One More Thing About Mamma Mia!

Who's Down For Low Res Book Club?

Or possibly "Joe-prah's Book Club," but I'm not ready to pull the trigger on that quite yet.

Anyway, we've been talking about this in the comments for the Watchmen trailer, but I wanted to bring this out to the main page: Who out there would be interested in doing an online book club to read the Watchmen graphic novel? I've been thinking about re-reading it in preparation for the movie, and a book club has gotten a little bit of interest. Post in the comments if you're interested, and also if you have any suggestions as to a timetable. I've never run a book club, and I want to do this at the right intervals, where we're not killing ourselves to read six chapters in two days but also so we're not dragging this out and losing interest.

Book Club, Whoo!

Capsule Review: Mamma Mia!

Movie: Mamma Mia!
Director/Studio: Phyllida Lloyd / Universal
10 Word Review: Great leading ladies, but Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie something more consistent.

Best Thing About It: There are some numbers that are as vibrant and enthusiastic as the best Broadway musicals. When this film celebrates its youth and beauty and gets everybody up in everybody else's business, it's very difficult not to smile and tap your foot. On the other hand...

Worst Thing About It: ...There are other numbers that are the equivalent of jabbing you with a sharp stick, demanding your attention by being too loud and gaudy to ignore. Some of these songs are filmed like really terrible music videos. The baffling decision to cast Pierce Brosnan, who cannot sing, in a role that requires an awful lot of singing, comes a close second. Did he really bring a whole lot to the table, star-power-wise? I'm at a loss to explain this. Also, the whole Colin Firth gay subplot is handled clumsily, to the point of incoherence.

Best Performance: Let it be known that there are few bigger fans of Meryl Streep than me, and she's wonderful here. But Amanda Seyfried is where it's at, you guys. If there's any justice, this makes her a HUGE star. She gives the best vocals of the whole cast, she's got acting chops to keep up with her on-screen mom, and she's almost too beautiful to bear. If I could legally marry two people at once, I'd find myself a Greek island and get hitched to Seyfriend and Dominic Cooper (and their lovely, giant eyes) and live in glowing bliss for the rest of my days.

Oscar Prospects: Probably nothing. Maybe costumes, if the Academy's feeling an overall lack of HOLY GOD TACKY. Meryl should have an easy get at a Golden Globe nomination, though.

Grade: B-

Teri Garr Should Shut Up and Be Grateful

I promise I'll shut up about Katherine Heigl after this (my promises on these kinds of things are generally not worth much, but I'll try), but Vulture just did a quote feature exclusively on Teri Garr's recent, spectacularly candid interview with the Onion A.V. Club. I can't recommend it enough. Particularly this comment, speaking about the character she played in Tootsie:

"I thought that [Sandy] was caught between trying to have a career and trying to be a sexual woman, and it just doesn't work. At least it didn't in that movie, because it was made by sexist men. I can say that now, because Sydney [Pollack] isn't with us anymore. [Laughs.] But he was a fine director."

Now before you start bitching, of course I'm not saying that Katherine Heigl is anywhere near as accomplished as Teri Garr. And this is of course decades after the fact, and Sydney Pollack isn't alive anymore. But if we start raining shit down on actresses who speak in anything less than calculated niceties, how are we going to end up with such fantastically mouthy broads like Teri Garr? Don't we want more women like this?

Okay, I'm done.

On Loyalty and Brett Favre (But Very Briefly)

Yes, it's the Dread Football Post, and in July no less. Don't worry, it's quick. It also falls into a trend I've been noticing here lately wherein I get curious as to why "we" (fans, media, the public at large) feel the ways we do about our entertainment, and more often the little hypocrisies I find in the reactions to Katherine Heigl or Dawn Summers or whoever. I seem to be on a kick. Anyway, today's question like that is about football.

Because for a few weeks now, the Brett Favre Saga (for the non-football fans, Linda has you covered) has been raging and most of the media has been resolute in their opinion that the Green Bay Packers have an obligation to pay back Favre's many years of gridiron heroics by turning their offense upside-down and welcoming him back from his fake retirement. Fair enough.

My question is this: Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor was run out of town by a monomaniacal GM for having the gall to appear on Dancing With the Stars instead of participating in voluntary team workouts in February or whatever the fuck. This is an 11-year veteran, bajillion-time all-star, and former Defensive Player of the Year. He's also been the only good player on a shitty Miami team for several years. And Bill Parcells spends months taking potshots at the guy before shipping him off to another team and yet no one seem to find THAT behavior disrespectful to a beloved football hero.

So what gives? Is Favre really that much more of a hero? Is dancing on TV really that big of a crime?

Trailer Trash Tuesday: Watchmen

I know we talked about the Watchmen trailer last week, and I also know that I pledged to keep the hype for this flick to a low simmer, lest I become part of the geeky problem rather than the solution. BUT...I've watched this thing enough in the past three days that I need to talk about it. Just a little.



