My Emmy Ballot: Oustanding Lead Actress in a Comedy

Can Taylor Schilling break through for "Orange Is the New Black"?

My favorite category at the Emmys might just be Lead Actress in a Comedy.  That’s not because it’s necessarily the deepest or has the most great performances.  Instead, it’s because this is the category with the most diverse performances, year after year.  I mean, if you look at the women I suggested last year, how do you compare the soft, motherly affection of Sutton Foster with the insane, titular bitchiness of Krysten Ritter.  Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope might be the best comedic example of competence porn while Lena Dunham’s and Zooey Deschanel’s characters are the complete opposite.  That isn’t even getting into the more dramatic performances of Laura Dern and Edie Falco.  There are a lot of great and different performances among these actresses, which makes choosing the best six all the more fun.

A couple of caveats before we start.  First, I’m working from the actual Emmy Performer Ballot, so I can’t put leads who submitted as supporting (Amy Schumer) or supporting actors who submitted as leads (Rob Lowe) in their proper category, nor can I put shows that probably should be in drama (Orange Is the New Black) or comedy (Key & Peele) into their appropriate categories, nor can I nominate somebody who didn’t submit themselves (like anybody on Enlisted not named Parker Young).  Also, I’m only including actors from shows I watch regularly, so if your favorites from The Middle, Nurse Jackie, Veep, or Raising Hope aren’t here, that’s why.

My 2013 Choices:

Zooey Deschanel (New Girl)

Lena Dunham (Girls)

Tina Fey (30 Rock)

Sutton Foster (Bunheads)

Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

Krysten Ritter (Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

Actual 2013 Nominees:

Laura Dern (Enlightened)

Lena Dunham (Girls)

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

Tina Fey (30 Rock)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) - 2013 Emmy Winner

Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

The Lead Actress in a Comedy submission list is a bit sparse this year and contains a lot of names from shows I don’t watch, so my list is unlikely to look much like the actual nominations, most notably in its absence of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Edie Falco.  There’s also a good deal of attrition this year.  Three actresses from my 2013 list won’t be back because their shows ended.  Likewise, Tina Fey and Laura Dern both saw their shows end last year. 

The battle to fill those two spots actually feels quite open this year.  Zooey Deschanel and Melissa McCarthy are both former nominees looking to return.  Taylor Schilling could ride a critical wave for Orange Is the New Black.  I wouldn’t rule out a nomination for Laurie Metcalf, even.  Getting On might not have been a huge show, but she has seven Emmy nominations and three wins for Roseanne and a variety of guest appearances and you can never sleep on past winners.  And then there’s the classic “movie star coming to television,” Anna Farris.  The competition is wide open this year.

It wouldn’t be a “My Emmy Ballot” post without some pimping for Trophy Wife, so it should be no surprise that Malin Akerman’s name turns up here.  Trophy Wife was originally meant as a star vehicle for Akerman, but as the season progressed, it turned much more into a family sitcom.  But at the center of it all was Akerman, able to vacillate deftly between pure physical comedy and the more emotional, family-based humor.  I’ll miss Trophy Wife, but I would also be stunned if Akerman doesn’t turn up in another prominent role somewhere soon.

I said this last year as well, but I don’t particularly care for Girls as a television show.  It’s well made, sure, but I don’t care at all for most of the characters.  Lena Dunham, however, continues to do fantastic work in the principal role.  She probably didn’t have a single showcase this season like last year’s “One Man Trash,” but overall she managed to continue making Hannah Horvath a completely despicable character which, while infuriating and nearly unwatchable for me, is still a marvel of acting work.

I had a lot of love for New Girl in its second season last year but felt the show took a big step backward this season, and I turned my eye instead to another Fox sitcom in its sophomore season: The Mindy Project and its star Mindy Kaling.  The Mindy Project is still an uneven show, but it improved greatly in its second year, largely because Kaling got a much better grasp on her main character.  Mindy still jumped between several different relationships during the season, but it was much clearer why she was entering into these relationships and what she was getting out of them.  The Mindy Project still isn’t a great show – it’s certainly not going to make my Outstanding Comedy Series list – but Kaling took a big step forward this year.

