When years ago the Oscars finally saw fit to reward the LOTR trilogy, I had a small sliver of hope that these awards are starting to move beyond their comfort zone and recognize movies and series and music based on merit and quality...I should have known better...LOTR was en exception, a welcome one, but those movies where just to hard to ignore. The Emmys, as its other counterparts, prefer to reward shows which are safe and familiar. Given what I suspect is the average voting age of the voting members I cannot say I'm surprised. "Game Of Thrones" is critically acclaimed, it is a success in every which way possible, almost everyone I speak with who has seen the show have nothing but positive things to say, and those who haven't seen it want to! It has a large built-in audience and an even larger fanbase comprised of people who have not read the books etc. Amazing cast, great directors, excellent writers and scripts, production values that are beyond almost anything that is on television and more often than not even big-screen movies...and still that is not enough! Sometimes I think that the Emmy folks and others like them, live on another planet...in a reality different than that of most average people, and then looking at where and how they live, which is literally a cocoon, a gated community within the larger art world...is there any surprise! These folk have been brought up in the world of "Leave it to Braver" and Andy Griffin (not that there is anything wrong with them up to a point). But the world has moved on, it no longer reflects those Norman Rockwell picturesque and idyllic images...The Mountain would kill Andy Griffin as an old useless peasant and enslave Oppie and probably hand him over to The Tickler...and that scares the shit out of your average Emmy voter! They grew up thinking that sci-fi and fantasy is weird, strange, and the people who like those genres are freaks, fringe lunatics...you know...the other, the one who doesn't fit their narrowly construed idea of who their "kind of people" are. These people don't vote for a series like "Game Of Thrones" because they wouldn't know what to do with it...because it does not offer easy solutions and answers to neatly fit in those boxes they must check on the voting ballots...hmmmmm that reminds me of something else... That is why I stopped paying attention long ago...for me the worth of a series like "Game Of Thrones" lies in its quality and that of the people working on it, in its originality, creativity and imagination, and for that I don't need the validation of an award as lame as the Emmy...
PS Besides we are in good company, after all they ignored "The Wire", "Deadwood", "ROME", "Brotherhood", "Battlestar Galactica", "OZ", "The Walking Dead" and others...
Look, I appreciate your support and your love of the show... but really, HOMELAND and BREAKING BAD and BOARDWALK EMPIRE are hardly safe and familiar." "Like perennial winner MAD MEN, these are superb shows, well worth watching.
First of all, thank you very much sir, for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer to some fan's rant. It is always a pleasure to hear your opinions and thoughts. I am almost through "A Feast For Crows", and one thing is becoming certain...you've pretty much blown out of the water most novels I have read...and now I'm thinking that they well feel as paltry imitations to your work...once I have to find something else to read...hopefully Pathrick Rotfuss and William Gibson will suffice...
As for the shows you mentioned, I absolutely agree with you on "Bordwalk Empire" which is a fantastic show, "Breaking Bad", I have seen a few episodes and I think it is way, way, way overrated...I'll grant you that Bryan Cranston is a good actor, but he cannot hold a candle to someone like Michael Chicklis who did what Cranston does, a thousand times better in "The Shield". Whenever someone mentions "Breaking Bad", I reply "OZ"!
AMC has ONE show that is worth more than all the other ones put together, and that is "The Walking Dead". If AMC had any brains they would have kept "Rubicon" which was everything "Homeland" is trying to be, and more, instead of bringing out "Hell On Wheels", which might be a decent show but seems to me more a pale version of "Deadwood".
As for "Homeland" the way they've set up the story and the season ender...I think the show will go the route of "24", a stellar first season and then diminishing following seasons, each more far-fetched and out of sync with reality. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and Mandy Patinkin are the people which anchor that show, without them, "Homeland" would feel like any average network fare...
Of course that is just me saying all these things, and this reply was not meant do dismiss your suggestions and ideas. Its all subjective of course...and biased!
