Lights Out at the Emmys

• Jul 19, 2007 04:13 PM ET
• by Matt Roush

Remember how Charlie Brown used to end up on his back every time he went to kick the football after Lucy pulled it away? Well, that was me, in the pre-dawn of Thursday morning at the TV Academy building in North Hollywood, as the first Emmy category (for best drama series) was read aloud. Amid a gaggle of impatient media crews and anxious publicists, I once again felt sucker-punched by the cluelessly inexplicable whims of the Emmy nomination process. (Go here for a list of nominees.)

The football analogy applies because, once again, the Emmy system dropped the ball, failing to acknowledge NBC's critically worshiped freshman underdog Friday Night Lights, instead finding room for ABC's cartoonishly lurid freak show Boston Legal (on the basis, so I hear, of a rare detour into quality with a post-Katrina episode). A chagrined Academy source tells me that Friday Night Lights came close, but speculated that it may have flown too far under the radar in a way overcrowded field. Heartbreaking, because FNL is precisely the sort of low-rated, high-quality series that could most benefit from an Emmy spotlight. Also missing: the sensational Lost, which had the most talked-about season finale next to front-runner The Sopranos and ended up snubbed two years in a row. Instead, we get the uneven, overrated Heroes in the mix, which at least refreshingly defies the usual jinx against fantasy/sci-fi shows. Still, with Lost out of the running, the Emmys might as well take place on some remote desert island for all I now care.

So here we go again, surveying the usual mixed bag of nominees. I've said before that I would judge the Emmys by how the Emmys judged Friday Night Lights. So the Emmys should be dead to me now. And yet... there's an awful lot of fresh blood in the various categories this year, so it's not entirely a wasteland. Merely aggravating.

If I resent anything, it's the industry's embrace of the too-often-sophomoric guilty pleasure that is Boston Legal. James Spader's lead-actor nomination as the cloyingly quirky Alan Shore denied a slot to two much more deserving stars: Dexter's riveting Michael C. Hall (whose absence was a major surprise) and FNL's Kyle Chandler in a career-high role as the coach. William Shatner's supporting nomination for hamming it up as Denny Crane (a comedy performance if anything, and even that's a stretch these days) edged out far more worthy dramatic performances by the likes of The Shield's Walton Goggins and any number of the young ensemble members of FNL (Zach Gilford, Scott Porter, etc).

But enough of the hand-wringing for now. What makes me happy about this year's Emmy field?

Ugly Betty, for one. The most-nominated new series with 11 nods, and it couldn't happen to a more delightful or sweeter show. It's up for best comedy, best actress (the wonderful America Ferrera, probably a shoo-in to win), best supporting actress (Vanessa Williams) and best guest actresses (Judith Light and Salma Hayek). (That guest comedy actress category is a doozy, also including Elaine Stritch on 30 Rock and Dixie Carter and Laurie Metcalf on Desperate Housewives.)

Despite iffy ratings, 30 Rock broke through with 10 nominations, including nods to Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey. That's good and somewhat surprising news, although this is the kind of humor you'd expect folks in the TV business to relish. (For the record: the failed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip did manage to snag five nods, including for directing and the guest performances of Eli Wallach and John Goodman.)

Among the other breakthrough nominees that tickled my fancy: the adorable Masi Oka for Heroes; T.R. Knight (surviving the media storm) and Katherine Heigl among the Grey's Anatomy ensemble (with the wonderful Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh also in the running); creepy Michael Emerson joining Terry O'Quinn as Lost supporting contenders; Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths emerging from the Brothers & Sisters cast; Ricky Gervais from Extras finally getting his due; Minnie Driver from The Riches (whatever the show's faults, the acting was great); fresh faces in the supporting comedy race, including Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother (he should have made the cut last year), Entourage's Kevin Dillon and even The Office's Rainn Wilson (though I would have preferred John Krasinski, I get that Dwight is a broader pure-comedy performance).

And finally, the one no-surprise no-brainer dominating the drama field is The Sopranos, leading the series pack with 15 nominations. As polarizing as the show's self-consciously jarring go-to-black final moment was, there's no denying the landmark nature of this one-of-a-kind psychological family drama, which hit a number of home runs in its final season. It filled three of the writing category's slots, including for the episode in which Tony killed Christopher and for David Chase's controversial series finale. (Other writing contenders notably include the shamefully underappreciated Battlestar Galactica for its tense season-opener and Lost for its terrific season finale.)

Going category by category, and reserving the right to change my opinion as I take more time to reflect and analyze, here's a quick guesstimate of who and what I think is most likely to take home the gold on Sept. 16.

Drama: The Sopranos. Comedy: Ugly Betty or 30 Rock (that one's tougher, and The Office could easily repeat). Drama actor: Hugh Laurie (he's overdue). Drama actress: Sally Field. Comedy actor: Alec Baldwin. Comedy actress: America Ferrera. Drama supporting actor: T.R. Knight. Drama supporting actress: Lorraine Bracco (the first time she's put herself in the supporting category, which could help her chances), though I'm crushed that Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell isn't in the running (I'm told she didn't even crack the top 10). Comedy supporting actor: a toss-up between Neil Patrick Harris and Rainn Wilson. Comedy supporting actress: Vanessa Williams. Reality competition: no doubt The Amazing Race over American Idol again, but I'm jazzed that Top Chef joined Project Runway in the category this year. Sorry, Survivor.