I Am DB

I watch a lot of television. The list of shows of which I’ve been a regular viewer this decade is extensive.

Lost. The Sopranos. Arrested Development. ER. Big Love. Friends. The Simpsons. Rome. Frasier. Ally McBeal. The West Wing. Scrubs. Eastbound and Down. Will and Grace. The X-Files. The Office. True Blood. The Practice. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. My Name is Earl. Entourage. 30 Rock. Californication. Extras. Parks and Recreation. Tell Me You Love Me.

I also dated but broke up with Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, Mad Men, The Tudors and Everybody Hates Chris. And with the advent of a new TV season, I’m about to pick up HBO’s Bored to Death, I’m flirting with Glee and Modern Family and I’m weighing a few others as well.

And that’s just series. Other programs that regularly compete for my time include The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time With Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live, Inside the Actor’s Studio…I’d say I’m a couch potato, but I’m fortunate enough to have a metabolism that keeps me skinny. Call me a couch french fry.

With all those shows to fit into my schedule over the years, I’ve had to pass up watching many others that I would like to see, have heard great things about, but for now remain relegated to a list of “eventually on DVD…”

Six Feet Under. 24. The Shield. The Wire. Weeds. Rescue Me. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Breaking Bad. Friday Night Lights. Fringe. Sex and the City. The United States of Tara. Alias. Damages. Firefly. Dexter. Nip/Tuck. Deadwood. Battlestar Gallactica. The Riches. Nurse Jackie. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Brotherhood. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Treatment. House. Party Down.

There are probably more I’m not thinking of. And there are many others that receive acclaim, that are loved by people I respect, which might be of interest if there wasn’t already so much vying for my attention.

The Big Bang Theory. How I Met Your Mother. Medium. The New Adventures of Old Christine. The Closer. Burn Notice.

With all the shows I watch, naturally I have my opinions about who and what deserves to be nominated when the Emmys roll around (and the Golden Globes and Screen Actor’s Guild Awards). While there are bound to be pleasing nominations, it is inevitable that some of the best work on television is shockingly overlooked. How could this show not be singled out? How could that performance be ignored? Every year, those of us who pay attention to these things – from professional TV journalists and critics to wannabes like myself – bemoan the flawed system and champion our forgotten favorites. But here’s the problem, and it surprises me that I’ve never come across it explicitly stated, though I’m sure others must have said it before me: it is pretty much impossible to improve the system. With the sheer volume of television programming on the air, there is simply no way to effectively evaluate all the offerings.

I haven’t been able to find an exact explanation online of the procedure by which a series is nominated for Best Comedy and Drama, but I’ve learned it works something like this: a show’s producers choose eight episodes from the season and submit those for consideration. Four panels of judges, newly appointed every year, each watch two episodes of the submitted series. So one panel of judges watches two episodes of Lost, two of Friday Night Lights, two of True Blood, two of The Tudors, etc. A different panel watches two different episodes of Lost, Friday Night Lights, True Blood, The Tudors, etc. And so on and so on. (I assume that some panels just watch dramas while others watch just comedies.)

How many judges per panel? How do they actually determine which series make their cut? Are they scoring the shows on a provided set of criteria, or is it purely personal preference? How are all four panels’ scores combined to determine the final nominees? I don’t know the answers. But I do know that watching just a couple of episodes of each show – out of sequence, with no continuity or frame of reference – is no way to determine the best programs on television.

For acting awards, the process is equally ineffective. Actors have to choose one episode from the season which they feel is their best showcase, and submit that episode to the academy for consideration in the appropriate category (do they want to try for a nomination as a lead or supporting actor?). For each category, there is a committee whose members will watch all the submissions and select the nominees.

But how can you fairly judge an actor’s work based on a single episode? Sure, sometimes there are individual installments that have standout performances – the kind you watch and know, “That’s the show they’ll submit to the Emmys.” Take “Whitecaps,” the season four finale of The Sopranos, in which Carmela throws Tony out of the house. The explosive and emotional performances by Edie Falco and James Gandolfini made it the obvious choice for submission (and they each won the prize that year). This season, Lost’s Terry O’Quinn – who has been nominated multiple times and won an award two years ago – had an excellent showcase in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham.” It may be the best work he’s done yet as John Locke (which is saying something). One need only look at the episode to know it was the type of single-hour stunner that the current Emmy system could reward (though he was, surprisingly, overlooked this year).

