What John Thinks...of the 2009 Emmy Nominations

Another year, another batch of somewhat surprising, mostly-infuriating Emmy nominations.

Instead of copy/pasting all the major nominees and praising/complaining about each of their merits, I’ll let you peruse the list yourself and give you my general thoughts.

(Warning: Though I try my best to be fair, the following contains extreme bias towards the shows I love.)

The Good:
Maybe it’s my imagination, but I feel like there are more new names in the major categories than in recent years -and I like it. The big question is whether this is due to a genuine movement toward appreciating fresh material or if it’s because the increase in number of nominees (from five to seven in the Best Drama and Best Comedy Series, and from five to six in the major acting categories) inevitably resulted in a batch of new names. I’m cynical when it comes to these major awards, so I’m leaning towards the latter. This just seems like a less drastic version of what the Oscars just did.

Still, I got a kick out of seeing Jim Parsons, Simon Baker and Aaron Paul among the acting nominees and "ow I Met Your Mother"up for best comedy -and I don’t even watch "ig Bang Theory" "he Mentalist" "reaking Bad"or "Mother." It's just nice to see something different.

I’m also amused by the fact that Justin Timberlake picked up two Emmy nominations (for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series when he hosted "Saturday Night Live" and for co-writing "Motherlover"). We’re not exactly giving him a ton of incentive to get back to his day job.

The Great:
"Flight of the Conchords" is up for Best Comedy Series and Jemaine Clement (pictured, right) is in the race for Best Actor. (No offense to Bret McKenzie, but Jemaine is the man!) This delighted me so much that I don’t even care that the first season was noticeably funnier than the nominated second season. These guys are brilliant and it’s well deserved. (If Rhys Darby had picked up a Best Supporting Actor nom, things would’ve been perfect.)

Speaking of that category, I was thrilled to see Tracy Morgan get recognized for "30 Rock." Some people may complain that he doesn’t really act and that he’s playing himself. All I know is that pretty much everything his artfully bizarre characters says makes me laugh out loud

The Bad:
I like Tony Shalhoub, I really do. I also consider myself to be a pretty TV-savvy person.

That being said, I honestly had NO idea that "Monk" was still on. More importantly, could someone who DOES watch the show please explain to me, in detail, what Shalhoub did this past year that’s merited yet another nomination. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe that we should ignore a show just because it’s been on a long while (which seems to be what happened to "The Shield"), but in Shalhoub’s specific case, I’d really, honestly like to hear a "Monk" fan tell me that he hasn’t been on autopilot the last three years and that he really dug deep this past TV season.

I mean, wouldn’t it have been more fun to see someone like Zachary Levi of "Chuck" or Lee Pace of "Pushing Daisies." I admit I didn’t watch either show, but people LOVE them. How about Stephen Colbert for "The Colbert Report" as a left field pick? (Who else has created a more fully-realized character in the last couple of years?)

The Ugly:
Where do I start?

Let’s start with a small snub: I just started watching "So You Think You Can Dance" regularly this summer, but it already seems pretty obvious that Cat Deeley is the best, most charming/likable Reality Show host. So how come no nomination for the impossibly-tall emcee?

How about only one member (Michael Emerson) from the excellent cast of "Lost" getting a nomination? Since I have a policy that I can’t bring up an actor without mentioning who I’d have them replace as an actual nominee, I’d happily switch out Baker (sorry, dude) for Josh Holloway, who did just as great a job stepping up as a leading man as Sawyer did on "Lost." I’d also sub out the fine, but underutilized Chandra Wilson in favor of Elizabeth Mitchell in the Supporting Actress category, for helping make Juliet and Sawyer’s ludicrous-on-paper hookup seem totally believable.

Now let’s talk about the ongoing travesty that is Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton being snubbed in the Best Actor/Actress race AGAIN. All they do is portray the most believable (and likable) married couple in recent memory. I’d sub in Chandler for past nominee Michael C. Hall (sorry "Dexter" fans) and I’d use Britton to replace Mariska Hargitay. I know it’s not Hargitay’s fault that "SVU" is a mess now, but slightly rising above crap material doesn’t compare to what Britton is doing - she helps make "FNL" one of the best shows on TV. Even Timberlake has two Emmy noms. Come on!

However, the biggest snub is that the excellent final season of "The Shield" got nothing. Nothing for stars Michael Chiklis or Walton Goggins (who I’d, respectively, have replace Gabriel Byrne and the surprisingly-overrated-on-"Damages" William Hurt). I mean, the show was number one on some of the most prestigious year-end lists in 2008! This is the biggest shame of all - and I’d happily sub out "House", which is still good, but somehow manages to be both uneven and formulaic at times.

So what’d you think of this year’s Emmy nominees? What actor/actress or show were you delighted or annoyed to see again? (Speak up, "Battlestar Galactica" fans!)