EW.com
July 11, 2003
Prize Fighters
Here's who the Emmy voters better not ignore... Ken Tucker says "The Wire" and "Alias" deserve nominations -- but forget "Six Feet Under" and "Sex and the City"
by Ken Tucker
The Emmy nominations will be announced on July 17, so it's time to get in some last-minute wishes, hopes, and pleas. What follows isn't the usual speculation about who or what will be nominated, but rather some impassioned suggestions about which perennially picked series or performers should sit this one out and which less heralded or overlooked ones should take their place.
BEST DRAMA
Give Them a Rest "NYPD Blue," "ER," "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and "The West Wing" are all much-lauded shows that have suffered from uneven seasons. Since they've all received their fair share of Emmys, this is the year to give others a chance.
Please Don't Forget "The Wire," "The Wire," "Alias," and "Alias." I know that "24" is most critics' fave-rave, but I'm putting all my credibility chips on these two racehorses. Why? Because they need it. "The Wire" draws fewer viewers and less press coverage than its HBO peers, and I'm tired of hearing how "hard" it is to follow. Who said TV has to be mindless pleasure all the time? Watch, listen, think. It pays off here, with the best ensemble cast on TV and the meatiest roles for black actors. "Alias," on other hand, is perceived in the industry as fluffy escapism, with creator J.J. Abrams not given credit for streamlining the show to make it as sleekly sexy and entertaining as one of Jennifer Garner's spandex dresses.
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Give Them a Rest The women of "West Wing," whose series was troubled by drooping ratings and equally droopy plotlines. The women of "Six Feet Under," who don't need more rewards for a season when everybody in the cast acted over-the-top except Peter Krause. And Amy Brenneman in "Judging Amy," who always strikes me as a can't-think-of-anyone-else-and-she-seems-a-nice-person nomination.
Please Don't Forget Jennifer Garner and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who prove that Super-Women can act, people! And Felicity Huffman, whose astonishingly egoless turn in Showtime's "Out of Order" as a drug-addled, depressive screenwriter lifted this self-absorbed series to moments of greatness.
© Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. 2003
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