For one thing, YouTube is so totally not the ideal format to watch this. I cannot recommend downloading the trailer for free on iTunes highly enough. With that out of the way...how about the balls on this clip? I love it. I love using the Smashing Pumpkins' alternate version of "The End Is the Beginning Is the End," practically daring people to draw comparisons to Batman & Robin while at the same time making those comparisons look foolish. Of course, premiering in front of The Dark Knight is the easiest way to be reminded that Watchmen doesn't enjoy the luxury of being the realist antithesis to the superhero genre anymore, but I'm already weary in anticipation of all the comparing and contrasting those two movies are going to be subjected to in the next eight months, so I'll leave it at that.

I'd love to hear from people who never read the Watchmen graphic novel and find out what they think of the trailer. There's so little information given out -- and obviously only the slightest hint of the alternate-universe America and its Cold War politics that are so central to the story -- and I'm wondering if the obliqueness is tantalizing or a turn-off.

Capsule Review: The Dark Knight

Movie: The Dark Knight
Director/Studio: Christopher Nolan / Warner Bros.
10 Word Review: The best antidote to the hype was seeing the movie.

Best Thing About It: The fact that it didn't end up letting me down. The pre-release hype, the obnoxiousness of some of its more hyperactive zealots (many of whom are at the moment busy vivisecting Keith Uhlich over at The House Next Door. I don't agree with very much in the review, but the sheer fuckheadedness of the commenters almost has me reversing my position), the creeping sense of obligation to love the thing before I'd ever seen it had all conspired to make me suspicious of this movie that I'd been anticipating since the first promotional images popped up on the internet, what, a year ago? Everybody needs to stop doing this. I'm already planning to temper myself re: Watchmen.

Anyway, that's not what's important now that I've actually seen the movie. And the movie is very good. Very, very good. When I walked out of the theater, the word that came to mind was "full." It's a full movie. A complete one. It paints to the edges. Christopher Nolan's Gotham is a fully functioning ecosystem populated by men and (few) women who have their own agendas and trajectories to follow, and The Dark Knight follows them all down their own particular avenues. As much as it's a Batman movie, it's a Harvey Dent movie too, as he struggles against the mob's infectious corruption and the Joker's unspeakable cruelty. It's Jim Gordon's movie too, as he goes to war with the Major Case Squad he has rather than the one he'd like. The Joker's less accessible, by design, but by virtue of Heath Ledger's performance he's the only thing you can look at, so in that way it's the Joker's movie, too.

I walked away incredibly satisfied by this movie. The story, about a Batman looking to a white knight district attorney to be the face of justice in the light of day, about what the criminal element does when it's pushed into a corner, about throwing your lot in with men you don't trust or understand on either side of the law...there's a lot to chew on. I walked away feeling like I got told a full story -- one that's part of a much bigger picture, sure, but a full story and not just a good excuse for a lot of chasing and killing.

The "best comic book movie ever" discussion is an interesting one, and I'm going to have to defer at least six months, until I've seen it on DVD. I was pretty happy with Batman Begins too, but in the last three years it's grown stale and forgettable in my mind. My current pick for best comic book movie ever, X2, was a movie that knocked me out initially, true, but it was when it endured and even blossomed on multiple viewings that it hit the top of the list.

Worst Thing About It: At two and a half hours, I was expecting the movie to drag, but I don't think it did. It held its own. My lack of interest in the Batman character, relative to how enthralled I was by the arcs for Dent and Gordon and the Joker, probably means this falls short of perfection as a Batman movie, but in the end, I didn't care about that. What bugged me the most was the occasional PG-13-ification of the film. We don't once see the Joker slice into anyone's face, despite this happening, offscreen, several times. For as much as you might say gore isn't necessary, you need to see the blood and guts of what Joker's doing to people, at least once. Worse, every time something bloody was pulled out of the frame, I'd get pulled out of the movie and start thinking about things like MPAA ratings and marketing meetings and how much less money the movie'd be making if it came in at an "R." It's weird, because you see what becomes of Harvey Dent's face, in detail, more than once. Did that use up all of The Dark Knight's capital with the MPAA? See, these are the things I don't need to be thinking about in the middle of a movie.

Best Performance: The surprising thing is that Heath Ledger had so much competition here. It's a strong ensemble -- Christian Bale's Batman might be the least impressive performance of the "name" stars, and he's not exactly a slouch. Maggie Gyllenhaal's kind of a non-starter, actually, but the trio of Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, and Gary Oldman are total knockouts. As I said before, the arcs that Dent and Gordon follow are as central to the story as Batman's, and Eckhart and Oldman are up to the challenges.

