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2008 TCA Awards Winners — Enough with Mad Men already!

By fred | July 20, 2008

Yesterday the Television Critics Association revealed their picks for outstanding achievements this year on television. As always the TCA Awards are known to give out awards to shows usually “snubbed” by other wards like the Emmys, as the critics tend to be more inclined to reward quality shows from cable even if they aren’t a popular hit.

I’m not sure if this is still true this year though, because there wasn’t really any surprise coming from the TCA Awards, which rewarded Mad Men a lot, the new series from AMC which just happens to have received no less than 16 Emmy nominations, a pretty amazing performance which would already be fantastic for either a new series, or a series from AMC.

Now, maybe it’s because I personally do not love Mad Men that much, but while I have no problem to recognize that there’s quality on that show and it does deserve many praises, I’m actually really getting a bit sick of it now.

Some are questioning whether or not the Emmy are out of touch with the public, as about 98% of Americans have never watched Mad Men. Now, that’s not a problem for me, actually that’s a good thing, because the Emmys - like any other awards out there - aren’t Nielsen. The aim isn’t to let everybody knows what shows are - according to Nielsen - the most watched.

The idea is to highlight and reward shows that are really good, whether they are already hits or could help some promotion so that the public could discover such gems. But my problem is that with this shortened season, it seems everyone just relied on the same shows for everything, the leading ones being, when it comes to comedy, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock - TCA winner of the OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY award and INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY award for Tinay Fey - and, when it comes to drama, AMC’s new series Mad Men - TCA winner of the PROGRAM OF THE YEAR, OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM and OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA awards.

My problem ? While I won’t try to pretend that Mad Men just sucks or isn’t worthy of recognition, I honestly do not believe that it was the only good drama this season.

I really feel that giving all three awards, PROGRAM OF THE YEAR, OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM and OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA to the same show is not a really inspired choice. Because as shortened as this season may have been, it delivered some pretty excellent drama selection.

I feel this season of House was pretty amazing, with a new deal to begin with, House having to find a new team, ending in an heartbreaking drama embellished by tremendous performances from Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard and Anne Dudek. The show wasn’t even nominated, but it should have.

In the same way, Life wasn’t nominated either for OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM or OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA, both categories where it totally deserved to be, as the show as been nothing bit fantastic ever since its pilot episode. Sure, I love this show, but as far as I’m concerned it was the best new series of the season, and it is on the top3 of the best drama on the air last season.

It’s known by all that Lost delivered the best season of the show so far, that having an end date set revitalized the show, allowed for everything to move forward and brought the show to a new dimension. This season was mind-blowing, some episodes were simply astonishing and we had some performances, like the one from Michael Emerson, simply marvelous.

I’m not saying Mad Men didn’t deserve any award, but so did Lost, so did Breaking Bad, or so did Pushing Daisies to remain in TCA nominees. All those shows and more were pretty amazing this season, and it seems that everyone, TCA, Emmys, they all only seem to see Mad Men, and I’m getting a bit sick of it to tell you the truth.

Anyways, rant over, here are the TCA Winners

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: Mad Men (AMC)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: Mad Men (AMC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Mad Men (AMC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: 30 Rock (NBC)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Paul Giamatti, John Adams (HBO)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: The War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick (PBS)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING: WordGirl (PBS)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: John Adams (HBO)

HERITAGE AWARD: The Wire (HBO)

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Lorne Michaels

Posted in News
Shows: 30 Rock, House, Lost, Mad Men, Pushing Daisies, The Wire