I Am DB

June 6, 2013

It’s Still Good to Be the King

Filed under: Movies,TV — DB @ 4:00 pm
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Mel Brooks is having a moment. A few weeks ago, he was the subject of a profile on the esteemed PBS series (“esteemed PBS” – is that redundant?), American Masters. Tonight, Brooks will be honored by the American Film Institute with its 41st Life Achievement Award. It’s one of Hollywood’s great annual traditions, bringing out many of the collaborators who have worked with the honoree throughout his or her career. Unlike many similar awards given out by other bodies — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actor’s Guild — the AFI presentation is not made by just one or two people who are closely associated with the recipient. Rather, it’s an all-star tribute, with a slew of friends and colleagues taking the stage or rising from their table to address the evening’s celebrant.

On that count, as much as I’m looking forward to watching Brooks feted when the show airs on TNT next Saturday night, I’m also saddened to think how few of the people one might expect to salute him are still with us. At 86 years old, Brooks has outlived many of his most notable associates. Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Harvey Korman, Marty Feldman, Zero Mostel, Cleavon Little, Richard Pryor, John Candy, Slim Pickens, Gregory Hines, Charles Durning, Alex Karras, Peter Boyle, Kenneth Mars, Larry Gelbart, Don Adams, Leslie Nielsen, and of course his wife, Anne Bancroft. All gone.

There are a few others whose attendance, or even participation in pre-taped segments, is questionable given their general distance from the limelight these days. We don’t see much of Teri Garr, Rick Moranis, Sid Caesar or Gene Wilder anymore. I hope Wilder, at least, will make an appearance. How can you hold a tribute to Mel Brooks without Gene Wilder? And yet the actor only appeared in archival interviews on the American Masters special.

It’s not like the room will be devoid of celebrities. The award itself will be presented by past winner Martin Scorsese (an interesting choice given his lack of professional connection to Brooks). Carl Reiner is still kicking, and you can bet he’ll be on hand, while I would think Cloris Leachman will probably be there too. Plenty of younger actors who worked with Brooks in his later films like Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It may be in the room too. Hopefully Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick will be there representing Brooks’ Broadway triumph, The Producers. Maybe even Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman, who starred in the film adaptation of the musical? And then there are people that Brooks has worked with as a TV guest star, like perhaps Paul Reiser (Brooks won three consecutive Emmys for his recurring guest role on Mad About You) or Larry David (Brooks and Bancroft appeared as themselves in a classic season-long arc of Curb Your Enthusiasm). Could we be so lucky as to get an appearance by the wonderfully offbeat David Lynch, whose film The Elephant Man was produced by Brooks? Either way, there are plenty of notable stars, writers and directors from throughout Brooks’ career that are still around and could be in attendance; it’s just sad to think how many of them won’t be.

Often when it comes to these lifetime achievement awards, I think, “If this person doesn’t get it soon, they won’t be around anymore.” But rarely have I considered the need to honor someone before all of their closest or most frequent collaborators are gone (and Brooks is someone who worked with the same people over and over again, to legendary results, which will accentuate their absence). I don’t know how the AFI makes the decision each year about who to recognize with their Life Achievement Award. The list of recipients is impressive, but I’ve often questioned why people like Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Meryl Streep received the award at such relatively young ages, prior to obvious people who’d been around longer and were still waiting. Look down the list of winners, for example, and one glaring absence is Paul Newman. How could the AFI honor Hanks and Spielberg before getting around to Newman? I wonder if the person has to accept the honor and agree to participate in the celebration evening. If that’s the case, I can imagine Newman saying, “Hey, I’m honored, really, but that kind of event where I sit for three hours listening to people praise me makes me uncomfortable. Thanks but no thanks.” I have no idea, of course. It’s just that Newman seems like too obvious a candidate for the AFI to simply not have gotten around to before he passed away. (Still breaks my heart a little bit every time it crosses my mind that Paul Newman is dead.) And where are the AFI honors for Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton? For Peter O’Toole and Woody Allen? (Allen’s another guy I could see politely declining, if that’s the way these things work.)

Pardon that tangent; these are things I think about. Back to the man of the hour. Beyond those who he has worked with directly, Brooks has been an influence on many comedians who came after him, so the room will probably include some famous fans as well. Whether he’ll be there or not, one such fan is Jerry Seinfeld, who last year featured Brooks (and Reiner) in an episode of his excellent web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

(Click Image for Video)

It’s great to see the AFI pay tribute to a guy like Mel Brooks, whose contributions to film are much sillier but no less significant than many others who have received the honor before him. Already in the rare company of EGOT recipients (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), he adds the AFI award to his 2009 Kennedy Center Honor, his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and numerous other accolades he’s collected over the years. It seems unusual for a comedian — especially one as broad and naughty as Brooks — to be so celebrated; we tend to think of our most Serious Artists as the ones most decorated. But Brooks has earned his place, in part, by helping us all take Seriousness down a few pegs. He famously said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.” I’ve always loved that quote. Another twist on the same theme is spoken by Alan Alda in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (though I’m not sure if the quote originates with Allen): “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” And has there ever been someone whose body of work epitomizes that statement more than Mel Brooks? He has practically made a career out of finding the comedy in the 20th century’s greatest purveyor of tragedy, Adolf Hitler. From The Producers‘ “Springtime for Hitler” to History of the World Part I‘s brief “Hitler on Ice” to the Nazi lampooning To Be or Not to Be, Brooks has delighted in taking one of the least funny things in history and making it into a punchline. Then there are the stereotypes he attacked head-on in Blazing Saddles, taking the risk of offending not just morals, but good taste. So it’s nice to see him recognized as a daring artist. He absolutely deserves the awards and attention he continues to collect.

I’m sure there will be plenty of people at the AFI event to share their appreciation of his life and work. While the program will of course feature memorable clips from throughout his career, here’s one I suspect may be overlooked, and which provided my first introduction to his comic genius: his cameo in The Muppet Movie, annoyingly spread here across two clips. (He enters around the 1:28 mark of the first.)

The AFI Life Achievement Award for Mel Brooks will air on TNT next Saturday, June 15, at 9:00 P.M., and again July 24 at 8:00 P.M. on Turner Classic Movies, where it will run alongside other films and specials highlighting Brooks’ work. His episode of American Masters continues to air over the next week.