Ledger's something else entirely. In all the ramp-up to the movie, I started to wonder just how big he took the Joker. I was happily surprised to find out it wasn't that big. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a fussy performance, but the Joker's a fussy character. A guy who would type out taunts to Batman onto playing cards and leave them all over town is a guy who sweats the details. Every twitch, every flick of the Joker's tongue or suppressed giggle or lurching step forward is dedicated to one of the major themes of the movie: the Joker as an instrument of chaos. It's a wild ride and, not to bring maudlin sentimentality into a review of a movie that doesn't need it, it's unspeakably sad that there isn't more where that came from.

Oscar Prospects: This'll probably be one of, if not the most hotly debated stories of the year. Just how well The Dark Knight will (and should) do at the Oscars, a place where superhero movies just don't show up. Ever. The Heath Ledger nomination seems set in stone, for good or ill. While I believe the Oscar buzz would have been there whether Heath had died or not, I think the fact that this will be the Academy's last chance to honor him makes him a more solid bet.

As for the rest of the movie...the sky could well be the limit. After the record-breaking weekend, great reviews, and rapturous word-of-mouth (for the most part), it's reasonable to expect this to be the year-end box-office champ. That doesn't always equate to awards, but it certainly makes a lot of people in Hollywood happy in the wallet area. Christopher Nolan is a Serious Filmmaker, too, and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. Wally Pfister got a cinematography nomination for Batman Begins. Sound and Sound Effects nominations are locks (as should be visual effects and makeup, but those branches get weird sometimes). I could see this getting anywhere from one to eight nominations, and if it doesn't, the story will be that it should have.

Grade: A-

Out On a High Note (SYTYCD Spoilers)

I suppose if you're going to go home on a week where you gave two of the best pair dances and the best solo, there's a way to put that titular silver lining on the news. And Gev (and Kherington, and poor Cat) certainly took it better than I did. But...GEV! NOOOOOO! He really was my favorite this season, all things considered. I can't really call the result bullshit when all the guys are so effing good, but why the FUCK couldn't everybody else see what I saw? God damn it. I'm going to try to be classy about this, so I'm only going to mention this once that the Nigel-choreographed boys number was a fine, if obvious, love-letter to Will.

Anyhoo, in other news, if Kherington didn't go home tonight, she would've gone home next week. As that backstage footage showed, the wind had just come out of her sails after three weeks of steady decline. I guess I can always remember her impeccable lines from that Viennese waltz.

And I hinted at it yesterday, but now I'm certain: Lil' C is my favorite judge of all of them. Can I just have him show up at my house and tell me that my heart is the railroad that runs between my artistry and my ability? That would be wonderful.

Who Watches the Trailer?

...Well, no one does since Warner Bros. pulled it. But My New Plaid Pants has your hookup, with image after by-God image from the Watchmen teaser trailer, which, as Jason points out, will probably premiere before The Dark Knight.

My favorite shots? This one:


And this one:



Cannot friggin' wait.
*

Synergy Like an M-Fer!

Something About So You Think You Can Dance:

I forgot to mention this in the earlier post, but it needs to be said: last night's episode featured Journey's "Open Arms," Enrique Iglesias's "Hero," and Michael Jackson's "Jam."

I love that show.

Something About the Emmys:

Here are the nomineed for Outstanding Host For A Reality Show:

Ryan Seacrest -- American Idol
Tom Bergeron -- Dancing With The Stars
Howie Mandel -- Deal Or No Deal
Heidi Klum -- Project Runway
Jeff Probst -- Survivor

So I guess the Emmys' love affair with The Amazing Race doesn't extend to Phil Keoghan. That's too bad, because this list is for shit. Though it does make it pretty easy to root for Heidi Klum. If Ryan Seacrest gets an Emmy, I swear to god. Good news: Tyra didn't get nominated. Bad news: neither did Cat Deeley.

Something About both So You Think You Can Dance and the Emmys:

I bring you the Emmy nominations for Outstanding Choreography:

Dancing With The Stars
Routine: Mambo / 'Para Los Rumberos'
Julianne Hough, Choreographer

High School Musical 2
Kenny Ortega, Choreographer
Charles Klapow, Choreographer
Bonnie Story, Choreographer

So You Think You Can Dance
Routine: Hummingbird and Flower / 'The Chairman's Waltz
Wade Robson, Choreographer

So You Think You Can Dance
Routine: Transformers / 'Fuego'
Shane Sparks, Choreographer

So You Think You Can Dance
Routine: Table / 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)'
Mandy Moore, Choreographer


Dude, my favorite routine of last season got nominated! Awesome. Go Mandy Moore!

Actual Emmy Nominations

So the for-real Emmy nominations came out today, and despite what you're going to hear from disgruntled fans of The Wire (who really ought to be used to this by now), they're pretty okay. After seeing the semi-final lists, these could have been worse, certainly. As you may recall, I made predictions both hopeful and realistic upon seeing the Top 10 lists, so we'll see how the Emmys measured up.

