A quick note on the Emmys. I may want to say later, but I'm extremely tired so I'm going to focus on two quick things. I didn't really watch the Emmys as there were sports on, and, frankly, the Emmys are pretty lame, the Academy Awards' little stepbrother who constantly underachieves and makes poor decisions. But I checked back and forth and took a look at the winners of course, so here we go.



First thing, major props for Zeljko Ivanek, one of my all time favorite TV character actors. He won best supporting actor in a drama Emmy for his role in Damages, an absurd legal thriller show that I bonded with my dad while watching last summer. He was eastern european Dennis Hopper's son as Andre Drazon, one of the membes of the villainous family in the first season of 24, and he played Juliet's husband who gets hit my a bus in an episode of Lost. He was a recurring character in Oz as the Governor, and in Homicide: Life on the Street as Ed Danvers. I also had the pleasure of seeing him in a Tony nominated performance in one of the last times I've seen a show, in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. It's about damn time he got his due props and I'm glad to see it happen. So score one for Emmy here.



Second, a word on 30 Rock. I may talk more about it in general - I finished the second season just the other day. But I'm not sure I get why it's so popular with Emmy voters. It's a good show; I like it, and I watch it, and I will continue to. But it's not that good. In my mind, it's kind of a very poor man's Arrested Development (honestly, that's not really an insult) - Liz Lemon is Michael Bluth's straight man dealing with a zany cast of characters trying to hold them together as a show (instead of a family) while sorting out her own not so perfect life. 30 Rock doesn't make me laugh out loud nearly as much as a show like that I feel should (A comparison I make is to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which whether it's the best show or best episode or not, is always guarenteed to have a few parts that just make you laugh out loud). 30 Rock has a lot of parts where it's almost hits - parts where I think to myself "oh, that's clever" or "that's amusing" instead of actually laughing. Allow me a baseball comparison - 30 Rock is the Torii Hunter of television. A very solid player and a respectable citizen who while someone who will always contribute and help the team is nevertheless consistently overrated and paid more money than they probably deserve. 30 Rock serves as a nice compliment to Vlad Guerrero (The Office? (I need to approve this my sports-TV metaphor guy)) but is what it is a compliment - that I hope will continue to get better, maybe show more plate discipline, will probably continue to the same reliable, useful and good but not great player/show who will have a couple huge turns at bat (scenes that make you laugh a lot? I'm not sure where I'm going anymore) but more often will have a 1-5 game with a double, a productive out or two and solid defense.