Poll Result - Outstanding Drama Series

For the final Emmy Poll of the year, I asked which show would win the Emmy as outstanding Drama Series. This time around there were more votes cast than in most of the polls this year, but two fewer than in the Comedy series poll.

Eight votes were cast. Receiving no votes were Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, and Friday Night Lights. Receiving two votes (25%) was Mad Men. And in a tie for the lead with three votes each (37.5%) were The Good Wife and Game Of Thrones.

This is a tough category for me. I’ve seen three of the shows – obviously not the two that are on HBO and not Dexter either. I’ve seen a couple of episodes of The Good Wife, and have watched both Friday Night Lights and Mad Men sporadically since they debuted. I will say that I’ve seen some episodes of this past season of Mad Men and found it excellent as always. In fact, if the nominations for Outstanding Drama Series were based on single episodes, as so many of the Emmy categories are, I think a great many people would support Mad Men if they nominated the episode “The Suitcase.” Viewed overall I personally think that Mad Men is one of the best shows on TV and if I had voted, it probably would have gotten my vote. And as good as Friday Night Lights has consistently been, I don’t think that it can overcome the handicaps that it faces having been on DirectTV and then being a bit of an afterthought for NBC. That leaves us with two HBO series and The Good Wife. I haven’t seen enough of The Good Wife to effectively judge how good it is, but I suspect that it will do better in the acting categories than it will here. Is the Academy going to reward a broadcast network show when there are so many cable shows including bridesmaid Mad Men? I’m afraid I have to discount the chances for Game Of Thrones because of the long-standing Emmy prejudice against Science Fiction and Fantasy genre shows. (But is that just my reaction to Fringe never having a nomination in any of the main Emmy categories.) By default then I think the big HBO contender is going to be Boardwalk Empire. The three most likely winners are Boardwalk Empire, The Good Wife and Mad Men and because I’ve seen more of Mad Men, that’s the one I’m going with.

Todd Mason has a different opinion:

THE GOOD WIFE has weak moments, but remains the best drama on US television, despite impressive work on the part of the folks at FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and MAD MEN and DEXTER.
BOARDWALK EMPIRE has an excellent cast for the most part, and shows why an excellent cast can't carry a series without decent scripts.

For what it’s worth Todd (less than the price of a cup of tap water) I can see your point about The Good Wife, and maybe if I had watched more episodes I’d agree with you more whole heartedly, but I do love my Mad Men. As far as Boardwalk Empire is concerned, I agree with your general premise about an excellent cast needing decent scripts (and/or superior direction) but since I haven’t seen the show I will refrain on commenting on whether that’s the case with this show.

I want to have a new poll up for the “Cancellation Derby” in the next day or so, although it might turn out to be two polls running simultaneously for Comedy and Drama. Be back soon.