Best Drama Series
Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

All five shows I predicted showed up here, plus Dexter as a special bonus sixth. Dexter really deserved this nomination last year, but I'm not going to look a gift make-up nomination in the mouth, particularly with crap-ass Boston Legal to bitch about. With Lost, Mad Men, and Damages, this managed to go 3/5 on my best-case scenario, and that's not even counting House, which I am given to understand was very good this year.

Best Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men

I missed Pushing Daisies for Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I got the other four. This is maybe the worst lineup of the day, with the ever-stale Entourage and Two and a Half Men stinking up the joint. It seems almost too good to be true that 30 Rock would repeat last year's win, but who's gonna unseat it?

Best Actor, Drama
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
James Spader, Boston Legal

I picked 4 of these 6, but I'm way happier about Cranston and especially Michael C. Hall (who should have won this category last year, when he wasn't even nominated) getting in over Denis Leary. Sucks for Kyle Chandler and Eddie Izzard, but I've just started watching In Treatment recently and am very impressed, so Spader notwithstanding, this is a very respectable lineup.

Best Actress, Drama
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Picked this one 5/5, which I suppose is the silver lining on the fact that Mary McDonnell, Minnie Driver, Elizabeth Moss, and Jeanne Tripplehorn all got snubbed.

Best Actor, Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

The full semi-final list never came out on these, so I didn't pick, but this all seems fairly predictable. Good for Lee Pace, that's for sure. So who's going to rob Carell and Baldwin blind this year?

Best Actress, Comedy
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

This category's pretty good, as I went 4/5 on both predictions (missing MLP for Felicity Huffman) and my best-case scenario (where Louis-Dreyfus replaced Anna Friel, who I kind of hate on that show anyway). Really, there were only four possible nominees I could have possibly cared about, and they all showed up. Good stuff.

Best Supporting Actor, Drama
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

First off, a big WHOOP! for Zeljko Ivanek, my personal favorite nomination of the morning. Very well-deserved. His was the only nomination I failed to guess, and excluding Shatner, the other four were the best of the Top 10, so another well-turned-out category.

Best Supporting Actress, Drama
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers and Sisters
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

Really surprised that Rose Byrne didn't show up here -- I picked everyone else but Griffiths -- but much like the supporting men, once you disregard the Boston Legal nominee, there are four excellent performers. Christina Hendricks was robbed.

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

Same shit as last year, with the emphasis on shit. NPH and Wilson are awesome, yes, but unless one of them wins, this will remain a blight on the nomination sheet. Kevin Dillon over John Krasinski (and Justin Kirk, and Tracy Morgan, and Jack McBrayer). If Dillon can get nominated for playing a mentally retarded version of himself, why couldn't Tracy Morgan have done the same? Are the Black Crusaders behind this??

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

I shit the bed on predictions (only guessing Williams and Taylor), but happily so given the delightful recognition of Chenoweth, Jean Smart, and AMY DAMN POEHLER! She's a long shot to win, but it'd be a hell of a boost for her as she gets set to star in that Office spinoff, right?

SYTYCD Quick-Hitter

So after last night's show, I am officially worried for Mark. Two poor performances -- off of two fairly crappily-choreographed routines, if you ask me, but still -- and with no room for error on the guys' side of things. That's gonna suck. On the bright side, Lil' C is an awesome judge -- more of that, please.

On to the pairings:

Chelsie and Gev
For a week I've been praying that Gev would get paired up with Chelsie, and the result was the best pairing of the night. Maybe instead of thinking Gev was being propped up by fortuitous chemistry with Courtney we should start thinking of Gev as a fantastic partner. Chelsie, for her part, is the best woman left in the competition, I think. The contemporary routine was awesome (and a good step up for Sonya, whose first routine I didn't get), but that jive was insane. Gev was better than the judges gave him credit for, but Chelsie was frightening.

Joshua and Courtney
Second-best pairing of the night. That rumba was so fucking hot, I swear to god. Courtney just gets better and better every week --she had the strongest
solo of the night -- and Josh might be the best dancer on the show.

Kherington and Mark
Like I said, Mark is in serious trouble after those dances, but they were a couple of dud routines, right? Don't get me wrong, he and Kherington danced them poorly, but...it's a shame. I have no idea how this show works, in terms of whether sympathy votes end up saving those dancers most in trouble, like on Idol, but it seems like this audience tends to respond better to the actual performance quality. Sorry, Mark.

Twitch and Comfort
That hip-hop routine was NUTS. So, so, so, SO awesome. I don't know if it'll be enough to save Comfort, but the fact that I'm even considering the idea that someone (Kherington?) might be in trouble tells you how good she was. Glad to see Twitch right his ship (his solo kicked ass too -- much better than last week).

