Headline Planet's Emmy Thoughts:
Part One: Best Dramas (below)
Part Two: Best Comedies (click here)
Part Three: Lead Actor - Drama (click here)

Although a number of tremendous comedies still entertain television audiences, the television community has become vastly more celebratory of its dramas. From unbelievably complex serialized shows to picture-perfect procedurals, the major broadcast networks and cable stations offer an array of dramas so impressive that virtually no one should be without a weekly series to enjoy.

The state of dramas is presently at such a level that one could argue an Outstanding Drama Emmy nomination in 2007 means more than a victory at prior points in history. That argument is certainly bolstered by this year's pack of nominees, which includes five shows that are all leagues better than a handful of winners from as recent as the 1990s. Headline Planet analyzes the nominations below.

Nominees:
Boston Legal
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
House
The Sopranos

What's Missing?:
While all five aforementioned shows are great, the two best dramas of the season were surprisingly left off.

The first, "Friday Night Lights," was unquestionably the best show of the season. With unprecedented authenticity in the dialogue, compelling storytelling and utterly brilliant acting, "Friday Night Lights" was the TV season's critical darling, earning so much praise that it scored a second season from NBC despite very unimpressive ratings. The fact that Emmy voters would deny the show a presence in any of the major categories is nothing short of a travesty.

"Friday Night Lights" has something for everyone. For guys, it has beautiful women and football. For women, it has engaging soap opera storytelling and athletic, attractive young men. For teens, it has a vivid, genuine account of life in high school. For adults, it deals with the struggles faced by families of different sizes and backgrounds. And, for the entirety of its audience, it is simply a fantastic show that illustrates its characters and environments with unparalleled levels of detail.

Since arguing against the show's quality is impossible, the only possible explanation for the show's absence from the "Outstanding Drama" category is the fact that the concept is very traditional. While the five nominees all feature a special gimmick or hook that removes them from the "traditional" television pool and creates an aura of freshness, "Friday Night Lights" is a down-to-earth, traditional, family drama. Even with its specific story focus (Texas high school football) and its unique camera work, the show never conveys itself as "distanced" from TV of the past. It doesn't feature an irreverent coach devoted more to making wisecracks than to coaching football. It doesn't feature any characters with super powers. It never attempts to be painstakingly quirky.

Instead, and this is the factor the Emmy voters clearly missed, it distinguishes itself from TV's past (and present) by being of a greatly superior quality. Instead of trying to distance itself with a gimmick, "Friday Night Lights" distances itself by being better than any family-based drama in recent memory. Its stories are crisper, its actors are better, its dialogue is truer—it's simply better than anything in its genre.

Although the voters selected five dramas that, despite having their quirks and gimmicks, are very good, they ignored the one that truly is television's best.


The second show missing from the list of nominees is "Lost."

After winning the Emmy for its phenomenal debut season, "Lost" fell out of favor with a rather flat second season. Things looked particularly bleak for the show after its third season opened with six absolute duds. As it embarked on a midseason hiatus, most of the buzz behind "Lost" had shifted to "Heroes." The show was no longer the talk of television.

Then, just as individuals began counting the show out, it returned with an absolute boom. Save for one episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land," the entirety of "Lost"'s post-hiatus run was fantastic. Although "Heroes" was creatively sound, with episodes like "The Man from Tallahassee," "The Brig" and "The Man Behind The Curtain," "Lost" was once again the hottest serialized drama on television. Everything led up to its game-changing season finale, which rocked the television world, blowing fans and critics completely away. While the disappointing "Heroes" season finale softened what was a fantastic first season, the "Lost" season finale turned a great season into a brilliant one.

Although two of the three best actors on the show (Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson) were recognized with nominations, the show as a whole was left off the Outstanding Drama list. That denial will probably never be explained.

Even if one wants to argue that "Heroes" was the better serialized drama, he simply cannot say the mind-blowing plot development on "Lost" is inferior to anything on "House," "Grey's Anatomy" or "The Sopranos." "Lost" is simply a better show, and its third season proved that there's plenty of excitement still to be had.

"Friday Night Lights" had far more to benefit from receiving the nomination ("Lost" has already been paid respect at the Emmys), but both shows deserved the recognition this year.

Choosing A Winner
But, whether or not one believes shows like "Friday Night Lights," "Lost," "The Wire," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Dexter" belonged on the nominations list, only "Boston Legal," "Grey's Anatomy," "Heroes," "House" and "The Sopranos" made the cut. One of those shows will be crowned television's best drama.

Selecting a series from that list is not exactly an easy task, however. Aside from the obvious—how do you pick a "best" when all five shows are more than deserving of the award—the mixture of serialized dramas and procedurals makes it very hard to compare the shows.