2013-14 was the season of the great, canceled comedy and while Suburgatory probably never hit the highs that Trophy Wife and Enlisted did, it always managed to make me laugh and Jane Levy was a big reason for that.  Tessa was an insightful, sardonic character unlike any I’ve seen on television before.  But what Levy did so well was to balance the sarcastic New Yorker with the loving, caring woman who is capable of forming close relationships with Chatswin’s other outcasts.

It should be no surprise at this point that Amy Poehler would find her way onto this list.  Parks and Recreation is consistently one of the funniest, most charming shows on television and it just wouldn’t work without her.  Poehler is the emotional heart of the show while also being the source of some of its most hilarious pieces.  She may not get to play the outrageous zaniness that Nick Offerman and others do, but her mania whenever things fall apart is always something to behold.

I’m very curious to see how Orange Is the New Black does its first time at the Emmys.  The show was largely shut out of the Golden Globes, where it was submitted as a drama, with only Taylor Schilling earning a nomination.  Now submitting as a comedy, will Emmy voters find her worthy?  I’d like to think so, though Schilling’s character, Piper, is often unsympathetic and rarely the most interesting aspect of the show.  That’s kind of the point, though.  Piper is meant to be self-absorbed.  But Schilling plays that unlikability perfectly, creating a character who manages to be both despicable and sympathetic.

Others meriting consideration: Courteney Cox

Previously: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy

So those are my Emmy choices.  Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

Tyler Williams is a professional librarian and an amateur television critic.  You can reach him at TyTalksTV AT gmail DOT com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

My Emmy Ballot: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy

Andy Daly brought a fresh new voice to TV and ate a lot of pancakes in "Review"

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy is a category that tends to vary little from year to year and which seems to keep awarding the same people.  Note, for example, that Alec Baldwin was nominated for all seven seasons of 30 Rock.  Jim Parsons has been nominated five years in a row.  Matt LeBlanc, Louis CK, and Don Cheadle have all been nominated for every season in which they’ve been eligible.  Even the biggest outliers of the last few years, Jon Cryer and Johnny Galecki, make sense when you consider that Cryer already had six nominations and a win for playing the same part in a supporting role and that Galecki was on a well-received series and had already earned a Golden Globe nomination that year.  This category doesn’t see much change, so with two actors exiting this year due to their shows ending, it will be interesting to see who steps in to take their places.

A couple of caveats before we start.  First, I’m working from the actual Emmy Performer Ballot, so I can’t put leads who submitted as supporting (Amy Schumer) or supporting actors who submitted as leads (Rob Lowe) in their proper category, nor can I put shows that probably should be in drama (Orange Is the New Black) or comedy (Key & Peele) into their appropriate categories, nor can I nominate somebody who didn’t submit themselves (like anybody on Enlisted not named Parker Young).  Also, I’m only including actors from shows I watch regularly, so if your favorites from The Middle, Nurse Jackie, Veep, or Raising Hope aren’t here, that’s why.

My 2013 Choices:

Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Louis CK (Louie)

Jake Johnson (New Girl)

Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)

Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation)

Joel McHale (Community)

Actual 2013 Nominees:

Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Jason Bateman (Arrested Development)

Don Cheadle (House of Lies)

Louis CK (Louie)

Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)

Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) – 2013 Emmy Winner

As I’ve said before, my nominations aren’t meant to be predictive, just my opinion of those actors who I feel are most deserving of awards recognition.  That said, my comedy lead nominations tend to be closest to the actual Emmy nominees for two main reasons: First, many more comedy actors and actresses submit themselves as supporting when they could easily be considered leads.  Consider, most obviously, Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele.  They could easily submit as co-leads (the show is called Key & Peele after all).  But they submit as supporting instead.  Likewise, is Nick Offerman’s role on Parks and Recreation so much smaller than Adam Scott’s that he becomes a supporting actor while Scott is a lead? 

Second, the pool of “Emmy-worthy” comedies tends to be much smaller than the pool of “Emmy-worthy” dramas.  I can pretty much tell you right now that the six Outstanding Comedy Series nominees are going to come from a pool of Modern Family, Girls, Louis, Parks and Recreation, Orange Is the New Black, Veep, The Big Bang Theory, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Mom.  It’s extremely likely that six of those nine shows are going to be nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series and the odds of anybody else breaking through are slim.

