THE GOOD
-This is actually the best the Comedy Series category has been in a while. Aside from Modern Family continuing to be the Meryl Streep of Emmy nominations, the other six shows are legitimately great. I’d be fine with any of them winning (although I’d still love to see shows like Nathan For You, You’re the Worst, and Review here).
-Tatiana Maslany finally got the nomination she deserved a couple years ago. She’s a brilliant actress who deserves all the recognition she’s getting.
-Although I wasn’t as big a fan of Better Call Saul as most people were, I’m really glad Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks secured nominations. Still, as much as I love Odenkirk, I recognize that he’s probably the main competition for Jon Hamm. This is Hamm’s last chance to win an award he’s never won before, and he has the best chance out of any Mad Men actors (how has that show not won acting awards yet???).
-Ben Mendelsohn did a fantastic job with Bloodline, and although I recognize he might not have been as strong as some of the other actors up for the award, Kyle Chandler was still great.
-Not a huge The Knick fan, but Soderbergh’s directing deserved to be nominated.
-Titus Burgess for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He was hilarious. Also, Andre Braugher has been consistently great in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
-Outstanding Variety Series is going to be very, very interesting this year. Who’s going to get the “legacy award”?
– “Person to Person” and “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” get writing nominations, and those were two of my favorite episodes of television in recent memory.
-I’m fine with Homeland‘s nomination. It got legitimately better last season, horrible finale aside.
THE BAD
-Shows like Downton Abbey and House of Cards are still polluting the drama series category. The fact that that crap is making it in over The Americans, Justified, and Rectify is truly exasperating. Maybe it’s good that Hannibal wasn’t eligible, seeing as it wouldn’t have been nominated anyway.
-I never ever understand the writing/directing nominations for Game of Thrones. It seems like they just pick a random episode that is far from the best of the season (“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” was one of the worst directed–and plain worst–episodes of the series). No directing nom for “Hardhome” is so strange.
-No Eva Green for Penny Dreadful.
-Nick Offerman getting zero Emmy noms in seven years is Steve Carell-not-winning levels of bad.
-The CW still isn’t being taken seriously by the Emmy voters.
-Liev Schreiber and Jeff Daniels over Matthew Rhys and Aden Young? No Keri Russell? What did FX ever do to you, Emmys? Also, did Ryan Murphy buy off everyone? Because that would be the only reason American Horror Story consistently gets nominated for these awards. I can’t wait to see American Crime Story getting a bunch of inexplicable nominations next year.
–Justified had an all time great final run, yet the Emmy voters already forgot about that show after season two. It’s a shame. I apologize, Walton Goggins.
-I don’t know how Ellie Kemper somehow got overlooked. They nominated everyone else, but she was the heart of the show.
-No Margulies is really interesting, considering she won last year.
-No Aya Cash!!!!
-Emilia Clarke is far from the best actress in Game of Thrones, much less someone on the OITNB actress team.
-Margo Martindale is amazing, but she didn’t do much this season. Lois Smith and Keri Russell carried “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?”
-I’d love to see Banshee and POI here, but that’s never happening.
Photo credit: TV Line, 67th Emmy Awards
Polar Bears Watch TV 
YAY! for Tatianna.. I’m with you on “Saul” I don’t get how people are ranting over it..it’s not even close to Breaking Bad or the best show..I even skipped a few eps. and came back for the finale and felt like I missed nothing. Like you, I do like the actors tho. I don’t have Netflix so didn’t see Ben Mendelsohn/Kyle Chandler ‘Bloodline’ but I like them both so..yeah.. I can only say Jon Hamm best win for not just an unforgettable run as Don Draper in probably one of the best TV shows ever..but because he was just the over the top good in that whole last season..and that finale..yeah..I still have it on my DVR..:D you know I love Brooklyn 99 so Andre..yep! And Homeland by the 3rd eps. was just fantastic and I was one of the few who didn’t mind the finale at all.. I got it. As for the bad.. I still like Downton tho I’m not sure I would have put it in..I’m not as big of ‘The Americans’ fan as you are..to many bad eps. mixed in with a few good doesn’t make a good overall show for me. And again, no Netflix so I’ve never seen House of Card. I’m a big GoT fan tho and it’s much better of a show so I’m all in for that. though it did have a slow start to the season for me. And yeah I like the Jeff Daniels-Liev Schrieber noms esp. over Matthew Rhys who is just as uneven as the show…Tho I am a fan of Aden Young.. And AHS is possibly one of the worst shows on TV and has been since it’s 2nd season..good call on that one..:D and yes, damn our Justified not getting a thing.
I miss that show so much.. POI would never get a nom..sorry.. It will be interesting to see where it all goes as they finally have a couple of new nominations in there which I always like to see happen. If Modern Family wins again I will throw up. Mind you I don’t hate it..but it’s just had it’s time and there is to much else out there. Bummed to not see Brooklyn 99 in that group. 
The best thing about The Knick is the directing. Also I think this may be Lena Headey’s year… for that walk of shame alone. The Emmys are tough to break into because a show has to have a big following or strong politicking just to get seen. There’s so much good on TV these days.
I was so thrilled to see Tatiana get nominated. I would have liked to see Ellie Kemper get a nom for lead actress in a comedy (surprised she didn’t), but at least Kimmy Schmidt got plenty of recognition. That was my favorite comedy from this Emmy period. I was kind of expecting Jane the Virgin to get something after being up for some other random awards earlier this year. I guess not. Like you I would love to see Rectify and You’re the Worst up for the big awards especially with a some in each category I would have no problem cutting.
A lot of good and bad in there as usual, but I appreciate the nice surprises like Tatiana.
I’m kicking myself right now for not thinking of the Modern Family/Meryl Streep connection first.
Good to hear that somebody else doesn’t like House of Cards either. I stopped supporting that obnoxious horseshit after the first season.
At least no big Bang Theory was nominated (That I remember), so that’s something, at least.
Weirdly, “Justified” actually won an Emmy in its relatively weak season 3 – Dickie Bennett, who was better in season 2. A lot of people seem to forget about that (me included). Also, relatively is an important word here. The season was still generally excellent, and its finale was flat out spectacular and to this day probably one of the five best episodes of the whole season, and certainly one of the best ten.
But seriously, I can’t get over how “Justified” didn’t get ONE nomination despite putting on an absolutely spectacular, really near-flawless, final season. What a joke.
It certainly deserved a best drama nomination, and I would have been thrilled with a guest actor and actress for Elliott and Steenburgen, and you can’t go wrong either if you nominate Olyphant and Carter for actor and actress…
But…
That Walton Goggins didn’t get a nomination, but PETER DINKLAGE did (who was extraordinarily unmemorable), is such an incredible, unbelievable snub that I refuse to watch the Emmys this year. Goggins put on one of the best performances I’ve ever seen this year. What a joke.
I am very annoyed.
The fact that Goggins also got snubbed for The Shield is unforgivable. Easily one of the best working actors right now.
I’m seeing the new Tarantino just because he’s in it. Not because of any of the other big name actors. Not Tarantino (who I’ve never been a huge fan of). But Walton Goggins.
As an aside, did you see that they’ll be making another Leonard western show based on his novel “Gunsights”?
I did see that! I’m a fan of Provenzano’s work on Justified, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.
Hi PB! Great roundup on the Emmy nominations. I agree with you about Tatiana Maslany getting what she deserved. Hooray! Also with Julianna Margulies not getting nominated this year, which is weird since she won last year and Alicia is actually pretty decent this season. Oh wait, Eva Green got snubbed again this year… oh well.
Hope you have been doing great. Cheers! 🙂