Congratulations Mel, and may the Schwartz be with you.

May 17, 2013

Player Hader

Filed under: TV — DB @ 3:55 pm
Tags: , , , ,

Saturday Night Live‘s 38th season comes to an end tomorrow night, and with the close of another year comes the departure of a cast member who, for my money, has long been the show’s MVP: Bill Hader.

Hader has been on SNL for eight years, joining at the start of the 2005-2006 season at the same time as Andy Samberg. (Jesus, was that really eight years ago?) He quickly proved to be one of the show’s most versatile and reliable cast members, excelling at original characters and impressions, though just as capable of playing the straight man. Well…straight-ish, anyway. Last year, he became only the 18th cast member in the show’s history to earn an Emmy nomination for his individual performance. But one thing that also struck me about Hader during his time on the show was how quickly the outside comedy community caught onto his talent and started to utilize him. I haven’t researched this, but my sense is that most SNL cast members who break out beyond the show tend to do so after serving for a few years. But Hader was snatched up fairly soon after hitting the stage of Studio 8H, winning roles in some of the best comedy films of the latter aughts, including Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder and Superbad. Greg Mottola, who directed the latter, also used him in Adventureland and Paul, while the actor’s association with Judd Apatow continued beyond Knocked Up with roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pineapple Express.

As it turns out, Hader may not be the only performer leaving SNL after tomorrow’s finale. Rumors abound that Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis will also bid farewell, and with Seth Meyers leaving halfway through next season to replace Jimmy Fallon as host of Late Night, the show is about to experience a major makeover. Of course, this has always been the nature of Saturday Night Live. Cast members arrive, grow successful, move on, new players arrive, lather, rinse, repeat, lather, rinse, repeat. From Chevy Chase to Kristen Wiig, this has been the way of SNL, and so it shall continue to be. But it’s still sad to bid adieu to the greats, and Hader is one of the greats; a terrific character comedian in the tradition of Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey. (I’ll miss Sudeikis a lot too, but I’ve always been indifferent about Armisen. If Sudeikis follows Hader out the door, the two best things about Kenan Thompson’s “What Up With That” sketch will be gone: the former’s enthusiastic, red tracksuit-clad backup dancer, and the latter’s repeatedly snubbed guest, Lindsey Buckingham.)

So what’s next for Hader? Sleep, and moving back to Los Angeles, he says. Careerwise, I don’t see him graduating to many lead performances in comedy movies. He seems more suited to supporting parts in that medium, while TV is the likely place for him to find a central role. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he flexes his muscles a bit and takes on some characters and material with more serious overtones; I suspect that he has the talent for them. In the meantime, he’ll be seen in an upcoming project called The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy as a couple whose relationship is seen across two separate films: one from her perspective, and one from his. Hader also reunited with director Mottola for an HBO movie called Clear History, co-written by and starring Larry David. And I’m sure he’ll pop up on SNL again, for a surprise cameo or a hosting gig. Until then, here are a few of my favorite Bill Hader moments from his tenure at SNL.

Most notably, Hader’s departure leaves the show without its best recurring character of recent years, Weekend Update’s delicate, trendspotting City Correspondent, Stefon. One of my favorite things about Hader has been that, like Jimmy Fallon before him, he often has trouble getting through a skit without laughing…which only makes it funnier. Never is this more true than in his appearances as Stefon, probably because a) his material is always so bizarre, and b) writer John Mulaney apparently likes to switch up the dialogue between the dress rehearsal and the live show, so that Hader is often seeing Stefon’s lines for the first time when he performs them on air. Under those circumstances, it’s a miracle he holds it together as well as he does. (Incidentally, Stefon’s first appearance on the show was not as part of Weekend Update, but in a 2008 sketch featuring Hader and host Ben Affleck as brothers pitching a movie idea. If Hader reprises Stefon tomorrow night when Affleck hosts, it will mark a nice bit of symmetry.)

Hader’s performance as a beleaguered Vincent Price hosting a Halloween special would be enough to lodge this sketch in my memory, but it gets additional points for Jon Hamm’s turn as James Mason.

Although not as much of a breakout character, I’d put Hader’s Italian talk show host Vinny Vedecci up alongside Stefon as one of his best and funniest creations. I was recently lamenting that Vinny hasn’t turned up in a long time, and have been hoping for a return appearance. We’ll see if he shows up tomorrow night to add Affleck to a list of guests that has included John Malkovich, Shia LaBeouf and Drew Barrymore.

Hader’s impressions over the years range from James Carville to Julian Assange, but one of his best — and most unexpected — is Alan Alda. The veteran M*A*S*H star does have a distinct voice, yet it’s not one that is often imitated…not this successfully, at least. Hader’s take is truly uncanny, as demonstrated in this sampling of Back to the Future auditions. Close your eyes and you’d never know it’s not Alda himself.

Another of Hader’s great characters is TV news reporter Herb Welch, a creaky correspondent long past his expiration date. More than his other recurring characters, if you saw one Herb sketch you saw them all. But Hader made them worth seeing.

Beyond recurring characters and impressions, Hader could always be counted on to elevate an otherwise ordinary sketch. This clip shows that the proof is in the puppet.

Farewell Mr. Hader, and thanks for eight seasons of great work.

March 31, 2013

Game Day

Filed under: Books,TV — DB @ 10:00 am
Tags: , , , , ,

The game is again afoot. After a 10 month gap gap—standard practice for a TV series these days, but torturous even though we’ve grown accustomed to it—Game of Thrones returns for its third season on HBO tonight. Game is my favorite current show, and as there has been a lot on my mind about what this season will bring, I thought I’d share a few of my curiosities with others who are also traveling the Kingsroad. Those who haven’t read the books may have some of the same questions I do, while those who have are most likely laughing at us because they know what’s about to happen. For those totally uninitiated into the books or the show, you should stop reading now, because things are about to get spoiled.

