64th Primetime Emmys Review

So I went 13 for 26 in my predictions.  I'm actually surprised I didn't do worse.  This was predicted to be an awards ceremony that had many close races and many surprises.  In that aspect the ceremony delivered.  Homeland ended up pulling off upsets in Lead Actor in a Drama Series and (in the big one) Outstanding Drama Series.  As good as Homeland is (and it is a well acted and at times extremely intense series) it is disappointing to see Breaking Bad (a superior series of the same genre) lose those categories.  In total, Homeland won 4 Emmys tonight (including Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series and Best Writing for a Drama Series), and it was nice to see Mad Men's long streak of Emmy victories come to an end.

The only other shocker in the drama categories was Boardwalk Empire winning Best Directing for a Drama Series.  After winning this category and Best Cinematography yet again, it is becoming clear that Emmy voters are in love with the visual style of the show.

Despite being yet another Modern Family sweep on the comedy side, there was still room for one upset.  Jon Cryer won yet again for Two and a Half Men, but this time it was for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.  It is becoming clear that Emmy voters just love performances in shows by Chuck Lorre.

While there weren't many surprises in the miniseries/movie categories it was nice to see Tom Berenger pull off the win in Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Mini and see Game Change get some major love (and how awesome was it to see Julianne Moore finally win a major acting award!?).  Too bad Sherlock was left out of the winning party.

As for the show itself, it was pretty lackluster.  The set design was interesting and there were some funny spoof clips (such as The Breaking Bad Show and the one making fun of the Lily actress on Modern Family).  However, Jimmy Kimmel was a major letdown as host, and he really killed the pacing of the show with that idiotic in memorium tribute to himself (and what the hell was with Tracy Morgan?).  It also didn't help that they showed clip packages in categories where there shouldn't have been clip packages while they just brushed through categories where there really should have been clip packages.