Hey all!
I’m baaaaack! And today we are going to continue my mission in predicting who will win the Emmys. Yesterday I selected Curb Your Enthusiasm for Outstanding Comedy Series. Today, the big question is who will win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Spoiler alert: it’s not me!
Here are the nominees:
Lena Dunham as Hannah Horvath in Girls
Let’s just hope that Lena picks out a better outfit for the Emmys than Hannah would.
Melissa McCarthy as Molly Flynn in Mike & Molly
Zooey Deschanel as Jess Day in New Girl
Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton in Nurse Jackie
Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation
Tina Fey as me, I mean Liz Lemon, in 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer in Veep
This category is very near and dear to me because I love funny women. And all of these actresses, even the one I don’t like (we’ll get into that later) are smart and talented in ways that go beyond acting. And a few of them are very unconventional in their looks, like Edie and Lena. It’s nice to see someone normal looking on tv. Granted, they’re on premium channels, but baby steps.
The problem I have with this category is of the seven nominees I only watch four of the shows on a regular basis (Girls, 30 Rock, New Girl, and Veep). I watch Parks sporadically, and I’ve never seen an episode of Mike & Molly or Nurse Jackie. There is no excuse for not watching the former as it is on a broadcast tv, but Nurse is on Showtime and home girl can only afford one premium channel so I went with HBO because of Game of Thrones, Curb (if it ever comes back!), True Blood, and Boardwalk Empire. But Showtime has soooo many good shows now–I am DYING to see Homeland because it is nice to Angela Chase working again–so I suppose I will just have to find a guy online who subscribes to it, and then I’ll date him and spend the night when those shows air! What a good plan!
I always thought Angela would join an organic farm collective, not the CIA!
But despite not watching half of these shows, I am still perfectly capable of making a sound judgment, because why not.
Let’s start by eliminating my least favorite person nominated: Lena Dunham. I have made it no secret how I feel about Girls. I can’t stand any of the entitled characters, and it makes me hate New York, which is not ideal because I live there! However, I WILL give Lena credit for creating, writing, directing, and starring in this show. And not just because she’s young. That’s incidental. It’s rare that we get to see a woman in this kind of creative role, period, so I will begrudgingly give her props. I should also thank her for not setting the show in Queens, my home borough.
I am striking Melissa McCarthy from consideration because she won last year, which everyone really knows was a consolation prize for not winning the best supporting actress Oscar for Bridesmaids (which, eek, I also have not seen, though I have it recorded on my DVR!). And even though I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, I found 30 Rock a bit grating this season and I just don’t watch enough Parks to give Amy the Emmy. As for Zooey, love New Girl but if anyone should get an Emmy for that show it’s Schmidt (so now you know who I’ll choose for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series!).
So now we’re left with two: Edie Falco and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. This is a tough one. I am a huge Edie fan from her work on The Sopranos and Oz. And everyone cool who watches Nurse Jackie says it’s one of the best shows on television. However, if I’m going to dismiss Melissa McCarthy and Amy Poehler because I don’t watch their shows, I don’t think it’s right that I give the Emmy to Edie. Plus, bish won Emmys in 1999, 2001, and 2003 for Sopranos and in 2010 for Nurse. Her mantle is adequately decorated if you ask me.
Soooo . . . I declare the winner of Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy Series to Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep! She truly rocks in this role plus it’s fun to see her break the Seinfeld curse.
Now, if only the POTUS would call her back!
In conclusion:
Who I Want to Win: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Who Will Win: Gosh, not sure. They have a tendency to pass it around and Amy’s been nominated three times and never has won so I’ll go with her.
See you tomorrow when we discuss Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series!
The DVR Files 
Liz, great post! Homeland rules, and I think it’s professional development for you to start watching it. Ask O to pay for your Showtime. 😉
wonderful entry — as always; but it IS the Emmy’s who tend to reward winners year after year like a broken record — Candice Bergen, anyone? Rhea Pearlman? Michael Richards? (ugh and never Jason Alexander?!) — so I have a feeling Melissa is going to get it again; Hollywood loves her; the show was funnier in its second season than its first; there was a wedding …. and she deserves it; she is wonderful in it; a fully developed, not perfect, funny character. In this category should also be Patricia Heaton for “The Middle”; this continues to befuddle me — she got SO much Emmy love on “Raymond,” it seems only fitting she would at least be nominated for this destined to be a classic sitcom? I also disagree on Girls and Lena — I think she and the show are just brilliant, love it, it’s perfect, funny, awkward, cringe-inducing funny; I only watched because of its noms and I am glad I did; I applaud the Academy for reaching out to it. Haven’t seen Veep — maybe my next maraton? Saw Nurse Jackie once and hated it; Parks is good; Amy is good but it’s the supporting cast that makes that show. I love Tina Fey and 30 Rock (I loved this season, especially Margaret Cho’s Korean parodies for which she is nominated); I think we are all taking 30 Rock for granted and will miss it when it’s gone. but she won’t win. I see another McCarthy win – I think they love her THAT much ….. and then, like Candice Bergen, maybe she needs to withdraw her name from the balloting before they hate her that much — too bad Rhea never thought of that ….. 🙂
TOTES agree on The Middle comments. I LOVE THE MIDDLE!!! and I hope that Eden Shea, who plays SUE HECK, one of the greatest characters on TV right now, gets a shout out when DVR Files writes about supporting actreesss…….?!!!!
Absolutely agree;when the history of snubbed Emmy — wins OR nominations are written in the future, the snubbing of The Middle’s Eden Sher will be considered a major violation; she is brilliant. I almost feel the Emmys should have a cable vs. non-cable mix although potentially with the entire cast of Modern Family being nominated, that still won’t remedy the fact that others will be snubbed. But the Emmys are so flawed, no writing nominations for Moderrn Family?! how is that possible? How do you get every other nomination (including direction) but no writing noms? The Oscars at least have a certain logical flow to both their noms and wins; you win writing/directing, you will win best picture (most of the time) – not so much with Emmy! 🙂
just watched the first 2 episodes of Veep — horrible, awful, hated it; not funny, stupid …. love her (in fact loved Christine even with ITS imperfections) but this show is just bad; I do not get JLD’s nomination — and I would be horrified if she wins
Wow, I loved Veep! But even great people have disagreements sometimes!
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