When we last left the Seven Kingdoms (and beyond), Stannis Baratheon’s invasion of King’s Landing had been thwarted by the well-timed arrival of reinforcements led by Tywin Lannister and Loras Tyrell. Stannis somehow (I’m not sure how) made it back to Dragonstone and the swirling red cape of Melisandre, who assured him that his victory was still destined. The alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, brokered by Littlefinger, was set to grow even stronger as Joffrey agreed to cast aside Sansa and marry Margaery Tyrell. Tyrion was left with a massive scar along his face after nearly being murdered during the battle by one of his own men, on instructions from Cersei. Shae urged him to run away with her, leaving the kingdoms and his god awful family behind, but he couldn’t bring himself to go. She remained with him, and is still serving as a maiden to Sansa. Bronn was removed as head of the Gold Cloaks, but we don’t know much more than that about his status. Varys reached out to Ros with a vague proposition that seems to involve informing on Littlefinger…but to what end?

Elsewhere in Westeros, Robb secretly married Talisa, while Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie escaped servitude at Harrenhal thanks to help from supercool mystery man Jaqen H’ghar. Winterfell was left burned and deserted after an ill-advised invasion by Theon, who betrayed Robb after being shamed by his asshole father and sister. He was knocked unconscious by his own men after the castle was surrounded by loyal northmen, but that was the last we saw of him. Bran, Rickon, Osha and Hodor left the ruined Winterfell to head north toward The Wall, on the instructions of the dying Maester Luwin. Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow and Qhorin Halfhand were taken prisoner by wildlings after Jon couldn’t bring himself to kill the captive redhead Ygritte. Quorin sacrificed himself by loudly accusing Jon of being a traitor and dueling with him until Jon killed him—a ploy to gain the trust of wildling leader Mance Rayder and infiltrate his camp. Samwell had the bad luck of coming across a massive army of White Walkers, though they seemed unconcerned with him as he hid in terror behind a rock. And across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys ventured into the House of the Undying and reclaimed her kidnapped dragons from the über-creepy warlock Pyat Pree.

Let’s see, what else…Catelyn released Jaime and entrusted Brienne with escorting him back to King’s Landing in the hopes of trading him for Sansa and Arya, after Littlefinger lied and told her that both girls were there. For going behind Robb’s back, Catelyn is being held under guard. Stannis’ advisor Davos Seaworth was blown off his ship and into the waters of Blackwater Bay when the wildfire attack was unleashed by Tyrion. Whether he lived or died, we don’t know. The Hound walked away from the battle and told Joffrey he could go fuck himself. He then suggested to Sansa that he was headed north, though she declined his offer to take her back to Winterfell.

That covers most of the main characters, I think. And since the second season ended last June, there had been little buzz or activity to whet our appetite for what’s next. Casting additions for the third season were announced last summer as they came in, and a video introduction with most of the new actors was presented in July at Comic-Con. It didn’t offer a lot, and meant less to people like me who haven’t read the books ahead of the show than it likely did to those who have, but hey, it was something.

Most of those actors are unfamiliar to me, but there are a few I recognize. Mackenzie Crook (Orell) appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and of course starred as Gareth on the British version of The Office (Gareth = Dwight). Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Jojen Reed) was the lovesick little drummer boy from Love Actually who suggested that he and his stepdad (Liam Neeson) go “get the shit kicked out of us by love.” And there’s Dame Diana Rigg, best known to some as Emma Peel, heroine of 1960’s British spy series The Avengers, or perhaps as Tracy, the woman who wins James Bond’s love (as opposed to the normal Bond girl romp in the sack) in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. To me, though, Rigg will always be Lady Holiday from The Great Muppet Caper.

One character who had not yet been cast at the time of that video was Mance Rayder, but soon enough we learned the part would be played by the great Ciarán Hinds, who comes with the solid HBO experience of having played Julius Caesar on Rome. Another alumni of that underseen HBO series also joined the cast: Tobias Menzies, who played Brutus to Hinds’ Caesar, will be on hand as Catelyn’s brother Edmure Tully. Rigg and Hinds, in particular, are impressive additions to an ensemble of actors that’s as strong as it is large, and Benioff and Weiss shared their thoughts on landing the veteran performers with EW.com

Other than these casting announcements, we didn’t have much to quench our thirst during the hiatus. All’s been quiet on the Westeros front, save for a couple of brief behind the scenes glimpses and teaser spots on HBO with voiceover but no new footage. The first true teaser—with actual scenes!—didn’t premiere until last month on Jimmy Kimmel Live. (This is actually an extended version of the one that first appeared.)

The featured song got immediately stuck in my head, and I mistook it for another Florence + The Machine track, as their song “Seven Devils” was used for one of season two’s previews. Turns out it’s by a group called MS MR, and is called “Bones.”

Anyway, the late February premiere of that preview marked the end of an unusually long wait to see any new material. Usually HBO begins hyping new seasons of its shows with actual trailers a couple of months before they premiere, but this time they dragged their feet like Dany’s khalasar dragged that poor wine vendor behind her horse. Ever since then, however, the hype machine has gone into overdrive. It seemed there was a new spot every day. I was especially partial to this one…

Lions and dragons and bears, oh my…

As evidenced by those trailers, there’s been a lot of tantalizing footage. The word is that this season is going to be pretty amazing…and devastating. Apparently there are some particularly shocking events ahead. In their cover story, Entertainment Weekly described A Storm of Swords—the third book in George R.R. Martin’s series—as GoT‘s Empire Strikes Back…a promising comparison in that Empire is the best of the Star Wars movies, and a worrisome one in that the good guys kinda get their asses kicked in Empire. The series proved early on that it wasn’t afraid to eliminate major characters, dispatching Ned, Robert, Viserys and Drogo all in the first season. Last year’s run was lighter on major character deaths, with Renly and Maester Luwin being the only substantial characters to meet their maker. And some might say Ser Rodrik Cassel. I don’t think Davos is dead, so I’m not including him. But as season two began, I expected fewer major characters to survive. I thought that between Joffrey, Robb, Jaime and Cersei, at least one would die. I now feel like Cersei is safe for a while, but the other three remain vulnerable…along with nearly every other character. And if I’m correctly interpreting the pre-season vibe, this year’s run of episodes will claim a few more significant figures.

