Sunday, September 20, 2009

Emmy Live Blogging: Swine Flu Fever Edition (Pt 2)

part one
refresh screen regularly

9:03 I recently flew home to visit my parents who were moving out of my childhood home. One of my brother's friends was living in their basement. Killing time one night, I watched How I Met Your Mother on the ancient TV system. It only seemed to carry the broadcast networks. It's like the TV had absorbed my parents refusal to join the modern world. Anyway... while watching the show, my brother's friend comes in the room and says "this is a funny show but you know what the funniest show is? Two and a Half Men. I LOVE that show."

This is why people like Jeff Probst win "Best Host of a Reality TV Program"

9:07 Gilles Marini is thrusting so often on that clip from Dancing With the Stars I feel like he should be punished on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

9:14 Shohreh Agdashloo wins Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie blocking Marcia Gay Harden's attempts at the triple crown. If Shohreh Agdashloo worked a sex phone line I would go bankrupt calling it. That voice!

Too much information I know. I'm sick. You're required to put up with me.

9:15 We're over an hour in and we've only had two Kanye West jokes. This is a surprising development.

9:28 It's hard to tell what is my fever and what is Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love Hewitt standing before me. It's a chicken and an egg situation, surely. The cold sweats have set in.


Sadly, I'm not joking.

9:34 I just realized that both Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange can't win for Grey Gardens because they rightly considered them both leads. No category fraud here. It's Jessica Lange. I'm happy for her but quite honestly I thought Drew deserved it. Didn't you?

9:46 I'm dying here. Little Dorrit keeps winning things and I could have sworn that was an Oscar movie in the 80s. I'm starting to hallucinate. The Year in Variety. Like varieties of flus? HA? Avian? H9N2? I could have sworn I just saw a cross dissolve wherein Will Swenson from Broadway's Hair lept at me with his legs spread until he was Barack Obama.

9:57 If you have any antibiotics I could borrow, please convert them into comment form so I can absorb them before it's too late.

10:02 They have a Original Music category at the Emmys? Hugh Jackman's number from the Oscars wins. I love that the Emmys are always giving awards to other awards shows. Hollywood Inbreeding. It stops only for Hollywood Back Patting! Inbreeding is the theme of the weekend (see also: previous post).

I wish other blogs would give me awards but patting my back right now might not be a good idea. I can only imagine what I'd cough up.

10:11 I can't go on without more comments. The pillows are singing their siren song. Say something damnit.

10:17 NPH was just standing next to Dianne Wiest and he neither acknowledged her nor fell to his knees in worshipful genuflection. This is the first time I've ever been disappointed in NPH.

10:21 They're speeding things up. Michael Emerson wins Best Supporting Actor for Lost. Cherry Jones wins Best Supporting Actress for 24. WAIT! Where is Sarah Paulson??? First no NPH / Burtka kiss and now I'm denied girl on girl action with my ladies? What the hell... I have a fever. I deserve my televised gay love.

10:27 Sarah McLachlan sings "I Will Remember You" for the in memoriam. There's no way to cover this adequately whilst liveblogging. So I won't say anything other than 2009 has been a real death bummer, no?

10:38 Mad Men wins Best Writing for "Meditations in an Emergency" -- that was the second season finale about the Sterling Cooper merger and Betty's pregnancy

Close of the fierce back and faulty memory

10:40 Best Actress in a Drama Series goes to... Glenn Close Damages. Kyra Sedgwick is bummed. Elisabeth Moss is robbed. Glenn is confused... claiming that Patty Hewes is "maybe... the role of her lifetime". As NoNo smartly says in the comments: "Glenn hasn't seen herself in Fatal Attraction lately". Right? "Or Dangerous Liaisons!", I'd add. Time to pull those DVDs out of storage, Glenn.

10:50 Best Actor in a Drama Series goes to Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad. (I don't even know what that show is about). Best Comedy Series goes to 30Rock.

11:01 I think it's shameful when awards shows that are running over time go to commercials before the final award. I mean, really. Screw the advertising dollars, think of the audience with the flu watching at home.

11:02 SIGWEAVIE! A vision in red. And Mad Men wins best series. Good night. Thanks for watching with me from your homes, through the internet where you can't catch my flu virus. Only other kinds.

Good night, and good luck.

55 comments:

rosengje said...

I believe the tally is at three Kanye jokes. NPH, Justin Timberlake and Grey Gardens guy. The last one was by far the most endearing.

Unknown said...

So many theater peeps....SO happy for Toni Collette, really wanted Janet McTeer to win and best Marcia GH (isn't it funny how they were nominated in the same category twice in one year, for two different performances/mediums?)

Unknown said...

Oooh YAY - at least Janet McTeer got a kiss, a mention and a close-up. Amazing woman indeed.

Anonymous said...

a winning female director in the year of female directors!

Anonymous said...

what were the the kanye west jokes? Please, someone tell me!

NATHANIEL R said...

i've already forgotten them.

Christine said...

I always wondered who watched "Two and a Half Men." Now I know.

I don't get the Emmys. Who is eligible to vote? Why does almost everything that wins seem to be something that I thought was canceled ten years ago?

