{alltv} Emmys telecast: Too much frenzy, not enough celebration

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Great year. Great awards.

Not so great awards show.

This should have been a night for TV to shine, with a terrific new comedy victor in Modern Family and a classic drama reasserting itself in MadMen. But instead, Sunday night's broadcast of the Emmy Awards on NBC played less like a celebration of good work than as an illustration of small-screen insecurity. The entire evening felt uncomfortably rushed and flustered, as if the producers were so afraid of even momentarily losing our attention, they were determined to have something spinning, flashing, bouncing, sliding or shifting every second.

Clearly, they were convinced you would hit the remote at the first hint of boredom. During one acceptance speech, an on-screen graphic popped up, begging you to hang in there: George Clooney would be along in just 17 more minutes. Can people watching the Emmys really be that uninterested in the Emmys?

In the midst of all that frenzy stood — or sang — an equally desperate Jimmy Fallon, a host who lived and too often died by his guitar. It was appropriate and funny when he opened the show with a Glee-filled production number; this was, after all, a season fueled by music, from Glee to the still top-rated American Idol. It was far less funny when he kept singing all night, doing little strummed bits with stars in the audience that almost invariably fell flat.

The only real upside to the singing? It was better than a running Twitter bit in which he accepted (or pretended to accept) witless tweets from the viewing audience. If that's really what happens when viewers participate — please, don't.

There's a gentleness to Fallon, a boyish eagerness to please, that could have worked for him as a host had the material been better and had he looked more comfortable delivering it. Instead, his amiability translated into a willingness to disappear, even when he was on air. Which may be why NBC's constant attempts to use the show to promote its stars and its shows, shoving its series into clips in amounts that seemed wildly disproportionate to their ratings or nominations, came across as even more forced and obvious than the presenting network norm.

Nor were the show's strained attempts to entertain limited to the host. It also was imposed on the nominees in the writing and directing categories, who were posed vapid questions in the hopes they would respond with funny or insightful answers. More often than not, hopes were dashed.

Still, the Emmys are, in the end, about who wins the Emmys — and on that front, it was a very good year. There were a host of welcome new winners, led by Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory, Jane Lynch for Glee, Aaron Paul for Breaking Bad, Claire Danes for Temple Grandin and Archie Panjabi for The Good Wife. There was a timely end to an extended streak with Top Chef's upset of The Amazing Race—and a timely continuation of a streak, as The Daily Show continued its winning run. And how could you not love Temple Grandin herself?

There was even a fairly shocking upset, as The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick walked off with the award most had assumed was going to The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies. It may seem odd to think of The Closer as an Emmy winner, but the title fits Sedgwick like a glove, so it balances out.

Let's hope next year the Emmy broadcast finds a little balance of its own.