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have said from the beginning that their goal was to reach season three. If the show lasted long enough that they could get to events that will occur this season, they would be happy. No problem there. The show’s huge ratings left little doubt that they would make it to this point, and over the next 10 weeks, we’ll see what they’ve been so excited about. They referred early on to an event which they called only the RW scene, saying that to use the actual words instead of just the initials would constitute a spoiler. I accidentally found out what RW stands for, but I’m not sure how much of a spoiler it is, since at this point I still have no idea what it means or suggests. In my naive eyes, the words could be interpreted in a variety of ways. But given how eager Benioff and Weiss have been to depict it on the show, it’s gotta be major. They’ve also hinted about at least one upcoming scene so hard to take that even the crew choked up during filming. Is it this RW scene they’re referring to? In the aforementioned Entertainment Weeky cover story, they won’t even use the initials anymore to describe it. (They must have forgotten that they already used them in past interviews…unless there’s another infamous scene coming up that can be abbreviated for non-spoiler conversations). Whatever this mystery event is, if everyone is being so protective of it and the crew is getting teary-eyed while filming, it probably forebodes death for at least one favorite character.

A Storm of Swords is so densely plotted that this season of the show will only cover roughly half of the book. Benioff and Weiss have said before that they see the show as an adaptation of Martin’s entire A Song of Ice and Fire series rather than a book-by-book take, so the seasons do not perfectly match the books. They do sync up pretty well, but for example, the scenes late in season two involving Brienne transporting Jaime to King’s Landing don’t occur in the second book. When we last see Jaime in the novel, he’s still in his cell, and Catelyn is standing over him and asking Brienne for a sword. Tackling the third book over the course of two seasons will not only allow Benioff and Weiss to take their time and give the rich plot the attention it deserves, but it increases the chances that the show won’t catch up to the books before Martin finishes them. He has two more entries in the series to deliver, and just this week he expressed confidence that he’ll finish the books before the show gets ahead of him. And he’s right that if the timing doesn’t quite pan out, the show can always take a longer-than-usual hiatus. The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad have all done it. Sure, fans will be pulling their hair out in anticipation, but we’ve survived such droughts before. Of course, Martin does have to buckle down and stay focused on finishing the series. When HBO announced in February that they had signed a deal with him to develop additional programming, I know I wasn’t the only fan who thought, “Well that’s nice and all….but George, you need to keep your priorities straight and finish these damn books.” One rumored possibility is that Martin and HBO will adapt a series of prequel novellas he’s written. We’ll see if anything comes of it. Deals like this are signed all the time, but they don’t necessarily yield anything, and HBO orders plenty of promising pilots that they then decide not to produce further.

I’m running a bit wild here, so let me bring it back around to the season at hand and what we can expect. I’m of course wondering what will become of Theon. He seems primed to be one of the first casualties, but how will it happen, if it does? The previews above show a quick glimpse of his sister Yara, but there’s been no sign of Theon in any of the commercials. Will he be brought back to Robb, and will Robb be able to go through with killing him?

What about Davos? Where and how will he resurface? I’m also excited to see what unfolds for The Hound. Walking out on Joffrey was an unexpected move, and I’ve noticed that for a minor-major character, he’s been a prominent part of season three’s marketing campaign. His appearance in this teaser, and the fact that he got his own character poster—the kind of privileged exposure usually reserved for the major characters—suggests to me that his story will be an important one this season.

What lies in store for Tyrion? When his father sent him to King’s Landing to fill in as Hand of the King, it seemed to mark a possible new appreciation for the dwarf’s intelligence and skill for strategy. Will that appreciation continue to blossom, or will Tywin resume treating him like the “lowest of the Lannisters”?  Halfman or not, Tyrion stood tall during the Battle of Blackwater, and he deserves credit for keeping the fight against Stannis going as long as it did. What are the chances Tywin will recognize that? And speaking of Tywin, why is he assuming his duties as Hand instead of continuing the fight against Robb? Who will be leading the Lannister forces now, with Jaime still captive and Tywin in King’s Landing?

The previews have shown that Daenerys finally gets hold of an army, and a ship. Will she actually get to Westeros this season and begin integrating into those storylines, or is that still a ways off? And here’s something I’ve been wondering about, though I doubt we’ll get an answer (and it probably isn’t even important): remember that masked woman in Qarth who knew Jorah by name and warned him to protect Daenerys from those who would want her dragons? Yeah…who was that chick, and what’s her story? She seems to correspond to a character from the book name Quaithe, but who is she? How does she know Jorah? Will she eventually play a more important role, or is she a minor character who, like others in Qarth, just seems to know shit?

And what of Robb’s vow to marry one of Walder Frey’s daughters? I can’t blame the guy for choosing Talisa over any of the Frey girls, but it’s been stressed that the promise is not to be thrown off lightly. The Stark/Frey marriage wasn’t supposed to take place until the war was over, but will the repercussions of Robb’s union with Talisa be seen this season?

There was also a scene last year in which Samwell, Grenn and Edd discovered a care package buried in the snow: rare arrowheads made of obsidian, wrapped in a Knight’s Watch cloak beneath a shield. There’s got to be something up with that, yeah?

Soon I’ll know the answers to most of these questions, and I’m sure that this season will fly by as fast as the previous two have. There are only 10 episodes per season, which Benioff and Weiss say is the most they can handle per year for a series that has such demanding scope, with its feature film-quality production design, costumes, visual effects and complicated shooting schedule that spans multiple countries and features such an enormous cast. The episodes will each run a few minutes longer this year than in the past, so by the end of the season we’ll have had almost an extra episode’s worth of material. It ain’t much, but I’ll take it.

In these final hours before the premiere, you can amuse yourself with this Game of Thrones death generator (completely random—it doesn’t require your middle name or the street you grew up on to determine your doom—but still worth a chuckle). Then there’s this video that dares to replace the show’s excellent opening credits sequence with the version that might have been used if it were on network TV in the mid 80’s. (The clip says 1995, but I think this is more 80’s than 90’s).

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And it was only a matter of time: a Game of Thrones/Princess Bride mash-up.

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Last but not least, there’s this. Because lightsabers make everything cooler.

With that, please join me in praying to the old gods and the new, and even to the Lord of Light, that Joffrey will soon die a slow, excruciatingly painful death, and that Tyrion will bitchslap him at least one more time before it happens.

October 21, 2012

Music to Tease By

Filed under: Movies,Music,TV — DB @ 5:42 pm
Tags: , , , , , ,

Showtime’s series Homeland returned for its highly anticipated second season a few weeks ago, freshly anointed with six Emmys including a fully expected and fully deserved Best Actress win for Claire Danes, a more surprising but also worthy Best Actor win for Damien Lewis, and the top prize for Best Drama Series, thwarting Mad Men‘s hopes for a five-peat. The season has kicked off with no loss of quality, and I’m confident it will progress just as thrillingly as last year’s.

None of which matters, because this post isn’t about Homeland.

It’s about the trailer for Homeland.

Sort of.

And before I can explain that, I need to jump back two years. So…bear with me here.

One of 2010’s best movies (many people would say 2010’s single best movie; it was #2 for me) was The Social Network. Not only is it a fantastic movie, it was backed by a fantastic marketing campaign with a standout trailer featuring a haunting cover version of the early Radiohead hit, “Creep.”

The musical assemblage of angels and demons responsible for that version of the song is Scala & Kolacny Brothers, a Belgium-based group consisting of siblings Steven and Stijn Kolacny and a choir of 30-40 women ranging in age from 16-26. As detailed on their website, the brothers formed the choir back in 1996 and soon built up a following in Belgium performing  traditional classical music by the likes of Beethoven. It’s fitting that their version of “Creep” is what launched them to international fame, since the song was also what prompted Steven to consider adapting pop and rock songs in the first place. After what may have been a shaky start with this new, unconventional direction, the band’s vision quickly earned them a following around Europe, and additional fans across oceans, including Social Network director David Fincher. The prominent use of “Creep” in his film’s trailer led to a whole new level of curiosity about Scala & Kolacny Brothers. Their popularity expanded, and soon their music was being sought by other directors and producers. The BBC’s trailer for Season Two of Downton Abbey used their cover of U2’s “With or Without You”…

…and to bring it back to the beginning of the post, their version of The Police hit “Every Breath You Take” was used in the Season Two trailer for Homeland this summer. (Those who have yet to start on this show, don’t worry – nothing you see here will spoil things for you.)

While doing some research for this post, I learned that Scala & Kolacny Brothers’ “Every Breath You Take” was also used in the BBC’s trailer for the first season of Downton Abbey, which aired a few months after The Social Network trailer hit. A look at these makes it easy to understand why their music is so desirable. I don’t know about you, but I get chills up and down my spine at the marriage of their recordings and the compelling imagery and dialogue teasing us with the promise of what we hope will be great movies and series.

And that is, after all, the job of a good trailer: to tease viewers and create in them a desire to experience the full course meal. It’s not easy. How many times have you seen a trailer that gave away too much of the movie? It’s a frequent and valid complaint that trailers too often spell out exactly what will happen or at least spoil key plot developments. Still, they have always been one of my favorite part of the moviegoing experience, and when I think about some of my favorite movie trailers ever – and yes, I’m the kind of person who has favorite movie trailers, which probably tells you a lot about me – it is almost always the music that cements their status. Music may be the most vital ingredient of a great trailer. Consider Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor. Those aren’t words I say very often, as I tend to feel that the less time spent considering Michael Bay’s work, the better off we all are. But I have to admit, I love the Pearl Harbor trailer.

That movie looks fucking awesome!! Unfortunately, it turned out that there’s more heart, emotion, power and filmmaking skill on display in that nearly three-minute trailer than there is in the entirety of the actual three-hour movie. And it’s all about the music. Don’t believe me? Here’s the exact same cut of the trailer, scored differently.

Oh, the music swells and it tries to stir, but it just doesn’t get there. Certainly not when compared to the first version, which is so compellingly tied together by an exceptional piece of music called “Journey to the Line,” from composer Hans Zimmer’s Oscar nominated score for The Thin Red Line. An issue over the rights meant that “Journey to the Line” couldn’t be featured in the trailer that appears on the Pearl Harbor DVD, hence the alternate – and vastly inferior – version.

It’s common for music from one movie to be used in a trailer for another movie. You’re not going to hear something famous and instantly identifiable like Star Wars, James Bond or The Pink Panther used to promote a movie outside of those franchises, but anything else is fair game, and there are some tracks that have been used over and over again. You may never have heard of a 1989 movie called Come See the Paradise, starring Dennis Quaid, but if you attended even one movie in the 90’s, you probably saw a trailer featuring a piece of music from its soundtrack by Randy Edelman, titled “Fire in a Brooklyn Theater.” Here it is, put to great use for A Few Good Men.

Did that ring any bells? According to Soundtrack.Net (an indispensable resource for all things soundtrack-related, and the place to go if you ever hear music in a trailer and want to know where it came from), music from Come See the Paradise was used in 27 theatrical or TV trailers (for 24 films) between 1990 and 2003, including Clear and Present Danger, The Chamber and Rob Roy (all 27 may not have used “Fire in a Brooklyn Theater” specifically, though I’d guess most did).

Among the other soundtrack cuts that have been used most frequently in trailers are James Horner’s “Bishop’s Countdown” from Aliens, Wojciech Kilar’s “Vampire Hunters” from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and David Arnold’s score to Stargate; I can’t pin down exactly which track(s), though Independence Day is among the trailers to feature it.

Sometimes a trailer will utilize an alternate version of a different movie’s music, as when Clint Mansell’s score from Requiem for a Dream was reinterpreted for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer. The preview begins with music from the series itself, but around the 1:38 mark, the Requiem variation kicks in, to magnificent effect.

This is actually my favorite version of the Requiem theme, though I do love the original pieces as composed by Mansell. The theme recurs throughout the movie, in various forms, through cuts on the soundtrack such as “Summer Overture,” “Hope Overture,” and the title under which the piece is most frequently identified, “Lux Aeterna.” It was rearranged and performed anew specifically for use in The Two Towers trailer, becoming so popular and inciting such demand from fans that it was eventually released commercially under the name “Requiem for a Tower” …a fact I was unaware of until writing this post. I’ve always wanted to get my hands on it, and I’m pleased to say it now lives in my iTunes library…and if you’re a fellow film score geek/film geek/generic geek, it can reside in yours to, courtesy of iTunes or Amazon. (Oddly, the initial release of “Requiem for a Tower” was done in three, less-than-a-minute movements on an album alongside original music by the composers who revamped it. The continuous piece of music, as it appears in the trailer, became available later.)

