Tracy Morgan prank falls flat, but other comedians kept the Emmys entertaining
The Good:聽Despite what much of Twitter would have you believe, the majority of last night鈥檚 winners were generally of the deserving variety. True, MODERN FAMILY (Outstanding Comedy Series), THE AMAZING RACE (Outstanding Reality Series) and THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART (Outstanding Variety Series) may not have been the most exciting or聽original聽of choices, but the continued excellence they deliver on a season by season basis won鈥檛 have us joining in on the chorus of complaining. Also not irking us, at least in terms of winners, were the trifecta of statuettes for Showtime鈥檚 fantastic freshman entrant HOMELAND (Which walked away with Outstanding Drama and Lead Actor and Actress for Damian Lewis and Claire Danes respectively), anything related to Woody Allen鈥檚 heir apparent Louis C.K. (Multiple winner for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and Comedy Series) not to mention Lena Dunham鈥檚 lack thereof (Thankfully, stripping down on screen in HBO鈥檚 GIRLS only gets you invited to the show, not up on stage!). Other winners (not literally of course) from last night鈥檚 ceremony include comedians Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Amy Poehler, who not only showed they鈥檙e good sports when it came to losing gracefully, but were some of the few stars in attendance to remember that they鈥檙e supposed to be entertaining a vast global audience sitting at home not just those lucky few sitting in front of them. Which brings us to鈥�
The Bad:聽The Producers of the Emmys really need to decide who this show is for: Is the purpose of it to entertain an audience numbering the hundreds inside a very hot auditorium, or the millions watching at home? We only ask, because if Jimmy Kimmel鈥檚 disappointing cold open featuring a bevy of female funny-women and a very naked Lena Dunham didn鈥檛 turn off viewers who don鈥檛 live in New York or Los Angeles, numerous jokes at Mitt Romney and the Republican party鈥檚 expense sure did. And while Kimmel deserves credit for keeping the show moving at a surprisingly brisk pace and peppering it with a few memorable one-liners (鈥淏eing a Republican in Hollywood is like being a聽Chick-fil-A sandwich on the snack table at GLEE.鈥�), his negatives far outweighed the positives. His personal 鈥淚n Memoriam鈥� was both unfunny and tasteless, while his desperate (albeit聽) attempt to turn the show into a trending topic on Twitter by using Tracy Morgan as a prop fell flat. In short, we simply expected more from the smart and likeable personality that has spent the better part of this past decade carving out a nice niche for himself in late night. Equally disappointing were the evening鈥檚 speeches. Traditionally any award show鈥檚 highlight thanks to their unpredictable nature were, last night鈥檚 winners 鈥� with the exception of MODERN FAMILY鈥檚 Eric Stonestreet and HOMELAND鈥檚 Claire Danes 鈥� self-congratulatory and self indulgent in nature. In fact, the only thing more upsetting than the misplaced value the show put on clip packages (Reality! Comedy! Drama! Message: Please Watch Television) was that after thanking agents, managers, writers, friends and family, recipients pretty much uniformly failed to acknowledge the real reason they are up on stage: Us viewers at home!
The Ugly: Twitter last night, that kind of self congratulatory career achievement should be saved for the People鈥檚 Choice Awards), the biggest failure of last night鈥檚 show was one of our own. Each and every year we watch this show in the hopes that somebody, anybody will have learned something from the many many mistakes of show鈥檚 past by delivering an entertaining experience. Yet here we are, once again, sipping coffee on a Monday morning wishing we could get those four hours back!
The TV Addict staff blogs at .
