Primetime Emmy Nominations 2014: My Snappy Judgements
The 2014 Emmy nominations were, as per usual, both thrilling and infuriating (mostly the latter). For every inspired nod (congrats, Kate McKinnon!) there was one that had me scratching the skin off my scalp (no best drama nod for The Good Wife?!). So without further adieu, I give you the good, the bad and the downright ugly from this year’s list.
RELATED Emmys 2014: The Complete Nominations List
I’m Super-Ecstatic About:
* The Academy recognizing True Detective‘s unsung hero Woody Harrelson (in addition to, of course, Matthew McConaughey).
* Masters of Sex‘s Lizzy Caplan scoring a best lead actress nod. Ditto co-star Allison Janney (in guest actress).
* The Good Wife‘s Josh Charles getting recognized for his [SPOILER ALERT] final season. Also, co-star Julianna Margulies scoring a nod after being overlooked last year.
* All the love for Fargo.
* The best comedy nomination for Silicon Valley.
* Andre Braugher sneaking in for Brooklyn Nine-Nine (the show’s only major nod).
* Matt Bomer scoring a nod for his revelatory Normal Heart work. (Pretty pleased about all of the love for Heart.)
* All the nods for Orange Is the New Black.
* SNL Kate McKinnon’s best supporting actress nod.
PHOTOS | Emmys 2014: The 43 Biggest Snubs
I’m Rolling My Eyes About:
* The Newsroom‘s Jeff Daniels stealing that sixth best actor slot from The Americans‘ Matthew Rhys (or Masters of Sex‘s Michael Sheen).
* The requisite nod for Downtown Abbey‘s Maggie Smith. Love her but enough is enough.
* Mike & Molly‘s Melissa McCarthy getting nom’d for lead actress instead of… so many stronger contenders?!
I’m Super-Pissed About:
* The Good Wife getting shut out of the drama series category for its best season yet. Also, no writing or directing nods for two of this season’s best hours of television, “Hitting the Fan” and “The Last Call.”
* The Mindy Project getting the shaft.
* Zero recognition for The Big Bang Theory‘s sterling supporting cast (save for Mayim Bialik’s nod).
* No Tatiana Maslany? WTF?
* The absence of Bates Motel‘s Vera Farmiga makes me a little psycho.
* No love for Inside Amy Schumer‘s leading lady.
* Masters of Sex failing to score a best drama nod.
* The absence of Orphan Black‘s Tatiana Maslany (because it bears repeating).
* Hannibal getting bubkes.
* The Walking Dead‘s Melissa McBride getting overlooked.
* No nod for Scandal‘s Bellamy Young.
* Nada for Sons of Anarchy‘s star-crossed lovers Charlie Hunnam and Maggie Siff.
Okay, that’s my two cents’ worth. Now it’s your turn. Post your own snappy judgments below. And click here to view a list of all the major nominees.
No nom for Melissa Rauch makes me sad. No nom for Simon Helberg makes me fightin’ mad!
BOTH of them over Mayim ANY day!
I mean Amy is funny-ish but Bernadette and Howard make the show! More so than the leads in most cases!
Yeah, they’re good and all, but I think Kelly is just as deserving of a nod or even win as they are, and I think she is really overdue.
Sorry who is Kelly?
Sorry I didn’t mean to sound snarky.
I just realized you meant Kaley.
Either way she’s good too and I’d like Johnny to get another Nom but i still think the supporting cast help make the show and should be recognized especially Melissa and Simon
THE EMMY’S DON’T DESERVE A TATIANA
Her skills are just so good that the Emmys are beneath her.
We are all clones of Tatiana, therefore she always wins.
Omg you are absolutely right! I can’t say there’s an actor like her. She’s brilliant!
No nomination for Peter Sarsgaard is a crime.
This. A million times, this.
I was so hoping he would get at least of nomination. His portrayal of Ray was incredible.
No James Spader for “The Blacklist”, one if the best acting jobs all year..
Meh. Jeff Daniels doesn’t deserve his nomination, but I wouldn’t say James Spader should have been the replacement. I think Spader was great, but that is a VERY difficult category, and I’m not sure Spader would have made a strong contender against some other very worthy competition.