Will and Katee
Sigh. I don't know, you guys. I was really hoping the partner switch would help me see Will in a better light -- the light everyone else seems to see him in. And I will fully admit that the dancing on the pas-de-deux was brilliant. But...okay, first of all there were about a dozen things distracting me from the actual dancing, including: Katee's aggressive camel toe; Will's decision to go shirtless for the fourth consecutive week, driving me to once-unthinkable extortions like "Will needs to put a shirt on"; and perhaps worst of all, the effing David Archuleta version of "Imagine." Gross to the millionth power. So, yeah, once again Will dances a brilliant routine and I still kind of don't like him. And if any guy besides him gets eliminated I'm gonna be totally sad.

Best routines: Twitch and Comfort's hip-hop, Chelsie and Gev's jive, Josh and Courtney's rumba.

Bottom Four: Kherington, Comfort, Mark, Gev

Going home: Comfort, Mark

Jazz Hands for Pele

Holy shit, you guys. Tori Amos is working on a musical.

I'm currently trying to wrap my head around this. Though I always thought Neil Gaiman could have written a pretty good companion piece to Stephen King's The Talisman based on From the Choirgirl Hotel. But I've already said too much.

So You Think I Can Skip A Week?

I'd be very surprised if I find the time to give a proper rendering of tonight's So You Think You Can Dance? It's card night, and then I'm tagging in to recap Shear Genius on TWoP. I'll probably pop up with something brief tomorrow morning, but nothing like what I've been doing. So instead I figure I'll just engage in the lazy YouTubing you've come to expect from me and put up my picks for the top 5 routines of the season thus far.


Kherington and Twitch: Viennese Waltz (...sort of) (Top 18)



Joshua and Katee: Hip-Hop (Top 20)



Courtney and Gev: Contemporary (Top 18)



Mark and Chelsie: Hip-Hop (Top 16)



EDIT: I had Jess and Will's Jive here, but while I really liked that one, I liked these two solos more:

Matt (Top 14)



Gev (Top 14)

Okay...

...I am going to have to call bullshit, once and for all, on this notion of David Wright as some sort of hottie.

I mean, sure, he's the cutest half-man, half-amphibian in baseball, but that's an awfully low bar to clear.

[pics via Kenneth in the (212)]

My Emmy Ballot

Emmy nominations get announced tomorrow, and before we get into the inevitable crushing disappointment, I figure I'd give you all a vision of a brighter day. A day when I am given a say in one of the entertainment industry's least-respected honors.

You'll note I kind of made up my own mind with regard to lead/supporting designations, and I didn't bother differentiating reality shows at all. But I did adhere to the Emmys' eligibility period, which was roughly last June through this May.


BEST DRAMA
Battlestar Galactica
Gossip Girl
John From Cincinnati
Lost
Mad Men

Runners-Up: Friday Night Lights; Damages; Dirty Sexy Money.

Before you start yelling at me, yes, I included Gossip Girl. There is always going to be room in my Top 5 for the most purely enjoyable and entertaining show on TV, and as the season sped to its conclusion, there were few shows that I enjoyed more. Honestly, if Friday Night Lights hadn't stumbled so much in its second season, that would be here instead, but here we are.

I'm pretty sure I've made my case for Battlestar and Lost many times on this blog. Both shows saw significant upswings in quality -- and they were starting from a pretty strong position to begin with. Mad Men made a strong debut and has the advantage of being able to deliver a full season before the strike happened. John From Cincinnati didn't have a problem getting a full season in, seeing as this is a holdover from last summer. It was getting a second season that proved unattainable, which isn't surprising since I'm one of like six people who loved the thing.


BEST ACTOR - DRAMA
Kyle Chandler - Friday Night Lights
Michael C. Hall - Dexter
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Edward James Olmos - Battlestar Galactica
Brian Van Holt - John From Cincinnati

Runners-Up: Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone); Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment).

It's an unexpectedly shallow pool in this category, much as it was last year. And this year I didn't have such easy pencil-ins like Ian McShane and James Gandolfini. As ever, Michael C. Hall, Kyle Chandler, and Edward James Olmos are the class of television. (The subpar seasons of FNL and Dexter were certainly not the fault of their lead performers, and Battlestar's ass-kickery only enhanced Olmos's position.) Jon Hamm made an inscrutable man awfully deep in his first season, and the fact that no one's going to be talking about Brian Van Holt at all this Emmy season makes me indescribably sad.

BEST ACTRESS - DRAMA
Connie Britton - Friday Night Lights
Minnie Driver - The Riches
Ginnifer Goodwin - Big Love
Mary McDonnell - Battlestar Galactica
Jeanne Tripplehorn - Big Love

Runners-Up: Glenn Close (Damages); Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters); Chloe Sevigny (Big Love).

So, yes, last year Connie Britton campaigned as a lead and I put her in supporting; this year she campaigned in supporting and I put her in as a lead. But between me and the actual Emmys, only one of us is actually nominating her, so who would you go with? Besides, she was actually given a lead actress's share of the load this time, and she was still the most compelling thing onscreen.