"Boston Legal," which has been one of television's undiscovered treasures, had its best season yet this year. From the gut-wrenching Lincoln Meyer storyline to the hilarious performances by Christian Clemenson and Gary Anthony Williams to the unbelievably thrilling episode "Son of the Defender," "Boston Legal" finally perfected its voice and captured the greatness of its predecessor "The Practice." But, even though some storylines did play out over multiple episodes, the show, ultimately, is still limited to the day-to-day life of those working in a law firm. It's still a procedural. It still operates an on episode-by-episode basis.

Thus, there's simply no way the show can ever capture the emotion of "Heroes" or "Sopranos." The serialized environments created by "Heroes" and "The Sopranos" are defined by the characters and not vice versa. Thus, a show like "Heroes" can spend half a season preparing for an episode like "Company Man," in which five months of storytelling and character development provide an ultimate emotional payoff, and have its fans going nuts. "House," on the other hand, has to use its procedural format—patient comes in, House's team messes up for forty five minutes, House eventually solves the case—to convey whatever emotion and entertainment it seeks to produce. No matter how good the series, no procedural can produce a "Peter saved the cheerleader" moment. And, a procedural most certainly cannot reap the benefits of a thrilling "flash forward" episode.

There seemingly exists a bias in favor of serialized dramas. Such series are naturally going to be more thrilling and engaging. The award selection process must therefore be tailored to determine which show accomplishes its goals with the best technical skill, as opposed to which show is the most entertaining.

Boston Legal - As noted, the show has been under-appreciated since its debut, but the quality of content this season was far too great to leave "Legal" ignored any longer. The entire cast of characters advanced. The political commentary was as effective and inspiring as ever. The humor was on-point throughout. The drama, when employed, was poignant and effective.

Ultimately, James Spader's Alan Shore and William Shatner's Denny Crane are still responsible for bolstering the show, but Christian Clemenson's Jerry Espenson and Gary Anthony Williams' Clarence Bell were more effective than any supporting players in the show's history, giving the show far more depth. Mark Valley's Brad Chase and Julie Bowen's Denise Bauer also showed some life as characters, further emphasizing how much more effective the show was in its third season.

A dark horse, the show is not as likely to win as "Heroes" or "The Sopranos" but does have more than enough going for it to pull off the victory. Its big negative is the fact that it is often too silly to fully capitalize on its drama aspect. Since this is the "Outstanding Drama" category, the show might be in trouble for that reason.

Grey's Anatomy - The type of show that's great but not extraordinary, "Grey's" is likely on the ballot (for the second straight year) as a safe candidate. With its monster ratings, its solid acting, its quirky writing and its universally-appealing content, nominating "Grey's Anatomy" allows voters to choose something safe while still remaining 'hip' (something "Friday Night Lights" doesn't as successfully offer). It's a highly-rated show that people and critics really like; it's really tough to make a case against "Grey's Anatomy" being on the list.

But, by that same token, it's tough to make a case for "Grey's Anatomy" winning. It does everything well, but it's the weakest of the five nominated dramas. The show might benefit as an alternative to the favored "Heroes" and "Sopranos," but it's unlikely to take the award this year.

Heroes - The hottest new series on television, "Heroes" has the level of buzz and excitement "Lost" had when it won two years ago. With creative, wide storytelling, a unique pool of characters and effective writing and acting, "Heroes" is probably the best all-around show on the list. One really cannot make a case against this natural favorite to win, as its only season one negative was the disappointing, surprisingly unimaginative season finale.

House - Season three was the first season in which "House" truly clicked on all levels. The first season was primarily the Hugh Laurie show, with Laurie's House becoming television's most beloved asshole. The second season featured great improvement in terms of the procedural aspect (which is why it received the Drama nomination), but the House character flattened a bit due to the constraints of the Stacy storyline.

In season three, both aspects worked well. The show was at a peak creatively, while the House character was as witty and irreverent as ever. The fact that his staff's departure at the end of the season was emotional indicates that the writers did make those characters matter after all—"House" wasn't the one man show everyone thought it was.

Still, one watching "House" never truly gets the feeling that he's watching the best show on television. It's a surefire bet for laughs and entertainment, but it's not doing anything "Boston Legal" isn't doing better, and it isn't nearly as engaging as "Heroes" and "The Sopranos."

It appears that both medical shows will once again go home without the top Emmy.

The Sopranos - While far from its creative peak, the final "Sopranos" season was still a great season that had fans talking. Also the sentimental favorite, the show definitely has a good shot at this year's Emmy Awards.

Of the other shows nominated, it is definitely not better than "Heroes" and "Boston Legal" and is possibly not even as good as "House." Nonetheless, considering what the show meant to HBO, and television in general, no one would consider a "Sopranos" win undeserving. The fact that the show was good in its final season only bolsters that notion.

Ultimately, the race should come down to "Heroes" and "The Sopranos" with "Boston Legal" present as the dark horse.

Coming Up Next: Looking At The "Outstanding Comedy" Nominees

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