"The Wire" gets a dick in the face
"Dick in a Box" was nominated for an Emmy this morning, as were two songs from "Scrubs." Unfortunately, that is the only good news in TV land today. Let's take a peek at the "Best Drama" nominees:
"Boston Legal"
"Grey's Anatomy"
"Heroes"
"The Sopranos"
and fucking "House"
Once again, "The Wire," the most recent installment of which was perhaps the best-reviewed season of a TV program in the past decade, is nowhere to be found. Not even a nod for "Best Direction," or even some throwaway award like "Best If it were just some kinda cool show that I loved but I knew wasn't very popular (like, say, a "Carinvale"), then I could get over it, but this is absurd.
Who picks the Emmy nominations? Is it the same critics who gave "The Wire" the best reviews of any show since the inception of Metacritic eight years ago? That's just for the fall, but no television program has ever achieved the 98 score that "The Wire" got. So obviously people like it. Most important for shit like this, critics are in love with it! The only other shows since 1999 to get a score over 95 were the most recent season of "The Sopranos" and the box set of "The Larry Sanders Show."
If "The Wire" got bumped off for solid shows that displayed a slight amount of creativity and chance, I don't think I'd be steaming this much, but fucking "House"? "Grey's Anatomy"? That atrocious lawyer show with the Priceline guy? Jesus Christ. At least "Heroes," which I haven't seen, is supposed to be original and definitely was a surprise hit in the ratings. All these other shows are complete ripoffs of previous mediocre shows like "ER," "General Hospital" and "The Lawyer Show With Dylan McDermott That Sucked So Much Ass I Can't Remember Its Name."
I could go on forever, and I've got a separate rant about the lack of love shown to "Friday Night Lights," but I'll just mention one last thing, one final gigantic dagger into any crediblity the Emmys might have had in the past: "Two and a Half Men" was nominated for seven Emmys. THIS YEAR. I want to lie down. I seriously feel ill.
And just to prove that I'm not alone (although a simple Google News search for Emmy and Wire would do so), here's a paragraph from The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan on today's announcements and how much they suck balls. She puts it better than I can:
"The Wire" is not just considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time. It's simply a classic work of art, by any standard in any creative field. The HBO drama getting only one nomination in its four-season history is like "The Godfather" getting one measly Oscar nomination. It's not just wrong, it shows an institutional inability (or even unwillingness) to recognize true greatness.
Labels: dicks in boxes, emmys, television, The wire
