oh emmy

the two best things about being without a job are spending unlimited time with my dogs and watching unlimited amounts of television. i've always enjoyed good television -- i consider myself half tv snob and half mainstream tv viewer. while i've loved hit tv shows like thirtysomething, lost, survivor, the west wing, and the x-files, i've also loved the rarely seen, underappreciated, and sometimes prematurely cancelled shows like my so-called life, relativity, wonderfalls, sports night, veronica mars, roswell, and arrested development. in fact, i don't remember what show's early death inspired me, but beginning with my so-called life, i started taping shows that i really really loved because my adoration seemed to be the kiss of death. this was clearly before the advent of the dvd boxset, yet while wonderfalls was released after only 3 or 4 shows aired on fox, relativity is still not available on dvd. (maybe i should put my licensing experience to work and release relativity myself?)

so being out of work again, i finally watched the last 7 episodes of studio 60 on the sunset strip. frankly aaron sorkin and bradley whitford could stand and burp for 60 minutes and i'd watch, spellbound. which isn't to say that i don't have a critical eye when watching a tv show, because i believe i do. which is probably why my head exploded when james spader won the best actor in a drama emmy tonight. while i've never gotten into sopranos for my well-documented despication (yes it's now a word!) of mob stories, and even though sex lies and videotape might be in my top 25 movies of all time, there is no way that james spader was better than james gandolfini, denis leary or hugh laurie. when james commented that he didn't understand who voted for these emmys, i cringed as i know we weren't the only two thinking that exact same thing, questioning the emmy voters. of course the mess my head made didn't come close to the splatter when al pacino won the oscar for his scene-chewing over-the-top "performance" in scent of a woman. robert downey, stephen rea, denzel and clint were all freaking ROBBED. and val kilmer should've had pacino's nomination slot anyway for his channelling of jim morrison in the doors. don't get me started on when the voting body rewards someone who's never won an award before with an oscar or emmy for their lamest performance ever.

yet the emmy voters got quite a few categories right, jeremy piven and america ferrara, i'm talking about you. of course, that's forgetting about the painful and horrifically glaring lack of nominations for any and everyone involved with friday night lights, veronica mars, and battlestar gallactica. i guess i'll have to wait til 2008 for some satisfaction.