But I’d wager that in most cases, performers don’t necessarily have one showcase episode to dazzle the committee. Their performances might be slow burners, and only as they move through a complete season, perhaps building on seasons past, can the power of their work be understood. Big Love is a show that leaps to mind here. Although the series finally got a Best Drama nomination this year – well deserved, as it was the best season yet – still not a single acting nomination has been bestowed. Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin and especially Chloe Sevigny are doing some of the most interesting and complex work that I’m seeing on television, but there’s no way that one episode can do justice to their accomplishments. I’m certain that Sevigny’s performance could not have been ignored this year had the nominating committee seen her full body of work for the season. Anyone who watches Big Love knows what sensational work all three of these actresses are doing week after week. For none of them to have been nominated yet is a joke.

Looking at Lost again, Josh Holloway enjoyed an amazing season as Sawyer. The writers provided him a fantastic arc that let him play a range of emotions both volatile and subtle. He most likely submitted his character-centric episode “LaFleur” to the Emmy committee, and while he is terrific in that installment, the impact of Holloway’s work demands the entire season be seen, right through his powerhouse moments with Matthew Fox and Elizabeth Mitchell in the season finale. But with only one episode to judge him on, the nominating committee could not see Sawyer’s full journey and how beautifully Holloway played it.

So the only system that can fairly judge and reward television series is one in which seasons are being viewed in their entirety. But how is that possible? Who could have time to watch every complete season of every show that qualifies for nominations in a given category? It would take a group of people dedicated to watching every single episode of every single eligible dramatic show, another group watching every single eligible comedy, and probably additional groups for miniseries, TV movies, late night, reality…

It would be a full-time job…which I would be happy to have. And the day that someone is willing to pay for it, believe me, my resume is updated and ready. But it’s not going to happen. And as long as it doesn’t happen, the Emmys will never be truly satisfying, because they will never be capable of recognizing all the great work being done on television. And maybe a more important point is that there is simply too much good television for every show its deserved nominations anyway.

I’m not here to offer solutions or say how to fix the problem. (I guess I just did, actually, but having acknowledged that my suggestion is impossible – or rather, completely impractical – I have nothing more to give.) I guess my point is to say what no one else I read ever seems to say, which is that the television landscape is too vast and too rich to be properly honored by any system seeking to pull out five or six “best” in different categories. So despite the absence of Josh Holloway and Chloe Sevigny, of Californication’s David Duchovny and True Blood’s Nelsan Ellis, I’ll try to take my own advice when I watch the Emmys on Sunday night: enjoy the victories for your personal faves, try not to be too upset when your picks lose, and don’t be exasperated by what wasn’t included to begin with. There’s a better place to channel that energy and frustration: the Oscars. It’s much easier to bitch about them.

2009 EMMY NOMINEES (Main Series Categories):

BEST COMEDY
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Jemaine Clement, Flight of th Conchords
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock
Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock
Rainn Wilson, The Office

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Kristin Wiig, Saturday Night Live
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alan Alda, 30 Rock
Beau Bridges, Desperate Housewives
Jon Hamm, 30 Rock
Steve Martin, 30 Rock
Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live (already awarded)

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jennifer Aniston, 30 Rock
Christine Baranski, The Big Bang Theory
Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live (already awarded)
Gena Rowlands, Monk
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock
Betty White, My Name Is Earl

BEST DRAMA
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
Michael Emerson, Lost
William Hurt, Damages
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Rose Byrne, Damages
Hope Davis, In Treatment
Cherry Jones, 24
Sandra Oh, Grey’s Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Edward Asner, CSI: NY
Ted Danson, Damages
Ernest Borgnine, ER
Michael J. Fox, Rescue Me (already awarded)
Jimmy Smits, Dexter

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Brenda Blethyn, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Carol Burnett, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Ellen Burstyn, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (already awarded)
Sharon Lawrence, Grey’s Anatomy
CCH Pounder, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency