The 10 Biggest Emmy Snubs of 2010

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5. Regina King of “Southland”

Regina King
Photo credit: TNT

“Southland” is slowly building a following after its unceremonious dumping from NBC and subsequent pick-up by TNT. This is one of the richest ensembles on television and Regina King gives one of the tube’s most consistent performances. She anchors some of the more complex plotlines of the program in believable human emotions. As Detective Lydia Adams, King displays a perfect combination of human vulnerability and the veins of steel required to be an L.A. cop. Much was made about the fact that the Academy nominated “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” instead of the one with Jay Leno as it displayed something of a cold shoulder to the man who created such drama in the late night TV wars. It would have been even more of a middle finger to the peacock network to nominate the deserving King for Lead or Supporting Actress from a show that NBC dumped to make room for the Leno debacle. I suggested last year — thinking that the show would be on NBC for a whole season — that Mariska Hargitay better make room for King. The tumultuous second season made that less likely but if the show continues to rise on TNT in 2010-11, someone is going to have to get out of the way.

4. Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic for “Castle”

Castle
Photo credit: ABC

Fillion and Katic have the most entertaining chemistry on television, reminding viewers of the right age of Dave and Maddie from “Moonlighting” or whatever other great will-they-or-won’t-they pair from TV history. They simply get better at what they do with every episode and the fact is that what they do isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. What they’re accomplishing is often written off as fluff entertainment but keeping viewers interested in both the case-of-the-week and the arc of the characters solving it takes more acting skill than the Academy was apparently willing to recognize this year. It took four seasons for them to realize that Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, another great TV team, deserved to have their inaugural nominations at the same time. Perhaps it will take a couple more for Nate and Stana.

3. “Community”

Joel McHale in Community
Photo credit: NBC

The Academy wisely recognized a wave of new shows this year — “The Good Wife,” “Glee,” “Modern Family,” “Nurse Jackie.” You’d think that one of the smartest comedies on television with one of the strongest ensembles would have netted a single, lonely nomination, but “Community” was left completely off the list. Even “Rules of Engagement” got ONE nomination (Art Direction). And “Community” deserved consideration “above the line” in major acting categories. The season started a little shakily but McHale and his ensemble were simply spectacular by the end of the year. Anyone would have been nice, but we would have found a spot for McHale (over Matthew Morrison), Pudi (over Jon Cryer), and Brie (over Jane Krakowski). Sometimes it takes a year or two for a show to catch fire with the Academy. If “Community” continues its upward trajectory in quality, expect at least two of these three to be nominated next summer.

2. Anna Paquin and Alexander Skarsgard for “True Blood”

Alexander Skarsgard in True Blood
Photo credit: HBO

It’s another year with no acting nominations for “True Blood,” which wouldn’t be quite as surprising if the show hadn’t been nominated for Outstanding Dramatic Series. It’s one of the six best dramas on television, but not a SINGLE cast member are among the best? Does that make sense? The fact is that the second season of “True Blood” would not have been Best Drama-worthy without the performances from Anna Paquin and Alexander Skarsgard and they deserved nominations recognizing that. Their snubbing makes it seem pretty likely that “Blood” was the sixth nominee, one that barely snuck in to fill out the category. Don’t expect that the show has any chance of actually winning.

1. “Justified”

Timothy Olyphant in Justified
Photo credit: FX

It’s shameful that the Academy didn’t nominate FX’s great “Justified” in more categories and there’s no greater shame than their complete dismissal of the career-best work by Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens. Distilling his work on “Deadwood” into a modern-day cowboy, Olyphant is brilliant in every scene of the first season of this great show, one of the most critically acclaimed of 2010. It feels like “Justified” doesn’t fit into a box like other nomination-friendly shows and the Academy probably undervalued the program due to a lack of melodrama. Hard-to-classify programs like “Glee” and “The Good Wife” were embraced but Olyphant didn’t get his invite to the party. It better happen next year or Raylan might have to kick some ass.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com