The mere fact that Glenn Close's performance -- one that fashioned a golden statue of Patty Hewes with the words "tour-de-force" etched on it -- didn't make my Top 5 shows how stacked this category is. Much like Season 1 of Big Love belonged to Nicki, Season 2 belonged to Margene, and Ginnifer Goodwin stepped to the front of the line; trying to measure her performance against Jeanne Tripplehorn's Barb is the best kind of dilemma. The Riches suffered in its second season by scattering the family too far away from each other, but Minnie Driver got to the core of Dahlia's peculiar morality. And what more can I say about Mary McDonnell at this point? Lady can rock a wig.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - DRAMA
James Callis - Battlestar Galactica
Michael Emerson - Lost
Glenn Fitzgerald - Dirty Sexy Money
Michael Hogan - Battlestar Galactica
Donald Sutherland - Dirty Sexy Money

Runners-Up: Victor Garber (Eli Stone); Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters); Zeljko Ivanek (Damages); Ed O'Neill (John From Cincinnati).

I could nominate five men from Battlestar easily, which should give you an indication of just how great Callis and Hogan were this season. Similarly, Sutherland and Fitzgerald rose to the top of a hearty and accomplished ensemble to deliver hilarious and moving performances. And then there's wee little Michael Emerson, all alone without a co-star. With the way he's made Ben the most watchable character on a very watchable show, something tells me he'll do just fine.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - DRAMA
Tricia Helfer - Battlestar Galactica
Christina Hendricks - Mad Men
Yunjin Kim - Lost
Margo Martindale - The Riches
Patricia Wettig - Brothers & Sisters

Runners-Up: Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica); Emily VanCamp (Brothers & Sisters); Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy); Dianne Wiest (In Treatment).

No one on this list was on the list last year, simply because the pool of worthy actresses here is so deep. Nothing against women like Sackhoff and Oh and Chandra Wilson and Elizabeth Mitchell, but with such a crowded field, it doesn't take much to get leapfrogged. Martindale would have been listed last year if I'd have watched Season 1 of The Riches in real time. She was far too scarce during much of Season 2, but she got some great episodes at the end. Helfer had her best season yet as the different iterations of Number Six we finally got to see really allowed her to delve into different aspects of Cylon personality. Hendricks was a sniper from the Mad Men sidelines, and Yunjin Kim upped her already significant game in the all of three episodes in which she was featured. And I've been stumping for Wettig since the first episodes of this season. I don't know how I would have survived that accursed Rebecca/Justin storyline without her.


BEST COMEDY
30 Rock
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The Office
Pushing Daisies
Ugly Betty

Runners-Up: Weeds; Flight of the Conchords; How I Met Your Mother.

Not a whole lot of new crowding out the old here, save for Pushing Daisies, which, after an incredibly abbreviated first season, is here on promise more than anything. Next season will tell the full tale. Philly and The Office both rebounded from slow starts to finish up strong, while Ugly Betty got better as its universe expanded (beefing up Judith Light to a regular was a big step up), and 30 Rock remains the funniest show on television. That Carrie Fisher episode (and probably the "Gay for Jamie" one too) should go in a time capsule.


BEST ACTOR - COMEDY
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
Steve Carell - The Office
Charlie Day - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
John Krasinski - The Office
Lee Pace - Pushing Daisies

Runners-Up: Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords); Zachary Levi (Chuck); Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords).

Again, not a lot of turnover here, though Lee Pace makes the nominee list a whole lot more attractive, physically. Otherwise, things look a whole lot similar to last year. For the record, Alec Baldwin somehow managed to make himself more award-worthy with that whole Good Times insanity.


BEST ACTRESS - COMEDY
Tina Fey - 30 Rock
Jenna Fischer - The Office
Kaitlin Olson - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Mary-Louise Parker - Weeds
Amy Poehler - Saturday Night Live

Runners-Up: Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?); America Ferrera (Ugly Betty).

Yes, I know the SNL cast submitted themselves as supporting performers, but you try telling me Amy Poehler hasn't become the above-title star of that show. Anyway, MLP was great even if Weeds started a downturn last season, and Jenna Fischer didn't get enough to do. There are no such caveats for the ever-improving Kaitlin Olson and the world-beating Tina Fey.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - COMEDY
Neil Patrick Harris - How I Met Your Mother
Jack McBrayer - 30 Rock
Michael Urie - Ugly Betty
Rainn Wilson - The Office
Ray Wise - Reaper

Runners-Up: Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother); Adam Baldwin (Chuck); Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords).

Wow, not one, not two, but THREE office weirdos! Plus Barney, who can't be a picnic to work with either. Though, I guess Ugly Betty's Marc isn't strictly a weirdo so much as a colorful nemesis, but still. Sad to see even Ray Wise couldn't break the Emmys' embargo on CW/WB/UPN programming, but he was wonderful.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - COMEDY
Kristin Chenoweth - Pushing Daisies
Melora Hardin - The Office
Judith Light - Ugly Betty
Elizabeth Perkins - Weeds
Kristen Wiig - Saturday Night Live

Runners-Up: Jean Smart (Samantha Who?); Melissa McCarthy (Samantha Who?); Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty).