The trailer for the next movie in the franchise, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, went a step further, raiding its own music by concluding with a stirring version of the film’s Gondor theme that was never actually featured in the movie. After using some different selections from The Two Towers, the trailer introduces a melding of composer Howard Shore’s Gondor theme with an original piece commissioned just for this, written by Simone Benyacar (who had a hand in “Requiem for a Tower”) and Craig Stuart Garfinkle. Yup…Simone and Garfinkle.

Simone and Garfinkle’s piece, titled “Epicalypse,” can be heard here, sans Shore’s Gondor theme, while the trailer excerpt can be heard in isolation here. It’s not clear to me whether this piece is available commercially, though one ray of hope for us geeks is a rarities CD from the Lord of the Rings recording sessions, which accompanies the book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films by Doug Adams. The CD track list includes a piece called “The Return of the King Trailer.” Hopefully that means this piece.

Trailers are usually produced so far in advance of a movie’s release date, that the movie’s own score is not recorded yet, and may not even be written. Rare is the trailer that features music written for the movie it’s advertising. But one exception was the first teaser for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. For a world besieged in Harry Potter mania, the first glimpse of the first movie adaptation was massively anticipated, and I remember watching the trailer upon its release and thinking afterward, “What is that music from?!?” I was surprised when I learned that it was actually the movie’s theme. John Williams had done it again. I can’t even tell you how many times I watched that teaser online over the next few weeks, but I know that it soon became less about my excitement for the movie and more about just hearing that music again.

Of course, there’s no rule that trailers have to use music from other movies. There are companies that produce original music specifically to be licensed out for use in movie trailers, one of the most well-known within Hollywood being Immediate Music. Their work has been used in countless trailers over the last 20 years, with two tracks in particular – “Redrum” and “Code Red” – ranking with “Fire in a Brooklyn Theater” as among the most popular for trailer use.

Established classical music has proven great trailer accompaniment as well. Another of the most oft used pieces of music in trailers has been “O Fortuna,” composed by Carl Orff as part of his Carmina Burana cantata. The instantly recognizable composition has been used in such trailers as Glory, Cliffhanger and…

One early 90’s trailer that stood out for me at the time was the Stephen King adaptation Needful Things, and what made it pop was a piece of classical music I hadn’t encountered before that I came to love: Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” from his Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46.

Nothing special as a trailer, and I’ve still never seen the movie, but I couldn’t get enough of that music.

Lest we think effective trailers rely on instrumental music, or choral pieces like the work from Scala & Kolacny Brothers, rock and pop songs can make an equally strong impact. The trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Casino has always lingered in my mind, for its use of the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” The trailer tries to convey Casino‘s rise-and-fall structure, with “Gimme Shelter” accompanying “the fall.”

The song is a Scorsese signature, having been featured in GoodFellas, The Departed and Casino itself. He described it in Entertainment Weekly at the time of The Departed‘s release as “dangerous,” saying that when you hear that song, “you know something’s going to happen.” The Casino trailer definitely sells that, especially in the great shot with the camera gliding across Joe Pesci’s menacing face, full-frame. You really can’t go wrong with “Gimme Shelter.” It’s currently featured in the trailer for the Denzel Washington drama Flight, and its use there, combined with how the trailer is edited to cast mystery around the events of the story, makes for another solid coming attraction. Note that just as in the Casino trailer, the song kicks in after a more lighthearted opening. Danger indeed, Marty.

Another favorite trailer of mine is for 2002’s Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman collaboration, Adaptation. It employs Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” which is an upbeat pop song befitting a comedy such as this. But the trailer also hints at the movie’s sadder themes, and to my surprise, the song seemed to fit those just as snugly, forever changing how I hear it. Now I always think of this trailer when it comes on, and its generally buoyant sound is tinged with a sense of longing and regret.

But that’s probably just me.

I’m not alone, however, in proclaiming that last year’s best trailer was for David Fincher’s follow-up to The Social Network. The dynamic teaser for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo consisted of a pulsing, dialogue-free montage cut to Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” It set the tone brilliantly.

There’s really only two words to say after watching that: Fuck. Me.

What the pieces in all these trailers have in common is not only that they’re melodic and memorable or just great songs, but that they contribute so effectively to the sensation the trailer attempts to present. When matched well, music is often a trailer’s best tool for creating mood, suggesting suspense, getting your blood pumping or tugging the heartstrings. The performances by Scala & Kolacny Brothers are ideal for having that effect. The combination of vocals and instrumentation are haunting and powerful on their own, and when laid over images of characters crying, howling in pain or anger, running across a battlefield amid explosions or seeking a connection across cyberspace, they can take on entirely new depth or be seen in a different light. Last year, NPR ran a piece about the making of movie trailers, illustrating that trailer and TV commercial production is most definitely its own industry within the movie industry. And while hearing trailer producers refer to their work as an art form may make you snicker, every now and then a trailer like The Social Network or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes along and shows that even these two-minute advertisements can indeed be artistic achievements in their own way. And in almost every case, the music is essential in the difference between a great trailer and an average one.

Then again, a little self-awareness can be all it takes to do the job well.

July 23, 2012

A Few Emmy Nominations That Weren’t, But Shoulda Been

Filed under: Emmys,TV — DB @ 7:00 pm
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As the ravenous TV fans among you may know, the nominations for this year’s Emmy Awards were announced last Thursday. In 2009, I wrote about the inherent problem with the Emmys (really a problem for all attempts to reward television), and before proceeding, you should click on that link and read what I had to say. Because I’m totally right. So…seriously, go ahead. I’ll wait. Click the link, read the piece, and then come back here for some brief thoughts on this year’s nominations.

Okay, you’re back. We’ll go on the honor system, and I’ll assume you read the older post. Having done that, obviously you agree with my argument, because it’s rock-fucking-solid. So how did things go with this year’s nominations? Well, in case you haven’t even seen them, take a look first, and then we’ll answer that. Here are the nominations in the major categories (major by my standards, at least).

