That said, I have been writing weekly recaps of American Horror Story over at Give Me My Remote. The show is by no means great television, but it’s captivating, entertaining, and unique, to say the least. I’ll tweet the links every week once the article goes live, but you can also find all of them here on my author page. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to comment on the reviews over at GMMR!

Everyone is telling lies: Potter to Roosevelt about keeping his involvement on this case a secret; Lyla to Opie about her birth control; Bobby to Otto about taking out Georgie; Gemma to Clay about the letters; Juice to the club about his racial background and working with the sheriff. Pretty much all of those lies are understandable, since the immediate alternative to them probably sounds much worse. But, as we know, dishonesty tends to only make things worse for SAMCRO, and with all these lies piling up, they’re going to have to come crashing down at some point, and when that happens, nobody is going to be happy.

The stakes are definitely being raised all around this season, and I like the way the tension is building. However, this episode fell a little flat in that very little happened in the way of new developments. Some individual choices were made that will affect what happens down the line (see: all the lies, above), but “Brick” was more of a placeholder/stage-setting episode in the bigger scheme of things. On some level that’s necessary, since the show can’t be all action all the time, with zero build-up. But it’s also a bit frustrating when nearly every storyline and character involves big lies that don’t yet lead anywhere. Some are character-driven and thus make sense (Bobby lying to Otto out of guilt over his involvement with Luann), but others are plot-driven or at least lack clear motivation (Juice risking so much to help Roosevelt) that it seems like Kurt Sutter just needed to stall so he could have everything start unraveling at the same time closer to the end of the season.

While that’s certainly an understandable motivation, I just wish some of the decisions in “Brick” could have felt a little more organic and in-character. If the “action” for the week is going to be moving things into place, at least have the characters doing things for reasons that are more clearly laid out and that we better understand. JUST having Potter continue to be his enigmatic self, or JUST having Lyla not wanting to get pregnant, or JUST having Gemma continue to withhold the truth about JT’s letters — that would be one thing. But all of those happening in the same episode, and at the expense of much else of other plot developments — that’s a bit much to be happening without any explanation. But, like I said, if everything boils over at once a few weeks down the road, that’s going to be a good stretch of Sons of Anarchy, one I expect will make this all worth it.

Bits & Pieces

• Real-life husband and wife Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal got to share a scene this week, when Gemma went to visit Otto in prison.
• David Hasselhoff guest starred as the new porn director/producer, who was mentored by Luann. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of both him and Tom Arnold now that the Sons plan to use Georgie’s Japanese investor friends to scuttle Hale’s Charming Heights development.
• Potter really wants to remain a secret around Charming. Last week he told Gemma he was a city planner and told Otto he was the sheriff, and this week he continues to have Roosevelt do the negotiating with Juice. Is he just being extra careful, or is there more to his behind-the-scenes-only approach?
• It’s still unclear, at least within the show’s world, why the risk of being outed as black is greater than the risk of working with the cops for Juice. I know his plan wasn’t to steal a whole brick of cocaine, but even a few grams would have surely been noticed, and we’ve seen how the club deals with rats.
• Opie and Lyla just got married, but things are already going off the tracks for them. Hope they can work it out; don’t want to see Opie lose another wife.

What did you think of “Brick”? Was there enough plot development or did things seem stilted to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The Sons obviously don’t like to think of themselves as the bad guys. In their minds, a lot of what they do is because they “don’t have a choice,” as a SAMTAZ member so succinctly put it — they have to be violent and move guns and drugs because that’s the only way to keep the club and their families alive (often literally, considering what people like the cartel would do if they didn’t make good on their deal). But at some point, that rationalization isn’t going to be enough. Clay might think there’s a moral difference between muling and dealing, but Bobby sees that there’s really no difference at all. Once SAMCRO gets its hands on the 30 kilos of cocaine, their new business venture becomes very real, and the semantic technicalities of their involvement don’t much matter: They’re in the drug business with a big-time Mexican cartel. Period.

