Emmy Awards: MadProfessah's Predictions

The 2008 Emmy Award nominations were announced in July and MadProfessah made his picks public then. This time I'll post who I think should win, in addition who I think will win.

DRAMA SERIES:
"Boston Legal," ABC
"Damages," FX
"Dexter," Showtime
"House," Fox
"Lost," ABC
"Mad Men," AMC
Should Win: Lost
Will Win: Mad Men

COMEDY SERIES:
"Curb Your Enthusiasm," HBO
"Entourage," HBO
"The Office," NBC
"30 Rock," NBC
"Two and a Half Men," CBS
Should Win: The Office
Will Win: 30 Rock

ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
Gabriel Byrne, "In Treatment"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie, "House"
James Spader, "Boston Legal"
Should Win: Hugh Laurie.
Will Win: Hugh Laurie.

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Glenn Close, "Damages"
Sally Field, "Brothers and Sisters"
Mariska Hargitay, "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit"
Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace"
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
Should Win: Glenn Close.
Will Win: Glenn Close.

ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
Christina Applegate, "Samantha Who?"
America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "New Adventures of Old Christine"
Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"
Should Win: Tina Fey.
Will Win: America Ferrara.

ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Lee Pace, "Pushing Daisies"
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk"
Charlie Sheen, "Two and a Half Men"
Should Win: Steve Carell.
Will Win: Alec Baldwin.

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men"
Kevin Dillon, "Entourage"
Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother"
Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"
Rainn Wilson, "The Office"
Should Win: Rainn Wilson.
Will Win: Rainn Wilson.

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
Ted Danson, "Damages"
Michael Emerson, "Lost"
Zeljko Ivanek, "Damages"
William Shatner, "Boston Legal"
John Slattery, "Mad Men"
Should Win: Michael Emerson.
Will Win: William Shatner.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Candice Bergen, "Boston Legal"
Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers and Sisters"
Sandra Oh, "Grey's Anatomy"
Dianne Wiest, "In Treatment"
Chandra Wilson, "Grey's Anatomy"
Should Win: Chandra Wilson.
Will Win: Chandra Wilson.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
Kristin Chenoweth, "Pushing Daisies"
Amy Poehler, "Saturday Night Live"
Jean Smart, "Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men"
Vanessa Williams, "Ugly Betty"
Should Win: Amy Poehler.
Will Win: Vanessa Williams.

Emmy Award Nominations Announced

The 2008 Emmy Award nominations have been announced reflecting excellence in television.

DRAMA SERIES:
"Boston Legal," ABC
"Damages," FX
"Dexter," Showtime
"House," Fox
"Lost," ABC
"Mad Men," AMC
MadProfessah's pick: Lost

COMEDY SERIES:
"Curb Your Enthusiasm," HBO
"Entourage," HBO
"The Office," NBC
"30 Rock," NBC
"Two and a Half Men," CBS
MadProfessah's pick: 30 Rock

ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
Gabriel Byrne, "In Treatment"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie, "House"
James Spader, "Boston Legal"
MadProfessah's pick: Since no one from Lost (Terry O'Quinn or Michael Fox or Naveen Andrews) was nominated I really don't care. I've only seen like two episodes of Dexter and was not very impressed.

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Glenn Close, "Damages"
Sally Field, "Brothers and Sisters"
Mariska Hargitay, "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit"
Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace"
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
MadProfessah's pick: Glenn Close. This is an insane category. As opportunities for Oscar-calibre actresses of a certain age diminish in the movies they are increasing on television. Glenn Close was robbed of an Oscar (a couple of times) in the early 90s, Sally Field has won two (!) and Holly Hunter has won one Best Actress Oscar. I have just started watching The Closer and I am impressed with Kyra Sedgwick's work.

ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
Christina Applegate, "Samantha Who?"
America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "New Adventures of Old Christine"
Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"

MadProfessah's pick: Tina Fey (or Mary-Louise Parker).

ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Lee Pace, "Pushing Daisies"
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk"
Charlie Sheen, "Two and a Half Men"

MadProfessah's pick: Tony Shalhoub has won this category 3 times already! But I'd love to see Steve Carell win this year.

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men"
Kevin Dillon, "Entourage"
Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother"
Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"
Rainn Wilson, "The Office"
MadProfessah's pick: Hopefully if Steve Carell wins then his sidekick-in-comedy played with absolute verisimiltiude by Rainn Wilson will also win.

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
Ted Danson, "Damages"
Michael Emerson, "Lost"
Zeljko Ivanek, "Damages"
William Shatner, "Boston Legal"
John Slattery, "Mad Men"
MadProfessah's pick: Damages was some kind of awesome, but Ted Danson was not a strong pointof the series--Zeljko Ivanek was. However, Lost would just be a weird show with an interestingly multiracial cast and an intriguing concept without the amazing work of Michael Emerson. It's tragic that this is the only acting nomination the series received this year.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Candice Bergen, "Boston Legal"
Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers and Sisters"
Sandra Oh, "Grey's Anatomy"
Dianne Wiest, "In Treatment"
Chandra Wilson, "Grey's Anatomy"
MadProfessah's pick: After Katherine Heigl took herself out of the running (which I think people who have won before should always do) that improved the chances for Chandra Wilson. Sandra Oh has won a Golden Globe, Rachel Griffiths did amazing work on Six Feet Under and Dianne Wiest has not one but two Supporting Actress Oscars on her mantle already.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
Kristin Chenoweth, "Pushing Daisies"
Amy Poehler, "Saturday Night Live"
Jean Smart, "Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men"
Vanessa Williams, "Ugly Betty"
MadProfessah's pick: I have no dog in this hunt. I think it would be great if Amy Poehler was recognized for her brilliant work on SNL.

REVIEW: Enchanted

Saw Enchanted opening weekend at the Highland Theater at Figueroa and Avenue 56th Street in Highland Park. The other half wanted to check out the very close cheap theaters and we love Susan Sarandon so I tagged along.

The trailers for Enchanted were frankly horrific so I went into the theater with pretty low expectations. In fact, we had had no intention to see the movie at all until it started getting glowing reviews at the New York Times (Manohla Dargis), Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) and positive user feedback at rottentomatoes.com.


Since then Enchanted has gone on to become a legitimate hit for Disney, grossing upwards of $91 million dollars domestically, sure to surpass the magic $100 million threshold by the end of the year.


The movie stars Amy Adams, Oscar nominee for Best Actress in Junebug two years ago, the very handsome James Marsden (Hairspray) as her prince and Grey's Anatomy's McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey as the other contender for her heart.

The story is cute; not as shmaltzy as one would think. The other half liked it more than I did.

I liked it more than Dana Stevens ("There's something rotten about Enchanted") at Slate.com did, however!

The last act is atrocious, built around Susan Sarandon's evil mother-in-law morphing into an evil, fire-breathing dragon. However, the overall message (filtered through Disney's aggressive cross-promotional efforts of buy, buy, buy!) that people should follow their heart even if that doesn't lead to a fairy tale ending is a surprising one. Yeah, I was pretty surprised when the dragon kills the Princess at the end.

GRADE: B.

'Lost' to return Thursday January 31 at 9pm

Season 4 of Lost will return to television with 8 consecutive episodes on Thursdays on ABC at 9pm (Grey's Anatomy's time slot) starting January 31, 2008. It was previously announced that Lost would end in 2010 after 3 seasons of 16 consecutive episodes in 2008, 2009 and 2010 --- but that was before the writers' strike. The producers of 24 have announced they will not start airing the show until they can guarantee that the full season of 24 episodes can be aired in its entirety.



There has not been a new episode of Lost since May 23, 2007.