The 66th annual Primetime Emmy Awards took place on Monday Aug. 25, with a mix of old and new faces being presented with awards. The awards celebrated the great achievements in television over the past year.
This year’s telecast reached the second highest Emmy ratings in eight years with 15.6 million viewers. Most of that can be attributed to Seth Meyer’s hosting which was fresh, funny and timely without being crude or edgy. Meyers joked about how far TV has come and poked fun at network television for allowing the awards to go to HBO and cable.
Meyers went on to break up the show in segments that felt straight out of an episode of his “Late Night” show in which nominees such as Jon Hamm and Fred Armisen got to ask questions that were on their mind during the show. “Maybe this is something they’ll consider doing every year,” Armisen joked.
Aside from the hosting, the awards themselves were somewhat predictable. With the Netflix hit “Orange is the New Black” pinned as the ultimate frontrunner for Outstanding Comedy Series, it couldn’t take down the reigning champ, “Modern Family.” This is now “Modern Family’s” fifth consecutive win in this category, which now makes it tied for Frasier as the only comedy series to do so.
With five wins in a row, “Modern Family” winning this award has become somewhat of a cliché and pushes out the newer contenders such as “Orange is the New Black” or “Veep” from having it’s time in the limelight. Thank goodness for Julia Louie-Dreyfus’s win as Vice President Selina Meyer in the HBO hit, “Veep.”
The Drama Series wins shared a familiar vibe, but one that left viewers breathing a sigh of relief after “Breaking Bad” swept the major categories in it’s last year to do so. Breaking up the final season of the fan favorite and critical darling was able to earn the series two consecutive wins in Outstanding Drama Series, and award Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn and the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, one last time as the show wrapped up at the end of 2013. The only disappointing thing to come out of the “Breaking Bad” love is that recent Oscar winner, Matthew McConaughey, was not able to take home a win for “True Detective”, thereby ruining his chances of stepping closer to the coveted EGOT (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).
Instead of a win, McConaughey spent most of the night being roasted by Jimmy Kimmel. Perhaps the most unsurprisingly win of the night was Jim Parsons for “The Big Bang Theory.” As Seth Meyers stated in his monologue “before you know it you’re paying Sheldon a million dollars an episode. You’re worth every penny”, addressing Parsons.
The surprises of the night included unexpected wins for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman for the BBC mini-series “Sherlock” (making it a first time win for both). Sherlock had the biggest number of combined Emmys this year, shocking many American critics. Kathy Bates also won for “American Horror Story: Coven” which has been given little recognition in the past. These shows truly did give nominees like “Fargo” and “The Normal Heart” a run for their money, but in the end “Fargo” was able to pull off a Outstanding Mini-Series win and “The Normal Heart” took home Outstanding Television Movie.
While this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards was entertaining at times thanks to the writing and hosting segments, the awards themselves were mostly all expected. Awards show lacks a level of enjoyment when people are seeing the same actors and shows win year after year. With “Breaking Bad” out of the running and “True Detective” switching out it’s actors, maybe next year we’ll finally see “House of Cards” or “Mad Men” be awarded after living in the shadows of these monumental shows.