Agreed. Matthew Rhys from The Americans or either male lead from Hannibal deserved it more.
I don’t watch either “The Americans” or “Hannibal” but I do watch “The Blacklist” and I can’t imagine anyone else playing James Spader’s role as well as he does.
You have a fair point; I don’t know if I see anyone playing Red as well as Spader does. He brings something special to the character. But as someone who also watches The Americans and Hannibal, I can definitely say the same about the male leads in those shows as well. I feel like I can also say the same about other male leads who deserved nominations, too–like Aden Young in Rectify or Demian Bichir in The Bridge. But honestly, going back to Hannibal, my personal feelings are that Hugh Dancy gave an unrivaled performance this past season. Again I say, Spader is great, but this is a VERY tough category.
Agreed! James Spader is fantastic!
DITTO; Spader is killing it week after week in an original way while some of the others continue to do their same old bits but still get nominated. The Emmy’s are starting to lose relevance somewhat like the Grammy’s some years ago. Also, I just don’t understand why there is a category for Reality Show Host.
I agree!! James should have won!
Hannibal being completely snubbed was a bit of a shock. Nothing for sound editing, its visuals, special effects, directing, squat diddly .. uggg for the Emmy’s not giving this at least something. Think its time to split the Emmy’s to reflect the new reality. Paid vs Cable. HBO’s domination of the Emmy’s is good for HBO not good for anyone else.
Let’s copy the list from last year and nom everything still on air again. Oh and make a note to do this next year too. And the year after. Yahhh.
Thank you for perfectly summing up why these awards are essentially meaningless. I care more about seeing SAG and Golden Globes noms.
Big Bang Theory being nominated for best comedy and not Parks and Rec pretty much invalidates that entire category.
Bravo! Every category includes some real talented actors and the rest are social/political favors for being on the PC side of Jollywood. Don’t expect much more from SAG or the Globes.
Totally agree that Bellamy Young was robbed. Same for Jeff Perry! They were better than Kerry Washington this year and I LOVE her!!
I totally agree with you. I was expecting to hear Bellamy’s name and possibly Jeff Perry but not Kerry’s at all (and I adore her too). Happy that Kate Burton and Joe Morton were recognized but Bellamy being left off is just sad. =(
Love Kerry but this year she didn’t deserve any nomination.. this year was Bellamy Young’s year! Talking of shondaland, I know Grey’s hey days are past day story, but Sandra Oh deserved OSCAR (if possible for a TV episode) with the Burke Return! She was a pleasure to watch!
Agreed!!
they were better than Kerry last year as well.
No nominations for Hannibal is criminal. Not even in directing or cinematography.
I just don’t understand this at all. It’s not even comprehensible. I can’t think of a single show on TV that uses cinematography as a character in the way Hannibal does. The idea that the Academy just jumped right over it, as if it didn’t exist, baffles me. I expected the snubs in the main categories–the Academy is too enamored with cable, Netflix and repeating nominations from last year for Hannibal to breach the threshold and actually get main nods–but generally the Academy does better with technical nominations. This time, they just didn’t get it at all. I’m at a loss.
All this ^^. And the fact that, if Mads Mikkelsen is not nominated, that means nobody there watched Hannibal at all. They simply didn’t. That guy is the gold standard for what to do on TV currently.
Totally agree. Cannot believe Hannibal was not listed. Sexiest looking show on TV. It’s beautifully made and so classy. Also Bates Motel. So for first time this season and loved it.
The exclusion of Tataina Maslany is a complete sham! She out acts EVER single one of these actresses on weekly basis!
I truly agree, Tataina Mastany not only out acts the rest of the nominees she plays multiple rolls as well. Pathetic!!!!!!!!
Obviously, the Emmy committee just forgot to announce that the Award was for SECOND Best Actress in a Dramatic Role. Tatiana Maslany clearly won the other one.
I again can only assume that when the idiots doing the noms watch the screeners they don’t understand it’s one actress. They must look at “Sarah” and think, “OK, that’s a decent performance, but what’s all the hype about.”
