbye Emmys like they did to Everybody Loves Raymond, and recognise shows that most deserve to be recognised.
Outstanding Comedy Series
Ugly Betty, hands down. How often can you find a comedy that’s not just about tickling your funny bone, but takes itself seriously enough to drive home an important message about stereotypes in every episode? There’s no question about how dazzling this comedy is, thanks to the natural appeal the devilish, cut-throat fashion world has to the public, the lovely America Ferrera who, as Betty, binds the show together most stylishly, the series’ smart direction, the warmth that each episode delivers and the plentiful intriguing mysteries that slowly unravel as the season progresses.
Not to say that the other nominees aren’t deserving of the award (actually, some of them aren’t *cough* Two And A Half Men *cough*), especially The Office. But with their big win last year, we say cool it down for a while and focus on the acting awards lest people get tired of you.
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
James Spader – Boston Legal
Hugh Laurie – House
James Gandolfini – The Sopranos
Kiefer Sutherland – 24
James Gandolfini. Period. If there ever was a category in which a goodbye Emmy must be given out as a tribute to years’ worth of impeccable performances, it’s this. Gandolfini is one actor who can never be honoured too many times, despite having won in this category in 2000, 2001 and 2003 with his portrait of Tony Soprano. It’s a character that struggles to balance between the roles of being head of a family and head of a mafia team, as well as the vast difference between the 2 lifestyles, and Gandolfini, in the past 8 years, never failed to bring that struggle out in what can be considered one of the greatest performances in present-day American drama. Hands down to James Gandolfini. He deserves his 4th Emmy.
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Steve Carrell – The Office
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Charlie Sheen – Two And A Half Men
All’s been said, but not done. We talk so positively about this comedian but we rarely acknowledge him with an accolade. Give it to Steve Carrell! He’s the most deserving of the award, especially after last year’s snub when Shalhoub won yet again (we know Shalhoub a Monk is flawless, but the guy has won too many times!). In the past year, Carrell lost an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. What does a talented comedian have to do to be taken seriously around here?
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Sally Field – Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Edie Falco – The Sopranos
We have half a mind to hand this straight to Edie Falco as much as we would want it to go to Gandolfini. But Sally Field’s performance as Nora Walker, the mother of 6 grown ups in Brothers & Sisters, a series that nails realism, has shifted our focus from the bottom of the nominees list right to the top. It’s the array of captivating details in Field’s expression whenever she’s doing a scene, her presence every time the camera sees her, and the intensity of her character that she brings out so accurately, that sucks you deep in that 1 hour’s worth of family drama. It’s a stunning performance that’s comparable to that of her portrayal of M’Lynn Eatonton in 1989’s Steel Magnolias and if you’ve watched that, you’d have been as blown away by the power of her performance as we were. This has moved us to favour Field for the gold (although we have a feeling Edie’s going to win on Emmy night).
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Felicity Huffman – Desperate Housewives
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – The New Adventures Of Old Christine
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
America Ferrera – Ugly Betty
It’s a tough call between Felicity Huffman and America Ferrera for this award. Although Desperate Housewives has experienced 1 of the biggest ratings drop in recent television history, there’s no doubt that Huffman as Lynette Scavo is still a (if not the only) drawing factor for the ex-phenomenal dramedy, especially with her nominated performance in the episode, “Bang”, which can easily be considered as one of the series’ most intense yet. On the other hand, there’s the genuine sincerity of Betty that rings true in America’s spot-on portrayal of the warm character, which viewers just love and which, we have to admit, has drawn quite a large amount of attention, especially after Ferrera’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award wins. Ultimately, we’re for Ferrera, and if the Academy members follow their hearts, they will be too, as Huffman’s 1-episode performance, though fierce, is nothing compared to her collectively stellar acts in Housewives’ 1st season. Besides, she’s won an Emmy for that already.
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner – Boston Legal
T.R. Knight – Grey’s Anatomy
Masi Oka – Heroes
Michael Emerson – Lost
Terry O’Quinn – Lost
Michael Imperioli – The Sopranos
This belongs to Imperioli this year, and you won’t even have to take a second look at the other nominees’ performances (well, with the exception of Shatner) to know that it’s his. The 5-time nominee and 1-time winner, whose character and looks still reminds us of a young Al Pacino in The Godfather, deserves nothing less than another Emmy for his all-too-realistic and, at times, frightening portrait of Christopher Moltisanti. It’s a performance comparable to the standard bearers of the genre – Goodfellas and The Godfather. For that, we deem Imperioli most worthy to be honoured.