When you combine a small pool of potential shows with a pool of actors that has been artificially reduced by category shenanigans, the potential for my choices to match up with the actual nominees increases significantly.  And, really, two of the three I missed out on last year came from a show I don’t watch (Episodes) and a show I gave up on (House of Lies).  I don’t know that my choices will match as well this year since, as I said before, the comedy pool has opened up significantly in 2014, but these are still the areas where it’s most likely to happen. 

As for where potential new nominees can find their way onto the ballot, Lead Actor in a Comedy sees two attrition spots this year with both Baldwin and Bateman ineligible.  It feels like Don Cheadle’s “movie star going to television” shine should have worn off by now, but maybe that’s just my growing distaste for House of Lies, which I finally bailed on this year after waiting several months to finish season two.  Louie and Episodes both took extended hiatuses (18 and 16 months respectively), but because of the timing of their seasons, Louis CK and Matt LeBlanc will be eligible once again and it’d be surprising if they weren’t both return nominees.  Looking to fill those empty spots will be former winners Jon Cryer and Michael J Fox, former nominee Johnny Galecki, Golden Globe winner Andy Samberg, and Bradley Whitford who, despite airing on Trophy Wife, a show that received little attention outside of certain critical circles, is still the owner of three Emmy nominations and a win for his performance on The West Wing. 

No show on television is more the result of a singular viewpoint than Louie and no actor could pull off the titular role, but Louis CK.  Some people might criticize CK for merely playing a heightened version of himself, but it should be clear by now that the Louie we see in the show is not the Louis who’s making millions selling stand-up specials.  This year saw CK experimenting even more than usual, with a six-part story in which Louie falls in love with, and tries to date, a woman who doesn’t speak English, and an extended-length two-part episode that barely even stars CK, but which is a flashback to his “troubled” youth.  Louie isn’t always a funny show, but every time I watch, I can’t help feeling like this is the exact series its creator wants me to see and I love it all the more for that.

The biggest comedic surprise for me this year was Review from Comedy Central.  I will talk much more about why this series is great in my Outstanding Comedy Series post (SPOILER ALERT!), but for our purposes here it should suffice to say that Review would not have been remotely as good as it turned out to be had it not been for Andy Daly.  Daly has the unenviable task of trying to straddle the line between being a complete cartoon as he takes on one request after another of people basically daring him to delve into the worst and most insane experiences of life and being a sympathetic human being for whom we’re supposed to root as he tries to piece his life back together when his antics for the show destroy it.  It’s a very difficult role and is critical to the success of the show, and Daly pulls it off.

Jim Parsons has five Emmy nominations and three wins for the role of Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory and as the show progresses into its middle and later years, it’s becoming clearer that his isn’t just a one-note performance.  The Big Bang Theory is a series that has greatly benefited by opening up the universe and nowhere is that more obvious than in the relationship between Sheldon and Amy.  It’s a slow progression, as is befitting the character and sitcoms in general, but watching Sheldon open up to new experiences has given Parsons the chance to show a range he didn’t need for the first few seasons.  I don’t know what the future holds for him, or if he’ll be typecast in this role for a while,* but if he wins a fourth Emmy this year, I won’t be complaining.  Sheldon Cooper is a pantheon comedy character and Parsons has elevated it far beyond where it began seven years ago.

* His appearance on Saturday Night Live certainly didn’t give me much confidence, but that could have been as much due to the writing as to his performance.  And SNL is a unique beast that has consumed its fair share of actors.

When Andy Samberg was nominated for a Golden Globe for Brooklyn Nine-Nine I was surprised.  When he won I was stunned.  It’s not that I didn’t like Nine-Nine, it’s just that the show was all of eleven episodes old at that point and hadn’t really found a consistent voice, something very common of freshman network sitcoms.  Morever, Samberg’s character, Jake, often strayed too far into caricature.   By the time it wrapped its first season, however, the show had found a groove and Samberg was consistently one of the funniest men on television.  After a full first season, I have no qualms about nominating him here.