“Una Venta” built nicely on what had been established over the first three episodes of the season, when all the new players and conflicts were being introduced, but not a lot was happening. This week didn’t explode in plot developments, but it moved most of the major stories along so it didn’t seem like anything was being stalled or avoided. The cartel partnership is a done deal, Piney continues his search for some leverage against Clay, Potter gets the intel he needs to rebuild a RICO case, and the Charming Heights development is still being opposed, now by a prominent citizen in the form of Roosevelt’s wife.

Where the show can stumble most frequently is in its standalone plots, but whereas last week’s involving the stolen guns was pretty silly, this one did a good job of tying back to the bigger themes of what SAMCRO is dealing with. SAMTAZ may have gotten into the drug business under false pretenses, but now that they’ve had a taste of the money it brings them, they vote to keep it going, even if the original vote was only due to betrayal and death within their own charter. They promise of new cash flow is what got Clay hooked on the idea of running coke in the first place — once the funds start coming in, might it be enough to change Bobby’s mind?

It looks like things are going to get worse before they get better, but as long as the Sons have agency in their own turmoil (as opposed to the way they were acted upon by SAMBEL and the IRA in Belfast), I’m excited to be along for the bumpy ride.

Bits & Pieces

• Where was Opie this week? On his honeymoon, or did he just stay behind with Kozik and Happy and whoever else didn’t make the trip?
• Clay’s arthritis is getting worse by the day. I figured his stepping down as President wouldn’t come for a while, but it would certainly be interesting to see how the show and the club function without Clay at the head of the table.
• I was curious about the revelation last week that Juice was half black, and why that would matter to the club. Kurt Sutter wrote a blog post about that, basically saying that “The fact is that most of the bigger MC’s do not have African American members.” I don’t know much at all about motorcycle club culture, so I guess I take him at his word on that, but I do think he misses the mark when he claims, “I can honestly say that none of the guys I know in the life are racist.” They certainly “function within a structure that is built upon a form of segregation,” as he says, but acceptance of such a segregated system is a tacit agreement with the status quo. Just because they may not be bigots does not mean they aren’t operating and benefitting from a racist structure, and I think there needs to be some more recognition of the inherently uneven power dynamics within a club built on that structure. In any case, I’m interested, if a little bit hesitant, to see how this storyline plays out.

I haven’t been a weekly CSI viewer for a while now (strangely, the last episode I watched was “Man Up,” which also featured a guest star turn by Carrot Top), and “73 Seconds” probably won’t get me to put it back on my regular viewing schedule.

That said, I enjoyed the addition of Ted Danson and the way his D.B. Russell is already shaking up the Vegas Crime Lab dynamic. As I wrote in my recent Give Me My Remote piece about shows replacing their lead actors this season,

… [After original lead William Peterson departed,] as much as the loss of Grissom hurt, the lack of a strong replacement hurt even more. Once [Laurence] Fishburne arrived on the scene, CSI seemed to turn into the “Ray Langston Show,” devoting the majority of screen time to the brooding former pathologist, despite his rookie investigator status. Not only did the show lose sight of the rest of the ensemble, but it also became much darker and more serious, robbing the already dark show (it is, inherently, about crime and murder) of its lighter moments.

It seems like Danson has already infused a necessary dose of levity to the aging series, but what’s nice about it is that he’s not trying to be the office funny guy. He takes his job — both as a crime scene investigator and the night shift supervisor — very seriously, and wants to get his team to get back to being “scientists” rather than “social workers.” But the way Danson plays him gives Russell a real sincerity and warmth, where you can like him as a brand-new character even moments after he berates Nick for a late report.

Russell’s new leadership is also causing friction between Catherine and Nick, who have long been friends and close co-workers. They easily get emotionally attached to cases, but since that approach led Catherine to be demoted, she’s insisting on a “by the book” method now, and it will be interesting to see how the tensions ripple out to affect the rest of the lab.

