Yes it's been over since past Monday night's August 25th gala event. But what was the entertainment public left with after celebrating television's highest annual ceremonial awards? The answer is rerun winners. And the follow-up question, would it finally end in 2014?
Before going further this is not to slam the impressive acting talents of the repeat winners. The following actors Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, both of Breaking Bad, Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep, are those examples of such talent of having their performances speak for themselves. Yet just after the awards much had been commented about voters repeat choices of winners, let alone repeat nominations.
This notion had actually started as early as over a month ago, in a well written USA TODAY weekend article, July 11-13, 2014, by Robert Bianco titled, "Drama picks are so far off, they're almost comedic." Within the article were the then recently announced list of nominations, to which Mr. Bianco is fair to include that no Emmy list will ever satisfy everyone, before he states, "Still, this is a disappointing list on many levels, and it points out continuing problems that the academy needs to address, from blatant category shopping to the voter's often self-admitted failure to actually watch TV." Following that, within his summation he concludes the results are such that many good shows and performances are being ignored from consideration.
And that critique harkens back to a Huffpost blog I wrote far earlier on February 27, 2014 titled, "The Walking Dead: An Emmy-worthy Drama." Within the blog, as I wrote a plea of sorts to any Emmy voters out there, I also stated about the series, "... is not about the gore or survival, but about cherishing humanity. We cherish that which is elemental if it is on the verge of being lost." Almost four years ago I happened to watch one episode of The Walking Dead, and from there I've been amazed.
Furthermore two blog writes after that, I also gave mention to actress Melissa McBride, in what I considered was an Emmy nominated performance in The Walking Dead's episode 14 titled, "The Grove." Again the series is not all gore-fest, but it is a very well written and acted series of tales of not only just heroism and survival versus zombies (called walkers in the series), but also tales of all about the human condition. Such tales are also about honor, respect, love, as well as betrayal, and acts of monstrosity committed not just by the walkers. For in the upcoming fifth season of those who enter Terminus, are forthcoming tales of further monstrosity. This was hinted at by the show's Executive producer and writer Scott Gimple, who had basically said during a segment of Chris Hardwick's Talking Dead, and this is paraphrasing, "If you thought season four was bad, you haven't seen nothing yet." All of which gives credence to the shows tagline, "Fight the dead, fear the living."
So again as I had stated in the beginning, would this spate of annual rerun winners finally end in 2014? David Sims wrote on August 26, 2014 for The Wire, a beginning question somewhat similar in his title, "With 'Breaking Bad' Gone, Who Will Win the Emmy for Drama Series in 2015?" He lists many contenders although The Walking Dead is not among them, but should be. First included is the other AMC heavyweight Mad Men, as well as Game of Thrones, House of Cards, True Detective, and Boardwalk Empire among others. Only in 2015 will we all finally have an answer.