Man, what a tough cut-off point in this category. At the beginning of the season, I thought Ana Ortiz would be a shoo-in, but she disappeared for the middle of the season and got lapped by co-star Light. And who doesn't love Jean Smart and Melissa McCarthy? No one with a modicum of good taste. But they just got edged out by the continued excellence of Perkins (Celia was really put through the ringer in Season 3), the misery-incarnate performance of Hardin, and the human mood-enhancer that is Kristin Chenoweth. And then there is Kristen Wiig, who took this season of SNL, strapped it to her Suze Orman shoulderpads, and ran away with it.


BEST REALITY SHOW
Celebrity Rehab w/ Dr. Drew
Survivor
The Paper
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance

Runner-Up: The Amazing Race.

This lineup is rather blah (ho-hum, Survivor and Project Runway have some more watchable-but-not-jaw-dropping seasons) if not for a pair of the least likely reality obsessions on cable. Actually, I take that back, because the second I heard about the premise of The Paper, I knew it would be awesome. The fact that it was even more awesome than I could have hoped, with a perfectly articulated microcosm of the social politics of high school, was what made it into one of the best shows of the year. Celebrity Rehab actually was a surprise to me, though I should have trusted Dr. Drew to deliver hard truths and empathy when tawdry voyeurism would have probably been just as well for VH1. And then there's last summer's So You Think You Can Dance, which I watched in marathon form this year. No matter, it still easily ranks as the best reality competition of the year.

And Yet More Angel

Sorry, I keep watching these episodes and I keep finding things to talk about. It's no accident that I got my start being annoyingly opinionated on the internet via Buffy. Anyway, we're onto the Connor episodes right now, and of course I recall the vehement hatred that kid got from pretty much all sectors of the fandom. I'm pretty sure I hated him too. But it got me to thinking about another instantly loathed Whedon teen, Dawn Summers.

No two main characters, arguable, were more collectively loathed than Dawn and Connor, and the similarities aren't hard to come by. Both were pouty, angry teenagers abruptly thrust upon a show in a role adversarial to a protagonist who offered back infinite patience to the point of looking like a sucker. The way I saw it, the characters were being written well, or at least realistically -- of course Connor and Dawn were angry brats. Connor spent his formative years in a hell dimension while Dawn found out she was a manufactured ball of energy and subsequently had her mother, sister, and surrogate lesbian caregiver die on her. All that plus they were fifteen and thus given to surly snottiness by nature. Of course they'd act like that!

The problem becomes: does the fact that fifteen-year-olds are brats as a rule mean you should perhaps not focus so much of your show on them? Were they good characters on paper who were just performed poorly by Michelle Trachtenberg and Vincent Kartheiser? Would we have reacted better to them if they'd been around all along?

The fact that I remain curious about this tells me I've yet to get a satisfactory grip on an answer. Why were Connor and Dawn so loathed? Discuss!

'Round Springfield XXIII

Lots to read today!

Nathaniel at The Film Experience presents his 100 favorite actresses of the moment, in handy animated gif form! Also, be sure to check out Nat's new profile pic, which has him looking both rugged and vaguely ill-intentioned.

Towleroad passes on info about a semi-secret extended cut of 54. Who could have possibly been clammoring for more of that Mike Myers/Salma Hayek/Ryan Phillippee anti-classic, you ask? Perhaps the 45 additional minutes of buck-ass-naked Phillippe doing anything that movies might answer your question.

Best Week Ever gives a good, solid tweak to the ever-escalating hype for The Dark Knight. I have such conflicting feelings about this movie. Despite the fact that Batman Begins faded from my memory unexpectedly fast, I'm incredibly, fantastically excited to see the movie, but the advance hype for it is just...wearying. Everything, every still, every interview with Christopher Nolan, every Oscar prediction from whatever corner of the globe had just built and built and built...how can the movie live up to this, for one thing? But on the flip side, I find myself subconsciously defending the movie -- Heath Ledger specifically -- against charges of over-hype. You know, the very charges I just laid out in the previous sentence. The ramp-up to this movie has made me literally crazy. Schizophrenic. One self-inflicted rictus away from a becoming a real problem for society.

Vulture lays out the psychological chasm that lies between making this a Dark Knight weekend or a Mama Mia! weekend. What would it say about a person if they went and saw both?

And finally, handy-dandy TV critic Alan Sepinwall passes on some excellent information from the FX panel with the Television Critics Association: 1) Marcia Gay Harden will be onboard for the new season of Damages, joining new additions Timothy Olyphant and William Hurt. 2) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia returns Setpember 15 (fist-pump!), and has been picked up for 52 new episodes, which should work out to four more seasons (double fist-pump!!).