The cases themselves were nothing special — the octopus sex stuff was very strange and really had no relation to the larger case, while Sara and Greg’s was very tangential and forgettable — but after eleven years, fresh ideas are probably hard to come by. At least now they have a more compelling lead and some new character dynamics to make up for the more boring procedural aspects.

Bits & Pieces

• Elisabeth Harnois also joined the cast full-time as Morgan Brody, Ecklie’s daughter. Greg obviously has a thing for her, but I don’t think her father would approve.
• Seriously, what was the octopus sex all about? And why did Hodges seem to know so much about it?

What did you think of the premiere of CSI? Did you like the addition of Danson/Russell? Are you missing Fishburne/Langston?

I really liked Modern Family in its first season. The show kicked off with a near-perfect pilot, and from there used a great cast and some more modern techniques (single camera, mockumentary style) to tell what were, essentially, standard sitcom stories. Even if the plot beats were familiar, they had just enough of an edge to them to keep them from getting boring, and the results were a delight to watch. Although I thought Parks and Recreation was truly the best comedy that year (its second season), it wasn’t even nominated, and so I certainly didn’t begrudge Modern Family for its first Outstanding Comedy Series win (especially since it meant keeping Glee from a win for its first season).

Things started to change during the second season for me, though. Every week seemed like yet another variation on the “Sustained Misunderstanding” trope, to the point where I was rolling my eyes more than I was laughing. And nothing against a very funny Sofia Vergara, but I also found the use of Gloria to be increasingly problematic, as she was increasingly racialized, with seemingly every joke revolving around her “rough Colombian upbringing” and her hilarious accent that nobody could understand! But it made sense for what was really just an old-fashioned sitcom dressed up to look new — they could be with the times and have a diverse cast (in terms of race/ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation), but then undercut any supposed “progressiveness” with jokes at the minority characters’ sake.

So how are things going so far in season three? Well, I still really enjoy spending time with these characters, and the show still makes me laugh, but if the first two episodes are any indication, I have some big reservations going forward.

To start, the writers really need to dial back both Claire and Mitchell. I know Julie Bowen just won an Emmy, but Claire so regularly comes off as shrewish that it’s difficult to have any sympathy for her. This was especially an issue in “When Kids Go Bad” — the whole family was kind of unfairly going against her, but the extreme measures she went through to prove she was right just came off as pathetic rather than funny. Claire as overly controlling and bossy has been entertaining before, but it’s becoming her only character trait, and it’s running out of steam fast. Mitchell’s problems run along similar lines. I’m pretty sure all he did during the two episodes was whine and complain nervously, and while I understand he’s stressing about the idea of adopting another kid, Jesse Tyler Ferguson is very capable of playing more than selfish and insecure about his “manliness.”

And that’s where my biggest problem lay this week. I’m not sure what TV writers think is happening in society and why a supposed “crisis in masculinity” is such a hot topic this season (see: Last Man Standing, Work It, Man Up!), but the trend has apparently rubbed off on the Modern Family crew, and it’s more than a little troubling. At the end of last season, we saw Cameron and Mitchell say they wanted to adopt a baby boy, and now that Lily is a toddler, I think there’s a lot of potential (which they’ve already started to explore) in dealing with bringing another child into their home. I see no potential in stories revolving around Mitchell’s lack of manhood, though. Not only do they serve to normalize stereotypically masculine behavior (characterized in these episodes as shooting guns, blowing up things, and even catching water bottles, among other things), but since it’s Mitchell, they also serve to equate homosexuality with a lack of masculinity. I know Cameron sort of disproves this, since he’s into “manly” things like sports, but when all Mitchell does is complain and worry and talk about Broadway musicals, it’s hard not to draw a line between his gender and his sexuality. Modern Family isn’t necessarily the most nuanced show — it closed out both episodes with its trademark cloying warm and fuzzy voiceover, just to make sure we understood the moral of the story — but topics like these deserve nuance, and really shouldn’t be approached without it.