I truly believe that Adam Scott has one of the toughest jobs on television.  He is very often required to be the straight man to the antics of Leslie, Ron, Tom, or Andy.  But he also has to be able to play zany, like whenever Cones of Dunshire comes out.  It’s a difficult balancing act and one that will only get more difficult now that he has triplets in tow (though the show’s wise decision to jump forward three years spares us the craziest parts of that storyline).  Scott’s biggest strength is his versatility; ask him for anything and he’ll do it well.

I’m going back to the Trophy Wife well not just because it was my favorite comedy this year and not just because Bradley Whitford gave a great leading performance, but also because, of anybody on the cast, he has the best shot at actually earning a nomination.  As I mentioned above, Whitford earned three nominations and one win during his tenure on The West Wing and, as with Allison Janney, that might be enough to earn a nomination.  And he deserves it.  Like Adam Scott, Whitford had to balance the straight man, funny man line and, as with the rest of the cast, he was able to play off of everybody in the cast with equal verve.

Others meriting consideration: Ricky Gervais, Chris Messina

Previously: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama

So those are my Emmy choices.  Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

Tyler Williams is a professional librarian and an amateur television critic.  You can reach him at TyTalksTV AT gmail DOT com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

My Emmy Ballot - Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Parker Young can't to recite the plot to "Toy Story 3" without crying in "Enlisted"

The Emmy nominations will be announced in less than thtree weeks, so it feels like the right time to take a look at this year’s ballots and highlight what I thought were the best performances and shows on television this season.  I’m hoping to run an article every few days covering one or categories each day.  First, we’ll start with the candidates for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

Last year I wrote of television comedy’s recent lull (at least compared to drama), but the 2013-14 season changed all of that.  This was the year of the comedy.  It started last July when Orange Is the New Black burst out as Netflix’s first consensus hit.  It continued into the fall as a half-dozen comedies debuted to some measure of critical success.  None were breakout ratings hits like Modern Family or New Girl a few years ago, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine ended up shocking the pundits by winning the Golden Globe for best comedy, Mom found a niche as a weird comedy featuring a couple of amazing performances (including that of Allison Janney who, in a just world, would walk away with the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress for her role in Masters of Sex), and Trophy Wife charmed the pants off of the few people who managed to watch it.  The comedy revival continued into the winter and spring as Enlisted and Review hit to critical adoration and minimal audiences.  I don’t know if this wave of new comedies will find their way onto Emmy ballots (especially given how many of them were canceled), but it’s nice to be able to talk about new, great comedy again.

A couple of caveats before we start.  First, I’m working from the actual Emmy Performer Ballot, so I can’t put leads who submitted as supporting (Amy Schumer) or supporting actors who submitted as leads (Rob Lowe) in their proper category, nor can I put shows that probably should be in drama (Orange Is the New Black) or comedy (Key & Peele) into their appropriate categories, nor can I nominate somebody who didn’t submit themselves (like anybody on Enlisted not named Parker Young).  Also, I’m only including actors from shows I watch regularly, so if your favorites from The Middle, Nurse Jackie, Veep, or Raising Hope aren’t here, that’s why.

Supporting Actor

My 2013 Choices:

Max Greenfield (New Girl)

Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation)

Damon Wayans, Jr. (Happy Endings)

Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)

John Krasinski (The Office)

Keegan Michael-Key (Key & Peele)

Actual 2013 Emmy Nominees:

Ty Burrell (Modern Family)

Adam Driver (Girls)

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)

Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)

Tony Hale (Veep) – 2013 Emmy Winner

Ed O’Neill (Modern Family)

I never said my selections were particularly predictive, as the differences between my choices and the actual nominees last year make clear, just that they’re my selections.  The Emmy voters’ continued refusal to recognize Nick Offerman’s performance as one of the all-time great comedic characters is still infuriating, but it’s tough to really argue with any of their choices last year.  Obviously, Modern Family is going to continue to rake in the nominations even if they didn’t collect any acting awards last year and despite the relative drop in quality over the last few years.  There’s no reason to think that the group of six we saw last year is going to be any different this year, with the exception of the retiring Bill Hader likely being replaced by the returning Eric Stonestreet. 

