I feel a little like the Writers Guild Award nominees, announced yesterday, were downloaded directly from my own brain. Or at least my DVR list. And knowing what I know about what shows PopWatchers tend to get all message-boardy about, I’m guessing you feel the same. There in the drama category are Breaking Bad, Dexter, Friday Night Lights (pictured), Lost, and Mad Men. In comedy we have 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, Modern Family, and The Office. And as if all that weren’t enough, we have the new series category: Glee, Modern Family, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, and Hung. First and foremost, I’m thrilled when any awards are smart enough to recognize the brilliance that is Friday Night Lights — a show that, by premise, could’ve been lame at best, but instead manages to wring tearful drama from grounded-in-reality situations every week that it hangs on despite its ratings challenges. I’m also thrilled when any awards are smart enough to get Lost, as well, which basically does the opposite — makes utterly ridiculous, barely comprehensible plotlines hit us in the heart (oh, Sawyer and Juliet!) despite their reliance on string theory. It’s nice to see Glee up for its first big awards, too — it’s just plain not easy to write a musical every freaking week and make it work, and while the dialogue and plotting occasionally gets heavy-handed, it still works — and ditto for Modern Family, the funniest new show this season. (Love 30 Rock and Mad Men, too, but even the Emmys have been onto those for a while.)
I’m a writing-first kind of TV watcher, so it makes sense that I’d like this list. (The awards, by the way, will be given out Feb. 20.) But what’s missing? How I Met Your Mother is the only one I can think of off my own DVR list — what do you think, PopWatchers? Was Grey’s Anatomy good enough? Did Gossip Girl hold up for you? Did FlashForward get dissed?
