Criticizing the critics

While we're on the topic of NBC, let's pause to celebrate their strong showing in yesterday's Television Critics Association nominations.

And by "celebrate" I mean get so blasted we can't even remember these things were announced. Because they're best forgotten.

Usually you can count on the TCAs for a pretty solid list with a couple of fun "the-Emmys-would-never!" picks. Yeah, they always lean a little too heavily on the guys in their two performance categories but they'll also do things like nominate Sarah Michelle Gellar or Lauren Graham or The [real] Office or The Shield or other genuinely deserving but often overlooked shows/performers. This year there are no such fun picks (although they did go for Graham again, but considering her show's less than spectacular season even that choice feels rote).

Perennial awards watching irritant Tom O'Neil, in typically hysterical form, posted a Tom-explains-it-all rant about why TCA "snubbed" Desperate Housewives. And his "it's a boy's club" rationale probably isn't that far off base, but it does ignore a couple points: it may or may not make the Emmy list but DH wasn't getting a TCA nom this year no matter what, it simply wasn't good enough (and the real question isn't why it was ignored, but why Lost didn't get the same treatment after a similarly disappointing second season), and, more importantly, Grey's Anatomy got two big TCA nominations. Try to find a bigger chick show than that on all of primetime television at the moment.

The nominations are clearly more about "buzz" than anything else (which makes sense because in TV, critics either create the buzz or become slaves to it to avoid looking irrelevant). But I'll stop dancing around it and get to the point: where the hell are Battlestar Galactica and Arrested Development?

Seriously. This is what I count on the TCA for, recognizing the deserving underdogs. I can forgive them for moving on from The Shield (it's their loss) but must they hold up the absurdly overrated My Name is Earl and the why-isn't-it-dead-yet!?! Scrubs as examples of television's best comedy? And does House really need a drama series nomination? (Correct answers: no and no.)

Seeing the season's best shows overlooked at the Emmys will be unfortunate enough. Seeing them passed over by television critics is just pathetic.