2014 EMMYS Aftermath: The Winners (Breaking Bad, Reaction Gifs!) and the Losers (The Normal Heart actors, Reaction Gifs!)

Another year, another Emmys telecast full of headscratchers, dull wins, fun wins, deserved wins and extremely gif-able moments in the form of the very moment when someone’s hopes and dreams are dashed in an instant. What would an awards show be without a song, a dance and televised despair? It’s sort of a sport in and of itself for the viewing audience who don’t have a stake in the prizes being handed out. Certainly not the way that the true nature of an actor’s skills are tested with a camera in their face to capture the moment they lose. Do they save face and feign excitement while dying inside or do they just not give a fuck and start to look for the bar?

After last year’s cornucopia of fresh, new winners in so many categories (Jeff Daniels, Tony Hale, Merritt Wever), this year the Emmys decided to hold onto its security blanket of safety with every single Comedy and Drama acting winners having either won for their respective roles before (everyone but Allison Janney) or was at least still a previous Emmy winner (in Janney’s case, a winner already this year!). While most would argue that the Breaking Bad acting wins were well deserved (tapes, folks, it’s the tapes), it doesn’t keep folks from feeling ‘been there, done that’ and that the Emmys tend to be the least adventurous in their awards delegation. They love their repeat winners and last night’s 5th consecutive win in Comedy Series for Modern Family, for a year that most regarded the show as waning in quality and viewership, proves that. With the fresh and buzzy Orange is the New Black coming in as a favorite and with a few Creative Arts Emmys in hand (including Guest Actress in a Comedy Uzo Aduba), that new show went home empty-handed. Even two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster couldn’t pull off a directing win against Modern Family’s powerhouse Gail Mancuso. Modern Family has dominated the directing category in all but its inaugural year but if anyone was going to be able to topple it, it would have been Foster and Orange. And it wasn’t just Orange to find itself looking in from the outside; Netflix’s other shows House of Cards and Derek also had no need for seat fillers last night. It’s sort of reminiscent of early days of cable starting to impact the mainstream Emmy awards. Seth Meyers, in his opening monologue, nailed it multiple times commenting that (after jumping off a joke that MTV still has an awards show for music videos even though it doesn’t play music videos anymore) why would the Emmys be on a network but give out all of its awards to Netflix and other streaming services.

AMC’s Breaking Bad won Outstanding Drama Series for the second year in a row and for its final season. A near sweep as it also took Writing, Lead Actor (Bryan Cranston), Supporting Actor (Aaron Paul) and Supporting Actress (Anna Gunn). The acting wins were repeat wins for all and for Paul, his 3rd win puts him in singular territory as the only Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in Emmy history to win three times. True Detective, its closest rival, managed a Directing win but 2014 Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey lost to Cranston, much to the surprise of nearly every Emmy predictor around, including our Experts (he had the tape though). Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) managed a 2nd win in a very open category. Hers was an uphill climb after being snubbed for a nomination last year in a field of seven, no less. To come back from that and then win was a triumph.

(NBC)

If you look closely, you can see Robin Wright’s internal screaming saying, “I should have picked ‘Chapter 17!'” Maybe next year, Robin. Maybe next year. At least we didn’t have to see that open-backed tuxedo walk up the stage though.

Over in Comedy, Modern Family held off newcomer Orange is the New Black in all of the major categories they competed against each other last night, namely Comedy Series and Directing. Modern Family has won Directing four years in a row and Comedy Series now five. It ties with Fraiser for the most wins for a Comedy Series. Jim Parsons repeated with a 4th win in Lead Actor. He can add that to his new $1m per episode payday. At least his speech was very sweet. Julia Louis-Dreyfus snagged a 3rd win in a row in Lead Actress as Vice President Selena Meyers on Veep. She adds that to other wins for The New Adventures of Old Christine and Seinfeld. Ty Burrell showed early in the show that the Emmys weren’t done with Modern Family as he accepted his 2nd win in Supporting Actor and Allison Janney won Supporting Actress for Mom, the only non-repeat winner. But, it’s Allison Janney. She had just won last week for her guest turn on Masters of Sex and her win last night notched her #6 (which she gleefully pointed out).

In the TV Movie/Miniseries categories a few shocks came in the form of Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Coven) besting Cicely Tyson (The Trip to Bountiful) for Lead Actress and Kathy Bates (American Horror Story: Coven) beating Julia Roberts (The Normal Heart) and Allison Tolman (Fargo). Sherlock managed some big wins at the Creative Arts Emmys last week and then even bigger ones tonight in Writing over both Fargo and The Normal Heart (which went in as the frontrunner), Lead Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), who bested Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman in Fargo and perceived frontrunner Mark Ruffalo for The Normal Heart. Supporting Actor saw one of the night’s biggest shocks as Martin Freeman bested Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart). Bomer’s was probably the most ‘locked’ acting win in the TV Movie/Miniseries category.

One look at his face upon hearing Freeman’s name is all you need to know that he thought so too. If the image looks a bit dark it’s probably from the deep shade being thrown by Bomer’s co-stars Joe Mantello and Alfred Molina here. Sorry ladies, but you two weren’t even in 3rd place here.

(NBC)

I would be remiss if I didn’t show Julia Roberts here. Her lost to Kathy Bates must have felt like the 1990 Oscars redux. It also kind of looks like she just smelled cat pee. Ellen Burstyn seems equally pleased and confused that her name was not announced (she won here last year). Genuinely feel bad for Allison Tolman’s “oh…” reaction though. Kudos to Bates’ co-stars Angela Bassett and Frances Conroy for keeping it classy.

(NBC)

Cicely Tyson, however, is all out of fucks to give to Jessica Lange’s surprising upset in Lead Actress.

(NBC)

The less said about the Sofia Vergara moment of pseudo-exploitation, the better. The Weird Al Yankovic bit wasn’t nearly as funny as it could and should have been. After pulling a Beyoncé this summer and dropping an album full of wryly funny parody videos, his adding of lyrics to current TV theme music was uninspired.

Host Seth Meyers acquitted himself nicely but one little bit from previous host Jimmy Kimmel shows that Meyers has some room to grow. Maybe Billy Eichner can host? Please? His bit with Meyers killed and gave a boost of hilarity in a generally stale show. “JUDGING AMY!!!”

What will be very interesting will be next year’s Emmys. With Breaking Bad gone and True Detective not airing until after this season’s eligibility period, does that make room for a final season win for Mad Men? Can it come back from two years of zero wins (33 losses, and still no acting wins, ever, in 34 nominations) to take the crown once again? Or will Game of Thrones or House of Cards triumph? We’ve already started.