Emmys: Snubs in Drama? Vote to Make 'em EWwy 2012 Winners!

The fourth season of Fringe wasn’t perfect. The bold decision to reboot both of the show’s universes gave the early episodes a feeling of treading water; the season finale was a confusing mish-mash. But no other show on television now does as good a job of juggling lofty sci-fi concepts with thrillingly intimate human emotions. One-off episodes like ”And Those We’ve Left Behind” confirm the show’s place as the heir to X-Files; meanwhile, the standout dystopian flashforward ”Letters of Transit” feels like old-fashioned pulp with a distinctively modern heart. —Darren Franich

Its third season was the first not to earn a Best Drama Series Emmy nomination, and we’re not sure why: The show continued to masterfully weave together storylines of office, family, and Chicago politics with interesting cases, clever guest casting, and some of the steamiest sex scenes on network TV. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi’s interview with executive producers Robert and Michelle King.

You just want to know how the show’s writers (and star/producer Timothy Olyphant, as Kentucky-bred Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens) make the show so damn cool — which is why we checked in with showrunner Graham Yost for weekly postmortems during season 3. You won’t find more creative violence or more interesting villains — including Neal McDonough’s Oxy-pushing pedophile mobster Quarles and Mykelti Williamson’s cleaver-toting holler know-it-all Limehouse — on the dial. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi’s interview with executive producer Graham Yost.

How funny that after years of network execs trying to find ”The Next Lost” the show that would emerge as the strongest contender for the title would be a sudser with almost nothing in common with Lost. Nothing in common, that is, except for the fact that Revenge also takes place on an exotic island full of history-haunted characters working out daddy issues related to the tragic crash of an airplane. Emily Thorne’s quest to avenge her father, who was framed for bombing an airliner by the billionaire fat cats really responsible, is both an escapist plunge into Hamptons decadence and a 99%-friendly critique of it. It turns out the Klingons were wrong — Revenge is a dish best served soapy, not cold. —Christian Blauvelt

Read Jessica Shaw’s interview with executive producer Mike Kelley.

With the adrenaline rush Clay’s (Ron Perlman) downfall and Jax’s (Charlie Hunnam) rise provided, it’s easy to overlook how artfully that road was paved by creator Kurt Sutter right from the start of season 4. His ability to juxtapose moments of brutality and tenderness, both with emotional resonance, whether in an episode or even a single montage, has never been fully appreciated. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi’s interview with executive producer Paris Barclay.

NEXT: On to the acting categories!

With every day that passes in the zombie apocalypse, Rick Grimes comes more and more unglued. Fortunately, Lincoln makes Grimes’ descent into Lord of the Flies-esque authoritarianism oddly appealing — the necessity for constant violence is turning him into an action hero, potentially at the cost of his soul. —Darren Franich

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Thanks to Hunnam’s layered performance, Jax — the gun-toting, drug-smuggling biker with a tortured soul — is dangerous and smart enough to keep up with anyone (gangs, cartels, the Feds, Ron Perlman’s Clay), but also tender and level-headed enough to truly love Tara (Maggie Siff) and want what’s best for their family. No matter how many seasons we watch him, that depth is always disarming. —Mandi Bierly

So you didn’t watch Luck. It’s okay — pretty much no one else did, either. But consider checking it out, on DVD or On Demand or HBO Go. Trust us, you’re missing out on one of the finest late-career performances by one of the great American actors. Hoffman’s Ace Bernstein is a true original — a vengeful criminal, a wily flirt, and an old man whose exhaustion is matched only by a curious capacity for hope. —Darren Franich

In the medical series’ eighth and final season, Dr. House’s bedside manner had to shift from acerbic and cold to warm-hearted and genuinely concerned — the patient, after all, was his best and only friend, Robert Sean Leonard’s Dr. Wilson. Laurie’s work in the finale, in which he faked his own death so that the buddies could ride off into the sunset on their matching motorcycles, was masterful. —Annie Barrett

Why didn’t Olyphant, who received an Emmy nom last year, score another one? We can only assume it’s because voters don’t realize how much of Raylan Givens’ best lines and moves come directly from him. Or maybe they didn’t see the subtle way he played that final scene in the finale when Raylan told Winona (Natalie Zea) that his father had just seen ”a man in a hat” pointing a gun at Boyd (Walton Goggins) when his father shot that man — then put on his trademark Stetson? Your guess is as good as ours. —Mandi Bierly

NEXT: Vote for Best Actress

Anna Torv had already played three or four different versions of Olivia Dunham when the fourth season of Fringe gave the actress her biggest challenge yet. Playing an Olivia in a universe without Peter, Torv got to portray her once-troubled character as a woman whose life was simultaneously better, yet emptier. Watching her fall back in love with Peter was one of the central joys of the TV season. —Darren Franich

in season 4, under the weight of a secret neither of them wanted revealed, Gemma’s (Sagal) marriage to Clay (Ron Perlman) frayed to the point that he violently beat her and she wanted him dead. As EW critic Ken Tucker wrote when he reviewed ”Hands,” the episode with this breaking point, ”The cold-blooded way Katey Sagal delivered Gemma’s final pronouncement — ‘Clay can’t be saved… No, he’s not going down by law. He’s gonna die by the hand of the son’ — was bone-rattling.” But even in her most quiet moments, Sagal imbues Gemma with the strength to rise up. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi’s interview with Katey Sagal.