My Thoughts After Episode 1 of HBO's Generation Kill

Wow, the men who fight for America's continued freedom and liberty overseas are dicks, man. Like, total dicks.

Cold Comfort

I somehow missed the big So You Think You Can Dance news from yesterday, but here it is (and thanks to Tapeworthy for the heads-up):

Read-headed weak link Jessica is out of the SYTYCD top ten due to injury. She'll be replaced by the most recently eliminated woman, Comfort.

And as surprising a bit of news as that is, it likely won't mean much in the final analysis. Jessica was clearly the weakest dancer in the Top 10, now Comfort is clearly the weakest dancer in the Top 10. In either case, it would take an outrageous case of audience dunderheadedness to keep either one around past this week. I just hope whoever Comfort has to dance with this week doesn't suffer the consequences.

A real shocker would have been if they'd have plugged in Thayne instead, given that each and every judge seemed to think he was better than either of the aforementioned girls. There's no real practical reason they couldn't sustain a (slight) imbalance between guys and girls -- this show has had male-male routines before. It wouldn't necessarily mean a boy-on-boy rumba (...unfortunately), because lord knows how much that'd freak out Uncle Nigel. The randomly-chosen all-guy pairing could just do hip-hop or contemporary or Broadway that week. What's so allfire homo about two guys and their jazz hands anyway?

Speaking of latent homophobia, check out this interview AfterElton did with Nigel Lythgoe. I've bagged on AE before for their hypersensitivity, but I'm glad they put the questions to Nigel about his anti-nancy-boy stance. I actually don't think Nigel is homophobic -- I'm more mystified by what is clearly a systemic gay panic in an industry so gay-dominated as FOR CHRISSAKES DANCE. I understand the illusion that partner dancing requires, I just think that "butch it up" attitude bleeds out into areas where it's not really necessary. How het do you have to be to flail about in a Mia Michaels routine anyway?

Simpler Times. Happier Times.

A certain prison-rape enthusiast I know is celebrating his birthday today, and as as a present, I figured I'd hearken back to a time when things were simpler. Happier. Less complicated by undesirable celebrity pairings.

Together.

Alone.

Happy birthday, sir.

Grab Me

So here's where you help me. FOR ONCE. Any suggestions for screen-grabbing software that would be a) free, b) simple, and c) workable on a PC instead of those fancy-pants Macs? I can grab DVD images easy, but, for example from the previous post, trailers are ungrabbable territory for me.

This is one of those areas where I'm incredibly tech un-savvy, so feel free to explain it to me like I'm a toddler.

Trailer Trash Tuesday

Yes, I started this thing as a Monday feature, but you may have noticed I took a day off yesterday on account of being swamped. I also am very fond of alliteration.

So anyway, here's the trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Brideshead Revisited with Emma Thompson, Matthew Goode, Haley Atwell, and Ben Whishaw.



First of all, I love it when classical British whatsits like this dress themselves up in the trailer like suspense thrillers, what with the rock score and the rising tension. Love it. It's tough not to think of the trailer for Woody Allen's Match Point (also given the highly dramatic trailer treatment), given the shared themes of social climbing and England and Matthew Goode.

Matthew Goode, I should mention, is one of my very favorite up-and-coming actors after his performances in Match Point and especially The Lookout, where he couldn't have been less stately and British. He'll be playing Ozymandias in the Watchmen movie next year, and I can't wait for him. I recall thinking Atwell was pretty good in Cassandra's Dream, ditto Whishaw in I'm Not There, but you're kidding yourselves if you think the major draw here isn't Emma Thompson getting her first chance to bite into some serious British period drama for the first time in I don't know when.

I say this thing looks promising. Good looking young guy screws his way up the social ladder amid fabulous architecture and scandalous repressed homosexuality? I'm in. Seriously, that shot of Michael Gambon presenting Atwell and Whishaw like they were in display in a window is perversely amusing.


I've heard people pooh-poohing Brideshead's awards chances, mostly because it's been filmed definitively before, but I'm not sure how much respect the Oscars would have for something that was previously memorialized in a miniseries, no matter how British it was. But maybe that's just me wanting to see a Supporting Actress nomination for Emma Thompson and damn the reality of the situation.

This Won't End Well

Today's Entertainment Weekly cover reminded me just how much trouble I'm in for with this upcoming Twilight movie. It's not even opening until December and already it's looming like a giant overdramatic high-school obsession just waiting to swallow my life whole. This is kind of like how I felt during the ramp-up to the Rent movie, only this is worse. At least Rent (besides willing a Pulitzer and all) was intended for a wider audience than simply teenage girls. Yet it seems that 90% of the things that are marketed to teenage girls end up hooking me as well. (As you would know if you ever got caught in a half-hour long conversation about why Lauren's right and Audrina's wrong on The Hills.)

But seriously, this has got all the elements. I'm already pre-disposed to things like vampires, overwrought teenage love affai