BEST COMEDY SERIES
The Big Bang Theory
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Girls
Modern Family
30 Rock
Veep

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Lena Dunham – Girls
Melissa McCarthy – Mike & Molly
Zooey Deschanel – New Girl
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Jim Parsons – The Big Bang Theory
Larry David – Curb Your Enthusiasm
Don Cheadle – House of Lies
Louis C.K. – Louie
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Jon Cryer – Two and a Half Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY
Mayim Bialik – The Big Bang Theory
Kathryn Joosten – Desperate Housewives
Julie Bowen – Modern Family
Sofia Vergara – Modern Family
Merritt Wever – Nurse Jackie
Kristen Wiig – Saturday Night Live

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY
Ed O’Neill – Modern Family
Jesse Tyler Ferguson – Modern Family
Ty Burrell – Modern Family
Eric Stonestreet – Modern Family
Max Greenfield – New Girl
Bill Hader – Saturday Night Live

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Dot-Marie Jones – Glee
Maya Rudolph – Saturday Night Live
Melissa McCarthy – Saturday Night Live
Elizabeth Banks – 30 Rock
Margaret Cho – 30 Rock
Kathy Bates – Two and a Half Men

BEST GUEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Michael J. Fox – Curb Your Enthusiasm
Greg Kinnear – Modern Family
Bobby Cannavale – Nurse Jackie
Jimmy Fallon – Saturday Night Live
Will Arnett – 30 Rock
Jon Hamm – 30 Rock

BEST DIRECTING, COMEDY
Robert B. Weide – Curb Your Enthusiasm (Palestinian Chicken)
Lena Dunham – Girls (She Did)
Louis C.K. – Louie (Duckling)
Jason Winer – Modern Family (Virgin Territory)
Steven Levitan – Modern Family (Baby on Board)
Jake Kasdan – New Girl (Pilot)

BEST WRITING, COMEDY
Chris McKenna – Community (Remedial Chaos Theory)
Lena Dunham – Girls (Pilot)
Louis C.K. – Louie (Pregnant)
Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation (The Debate)
Michael Schur – Parks and Recreation (Win, Lose, or Draw)

BEST DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Mad Men

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Glenn Close – Damages
Michelle Dockery – Downton Abbey
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Kathy Bates – Harry’s Law
Claire Danes – Homeland
Elisabeth Moss – Mad Men

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey
Damian Lewis – Homeland
Jon Hamm – Mad Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
Anna Gunn – Breaking Bad
Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey
Joanne Froggatt – Downton Abbey
Archie Panjabi – The Good Wife
Christine Baranski – The Good Wife
Christina Hendricks – Mad Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad
Giancarlo Esposito – Breaking Bad
Brendan Coyle – Downton Abbey
Jim Carter – Downton Abbey
Peter Dinklage – Game of Thrones
Jared Harris – Mad Men

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Martha Plimpton – The Good Wife
Loretta Devine – Grey’s Anatomy
Jean Smart – Harry’s Law
Julia Ormond – Mad Men
Joan Cusack – Shameless
Uma Thurman – Smash

BEST GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Mark Margolis – Breaking Bad
Dylan Baker – The Good Wife
Michael J. Fox – The Good Wife
Jeremy Davies – Justified
Ben Feldman – Mad Men
Jason Ritter – Parenthood

BEST DIRECTING, DRAMA
Tim Van Patten – Boardwalk Empire (To the Lost)
Vince Gilligan – Breaking Bad (Face Off)
Brian Percival – Downton Abbey (Episode 7)
Michael Cuesta – Homeland (Pilot)
Phil Abraham – Mad Men (The Other Woman)

BEST WRITING, DRAMA
Julian Fellowes – Downton Abbey (Episode 7)
Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff – Homeland (Pilot)
Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner – Mad Men (The Other Woman)
Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton – Mad Men (Commissions and Fees)
Erin Levy & Matthew Weiner – Mad Men (Far Away Places)

BEST MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
American Horror Story
Game Change
Hatfields & McCoys
Hemingway & Gellhorn
Luther
Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

BEST ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Connie Britton – American Horror Story
Julianne Moore – Game Change
Nicole Kidman – Hemingway & Gellhorn
Ashley Judd – Missing
Emma Thompson – The Song of Lunch

BEST ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Woody Harrelson – Game Change
Kevin Costner – Hatfields & McCoys
Bill Paxton – Hatfields & McCoys
Clive Owen – Hemingway & Gellhorn
Idris Elba – Luther
Benedict Cumberbatch – Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Frances Conroy – American Horror Story
Jessica Lange – American Horror Story
Sarah Paulson – Game Change
Mare Winningham – Hatfields & McCoys
Judy Davis – Page Eight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Denis O’Hare – American Horror Story
Ed Harris – Game Change
Tom Berenger – Hatfields & McCoys
David Strathairn – Hemingway & Gellhorn
Martin Freeman – Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

BEST DIRECTING, MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Jay Roach – Game Change
Kevin Reynolds – Hatfields & McCoys
Philip Kaufman – Hemingway & Gellhorn
Sam Miller – Luther
Paul McGuigan – Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

BEST WRITING, MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Danny Strong  – Game Change
Ted Mann, Ronald Parker & Bill Kerby – Hatfields & McCoys
Abi Morgan – The Hour
Neil Cross – Luther
Steven Moffat – Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

BEST VARIETY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live

BEST WRITING, VARIETY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Portlandia
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live

BEST ANIMATED PROGRAM
American Dad!
Bob’s Burgers
Futurama
The Penguins of Madagascar: The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole
The Simpsons

(I’d also be remiss not to mention that former Daily Show head writer David Javerbaum and That Thing You Do! songwriter Adam Schlesinger were nominated in the Best Original Music and Lyrics category for their brilliant opening number from 2011’s Tony Awards – see first clip here.)