All that said, there were parts I liked of each episode. The dude ranch trip was a good way to have the whole extended family together at the start of the season and offered some good physical gags, especially with various characters on horseback. The Jay and Phil stuff was sweet, and Dylan’s proposal to Haley was treated comedically enough that it didn’t seem as weird as it probably was (and it’s too bad if that’s actually the last we see of him). Alex’s first kiss was pretty random filler and the guide hitting on Gloria was just creepy, but with so many subplots being juggled, the success rate was pretty good.

I probably liked the second episode more, if only because it didn’t rely on a contrived big event that would have felt more appropriate during sweeps. As I discussed above, I wasn’t a fan of Claire’s behavior throughout, but I enjoyed that the whole family just naturally came together at the end, and Cameron’s practice and execution of the “low key” reveal of their big news was hilarious. The thematic through-line of kids learning bad behavior from their parents was a little heavy-handed at the end, but it worked well to tie everything together and give some more context to why these characters are who they are.

All in all, a so-so start to the new season. There are a lot of strong elements, and, as always, a more than capable cast, but there are also enough problematic areas that the rest of the season could really go either way. We’ve seen in the past that Modern Family is capable of being great, but it seems to be settling for merely “good,” and with all the Emmy validation, I just fear they won’t see the need to fix what, in their eyes, isn’t broken.

Bits & Pieces:

• As great as the adult cast is, I think the kids are what holds it all together. Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez, in particular, are so funny, but Sarah Hyland also continues to bring something more to Haley than just the surface-level bitter teenage stuff.
• Speaking of the child characters, Lily has been recast as a three-year-old. She doesn’t really look like Baby Lily, but she’s cute, and it should give Cameron and Mitchell some more story possibilities.
• Dylan telling Claire that, if Haley weren’t his girlfriend and Phil were out of the picture, he’d be “honored to raise Luke, Alex, and Haley as his own” — funny or creepy?
• “Buffalo Phil… worth the wait.”
• Great montage of Cam coddling Lily, especially when she’s standing outside the shower holding his hand.

Check it out here!

The episode’s title literally refers to the army ant genus Dorylus, which, according to Wikipedia, can contain over 20 million individuals per colony and whose members rely on their “powerful shearing jaws.” They travel in gigantic marching columns and have been known to consume people who get in their way. We saw what I presume are Dorylus ants on the Native American reservation, granting to the Russian prisoner the slow death the Gods desired.

Metaphorically, though, SAMCRO was its own Dorylus colony, with Clay the lead soldier. Their food supplies (cash reserves) were drying up and they needed to find their way to a new source, so — with or without everyone’s approval — nothing was going to stop Clay from running those drugs. The irony, though, is that pushing a “Yes” vote through to get to the new income source may be exactly what starts the slow death of the MC.

As we saw in season two, Sons of Anarchy works best when it focuses on conflict within the club, rather than on external pressures, and the drug running issue promises to be an even bigger problem than when Jax and Clay were butting heads amidst Zobelle’s planned takeover of Charming. Now, Jax and Clay are ostensibly on the same side, and that’s helped them win over some members (Opie, Kozik) who were on the fence, but when the truth comes out that Jax is planning to leave SAMCRO and Charming altogether, things won’t turn out well.

In fact, pretty much the whole episode was based on lies. Jax lied to Opie about taking over when Clay steps down. Tara lied to Gemma about JT’s letters (even if Gemma saw right through it). Juice has apparently been lying the whole time about being (at least half) black, which sounds like it could have major consequences. Clay’s “word” is the weakest, though, as he lied to the Native Americans about the rate they’re charging the cartel for ammo, and also to Bobby about wanting him to have the President patch when he’s done (although, with the amount of lying Clay’s doing, maybe he was telling Bobby the truth, and has just been lying to Jax the whole time about letting him go and giving Opie the promotion). I don’t necessarily doubt Clay when he says he’s doing everything for the good of the club, but there’s also clearly a lot of greed at play, and coupled with the lies, it sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The political matters of the club were definitely the more gripping parts of “Dorylus.” The missing gun plot was fine, but could have easily been avoided if Kozik hadn’t been that stupid, and thus ended up seeming like a pretty contrived way for the rest of the MC to keep busy. And the stuff on the side — Gemma and Unser, Tara and Margaret, Roosevelt and Juice — was good, but was more set-up than anything else. Now that the drug issue has been voted on and SAMCRO is getting deeper in bed with the cartel, though, the rest of the season should be verryyyyy interesting.

