Crazy Eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
Yup, that’s right. While I casually strolled around downtown in dark denim and a white woven sweater last Saturday night—eating far too much pasta and ice cream than acceptable for August due to a deceiving post-Labor Day-like snap in the air—Uzo Aduba and lots of other people were winning Emmys in no doubt warmer LA.
In fact, 74 folks scored hardware at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony (airing Sunday night on FXM and Emmys.com on Monday), where the Academy honored the best craftspeople and guest performers on TV (and Netflix, and FunnyOrDie.com, and… well, you know). And while leaders emerged and prognosticators hurriedly try to decode WHAT IT ALL MEANS (guilty), voters didn’t exactly offer to polish anyone’s crystal ball, showing love for a surprising spread of 22 programs from 27 different networks and channels.
In other words: Let the guessing games really begin.
For one of it’s weakest seasons to-date (a “rebuilding year,” if you will), “Saturday Night Live” walked away with the most honors of any program—five—thanks in large part to Jimmy Fallon’s triumphant return to Studio 8H last December, which also garnered the alum his own Emmy for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Now, I love me some Fallon, but as “SNL” hopes to snag the Best Variety Series award on Jimmy’s back, so does his “Tonight Show” reboot, competing with its first episode—a true showcase for its infectiously energetic and endearingly awe-struck host. It’s an equally entertaining double Jimmy dip on a single trip for voters, and one that hopefully won’t end in the two canceling each other out.
If the rest of the winner’s list from Saturday night’s festivities was, in fact, a scientific bellweather of things to come, then “Game of Thrones” and “True Detective” (four wins each) are in an Oberyn-vs-The Mountain-style showdown for the top drama prize (no eye socket squeezing, please), while it isn’t even a contest for “Orange Is The New Black” (three wins), way out in front to pick-up the comedy statue being the category’s only nominee with multiple wins (so far).
Not surprisingly, “American Horror Story: Coven”—entering the homestretch as one of the year’s most-nominated programs—appears to lead all miniseries based on early wins, with TV movie contender, “Sherlock: His Last Vow,” doing the same on the movie front. But with both having faced past losses in the top categories, will well-deserved craft award wins translate into performance, writing, directing and/or Best Mini-Series and Best TV Movie love, too?
We’ll know soon enough: the countdown to watching one-in-three stars awkwardly fumble as they try to open the envelopes is on.
What do you think? Where does this leave odds-on favorites The Normal Heart and Fargo? Is Breaking Bad fading into the Alberqueque sunset? And does OITNB really have a “get out of jail free” card? Discuss.