My selections, on the other hand, are going to be significantly different.  Krasinski, Wayans, and Hader are all off the ballot and the glut of new, great comedies is bringing a new wave of potential nominees to the ballot.  Unfortunately, the large number of new faces also created a problem of filling these few slots so I had to be particularly judicious in selecting the supporting nominees.  I’ve tried my best to avoid those characters who may have had a few great moments or even great episodes (I’m looking at you, Lamorne Morris and Albert Tsai) for those who really had greater impacts on their shows.

Andre Braugher is the most likely newcomer to earn a nomination in this category.  We already know the Emmy voters love him; his seven nominations and two wins prove just that.  I’m not certain that Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Golden Globe win for Best Comedy means much in terms of Emmy voting, but it certainly can’t hurt.  Nine-Nine was a tough comedy for me to grab on to at first.  Andy Samberg’s man-child Jake Perrera was a bit grating.  But around midseason, the show really turned around and, throughout, Braugher was phenomenal as the straight man, Captain Ray Holt.  Braugher isn’t given the most outlandish comedic routines: those typically go to Samberg or his two fellow supporting actors Terry Crews and Joe Lo Truglio.  But when he’s asked to be funny, such as at Holt’s birthday party or when the captain becomes addicted to a Candy Crush-like game that forces Braugher to repeatedly utter the phrase “Kwazy Kupcakes,” he’s more than up to the task.

I normally try to limit myself to one nominee from any given show, but for this category it’s almost impossible, not least because Nick Offerman and Chris Pratt are so great at what they do.  Pratt had the lesser role this season, owing to his spending most of the fall shooting Guardians of the Galaxy, but as soon as he returned, he fell right back into being the Andy Dwyer we know and love.  Nick Offerman, meanwhile, was killing it as usual as pantheon comedy character Ron Swanson.  This year, Ron got to show some depth, taking on family life, marriage, and parenthood and pushing Leslie to finally move on from the parks department in Pawnee.  Their stories paralleled this season as Leslie embraced an uncertain future in the federal government and Ron did likewise, marrying Diane and thrusting himself into life as a father.  Even without such a deep, emotional storyline, Offerman would have been worthy of a nomination based solely on his discovery of the iPod.

 

Another pair I’m glad to have room for are the stars of Key & Peele, Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele.  Last year, I had this pair slotted in as numbers six and seven on my list and flipped a coin to choose one.  This year, with three slots vacated by actors from canceled shows, I’m more than able to fit the pair in for nominations.  Key & Peele is one of my very favorite comedies on television, though its continued listing under the variety category still boggles my mind.*  There’s also a bit of category fraud here as both actors could reasonably list themselves as leads.  No matter the categories, however both Key and Peele are more than deserving of accolades.  They manage to hit both dramatic and comedic beats while demonstrating an incredible ability to create lively characters in brief sketches.  Modern sketch comedy may be a unique beast that the Emmy voters aren’t quite ready to recognize outside of SNL, but these two are at the top of the genre.

* Sketch comedies very often nominate themselves in the variety category as you can see this year with Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer, Portlandia, and Saturday Night Live.  I’m wondering how long that will last, however, since the category is so often dominated by the late night shows (Leno, The Daily Show, Colbert, etc.) and no comedy series other than SNL has managed a nomination since Da Ali G Show in 2005.

No comedy surprised or infuriated audiences this year quite like Enlisted.  They were surprised by the fact that it was so good and so quickly found its comic footing and infuriated by the callous treatment it received from Fox.  Buried on Friday nights, Enlisted never had a chance to find an audience, but those few who did see the show were treated to a wonderful performance by Parker Young.  What made Young such a great presence was his ability to change gears from silly and stupid to emotional center.  Randy was such an over-the-top character that it would have been easy for Young to push him into parody, but he straddles that line perfectly, managing to be funny without becoming a cartoon.

Others meriting consideration:  Jason Biggs, Ty Burrell, Adam Driver, Max Greenfield, Taran Killam, Ryan Lee, Joe Lo Truglio, Lamorne Morris, Albert Tsai

So those are the first of my Emmy choices.  Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.