5 Deserved Emmy 2013 Winners

1. Best Drama: Game of Thrones
Season 3 of HBO's Game of Thrones was arguably the show's best season to date, as the season masterfully built towards the horrific Red Wedding. The cultural impact of the Red Wedding alone makes the show a worthy winner, but when you factor in the way that the showrunners improved on the balancing of the numerous plotlines, it's undeniable that this is the show's best claim for this coveted award. Furthermore, the fact that Breaking Bad is only nominated for 8 of its season 5 episodes, on top of the fact that Mad Men has already won the award 4 times and Homeland's 2nd season had a mixed reception, proves that Game of Thrones is this year's deserved winner. 

2. Lead Actor: Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
One of the greatest injustices in Emmy history, is the fact that after 5 seasons of AMC's excellent Mad Men, lead actor Jon Hamm hasn't won an Emmy for his performance as the womanizing, alcoholic coward Don Draper.Season 6 of Mad Men only reaffirms Jon Hamm's award claim, as Hamm brilliantly portrays a man who's personal and work lives are both collapsing around him. Hopefully, Hamm won't be punished for a sixth time, for making an incredible performance look much easier than it actually is. 

3. Drama Writing: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones, The Rains of Castamere)
Despite claims that an adaptation should never win a writing award, I still believe that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss should win this award. After all, if a script is amazing it should be honored with an award, whether the people receiving it wrote 40 or 100% of it. There's no denying that The Rains of Castamere was an unprecedented emotional journey for the passionate viewers of the show, which is predominantly to do with how the episode was written, making it deserving of a writing award. 

4. Best Comedy: Louie
Referring back to the great Jon Hamm Emmy injustice, a bigger and possibly the biggest Emmy injustice, is the fact that Modern Family wins Best Comedy every year when it's about as funny as the Big Bang Theory (Which is not funny at all). Despite being the brain child of an incredibly popular comedian in Louis Ck, there hasn't been much Emmy love for his masterpiece of a comedy. Louie is the only comedy with the audacity to tackle serious topics like divorce, childcare and loneliness, making it a cut above other comedies.

5. Lead Actress Miniseries: Elisabeth Moss (Top of The Lake)
Despite the admittedly dodgy accent, Moss' performance in Top of The Lake is easily worthy of this award. Moss plays another very strong woman in detective Robin Griffin, cementing her place as one of the best actresses working in TV right now. The level of this performance as well as Moss' talent, is more apparent when comparing her performance as Robin to her performances as Peggy Olson in Mad Men and Zoey Bartlett in The West Wing, proving that she is very diverse and more than deserving of this award. 

7 Reasons Why TV Is Better Than Film

1.  Character Development
It's a given fact that the characters on TV are far more complex and intricate than the characters you find in films. This is because most films have 2-3 hours to develop their characters, whereas a drama that even only runs for 1 season, will have on average 10 hours to develop its characters. This makes all the difference as the more you know about the characters, the more engaged you become with their narrative. Complex characters such as Don Draper and Walter White, could've only found a place in popular culture via the medium of TV. The fact is, that characters you see on a weekly basis are far more interesting than those that are on your mind for a couple of hours, before fading from memory.

2. Writing
The writing in today's top dramas, is markedly better than anything you will witness by watching films. Prolific TV writers like Matthew Weiner, Aaron Sorkin and Vince Gilligan have managed to establish themselves as popular figures, whilst most film writers are relatively unknown. The simple reason for this, is that those who write for films, are far less talented than the people listed above, as well as the fact that at least half of today's film writers, are just tweaking the source material they're adapting. The inner conflict that is a given when trying to stay faithful to the source material as well as writing your own dialogue, often undermines the quality of the writing in films, many of which are adaptations. 

3. Originality
This links to the previous point, as many of today's films are adaptations whether they be loose or not, whilst many of the top dramas are original creations. This highlights the significant difference in creativity between the 2 mediums, as proven by the diverse range of original dramas that are on TV. Whether it be meth production, 60's advertising or musical post-Katrina New Orleans, TV has a wide range of original stories for its consumers. However, film does not. The majority of films nowadays are adaptations of novels or comic books, proving that TV has the edge when it comes to creativity and therefore, original content.

4. Profit Emphasis
The greater emphasis placed on profit by those in the film industry, is the reason for the lack of creativity within the industry and therefore, its shortcomings in comparison to the TV medium. Big corporations like Disney and Warner Bros. are stifling the creative nature of the film industry, by playing it safe and bankrolling comic books films and ridiculous sequels like Fast and Furious 6. This is because these corporations are only interested in profit rather than people's creative visions and know, that comic book films and sequels have an established consumer following. An outrage like turning a 200 page kids book into a massive Hollywood trilogy, would never happen within the medium of TV. 

5. Discussion
As a result of airing once a week for many years, top TV dramas warrant a greater discussion of their characters and themes, thus making them more significant than films. Shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are much hotter topics on Twitter, in the workplace and at home, than any of today's top Hollywood films. This is because these shows have much more complicated themes than films do, provoking more intellectual debates than whether or not the spinning top stopped or not at the end of Inception (For the record Inception is a great film).

6. Expense
The price of going to your local cinema or movie theater to watch a film continues to increase, whilst TV remains a greatly welcomed cheaper alternative. With TV you aren't ripped off for watching a story unfold for a couple of hours and are instead, given value for your money, as you're able to watch a story unfold for 10+ hours for less money. The introduction of even more expensive 3D films has only made matters worse, making films the Burger King to TV's McDonalds, in the sense that McDonalds and therefore TV, is the cheaper and better option. 

7. Comfort
It's an undeniable fact that watching a TV drama in the comfort of your own home, is preferable to trekking to your local cinema or movie theater. Small kids going to the toilet, fat kids munching on popcorn and chatty fellow consumers, are only problems associated with watching a film, not a TV show. When watching a TV show you can put your feet up, grab a drink or a snack and go to the toilet at your leisure. Furthermore, with a TV show you have the option to binge watch episodes or to watch them at a slower pace, making TV a more comfortable viewing experience for TV addicts and hardworking citizens alike.

Reviewed Shows:
-Big Bang Theory.
-Black Mirror.
-Boardwalk Empire.
-Da Vinci's Demons.
-Game Of Thrones.
-Homeland.
-House Of Cards.
-Mad Men.
-Louie.
-Sherlock.
-Treme.
-Walking Dead.

For the time being, these are the 13 shows that I'm going to be reviewing on a weekly basis on this blog. I hope that this list will expand over time, especially with the addition of some new comedies. Please bear in mind that I'm a 19 year old university student in England, so some of my reviews won't be up the day after the episode has aired.