Otherwise, this remains the most abominable snub in the history of Emmy. Not only should she have been nominated, casting votes for one-note performances like Robin Wright’s against Tatiana should result in having one’s DVR privileges revoked for a year.
So pissed about Mindy not getting ANYTHING! The comedy category needs to be revamped because so much that’s not a comedy is nominated.
FURIOUS about Bellamy Young and about the no drama and no writing nods for The Good Wife and NO JAMES SPADER?!??? What the…???
Melissa McCarthy over Emmy Rossum, Mindy Kaling and Amy Schumer is an absolute joke.
Agreed. She’s awful itn that show and Mike & Molly is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen.
Absolutely agree. Laughable.
Ragingly mad about no James Spader and no Bellamy Young. And incredulous over no best drama nod for Good Wife nor writing noms for them.
Good Wife over House of Cards any minute. It’s not even a matter of opinion, it’s as objective as possible. They just nominated House of Cards for the political and technological implications. One represents old TV, the other is “the future of TV”, according to them.
Also no Vikings and/or Travis Fimmel nominations…
I love Vikings, but watching Travis FImmel can be painful at times. He has the same look in almost every scene.
What happened to The Blacklist and James Spader??? He certainly deserved a nomination for Best Actor!
The Emmy people need their head examined. Not a single nom for Orphan Black! Criminal!
No Andy Samberg and no Brooklyn 99. That sucks, give it a rest with Cheadle, LeBlanc and Gervais. Also nothing for The Americans grinds my gears. At least they showed Fargo some love.
I’m not sure if it was best comedy worthy, but props to the guys from Silicon Valley.
I enjoy Episodes, but Matt LeBlanc doesn’t deserve a nomination for playing HIMSELF.
Yeah, I thought that was really odd.. how does one get nominated for playing themselves ??? that doesn’t make any sense.
To be fair, he’s playing a version of himself that’s not really himself. Matt LeBlanc doesn’t actually act like that in real life.
I am really bummed The Good Wife (which had its best season this year) did not get a drama series nomination but Tatiana Maslany not getting a nomination is mind boggling. Seriously she deserves to be recognized.
The only thing I’m super annoyed about is no nod to Tatiana Maslany. Frankly, her exclusion makes the entire best actress – drama category a joke.
I’m happy Bellamy Young didn’t get a nomination. The whole [crappy] third season of scandal seems to have been set up by Shonda to give Bellamy multiple submissions for Emmys. That Emmy bait rape episode was horrible (and rightly called out as such by most media outlets and reviews and fans). She should not be rewarded with an Emmy nom (especially when all she does it grit her teeth and snarl).
Best of luck to OITNB cast!
You know what Emmys… you don’t deserve Tatiana Maslany.
I can’t believe Mindy was robbed. ROBBED. I am happy for the Shameless Nods though
William and Joan have been nominated before. It’d be nice for Noel and Emmy to get some recognition. And the show itself. I couldn’t even stand Frank and Sheila’s storyline this past season.
Absolutely. I’d throw in Jeremy Allen White as well. All 3 of them deserve it over Macy and Cusack. Its like they just picked the biggest names from the show and didnt bother to actually watch it this past season.
Tatiana should have gotten a nomination for the dance party alone!
Bellamy Young is the (only) best thing on Scandal.
Masters of Sex should get every nomination possible.
Mindy (!!!!!) don’t even get me started.
…and of course The Good Wife, the show where the sum is bigger than its parts, so it should have first and foremost get a best series nomination (and a writing one).
My beloved (and underrated) Nashville also didn’t get nominations but at least there I didn’t have any expectaions
Really excited for Matt Bomer, he deserves to win for The Normal Heart! Also so glad that Woody Harrelson was nominated for True Detective, he and Matthew McConaughey were both excellent.
You’re not kidding! After I binge-watched the entire season of True Detective I was singing their praises, especially for McConaughey. I’ve never been a fan of his but this role really changed my mind. I am so glad to see both him and Harrelson nominated.
