2016 Emmy Nominations: Snubs And Surprises

Earlier today the 2016 Emmy nominations were announced, and you know what that means: it's time to complain about how wrongheaded Emmy voters are for failing to recognize your favorite show. That's part of the fun, right? But while we're at it, it's worth pointing out a few things they got right, too, even if — as in the case of The Americans — it took 'em a while. Below, let's look over some of 2016 Emmy snubs and surprises. 

The CW has been killing it lately. Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are two of the most distinctive shows on television right now (as the Golden Globes have already recognized), and The Flash is a bright spot in a TV landscape saturated with superhero dramas. You wouldn't know it from looking at the Emmy nominations list, though. The CW scraped together a meager five nominations, none of them in the "major" categories. On the bright side, one of those five went to Anthony Mendez for his utterly perfect narration on Jane the Virgin.

The Emmys have never been much for superhero shows, so it's probably not surprising that they've little use for Daredevil or Jessica Jones. That doesn't mean it's not disappointing. The two shows got four nominations between them — sound editing and stunt coordination for Daredevil, title design and theme music for Jessica Jones. None of the actors doing excellent work on this show were recognized — not Krysten Ritter, not David Tennant, not Charlie Cox, not Jon Bernthal — and neither were the writers nor the directors.

HBO cleaned up with 94 total Emmy nominations this year, the most of any network. Yet not a single one went to The Leftovers, which is regularly hailed by critics as one of the best shows currently airing. Emmy voters will have one last chance to catch up, as The Leftovers' next season will be its last.

Though the Emmys' affection for The Good Wife has definitely waned in the past couple of years, fans might have hoped that season 7 might get a bit of a bump by virtue of being the show's last. Alas, it did not. The Good Wife failed to make the cut for Best Drama, and star Julianna Margulies — who took home Best Actress for the role in 2011 and 2014 — couldn't break into the Best Actress category.

We complain because we care, but sometimes the Emmys surprise even us with their excellent taste. Cheers to the Emmys for recognizing excellence in the following (or, in a couple of cases, finally letting go of some bad habits).

As with Mr. Robot, we're not especially startled to see Master of None make the cut, but we're thrilled nonetheless. And it did better than we might have predicted, with star and creator Aziz Ansari scoring in the Best Actor, Best Directing, and Best Writing (with Alan Yang) categories. He'll probably be named in the Best Comedy category too, when all is said and done — the show itself was nominated but the Emmys take a while to sort out which producers get the credit.

For many years The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family dominated the comedy nominations, even as buzzier and more original shows cropped up all over the small screen. But their stranglehold on the Emmys has started to loosen in the past year or so, and that trend continued into this year. Both shows still did fine — The Big Bang Theory got seven nominations including three for Guest Actor/Actress, and Modern Family got four including Best Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actor — but they're nowhere near the inescapable forces they've been in years past. And thank goodness for that. These shows are fine, but even their fans would likely admit that at this point, they're nowhere near as fresh as they used to be.

After a shockingly fantastic first season, it's honestly a big disappointment that UnREAL didn't do better in this year's Emmy nominations. Still, we'll take what we can get. As Quinn King, Constance Zimmer combines sharp intelligence, a dark sense of humor, and a complete disregard for morals with just enough vulnerability and charisma so that we kind of love her anyway. It's a fascinating character elevated even further by a once-in-a-lifetime performance, and Zimmer completely had this one coming.

Months after that #OscarsSoWhite kerfuffle, the Emmys went in a much different direction by nominating actors of color in all six lead acting categories — the first time that's ever happened in Emmy history, as pointed out by Buzzfeed. For years now the small screen has had a reputation for being more welcoming of diverse voices than the big one, and a quick look at the nominations is a great reminder of why.

Hey, you know those Honest Trailers we keep sharing with you? Well, they're officially an Emmy-nominated show now, having been recognized in the Outstanding Short Form Variety Series category. So you're welcome for showing them to you.