On May 30, the sixth and final season of The Americans wrapped up on FX. Featuring the now married couple of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, the show told the story of 2 Soviet spies raising a family in 1980s Washington while reporting back to their homeland.
This will go down as one of the better works of the decade, and I look forward to seeing how it ends once I watch the final four episodes. Any day now.
Tonight’s the night for the Emmy Awards, so it’s time to finish off my predictions for the awards. Today, we’re focusing on the awards for Dramas. I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.
Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid’s Tale
House of Cards
Stranger Things
This Is Us
Westworld
I watched two of these, but I don’t expect either of them to win. With Westworld being HBO’s only entry, my guess is it will take home the prize.
Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder
Claire Foy, The Crown
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Keri Russell, The Americans
Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld
Robin Wright, House of Cards
If it were up to me, I’d give the award to either Keri Russell, but I assume that Viola Davis will take home the prize.
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Anthony Hopkins, Westworld
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us
Some new blood in this category. I’m assuming that Brown and Ventimiglia will split the vote and leave Sir Hopkins to claim victory.
Tonight’s the night for the Emmy Awards, so it’s time to finish off my predictions for the awards. Today, we’re focusing on the awards for Dramas. I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.
The Americans
Better Call Saul
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
Homeland
House of Cards
Mr. Robot
As much as I would like to see The Americans take home the trophy, I’m assuming that the love affair with Game of Thrones will continue.
Claire Danes, Homeland
Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder
Taraji P. Henson, Empire
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Keri Russell, The Americans
Robin Wright, House of Cards
If it were up to me, I’d give the award to either Keri Russell or Tatiana Maslany, but I assume that Viola Davis will take home the prize.
Kyle Chandler, Bloodline
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Some new blood in this category. I’m going with the long shot and picking Matthew Rhys.
It’s Hump Day. Time to take a look back at my thoughts on the midweek offerings for the fall season.
7:00
Animal Practice – When the best thing about your pilot episode is the monkey that played Annie’s Boobs on Community, that’s a good sign that your show is in trouble. When you keep cutting to the monkey because you know it’s the best thing about your pilot, that’s just sad. There is some promise here with Justin Kirk and JoAnna Garcia, but I don’t plan to stick around in the off chance they find it.
It’s hard to imagine that a show centered around a monkey did not become a huge hit and was instead the first show to be yanked off the air.
Arrow – The CW tries to give the Smallville treatment to Green Arrow. I’m willing to give it a shot and hope for the best.
A decent enough show, but nothing spectacular. I could see this following the Smallville path and lasting for years, with my interest waning somewhere along the way.
7:30
Guys With Kids – Having watched the first episode, which premiered last week, I can only say that this feels like a comedy that could have been on 20 years ago. And that is not a compliment.
I couldn’t even tell you if this show is still on the air.
The Neighbors – I only saw a brief clip of this show, but it was enough to tell me that I am not the target audience for this show. I’m not even sure who that target audience may be.
So I took one for the team and watched the pilot episode and, as I thought, this was not for me. Some people actually seem to enjoy this show, so more power to them.
8:00
Criminal Minds – Jeanne Tripplehorn joins the team for season 8, replacing the departing Paget Brewster.
The wrinkles are starting to show more and more. They’ve tried to introduce something of an arc for this season, but it really hasn’t been done all that well.
Modern Family – The family is expanding, as last season ended with Gloria revealing she is pregnant. This continues to be a consistently funny show.
Still bringing the funny, although most of the news about Modern Family this season has been about off the set drama involving Ariel Winter and her mother.
Continuing our look back my thoughts of the new television season from September.
7:00
No Ordinary Family – While I’m sure this Fantastic Four/The Incredibles ripoff will be horrible (based solely on the incessant advertising at MLB stadiums), I will give it a shot for Julie Benz.
It isn’t great, but it is better than I feared. Autumn Reeser has been a surprise wellspring of hot geekiness.
8:00
Life Unexpected – This little show surprised me last year when it was much better than it should have been. Season 2 promises that the love triangle between Cate, Baze, and Ryan will come to an end, which was an overused plot in season 1.
The second season, which comes to an end tonight, has been somewhat disappointing. It isn’t bad, and they have stayed away from the big triangle, but they have replaced it by giving Lux more typical teen-soap drama and copying the sleeping-with-your-teacher plot from Pretty Little Liars. Continue reading →