You lose a lot of credibility when you cite "The Walking Dead" as the best show on AMC. I watch it: LOVED the abbreviated first season and loathed the full second season. It was incredibly slow moving, poorly acted by many parties, and character development was nil. Every character on that show has become completely one-dimensional (I can't take any more slowly spoken, morality-fueled monologues from Rick Grimes or nonsensical freak outs by the shrill harpy that is Lori). I'll be back for Season 3 but hopefully there are some major changes to how the show is paced.
I wish the GoT could have earned some major hardware but it's tough to argue against the winners. Homeland was truly riveting in its own right and Aaron Paul deserved the Emmy love he got for his fantastic season on Breaking Bad.
groggy
grrm
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The Emmys, as its other counterparts, prefer to reward shows which are safe and familiar. Given what I suspect is the average voting age of the voting members I cannot say I'm surprised. "Game Of Thrones" is critically acclaimed, it is a success in every which way possible, almost everyone I speak with who has seen the show have nothing but positive things to say, and those who haven't seen it want to! It has a large built-in audience and an even larger fanbase comprised of people who have not read the books etc. Amazing cast, great directors, excellent writers and scripts, production values that are beyond almost anything that is on television and more often than not even big-screen movies...and still that is not enough!
Sometimes I think that the Emmy folks and others like them, live on another planet...in a reality different than that of most average people, and then looking at where and how they live, which is literally a cocoon, a gated community within the larger art world...is there any surprise! These folk have been brought up in the world of "Leave it to Braver" and Andy Griffin (not that there is anything wrong with them up to a point). But the world has moved on, it no longer reflects those Norman Rockwell picturesque and idyllic images...The Mountain would kill Andy Griffin as an old useless peasant and enslave Oppie and probably hand him over to The Tickler...and that scares the shit out of your average Emmy voter! They grew up thinking that sci-fi and fantasy is weird, strange, and the people who like those genres are freaks, fringe lunatics...you know...the other, the one who doesn't fit their narrowly construed idea of who their "kind of people" are. These people don't vote for a series like "Game Of Thrones" because they wouldn't know what to do with it...because it does not offer easy solutions and answers to neatly fit in those boxes they must check on the voting ballots...hmmmmm that reminds me of something else...
That is why I stopped paying attention long ago...for me the worth of a series like "Game Of Thrones" lies in its quality and that of the people working on it, in its originality, creativity and imagination, and for that I don't need the validation of an award as lame as the Emmy...
PS Besides we are in good company, after all they ignored "The Wire", "Deadwood", "ROME", "Brotherhood", "Battlestar Galactica", "OZ", "The Walking Dead" and others...
As for the shows you mentioned, I absolutely agree with you on "Bordwalk Empire" which is a fantastic show, "Breaking Bad", I have seen a few episodes and I think it is way, way, way overrated...I'll grant you that Bryan Cranston is a good actor, but he cannot hold a candle to someone like Michael Chicklis who did what Cranston does, a thousand times better in "The Shield". Whenever someone mentions "Breaking Bad", I reply "OZ"!
AMC has ONE show that is worth more than all the other ones put together, and that is "The Walking Dead". If AMC had any brains they would have kept "Rubicon" which was everything "Homeland" is trying to be, and more, instead of bringing out "Hell On Wheels", which might be a decent show but seems to me more a pale version of "Deadwood".
As for "Homeland" the way they've set up the story and the season ender...I think the show will go the route of "24", a stellar first season and then diminishing following seasons, each more far-fetched and out of sync with reality. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and Mandy Patinkin are the people which anchor that show, without them, "Homeland" would feel like any average network fare...
Of course that is just me saying all these things, and this reply was not meant do dismiss your suggestions and ideas. Its all subjective of course...and biased!
I wish the GoT could have earned some major hardware but it's tough to argue against the winners. Homeland was truly riveting in its own right and Aaron Paul deserved the Emmy love he got for his fantastic season on Breaking Bad.