After a season of watch-screaming at the screen, cry-tweeting our feelings and pouting when our OTPs broke up, Santa Claus might as well be coming to town in the form of the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. On Sunday, we finally settle, once and for all, what the best shows of all time (or at least this year) are.
But some shows are getting coal in their metaphorical stockings. While the current categories have strong contenders (you can stop gloating, “Breaking Bad”), some candidates were snubbed almost as badly as Rudolph.
Let’s take a look at some whose holidays could stand to be less foggy:
**Outstanding Drama Series:**
This year, “The Newsroom” employed the element that distinguishes memorable dramas from mediocre ones: game-changing circumstance. By orienting the drama around a mistake and its consequences instead of depending on characters’ petty personal problems, Will (Jeff Daniels) and his crew should have been rewarded for bringing journalistic ethics dilemmas to life with flashback and flash-forward tellings of “how” rather than “what.”
**Outstanding Comedy Series:**
“New Girl’s” stereotype-juxtaposition garnered attention last year; everyone watched as Jess (Zooey Deschanel), with her signature cutesy-hipster-infused mishaps, clashed with dysfunctional bro trifecta Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris). “New Girl” has always done a good job of refreshing the overused tropes of Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Pigheaded Lost 20-somethings via forcing them under one roof, and the show made more creative moves this season by consummating sexual tension between the lead characters early on (instead of riding on it for another six seasons — “Bones” comes to mind). But alas, now no one cares.
**Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series:**
Before Walter White was TV’s favorite anti-hero-turned-villain, it was Michael C. Hall’s “Dexter” who made good intentions complement questionable moral actions. The sociopathic character was intriguing, morbidly funny and at times, almost sympathetic because of his contradictory desire for justice — but now his darker meth-head counterpart is set to steal the show. As this vigilante’s story comes to a close, let us remember the Übermensch-influenced genius, who will give his last performance on the day of the awards that badly overlooked him.
**Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series:**
“New Girl” didn’t get any love in general, but missing Jake Johnson was a particularly horrifying snub. Nick initially appeared as a static straight man to his friends’ antics, but as the show fleshed him out this season, he became interesting, relevant and, like the alpha male he aspires to be, relatively unpredictable. The character development wouldn’t necessarily have helped him compete with the giants of “Arrested Development” and “30 Rock,” but an acknowledgement in the form of a nomination would have been nice.
**Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series:**
Tatiana Maslany had us at her first character as a con artist trying to provide for her kid. Maslany then proceeded to clone herself — and still none of those roles were good enough to garner a nomination for “Orphan Black.” When you can play six different believable characters _and_ get a freshman show a 73 percent Metacritic rating, you deserve a gold star.
**Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:**
“The Mindy Project” brought Mindy Kaling back to primetime after her tenure on “The Office,” and Kaling cleverly used her knowledge of workplace comedy to satirize modern-era romance. Kaling’s Dr. Lahiri is adorable and desperate in an uncomfortably relatable way and that quirkiness alone should have won over the voters. With the actress simultaneously making a stand for putting non-white female leads on the small screen, you have to wonder if someone just accidentally crossed Kaling off the official list.
Every TV fanatic is singing “it’s the most wonderful time of the year!” as September yields tidings of great joy for some. But for the rest? Let’s wish these guys better luck next year.