Emmy Awards

Highlights of the awards:

-Neil Patrick Harris: After last years hosts were awful it was a welcome relief to have NPH at the reigns and he proved what a good host he was, as many of the stars (including Ricky Gervais and Jon Stewart) of the evening stated. Wish there had been more of him though, they certainly could have cut out the dance number. And even though I don’t watch How I Met Your Mother I thought it was a shame that he didn’t win.

-Michael Emerson winning: As he hadn’t won in previous years I foolishly thought he wouldn’t win this time, but he did and then gave a wonderfully understated acceptance speech.

-The guys who wrote the opening number were as funny accepting awards as they are writing opening number with Community creator Dan Harmon stating that it was ‘just the dumbest, dumbest, ugliest, least-televiseable people you could give an award to.’

-John Hodgman and his made up statements about the winners, my two favourites being:

1. When The Daily Show won best Variety Show: ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is celebrating its 76^th year on air. It began on Comedy Central Radio as Stewart-Brand Chicken-Fat All-Star Fake News Half Hour. This is their 900^th Emmy and frankly that is too much.’

2. When Michael Emerson won best supporting actor: ‘If Michael Emerson weren't on television right now, he would be in New York City, having a fancy cocktail with me. That is, until S. Epatha Merkerson walked into the room, then he'd blow me off. That's a true story.’

-Ricky Gervais being as funny as ever at these awards though I would’ve loved to have seen a Rainn Wilson reaction shot when he called him odd.

-Tina Fey burning her own network in her acceptance speech for best comedy: ‘Thank you for keeping us on air, even though we are so much more expensive than a chat show.’

-The writers of the variety/talk show category listing all the names is always amusing and inventive with Conan’s facebook rejections being my favourite this year.

-The Daily Show winning as it has had a really strong year with the election stuff and the battle with Jim Cramer.

-Mad Men winning: now I was undecided as to which show I wanted to win between Mad Men and Lost as I think both have had very strong years, but I guess they might heap the awards on Lost if the final season is as awesome as season 5. And after seeing Sunday nights episode of Mad Men it really did show what a tremendous programme it is.

Also this years Emmys made me really want to finally get around to watching Breaking Bad and Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog and to actually finish watching season 7 of 24.

Mad Men- Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency

So Sunday was a crazy busy night for TV as Curb Your Enthusiam returned, Bored to Death premiered, the Emmys were on and there was a new episode of Mad Men. I will begin with a quick post about Mad Men as I think this was the best episode of the season so far and was also perhaps the most shocking so a warning that there will be spoilers ahead. Here is a clip of that oh so shocking scene that I have now watched a good six times, it is equally hilarious and horrifying:

One of the things I love about Mad Men is that often goes in a completely direction to the one that you expect and this is a classic example of this, because of this I have no idea what direction the season is going to take. It would seem that a lot of the core group are unsatified with their work at Sterling Cooper for one reason or another which makes the central component of the show seem on the shakey side, Joan has already left (not that she really wanted to after the repulsive Greg did not get his promotion) and we have already seen Duck Phillips try and woo away both Pete and Peggy. I am glad that Lane is staying as I think Jared Harris is a terrific addition to the cast and because I am intrigued as to what direction he will go in now that he feels like he has 'witnessed his own funeral'.

The season did start perhaps a little on the slow side, however these past two episodes have definitely gone into full speed and this demonstrates why it deserved the Emmy for best drama on Sunday (though I also wanted Lost to win). I am now excited as to what will happen next and how all of the events of 1963 may also shake up the lives of these characters.

Bones dancing promo

The Bones promo department always seem to deliver on the pre season promos which capture the fun spirit that the show has over other crime procedurals, this season is no different:

Lost season 6 promo picture

Just a quick post to show the new Lost promo photo for season 6 which was fully revealed at the first Disney fan convention D23 Expo in Anaheim:

And for a closer look at who is on the poster:

The one surprise admission to this poster is Walt, I wonder why he has not been included as he has been an important part of some of the earlier Lost story lines. It is also interesting to note that Locke is the only character who is not facing forwards. I really like this promo and as it is still a while till the new season starts I like that this does not reveal much about the forthcoming season except that we can probably expect to see some familiar faces returning to the show other than the ones that have been confirmed so far.

The date for the final episode has been announced as being May 19th 2010, start to plan those finale parties now.

It's been a long time

The new TV season is upon us and despite my lack of blogging over the month of August I am excited about several old shows returning and a few of the new starters as well. I will be writing with more consistency (I hope) over the following weeks and months about these shows. The old returners I am looking forward to are; Bones (thought the bones promo below is pretty cool), Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office (once I have seen season 5- the DVD is on the way as I speak).

I will also be looking at the new season of Mad Men, that has been on for the past few weeks, so far I am enjoying this season and will be writing further on this in the coming week. Oh and I am really looking forward to the return of The Daily Show after the three week hiatus that it has been on, I've been missing my Jon Stewart fix, I'm so glad that the web site has all the old episodes on there to watch.

New starters that have produced an interest include Community (I'm a big fan of Joel McHale, as previous mentions of The Soup will testify), Flash Forward and the new HBO show Bored to Death. Other shows that I am currently catching up on (and need to catch up on) include Damages season 2, 90210 (got to love the trash TV), Dexter, 30 Rock and Harper's Island (I saw the first two episodes the other day and thought it was ok, like watching a long TV horror movie really). Oh and I will finally be catching up with The Sopranos soon as well having only ever seen bits and bobs from each season- though I am totally spoiled for the final episode, which sucks.

So there is plenty for me to be writing about, and I will be tackling many of the above shows in one way or another. See you all soon.