John T said...

It's fun to have Alec Baldwin present to Jessica Lange, since they were both Emmy nominated fourteen years ago for playing Stanley and Blanche.

adelutza said...

Geez, best actress in a miniseries was really loaded Jessica Lange, Drew Barrymore, Shirley MacLaine - could've been an Oscar lineup easily

NATHANIEL R said...

Christine. I'm pretty sure my parents get to vote on the awards. And that guy who lives in my parents basement.

John T said...

adelutza-I can only dream of a recent Oscar lineup that would feature Weaver, Lange, and MacLaine. That would be a fabulous year for cinema.

NicksFlickPicks said...

101011011110100001010111010101000101111010000110101000110010111010101000111111110000001101010010111001

That's anti-H1N1 inoculation in binary code. Have **** reconstitute it for you in the kitchen. I'll send some Flu-B-Gone in a private message.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

Justin Timberlakes keeps on popping on all over the place.

Drew deserved the award more than Lange.

And is it just me or did Patricia Arquette sorta snobbed Hewitt.

Richter Scale said...

Little Dorrit was a movie in 1988 that was nominated for a few Oscars, namely Best Supporting Actor for Alec Guinness. It's based on a Charles Dickens novel. They just did a miniseries based on it.

Also, don't hate me for this, but I'm actually a big fan of Two and a Half Men and I was really happy for Jon Cryer winning the Emmy (the show is not what it used to be though). I also love 30 Rock and The Office, and I'm really big on The Big Bang Theory now (I was hoping Jim Parsons won, but I love Alec Baldwin, so I'm still happy). I love that Kristin Chenoweth won as well, because I love Olive Snook, and even though I haven't seen United States of Tara, I'm a fan of Toni Collette and I'm happy to see her win.

Ryan Ray said...

I can't wait for the Invention of Lying, I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Andrew K. said...

Jessica's win really made me happy and she seemed so happy to win it. And I'm glad she reminded us that she NEEDS another good role.

Jim T said...

Nathaniel, are you at least eating properly?

adelutza said...

I have nothing against Jon Stewart but isn't he winning since the last century?

Univarn said...

Hmmm all I've got around here medication wise is Tums and Ibruprofen, not sure that will sustain. If I had an award to give for best blog I'm sure I'd give it to... well I'm sure you'd be nomin... well you're definitely in the top 10...ish.

<3 just kidding, love the blog :P.

Michael Fierce said...

I preferred Drew Barrymore to Jessica Lange as well, but am satisfied with the outcome. I'm hoping for Drew to win the Globe, and then these two extraordinary women will have both received the recognition they deserve for their tremendous achievements.

Also: so excited Toni got the Emmy. She's a brilliant actress who is quite underrated in the awards territory.

adelutza said...

well, at least now I know how many categories there are - it was nice to have them so neatly divided.

Esther said...

I always feel bad when some dead celebs get more applause than others. I know it's natural to applaud more for people who are better known but I feel they should all get an equal amount of love.

And have you tried taking a couple of Tylenol?

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Cherry Jones wins an Emmy to join her two Tonys... Too bad she'll probably never have a chance to get the Oscar to complete her collection...

Unknown said...

*Cherry Jones is on her way to the tripple crown. I can def see her win supporting actress one day, a-la Dame Maggie Smith.

*It's been months, but I still can't see Natasha Richardson and not cry. What an enchanting actress she was. *sniff*

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I am also glad for Michael Emerson. He deserved to win and Aaron Paul will have more opportunities. Shatner has already won, Clemenson too. John Slattery was nothing special and William Hurt has an Oscar so I'm happy for Emerson.


It really is the role of a lifetime for him. Lost is a great show.

Anonymous said...

paulson's doing a play in nyc.

John T said...

Yeah-Cherry Jones and Cynthia Nixon both need to star in a film and pick up their "Triple Crown" titles.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

But I have to say I'm clearly surprised to see Cherry Jones winning.

Not that I don't think she deserved it but I was thinking that if Wiest didn't repeat her victory, it would be the other In Treatment girl, Hope Davis, or else one of Grey's ladies, probably Chandra Wilson.

Anonymous said...

its just that for Drew it was like a once in a lifetime opportunity... she went away for 3 months. no cellphone, tv, radio, internet or any contact with her family and friends... she proved everyone who thought she was a mediocre actress wrong... it was her moment.

NicksFlickPicks said...

"Proving everyone who thought she was a mediocre actress wrong" > Winning an Emmy

Sometimes you gotta go with that. I'm sure Drew is going with that. If you had to pick -- elevate your entire artistic reputation, or cop a trophy -- you'd pick A, right?

Carl Joseph Papa said...

yay for Mad Men!

NoNo said...

The character of her lifetime? Glenn hasn't seen herself in Fatal Attraction lately...

NATHANIEL R said...

well she did say "maybe"

Andrew K. said...

So psyched about Glenn winning but wish she could trade one of her Emmy's and one of her Tony's for that damn Oscar!

adelutza said...

I really have to start watching Damages if Glen Close says is maybe her best career role...

Andrew K. said...

