Emmy Schmemmy
There's a lot going on in my life right now. I mean, a lot. I mean, there's so much that if I were to write it all down and look at the list I would probably immediately check myself into the local stress center. That's a lot.
But I'm not going to talk about that. I'm merely going to gripe about the continuing anti-sci-fi bias of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The headline at AICN says it all: No Love for Galactica.
Granted, I've never seen nine of the ten shows nominated for the Emmy for Best Drama, but let's parse this out:
Boston Legal - lawyer show. (True, it does have the Shat.)
Damages - Uh, never heard of this.
Dexter - Sorta crime procedural/CSI-ish, with a twist. I know
lumpyhead worked on this in its first season. It's supposed to be pretty rad.
Friday Night Lights - Sports. I met a dude in Austin, TX who was a recurring regular. And it's got that guy from Early Edition, a show that my mom used to like.
Grey’s Anatomy - This is the one I've actually seen. And it's just another doctor show. Nothing remarkable about it whatsoever.
House - I hear this one's pretty cool, but again, doctor show.
Lost - Okay, so I guess Lost is supposed to be sort of sci-fi-ish. I wouldn't know. It's on my list of shows to watch on DVD. As soon as I get through Alias and figure out exactly how long Sydney Bristow can grudgingly work with Arvin Sloan in myriad shadow agencies, and mope over boring-ass Michael Vartan - erm, Vaughan. That J.J. Abrams. They say he's a genius.
Mad Men - Never heard of this either.
The Tudors - Historical drama with an inexplicably thin Henry VIII. There's a lot of that going around. I mean, even Robert Shaw was too skinny to play Henry VIII and he's about twice as much man as Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Eric Bana. (Not that I don't love Jonathan Rhys Meyers.) The man was really a lot closer to, say, Dom DeLuise in stature.
The Wire - Cop show.
So, we've got our standard genres covered with the hottest current shows in those genres. Except the sci-fi genre. As usual. Even Star Trek: The Next Generation and The X-Files, brilliant as they were, never got a nod as Best Drama. ST:TNG was nominated, I think. The X-Files came closer to mainstream legitimacy with some writing and acting awards. But mostly they got technical awards - much deserved, but overall they seem sorta like sucker prizes when you consider how much smarter those shows were than most of their competition in their respective periods, and how much more of a lasting impact they had.
How about some love for Moore, Eick, Rymer, Olmos, McDonnell, Sackhoff, et. al., and the phenomenal dramatic force they've created called Battlestar Galacitca? (Including the uspeakably awesome Canuck Michael Hogan, whose gnarly patched visage appears above?) No? Well, screw you, Emmys.
At least the Comedy category has some better offerings, even though I still maintain that Family Guy is not funny. At all. Period.
But I'm not going to talk about that. I'm merely going to gripe about the continuing anti-sci-fi bias of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The headline at AICN says it all: No Love for Galactica.
Granted, I've never seen nine of the ten shows nominated for the Emmy for Best Drama, but let's parse this out:
Boston Legal - lawyer show. (True, it does have the Shat.)
Damages - Uh, never heard of this.
Dexter - Sorta crime procedural/CSI-ish, with a twist. I know
lumpyhead worked on this in its first season. It's supposed to be pretty rad.
Friday Night Lights - Sports. I met a dude in Austin, TX who was a recurring regular. And it's got that guy from Early Edition, a show that my mom used to like.
Grey’s Anatomy - This is the one I've actually seen. And it's just another doctor show. Nothing remarkable about it whatsoever.
House - I hear this one's pretty cool, but again, doctor show.
Lost - Okay, so I guess Lost is supposed to be sort of sci-fi-ish. I wouldn't know. It's on my list of shows to watch on DVD. As soon as I get through Alias and figure out exactly how long Sydney Bristow can grudgingly work with Arvin Sloan in myriad shadow agencies, and mope over boring-ass Michael Vartan - erm, Vaughan. That J.J. Abrams. They say he's a genius.
Mad Men - Never heard of this either.
The Tudors - Historical drama with an inexplicably thin Henry VIII. There's a lot of that going around. I mean, even Robert Shaw was too skinny to play Henry VIII and he's about twice as much man as Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Eric Bana. (Not that I don't love Jonathan Rhys Meyers.) The man was really a lot closer to, say, Dom DeLuise in stature.
The Wire - Cop show.
So, we've got our standard genres covered with the hottest current shows in those genres. Except the sci-fi genre. As usual. Even Star Trek: The Next Generation and The X-Files, brilliant as they were, never got a nod as Best Drama. ST:TNG was nominated, I think. The X-Files came closer to mainstream legitimacy with some writing and acting awards. But mostly they got technical awards - much deserved, but overall they seem sorta like sucker prizes when you consider how much smarter those shows were than most of their competition in their respective periods, and how much more of a lasting impact they had.
How about some love for Moore, Eick, Rymer, Olmos, McDonnell, Sackhoff, et. al., and the phenomenal dramatic force they've created called Battlestar Galacitca? (Including the uspeakably awesome Canuck Michael Hogan, whose gnarly patched visage appears above?) No? Well, screw you, Emmys.
At least the Comedy category has some better offerings, even though I still maintain that Family Guy is not funny. At all. Period.