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Kevin Dillon – Entourage
Jeremy Piven – Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris – How I Met Your Mother
Rainn Wilson – The Office
Jon Cryer – Two And A Half Men
Technically, we’d be more than happy if any of these men get onto the stage. Piven is witty as the quick-tempered workaholic agent (but he won last year, so…), Dillon is hilariously silly as the self-absorbed, pompous actor, Harris proves to be a chameleon with his countless comedic expressions as the womanising coffee shop boy and Cryer as the uptight 2-time divorcee chiropractor is just pure entertainment. But it’s Rainn Wilson who’s unquestionably most deserving of not just his overdue nomination, but the bloody award as well. Give it to him already! What’s not to love about a character that’s arrogant, authority-craving and in total denial of his utter incompetence and the actor who pulls the role off so effortlessly?
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series 
Rachel Griffiths – Brothers & Sisters
Katherine Heigl – Grey’s Anatomy
Chandra Wilson – Grey’s Anatomy
Sandra Oh – Grey’s Anatomy
Aida Turturro – The Sopranos
Lorraine Bracco – The Sopranos
Let’s face it. Although Turturro’s and Bracco’s characters are fundamental in shaping The Sopranos, their performances are just not consistent enough to be deemed outstanding, which suggest that these nominations might be just part of a tribute to the series’ last season. Rachel Griffith, though stunning as an actress as always (especially in Six Feet Under), deserves this honour as much as those who play her brothers and sisters.
This is clearly a must-go-to-Grey’s Anatomy award. It’s not just because they’re dominating the category, but because of how deserving these actresses are in their brilliant portrayals as residents at Seattle Grace Hospital, and we proclaim Chandra Wilson’s performance as Dr. Miranda Bailey as most outstanding. We just can’t get enough of this chubby, loud and headstrong character who somehow brings warmth to our hearts every week. Wilson is thus deserving of the Emmy (especially after her snub last year, whenBlythe Danner won her 2nd consecutive undeserving Emmy for Huff in this category).
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Jaime Pressly – My Name Is Earl
Jenna Fischer – The Office
Holland Taylor – Two And A Half Men
Conchata Ferrell – Two And A Half Men
Vanessa Williams – Ugly Betty
Elizabeth Perkins – Weeds
In our minds, Jaime Pressly would be the ideal choice. It’s about time My Name Is Earl received the recognition that it’s due. And since the Academy seems persistent about not including front man, Jason Lee, in the party by ignoring him 2 years in a row, our full attention is on Pressly (not that we’re implying that she’s less talented than Lee).
Seriously, you’ve got to give the lady props for pulling off such a strong, tolerant, ambitious character, who’s so sane compared to Earl and his couldn’t-be-dumber brother, Randy, and giving her a personality that draws us to the television week after week after week. As much as UrbanWire adores the humour and the will-there-be-love mystery between Jenna Fischer’s Pamela and the intelligent but unmotivated Jim in The Office, and as much as Vanessa Williams tempts us as the vivacious and almost wild Wilhelmina Slater in Ugly Betty, we just don’t think it’s their turn yet, as 1st-time nominees. And the women fromTwo And A Half Men and Weeds are just plain forgettable, if you ask us. As Joy Turner, Jaime Pressly is truly deserving of the gold.
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on Monday, Sep 17. The pre-show will be telecast at 5:30 pm and the main show at 10 pm.
Brothers & Sisters (season 1) is broadcast every Monday at 11 pm on Mediacorp Channel 5.
Grey’s Anatomy (season 3) is broadcast every Wednesday at 10:35 pm on Mediacorp Channel 5.
Lost (season 3) is broadcast every Sunday at 11 pm on Mediacorp Channel 5.
The Primetime Emmy Awards are given out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, for excellence in primetime American television series. The awards were first presented in 1949 and the organisation celebrates its 59th year this September.
For more information on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, visit the following website: www.emmys.com
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