Jesus Christ!. Will they never give Michael C. Hall an EMMY!!!!!!!!

Univarn said...

Breaking Bad: a high school chemistry teacher dying of cancer starts making drugs in order to pay off bills, and get enough money for his family before he dies...

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I feel sorry for Michael C. Hall and Hugh Laurie... They deserve an Emmy but Lady Luck hasn't favoured them yet.

Especially Hugh Laurie, I don't know what he needs to do to win. Well, possibly kill Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Or else... join the 3 series. Hugh Laurie as a drug-addict doctor who suddenly needs money and has to sell drugs and has a sudden urge to kill people in secrecy. Could that be possible? :D

Richter Scale said...

Hey Nat, Breaking Bad is on AMC, they show an episode every Sunday right after the second run of Mad Men, just in case you're interested in seeing what the fuss is about.

Richter Scale said...

Speaking of which, I really wish this broadcast was over already so I can watch the entire second run of tonight's Mad Men episode.

Andrew K. said...

Kill me now...but I wish Dexter would win...but I'm not crazy. I didn't think they would.

Anonymous said...

I swear it's like the emmys are d the most unpredictable awards ever. I wanted hugh laurie to win so bad. His last episodes this season was so incredible it's worth winning an emmy 5x over. Sigh. On the plus side, bryan cranston is an extrmely fantastic actor!! He should have won for Malcolm in the Middle too but I'd like to think this is his award for that too :) but he's terrific. I still remember the first seconds of Breaking Bad where he was speaking to the camera. It was genius. As for Elizabeth Moss, I have to nicely disagree. She's a supporting actress and in my opinion January jones is more deserving of a nomination. Idk something bout peggy's face makes me think she's so one noted.

Paul Outlaw said...

Breaking Bad = one of the best shows currently on TV. Definitely top five.

NoNo said...

I'm so confused. I've never seen an award show so predictable YET unpredictable at the same time.

Poor Steve Carrell...I think he might end up like Sarah Jessica Parker and Ricky Gervais and get it when it's his last chance.

Neil Patrick Harris did a great job (I'm not even a fan!) but anyone would've been better than last year.

Funny moments: Jimmy Fallon using autotune, Conan's writing/facebook skit, Billy Crystal...always funny. Same with Ricky Gervais

HUH? moments: Jon Cryer...ANYBODY was a better choice than him. Toni Collette...unlike Cryer it was a good huh...

Sweet moments: Kristin Chenoweth...just too wonderful

Yawn moments: Alec Baldwin, The Amazing Race, 30 Rock

adam k. said...

Biggest WTF moment for me was when they played Bear McCreary's Battlestar music over the drama reel, after having snubbed him for 5 straight years. Especially the last two, which have just been beyond exceptional. WTF!?

It kind of proves that they do in fact realize how genius he is, and are just jealous.

Also, anybody notice how all the shows with the biggest cheers on that reel were the unnominated ones? (BSG, True Blood, Friday Night Lights, etc.) So telling.

Ben said...

it's very random, but I second Adam's opinion on Bear McCreary.

RC said...

Of course, you know from my guest blogging I'm excited about the Agdashloo win!

Anonymous said...

I am in the minority here I am glad Drew Barrymore did not win, I felt the role was too difficult for her and showed.

Jessica Lange to me was better than Drew, although I would have preferred Sigourney Weaver to win for "Prayers for Bobby". But was glad for Jessica Lange she really did capture Big Edie perfectly.

Also I am glad to see Cherry Jones win, I so wished she would have been cast as Sister Aloysius Beauvier instead of Meryl Streep.

Agent69 said...

Damn, Lange won. Sigourney was robbed.
Other than that I couldn't care less.

spitze said...

i am extremely pleased that jessica lange won. she is incredible. she is one actress who should be seen more often.

taemo said...

@Leehee

of course she is. In fact I love this woman too. ;-)

Cinesnatch said...

Tyce Diorio beat Tabitha & Napolean & Mia Michaels for best choreography.

Bleh!

Peter said...

I think Hugh Laurie is destined for the Angela Lansbury/Martin Sheen/Anthony Edwards of years of consistently excellent work with lots of nominations, but never breaking through for the win.

Philip said...

Was Grey Gardens actually scheduled to be a feature film? I could have swore I saw it a few years ago on these Oscar Prediction sites. (Drew and Jessica as Best Actress)

SamB. said...

I am also glad for Michael Emerson. He deserved to win and Aaron Paul will have more opportunities. Shatner has already won, Clemenson too. John Slattery was nothing special and William Hurt has an Oscar so I'm happy for Emerson.

I'd be careful with that "he has more opportunites to win" talk. We thought we'd get a lifetime's worth of Heath Ledger performances too, and look how that turned out. Ledger and Aaron Paul are only four months apart in age. But yeah, I'm bitter that Aaron Paul lost, so don't mind me. I'm still ticked that Drew Barrymore lost to Jessica Lange. And that Jon fucking Cryer has an Emmy over anyone else in his category. But "30 Rock" and "Mad Men" both won their series wins, so all is (tentatively) right with the Emmy world . . . until next year.