Bits & Pieces:

• When Clay told Tara, “I love my son. As much as I loved his old man,” was that a threat? If we’re assuming JT’s letters indicate Clay had something to do with his death, I’d be a little uneasy if I were Tara.
• I’m happy to see Juice finally getting his own storyline. And I’m quite interested to see why his racial identity would be that big a deal to the club. SAMCRO seemed to hate Darby and the other white supremacists as much for their ideology as their competition, and they have no problem with Juice being Hispanic…
• Knowing what we now do about Margaret, her warning to Tara that “Longer can very easily turn into forever” actually carries some weight.

I got off to a pretty bad start in my predictions, going 0-4 in the comedy acting categories. A win last year and having hosting duties this year didn’t help Jane Lynch, as she lost out to Julie Bowen of Modern Family for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. I would have personally preferred her co-star, Sofia Vergara, but Bowen does fine work on Family, and the faults with Claire Dunphy lie more in the writing than the acting. Mr. Dunphy, Ty Burrell, then walked away with Outstanding Supporting Actor, making it clear that Modern Family would be a dominant force throughout the night.

Emmy’s love for Modern Family was already pretty well known, though. What was more surprising were the wins (and, thus, losses) in the comedy lead acting categories. Steve Carell lost out on his final chance for an Emmy for playing Michael Scott, and the award instead went to repeat winner Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory. And capitalizing on her star turn in Bridesmaids this summer, and in the process squashing the streak of non-comedic Showtime actress wins, Melissa McCarthy won for Mike & Molly (even though the award should have, hands down, gone to Amy Poehler).

Overall, the comedy awards — also including wins for writing and directing for Modern Family – were, if not completely predictable (obviously, since I predicted none correctly), unsurprising. The lead actor/actress were more disappointing, but nothing came out of left field.

But then the drama categories mixed things up. Big time.

Jason Katims won for Outstanding Drama Writing for penning the Friday Night Lights finale — a big upset, considering it was up against Mad Men‘s ”The Suitcase,” which was generally agreed upon to be the best episode of television this past year. I love Mad Men, but this was an extremely welcome win for the criminally underwatched and underrecognized FNL.

Margo Martindale and Peter Dinklage won Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor, respectively, and while I predicted their wins, part of it was just wishful thinking, since the fields were quite strong in both categories.

Julianna Margulies won for Outstanding Lead Actress for The Good Wife, earning the statue that most predicted was going to be hers last year.

And then, in what most (including me) thought would come down to Jon Hamm and Steve Buscemi for Outstanding Lead Actor, Kyle Chandler — Coach Taylor himself — took home the gold for FNL, in a win so unexpected he didn’t even prepare a speech, thus inadvertently forgetting to thank both his on-screen wife Connie Britton and his real-life wife and kids (the audio had been cut by the time he remembered). Hamm gave a hell of a performance in “The Suitcase,” but I’m pretty sure the only thing that could have made me happier than Chandler winning is if Britton had gotten to accept her own award moments earlier.

With two big upset wins for FNL, Outstanding Drama Series was actually a bit uncertain, right up until Mad Men was announced for the fourth year in a row. The Emmy logic doesn’t quite make sense to me (Mad Men wasn’t good enough to win any acting, writing, or directing awards, but was still the best overall series?), but the ultimate winner was truly the best drama series of the year, even if it gets boring to have the same name called year after year.