I’m also furious about The Good Wife not getting nominated in the categories you mentioned WTF? Plus, this show had to put out 22 epis and still rocked all year. I guess if you are on network tv you aren’t cool enough for emmy nominations. What a shame
Couldn’t agree more! It’s ridiculous! The good wife atleast deserved a writing nomination for Hitting the fan if they weren’t gonna get a mom
For best drama series. All the shows nominated had at most 13 episodes. The good wife maintained near perfect quality for 22 and was snubbed. My faith in the Emmys and the academy is gone. Hiding out hope for Christine, Julianna and especially josh to take home some gold but I’m not holding my breath!
I agree with both of you. If those cable shows had to produce 22 episodes instead of 12 or 13, they wouldn’t be close as good as The Good Wife. They only reason it didn’t get nominated it’s because it is a network drama and the Emmy people snob them. They couldn’t ignore the acting because actors move from one network to another and in another time they might be on a cable show, but they did ignore and snob the show which will only stay on network.
In my opinion, The Good Wife and the show’s writers not only deserved the nomination but also the award as well.
Yeah–I’m with ya. The show is SO good. IT really looks bad that they weren’t recognized for best show and writing. I doubt there will be one tv blogger/critic who doesn’t agree that TGW was screwed. They should have had more acting noms as well. The best theater actors are on this show as regulars and guest stars. smh
I agree about the bias toward cable. I also don’t like that there is a bias against procedural and so-called “formula shows.” If these awards are supposed to be representative of television, they should include ALL of television. It’s terrific that Matt Bomer got a nom for The Normal Heart, but he’s been kicking ass on White Collar for years. Procedurals are good enough to make money but not good enough to be awarded and recognized? That’s crap! There’s good writing and acting on procedurals just like there is on the shows that receive critical acclaim.
I’d never really thought about it before, but I am now – networks ARE operating under different limitations than cable/digital for programing content. Separate nominations would be more logical but not likely since that would mean double the number of nominations for most categories. Therefore, the Emmy telecast would be so ridiculously long that people wouldn’t stay with it long enough to see the commercials, and the advertisers would not be happy.
I also agree. Some of these nominations are absurd. “True Detective” is not a drama series. It was a limited run mini. How could they allow it to be nominated in the best drama series category? “The Good Wife” turned in one of the finest year’s worth of TV I’ve ever seen. So they get no series, writing or directing noms? I’ll bet if TGW was on cable it would be sweeping the nominations and have many wins. I won’t be watching the EMMYs this year. Just move the show to Netflix or HBO where it really belongs.
DW, I know that you made the comment about moving The Good Wife in jest. Unfortunately, I think that’s what many members of the Academy think—that “good,” award-winning TV can only exist on the higher-end cable shows.
Andrea, I agree with what you say about the academy bias for cable but I must clarify that I meant moving the EMMY show to cable and not TGW. The EMMY nominations have become a bad joke when it comes to drama and even comedy is now drifting only to cable for nominations. TGW has more award winning actors on any given episode than any other show and look what the screwball EMMY voters nominate.
“Insert token rage about my favorite show/actor/actress not being nominated because narrowing down a great year of tv to 5/6 slots can be brutal’
I’m for the most part pleased with the nominations. Loved the OitnB + Normal Heart love, yay for Kate Mckinnon. Lena Headey finally gets recognized for GoT! I would have been remiss if Joe Morton had missed out on a nomination. B613 may be grating, but Morton’s monologues are Tywin Lannister-epic (Can we just have a show of older dad’s tearing down their children and others in monologues starring Charles Dance and Joe Morton, please?) I love Bellamy Young and would have been jumping up and down if she got a nomination, but I can’t think of anyone I would replace with her. Downton Abbey may be getting weary plot-wise, but performance wise it’s still giving it’s A-game.
I think the point of some of the rage is that there are multiple nominations in each category that are tired and seem to be there simply because they were the year before, rather than because of anything outstanding that occurred this season. If those nominations were removed, others can take their place. The Academy is very hesitant to nominate outside the box. Once they get in a comfort zone it’s wash, rinse, repeat until they are browbeaten into doing something different. It changes very, very slowly. Shows like Orphan Black aren’t considered because they are on the non-preferred cable networks. Shows like Hannibal aren’t considered because there’s only so much room now for broadcast, so why nominate a show that isn’t a hit like the Big Bang Theory?
Thank you for this – I couldn’t have put it better myself!