So again, how did things go with this year’s nominations? Well, not bad, actually. The Emmy voters managed to spread their love around to a lot of deserving shows, and while not everything got recognized where it should have, it was still nice to see such shows like Girls and Veep – which aren’t necessarily in Emmy voters’ traditional sweet spot – get some deserved love.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some glaring omissions or just a lack of creative, more outside the box thinking. I don’t want to point to anything and say it didn’t deserve to be nominated, since – as explained in my rock-fucking-solid Emmy post linked to above – there’s no way I could have seen all the nominees and evaluate every possible contender. Still, I can point out some nominations that didn’t come to pass, but deserved to. So here are just a handful…

Best Supporting Actor, Drama – Jon Bernthal (as Shane) – The Walking Dead
Things started off hard for Shane in season two of the humans vs. zombies vs. other humans drama, and they only got worse as time went on. And from the beginning, Bernthal did an outstanding job at playing all of Shane’s conflicted emotions. There’s that saying that acting is reacting, and in reacting to a whole lotta problems, he gave us a riveting portrayal of a man coming to a breaking point. His reactions were sometimes subtle and internalized, and sometimes they were explosive and violent. If he had to submit a single episode to showcase it all, the midseason finale “Pretty Much Dead Already”, which centers around the newly-discovered contents of Hershel’s barn, was a perfect vehicle. Shane deals with some hard truths in that episode, some of which he’s doling out and some of which he’s taking in. The episode builds to a shattering climax in which Shane plays an instrumental role. Whatever happened during the rest of the season, Bernthal had earned his seat at the Emmys by that hour’s end.

X

Best Writing, Comedy – Lena Dunham & Jenni Konner – Girls – “Welcome to Bushwick aka The Crackcident”
When it comes to writing and directing, pilot episodes often get nominated, as if the voting committees are operating on, well, auto-pilot. But rarely do pilot episodes feature the best work of an inaugural season. Any show usually requires a bit of time to find its footing, so they tend to get better as they go along. Now, I’ll admit that Girls had no such growing pains, arriving fully formed thanks to the wonderfully distinct voice of writer-director-star Lena Dunham. Still, though she was nominated for the pilot episode, the less obvious, more thoughtful choice would have been the season’s seventh episode, in which all the major characters converge at a chaotic warehouse party in Brooklyn. This installment stands out because it was one of the few episodes of the season that provided rich material to all four main characters, while also giving good moments to four of the show’s key male supporting cast. Furthermore, it was a turning point episode. The events that unfold here set-up where things are headed for Hannah, Adam, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna. The humor and incisive observation that marks every episode of Girls is present, but from a standpoint of structure, it was the season’s best.

X

Best Directing, Drama – Neil Marshall – Game of Thrones – “Blackwater”
Seriously, not a single Directing nomination for Game of Thrones? It’s already the most ambitiously scaled series on TV, but then they went ahead and took it even further with an episode depicting a massive battle on land and water, as the invading forces of Stannis Baratheon enter Blackwater Bay for their attack on the capital city of King’s Landing. With a budget far below the kind afforded to film projects like Lord of the Rings and Kingdom of Heaven, Marshall – the man behind the acclaimed horror film The Descent – managed to give the episode the epic look and feel it deserved. Thrones is such a well-produced show that its absence from this category makes no sense, but the oversight of “Blackwater” in particular lands like one of Tyrion’s bitchslaps across Joffrey’s face.

X

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy – Nick Offerman (as Ron Swanson) – Parks and Recreation
Four years of Parks and Rec, and Offerman still hasn’t been nominated? C’mon people. In a show where the ensemble is jelling like crazy and firing on all cylinders, Offerman’s anti-government government employee still manages to stand out. I wonder if Ron’s dry monotone and unwavering steely gaze cause voters to mistake this for a one-note performance. I hope not, because Offerman brings plenty of shadings to Ron’s beleaguered bureaucrat, and he’s no more one-note than, say, Seinfeld‘s Kramer…a character that earned Michael Richards five nominations and three wins. Offerman is overdue…and frankly, while I love Modern Family, Jesse Tyler Ferguson is not that great an actor. Time to bump him.

X

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy – Adam Driver (as Adam) – Girls
I surprise myself with this, because there were times when I could barely stand to watch Driver’s character. He was so skeevy that he often made my skin crawl. At one point, Hannah tells him how charming he is, and I think I started yelling out loud at the TV set, “No! He is not charming! He is the polar opposite of charming. He’s repellant! Why are you with this guy? So gross, so gross, so gross, ahhhhhrrrrrrrgggghhhh.” And yet…credit goes to Driver for making Adam as fascinating as he is creepy. Toward the end of the season, the writers shifted the dynamic between Adam and Hannah, and despite every instinct to be turned off by him, the bastard kinda started to win me over, even while I still found him fifty shades of oooky. Love him or hate him, Adam is a compelling character thanks to Driver’s original and unpredictable performance.

X

Best Supporting Actress, Drama – Maisie Williams (as Arya Stark) – Game of Thrones
Unfortunately, because the TV landscape is full of shows bursting with ensemble talent, too few members get singled out for their work. Peter Dinklage is carrying the torch for the Thrones cast, though several other actors on the show are also deserving of recognition. Chief among them is 15 year-old Maisie Williams as the brave and clever Arya Stark, who spent this season incognito as a boy, hoping to elude capture by the Lannisters. So what happens? She gets captured by the Lannisters…except they don’t realize it. She winds up as a cupbearer to the family’s formidable patriarch, Lord Tywin Lannister, who immediately recognizes her for a girl, but doesn’t realize she’s that girl. The scenes between Arya and Tywin were among the season’s best, not just because of the obvious tension, but because Williams is such a capable actress, going delightfully toe to toe with veteran actor Charles Dance (outstanding as Tywin). She excels in all of her scenes, though, and has made Arya into one of show’s strongest and most engaging characters.

X

So, anyway…just a few things that should have been included. I’d probably have more, but I wasn’t thinking about it consistently enough during the TV season to make the necessary notes. Maybe I’ll do better next year. In the meantime, this year’s show will air on Sunday, September 23, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. I’m pulling for Game of Thrones (with Homeland an acceptable substitute), Amy Poehler, Claire Danes, Peter Dinklage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Lange. And with all love and respect to The Daily Show, it’s time for The Colbert Report to win Best Variety Series. Even Jon Stewart knows it.

On that note, let’s end with one of my favorite Emmy moments, taken from the 2006 ceremony.

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