The Television Critics Association announced their awards nominations earlier today. Thrilled to see 4 nominations for True Detective, but it’s regrettable (yet not too surprising) that Woody Harrelson is not among them. Also glad to see last year’s Individual Achievement winner Tatiana Maslany being recognized once again for her wonderful work in Orphan Black and another nomination for Matthew Rhys of The Americans as well. In those two cases at least, the TCAs are way out front of the stodgy Emmy awards
Veep and Louie are terrific choices, but no Girls and do we really still need to be giving The Big Bang Theory awards? A nod for Mads Mikkelsen’s work in Hannibal would also have been nice, but I’m not sure who I’d have thrown out of the Individual Achievement in Drama category. Zero love for Mad Men which is disappointing considering it just turned in a top shelf half-season. Check out all the nominees after the jump
Individual Achievement in Comedy
Louis C.K., “Louie” (FX) [2013 winner in category]
Mindy Kaling, “The Mindy Project” (Fox)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” (HBO)
Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
Amy Poehler, “Parks and Recreation” (NBC)
Individual Achievement in Drama
Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black” (BBC America) [2013 winner in category]
Matthew McConaughey, “True Detective” (HBO)
Matthew Rhys, “The Americans” (FX)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
“CBS Sunday Morning” (CBS)
“Cosmos” (Fox)
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (Comedy Central)
“Frontline” (PBS)
“60 Minutes” (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming
“The Amazing Race” (CBS)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Logo)
“Shark Tank” (ABC) [2013 winner in category]
“Survivor” (CBS)
“The Voice” (NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming
“Adventure Time” (Cartoon Network)
“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” (PBS)
“The Fosters” (ABC Family)
“Sesame Street” (PBS)
“Switched at Birth” (ABC Family)
Outstanding New Program
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)
“Fargo” (FX)
“Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix)
“Sleepy Hollow” (Fox)
“True Detective” (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials
“American Horror Story: Coven” (FX)
“Broadchurch” (BBC America)
“Fargo” (FX)
“The Returned” (SundanceTV)
“True Detective” (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama
“The Americans” (FX)
“Breaking Bad” (AMC)
“Game of Thrones” (HBO) [2013 winner in category]
“House of Cards” (Netflix)
“The Good Wife” (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS) [2013 winner in category – tied with “Parks and Recreation”]
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)
“Louie” (FX)
“The Mindy Project” (Fox)
“Veep” (HBO)
Career Achievement Award
Mark Burnett
James Burrows
Valerie Harper
Jay Leno
William Shatner
Heritage Award
“Lost” (ABC)
“Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
“South Park” (Comedy Central)
“Star Trek” (NBC)
“Twin Peaks” (ABC)
Program of the Year
“Breaking Bad” (AMC) [2013 winner in category]
“Game of Thrones” (HBO)
“The Good Wife” (CBS)
“Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix)
“True Detective” (HBO)
True Detective and Breaking Bad will take everything they’ve been nominated for. I am disappointed Girls didn’t get a little love here, but the comedy noms are generally hitting all the obvious notes anyway. I don’t know what Mad Men needs to do to get nominations these days. It’s going to go down as one of the top three best dramas of the decade, and yet it gets treated like it’s best days are long since behind it. WTF? Seriously TV critics, you’re doing yourselves no favors here. The only Program of the Year nominee that trumps Mad Men this year in my book is Breaking Bad (coming off one of the most memorable closing seasons in history, no less). The other nominated series are all great and deserve some recognition, but none of them are consistently operating on the level as Mad Men.
I’d feel less raw about Girls if not for Big Bang Theory. At least Modern Family is getting ignored now.
I think the problem with Mad Men is people assume it already has all the awards… even though it doesn’t.
It has won Globes and Emmys for Drama series and writing way back in the early going, and the CCTV gave Hendricks a Supporting Actress award in 2012. The TCAA gave Hamm an acting award in 2011. But shockingly its cast has been overlooked for major awards and it hasn’t won a major award for anything in years.
I’m all for spreading around the wealth of awards, but at least give it a nomination if its working as well as it is. While the same shows and actors shouldn’t win every year, truly great shows shouldn’t be overlooked simply because they’ve been great for 7 years running. Part of the “problem” is that there’s simply too much stellar TV for five nominations in any drama category to do it justice, but that’s also a good problem to have.
I was going to say, maybe the need more nominations in each category. Why not? There’s just so much damn good TV. I think it would increase interest in the awards.