The Emmys – Downton Abbey vs Mad Men

I’m a fan of Mad Men and Downton Abbey. Both have been nominated for an Emmy in the Best Drama Series category. AMC’s Mad Men has won in this category for the last four years. Last year PBS’ Downton Abbey won the Emmy in the Best Mini-series category but this year it goes head to head with Mad Men. There are four other series nominated in this category, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (I’m also a big fan) and Game of Thrones (my daughter loves it), Showtime’s Homeland, and Breaking Bad, also of AMC that will contend.

Hugh Bonneville of Abbey and Jon Hamm of Mad Men are also nominated for Lead Actor in a Drama Series category along with Steve Buscemi from Boardwalk Empire.

I saw Hugh Bonneville in London earlier this year in the play, 3 Days in May. He was wonderful as Winston Churchill. He and Buscemi are wonderful actors with range. I like Jon Hamm as Don Draper but I have not seen the kind of range in him that Buscemi and Bonneville have.

It is interesting that Downton Abbey is the only non-cable series nominated.
I have not seen Breaking Bad or Homeland (I don’t have Showtime) so it is really hard to make a comparison, nonetheless, I am picking Abbey to win.

Do you have a favorite, or a pick? We will know on Sept. 23.

P.S. In the old days, it was much easier to make comparisons – there were only three major networks and cable, much less pay-cable didn’t exist. Now, there is so much more product available that it is difficult to see everything. That is exacerbated by the fact that much of the product is on various pay-cable channels. Unless you pay for all the channels available (who can afford that?) you can’t see everything.

The good news is, there is so much choice available today – the bad news is there is so much choice available today.