For those who watched its seven-episode first season, Shonda Rhimes’s D.C.-set series became the most addictive new political soap since The Good Wife. The allure is not only thanks to the steamy history between Washington’s powerful crisis manager Olivia Pope and the married President of the United States (Tony Goldwyn), but also due to Washington’s believability as a complicated woman simultaneously fearless and weak enough to get herself into this mess, and clever enough to get herself out of it. —Mandi Bierly

Stowe’s Victoria Grayson is the ice queen of the Hamptons, a woman so caught up in her own power and privilege that she’ll urge her daughter to prostitute herself and have her son beaten up in prison. Someone who uses wit like a weapon, whose smile is deadlier than her frown. But this is no one-dimensional harpy. The triumph of Stowe’s performance is that she also shows the cracks in Victoria’s steely façade, the heartbreak that’s resulted from her lifelong pursuit of security over love. —Christian Blauvelt

Read Lynette Rice’s interview with Madeleine Stowe.

We know to some, nominating an actress who plays a teenage girl torn between two vampire brothers on a CW show sounds like a punchline, but if you saw Dobrev’s drowning death scene in the season 3 finale — in which she out underwater-emoted swimming Shailene Woodley in The Descendants — you’re not laughing. You’re getting chills again just thinking about it. —Mandi Bierly

NEXT: Vote for Best Supporting Actor

In a show many considered unwatchable for its molasses-ooze pacing, Kinnaman’s bravura turn as Det. Stephen Holder was a brilliantly frenetic bright spot. He provided much need levity and — as Holder’s partner Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) increasingly lost control of her world — stability. All of which barely scratches the surface of Kinnaman’s range, from twitchy highs to suicidal lows. The Killing may have been ended, but, if we’re very lucky, Kinnaman is only at the beginning of a long career to come. —Lanford Beard

Read Lanford’s interview with Joel Kinnaman.

Walter Bishop began season 4 as a shut-in shell of his old self, an agoraphobe too scared to even leave his own laboratory. Walter’s gradual, tentative return to the world felt like watching the rebirth of his soul. Credit to John Noble, who has turned Walter into a character who is variously a lovable eccentric and a tragic hero. (This being Fringe, Noble also did triple-duty as the newly-heroic Walternate and the insidious brain-undamaged Walter briefly glimpsed in ”Letters of Transit.”) —Darren Franich

Read Sandra Gonzalez’s interview with John Noble.

Slattery’s performance as the pleasantly sozzled quip-machine Roger Sterling has always been nothing less than a delight, but in Mad Men‘s recent season, Roger explored some fascinating new dimensions. Quite literally — his experience with LSD proved to be one of the high points of the season, played with brilliant subtlety and brio by Slattery. Quite frankly, this is one of the snubs this year that stings the most. — Adam B. Vary

Read Jessica Shaw’s interview with John Slattery.

No one can say Jimmy Darmody didn’t go out with a bang. Once a petulant upstart, Pitt grew Jimmy into a man at peace with the consequences of all his actions. His ill-fated arc leading up to season 2’s shocker finale was the kind of car crash storytelling from which viewers couldn’t turn away, and Pitt’s powerful performances carried the sometimes skin-crawling scenes of Jimmy’s complicated backstory. —Lanford Beard

Read James Hibberd’s interview with Michael Pitt.

Like costar Timothy Olyphant, Goggins didn’t repeat last year’s Emmy nomination, which is a shame considering the way his always thought-provoking Boyd Crowder was able to execute a friend (Kevin Rankin’s Devil) who betrayed him with compassion and make a scene comparing bullet wound scars with lady love Ava (Joelle Carter) downright romantic. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi’s interview with Walton Goggins.

NEXT: Vote for Best Supporting Actress

Christensen packed an emotional punch while tackling the storyline about Julia’s baby adoption troubles and rose to the challenge in many tough scenes. (That hospital scene with Zoe? Crushing!) —Sandra Gonzalez

With each minute on screen, Macdonald has been crafty in unspooling deep, complex motivations of her character Margaret Schroeder. Since her introduction as a plain, put-upon victim of circumstance, Macdonald has seamlessly transformed Margaret to a self-empowered modern woman who calculates her moves based on their repercussions. From a battle for her child’s life to a lusty affair with an associate of her vengeful, power-hungry lover Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), it became clear that Margaret could be fearless under the right conditions. By the end of season 2, just as she was staging her most defiant chess move against Nucky, you understood exactly why she suited him in the first place. —Lanford Beard

Always a scene-stealer, she’s eligible for episodes from 2011. With her biting Southern drawl and seemingly impenetrable confidence, season 4 proved to be Bauer van Straten’s breakout year as Pam rotted from the inside out, finally breaking down over a growing alienation from her maker Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) due, in part, to the show’s magical leading lady Sookie (Anna Paquin). Consider this speech: ”Sookie. I am so over Sookie and her precious faerie vagina and her unbelievably stupid name. F— Sookie! I’ve been with Eric over 100 years. I’ve watched him seduce supermodels and princesses and spit out their bones when he is finished. How can someone named Sookie take him away from me?” Who else could make this long-simmering outburst at once so hilarious and so vulnerable? —Mandi Bierly

Game of Thrones‘ ”Blackwater” episode was justifiably praised for its movie-worthy vision of an epic medieval battle. But for my money, the best parts of the episode belonged to Lena Headey. Holding court in Maegor’s Holdfast with the women, servants, and guardsmen, Cersei Lannister got gloriously drunk and delivered an assortment of drop-the-mic lines like ”The gods have no mercy. That’s why they’re gods.” Headey brings a grim determination, at once fatalistic and amused, to every word Cersei says. —Darren Franich

Creator Kurt Sutter has said he’s able to tell the most compelling parts of his story through the eyes of the women. For many fans, the lasting image of season 4 will be doctor Tara lying in a hospital bed with nerve damage to her hand, robbed of her only way out of the life she’s chosen. Siff had to make us feel like we, too, were trapped and had been fools to think we could live in Jax’s world and not pay a price. And she did, first by despondently talking of fate, then by screaming. —Mandi Bierly

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