Many of the nominations I most wanted to see this year, acknowledging such superb work as Margo Martindale's sinister Mags in FX's Justified and Kelly Macdonald in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, ended up making the cut. But others, as usual, did not, starting with egregious snubs in the Outstanding Drama category for FX's Rescue Me and Justified, and HBO's Treme and True Blood...
In some ways, it's an embarrassment of riches. In the Outstanding Drama category, the shows that were nominated include some of TV's inarguable best: Showtime's Dexter, CBS's The Good Wife and AMC's Mad Men. Friday Night Lights, even with a shrunken-budget final season, can defend its spot there, too, as can most hours of HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The same network's new Game of Thrones, which got much stronger at the end, may be the weakest link here, but it's a fairly strong chain.
The absence of AMC's Breaking Bad, like that of Damages, is explained away by the fact that it televised no fresh episodes during the period of eligibility. This means Bryan Cranston, who beat all fellow nominees for Best Actor since his series premiered, is not in the running -- so someone else will win there.
Jon Hamm of Mad Men deserves to -- but Timothy Olyphant, nominated for Justified, also deserves a shot. And Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights has been great throughout, as has Michael C. Hall of Dexter. Steve Buscemi of Boardwalk Empire may have the cinematic street cred to steal this category this year -- but any contest that makes Hugh Laurie of Fox's House the least likely winner in a field of six, well, that's some field.
Some random complaints and questions about this year's nominees... and non-nominees:
Other drama series that deserved a shot: HBO's Treme (is the Academy allergic to David Simon, or what?). NBC's Parenthood. FX's Lights Out and, most of all, Justified and Rescue Me. AMC's Rubicon. TNT's Men of a Certain Age. Fox's Fringe.
Comedy series that were snubbed, absurdly, as Outstanding Comedy Series: Showtime's Episodes and United States of Tara. (HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, by the way, was not eligible.)
Drama actresses that should be crying foul: Kyra Sedgwick, a previous winner in drama, not even nominated for TNT's The Closer. Anna Torv, snubbed for her tricky double role in Fringe. Anna Paquin for True Blood. Kim Dickens, Melissa Leo and Khandi Alexander for Treme.
Comedy actresses that should be crying foul: Patricia Heaton for ABC's The Middle should have been noticed. The same goes for previous winner Toni Collette for Showtime's United States of Tara, Mary Louise Parker of the same network's Weeds, Lea Michele of Fox's Glee, and the woman I though gave the season's best comedy performance of all: Tamsin Greig (right), as the transplanted comedy writer of Episodes.
Snubbed drama actors? Holt McCallany of Lights Out. Peter Krause from Parenthood, Wendell Pierce and David Morse from Treme, and -- unforgivably -- Denis Leary from Rescue Me.
Snubbed comedy actors? I'm so happy Louis C.K. made the cut in this category that I can forgive almost anything else. And I'm not upset at all that Charlie Sheen was ignored for Two and a Half Men, obliterating the possibility that he could hold an Emmy statuette aloft this fall and say, "Winning!"
Supporting players, male and female: The voters noticed Margo Martindale, so they should be allowed to live. But here is where Mad Men and True Blood and Treme and Justified and Dexter and House, among others, all shine in drama. And where the hell, I ask you, is Callie Thorne of Rescue Me?
In comedy, four of the six nominations went to cast members of ABC's Modern Family. Seems a bit greedy -- but it is a great show, and each of those performances, too, is wonderful.
Other notes:
Why the multiple Emmy nominations for the miniseries The Kennedys? I watched it. Apparently the voters didn't. And speaking of movies and miniseries, why no nods for PBS's Sherlock? That's a real mystery, my dear Watson.
How is Cloris Leachman, who appears every week as Maw Maw on Raising Hope, nominated as a Guest Actress rather than a Supporting Actress?
Notice that TBS's Conan got a nomination in the variety/comedy category, as did Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, and NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and NBC's Saturday Night Live and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.
But not the shows fronted by David Letterman, or Craig Ferguson, or Jimmy Kimmel, or Jay Leno.
What else did I miss? What else, more pointedly, did the Emmy voters miss?