And although it was decidedly NOT the best comedy series of the year (that distinction goes to Parks and Recreation), Modern Family walked away with the top comedy award, in a win that was apparent from the time the first award was announced (if not even before the show).

So after a rough start, I ended up 5-10 in major category predictions, which isn’t too shabby. And since I struggled most in the comedy categories, next year I’ll know: always err on the side of Modern Family.

Did any wins particularly shock you? Any egregious snubs? Were you as happy about Kyle Chandler’s win as I was? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

• Julie Bowen, Modern Family
• Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
• Jane Lynch, Glee
• Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
• Betty White, Hot in Cleveland
• Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

Lynch won last year, and although Glee now works much better without Sue Sylvester, Emmy inertia can’t be underestimated. However, it would be nice to see a win for Vergara, who was consistently great in what I thought was an uneven second season overall for Modern Family. Plus, it would mean a win for one of the few nominated actors/actresses of color.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

• Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
• Michelle Forbes, The Killing
• Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
• Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
• Margo Martindale, Justified
• Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

I hate to admit it, but I still haven’t watched Justified. That doesn’t mean I can’t predict a win for Martindale, though, since everything I’ve read about her performance this season indicates that the nomination was the hard part, and the Emmy is now hers to lose. Panjabi has a good chance, too, though, since she won last year for her terrific work on Good Wife, and Hendricks would also be more than deserving.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

• Ty Burrell, Modern Family
• Chris Colfer, Glee
• Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
• Ed O’Neill, Modern Family
• Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Emmy clearly loves Modern Family, nominating every adult regular this year, even though it meant stuffing this category with four actors from the same show. That could mean some vote splitting and a win for Colfer (who would deserve it) or Cryer (who probably wouldn’t), but I’m going to say the MF love is great enough that one of the four will win it. My money is on O’Neill, who wasn’t even nominated last year, and will get a trophy tonight to make up for it.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

• Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age
• Josh Charles, The Good Wife
• Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
• Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
• Walton Goggins, Justified
• John Slattery, Mad Men

This is a strong category, and pretty much any one of these actors would deserve the prize. I’m going to predict a win for Dinklage as Emmy’s way of recognizing the grand achievement Game of Thrones, since Boardwalk Empire has HBO’s more prominent support and will likely keep GoT out of play in the bigger categories. His portrayal of Tyrion Lannister was appropriately humorous, but Dinklage also layered in emotion and depth to a part he was made to play.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

• Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
• Tina Fey, 30 Rock
• Laura Linney, The Big C
• Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
• Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope
• Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

In my mind, Poehler is far and away the most deserving nominee in this field. As Leslie Knope, she grounds Parks and Rec and is, frankly, hilarious. But Linney is a film actress doing strong work on a Showtime series, and even if it’s a comedy in name only, she should expect to walk away with the award tonight.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

• Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law
• Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
• Mireille Enos, The Killing
• Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
• Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
• Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

Margulies was the favorite last year, and then Kyra Sedgwick swooped in for the win. This year, Sedgwick wasn’t even nominated, so Margulies should be able to take home the gold (and if she does, she’ll deserve it). Of course, Moss was also incredible in Mad Men this season, going head-to-head with Jon Hamm in “The Suitcase.” But I’d really love to see Britton win for her work on the final season of FNL, as a recognition of five amazing seasons as Tami Taylor.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

• Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
• Steve Carell, The Office
• Louis C.K., Louie
• Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
• Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
• Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Baldwin is always great as Jack Donaghy, but he has several wins under his belt at this point. Louis C.K. has shown his acting ability on the terrific Louie, but a lot of the achievement there is also due to his writing, directing, editing, etc. No, after seven seasons as the world’s best boss, Carell deserves this one — and not just as a career achievement award. He was given strong material throughout the farewell arc, and Carell nailed it consistently, marrying the sweet with the silly and making us realize how much we’re really going to miss Michael Scott.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

• Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
• Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
• Michael C. Hall, Dexter
• Jon Hamm, Mad Men
• Hugh Laurie, House
• Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Once again, any one of these actors would deserve the Emmy, and now that Bryan Cranston is out of contention for the year, they all have a shot. But my prediction is that, after winning Outstanding Drama Series three years in a row, Mad Men will finally add an acting award to its mantle. Jon Hamm has given Don Draper the deep, necessary layering since day one, but last season he let the facade crumble, only to build it right back up again, and his submission episode (“The Suitcase”) was a masterclass in acting. My personal pick, though, would be Chandler, as a recognition of his five years of work as the greatest high school football coach of all time.

