Emmy Snubs Pt. 1

It's been over a month since the nominations came out, but I figured I should go ahead and toss my hat into the ring. I'll be doing a few of these for ones I see fit.

John Noble - Fringe

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

              (one of my favorite pictures EVER)




How this man didn't get a nomination is a mystery to me. He plays one of the best written characters on television today. His exchanges are some of the most humorous I've heard on a drama, especially with his son, Peter (Joshua Jackson). Peter's sarcastic personality plays off Walter's awkward, demented, twisted, and eccentric one.

Peter: She had a bad dream.
Olivia: No, I could smell the platform. I saw her baby staring at me. I saw her face before I saw the news. How is that possible?
Walter: Opium? 

Walter: I thought you might have teleported to New York in your sleep and killed her. Wouldn't that have been wondrous?


Walter: When Belly and I were younger men, we regularly ingested large quantities of LSD.
Peter: You don't say?

As you can tell, his anecdotes never seem to have the best timing. When asked about the character's pattern of thought and speech, Noble explained that Walter's past, both personal (stay at a mental home) and occupational (will not spoil due to the show, but experiments on children played into that) may have caused his odd way of stuttering or blurting out inappropriate things at inappropriate times.

While the character may mostly seem like comedic fodder a la Hurley on Lost, that is not entirely the case. In what may have been my favorite moment of the 2008-2009 television season, Olivia (Anna Torv) confronted Walter about his mysterious past. BIG SPOILER ALERT: Although it may seem ambiguous, this clip does sum up quite a bit of what happened in the first season. If you have not watched up to first season finale, do not click play.



That scene made me fully understand and, oddly enough, find the character actually relatable. Due to that scene, and many others, Walter has been deemed by many critics "the break-out character of Fringe", as well as one of the many break-out characters from that television season. After rewatching many of episodes, it made me realize how grievous of an omission from the Emmy ballot John Noble was. It's not like all of the others were more deserving. I love the Shat and Christian Clemenson, but Boston Legal did not end in its prime. Both of their performances, while good, were not Emmy deserving.

However, I'm not entirely mad that he didn't get the nomination. Shows that end usually collect a massive number of nominations, often sweeping most every award they're nominated for. Fringe, while featuring many great actors, writers, and directors (as well as my favorite composer EVER, Michael Giacchino), had just started, barely getting its footing. I'm almost positive that with the new season, a few of the people working on it will get the attention they deserve.

If you have any suggestions for more snubs, contact me at themodrenman@gmail.com