Outstanding Comedy Series

• 30 Rock
• The Big Bang Theory 
• Glee
• Modern Family
• The Office
• Parks and Recreation

Last year, it was a toss-up between Modern Family and Glee, and Modern Family ended up winning. This year, Glee was all over the place, and with six acting nominations for the Family cast, it seems like a pretty safe bet that the ABC sitcom will repeat. It’s a shame, though, since Parks and Recreation is, by far, a better show, and deserves some high-profile recognition here.

Outstanding Drama Series

• Boardwalk Empire
• Dexter
• Friday Night Lights
• Game of Thrones
• The Good Wife
• Mad Men

Matt Weiner’s period drama is an Emmy juggernaut, and even HBO’s flashy Martin Scorsese-backed Boardwalk Empire won’t stand in its way for the biggest prize of the night (though if there were a series to unseat the incumbent winner, it’s Boardwalk). Pretty much anything, perhaps Dexter, would be deserving of the prize, and it would be great to see Friday Night Lights go out on top, but it’s hard to imagine a year that Mad Men is eligible and doesn’t win.

Do you agree with my predictions? And, regardless, who do you think should win when the names are announced tonight? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Based on the reactions I had read online before the two shows premiered, and my knowledge of who was involved with each, I was expecting to like Up All Night and really dislike Free Agents. Now having seen them, I can say my expectations were met in one case, and happily exceeded in the other.

Up All Night was fun and charming and has a lot of potential. I really liked the scenes between Christina Applegate and Will Arnett (who isn’t trying to do yet another variation on the GOB Bluth man-child) as two new and unprepared parents. They have a nice chemistry, and the baby storylines are rich for comedy. Comedy, though, is where the series is lacking for now. The Maya Rudolph talkshow portion seems like an entirely different show, and the broadness isn’t even that funny. I really only laughed a few times during the whole half hour, and it was all at the at-home/baby stuff. Still, I enjoyed it and I’m excited to see where they go with this, since it’s a strong premise and has some wonderful comedic performers (although Nick Cannon is not one of them).

Free Agents also has a lot of talent involved, but based on early reviews, I did not go into it with high expectations. So maybe it was that it just surpassed a low bar, or maybe I just have a soft spot for Hank Azaria, but I found myself amused and engaged throughout the pilot. Azaria’s Alex and Kathryn Hahn’s Helen are both corporate PR executives. He is coping with a recent divorce, she is still dealing with her fiancé’s unexpected death, and, naturally, they wind up sleeping together. A lot of the office comedy was unbelievably sexist (the entire room begs Alex to recount the explicit details of last night’s tryst at the start of a staff meeting) and the supporting characters are not much of characters at this point, but Azaria and Hahn are funny and play off each other well, and, more importantly, they made me laugh.

In a weird, probably nonsensical, way, I think I *liked* Up All Night more, but *enjoyed* Free Agents more. Up All Night has a sweetness to it that makes up for its not being especially hilarious, while Free Agents is darker and more cynical, but also funnier in the moment. I was always planning to stick with Up All Night for at least a handful of episodes, but now (though I probably don’t have the time to add another new show to my schedule) Free Agents will be joining it in the “looking forward to seeing more” category. Comedies are especially difficult to judge based on the pilots, so I hope those involved can quickly figure out what’s working and what isn’t and shape both of these into solid entries on the NBC line-up.