Popular Is Still Amazing, As Is Its Cast

Before Glee and The New Normal, Ryan Murphy was breaking television ground with Popular and it was magical. Ryan Murphy’s first show was sarcastic, occasionally dark and always poignant.

Though I choose to reminisce about this show and its hilarity in my private life just about every day, I’m finally sharing my love with the world to promote a good cause: the wonderful cast of Popular is reuniting for AIDS Walk Los Angeles. Before I go any further into adoration mode, here is a link where you can donate to their team: http://bit.ly/QHOgyK. Share it with your friends!

Good looking AND good people!

5 Unintentionally Terrible Leading Men

There are some great leading male characters on television. This article is not about those men. It is about the jerks who seem more like the villains of their stories than the heroes. Guys who make me wonder how the audience is supposed to get behind their struggles when maybe if they whined a little less and spent a little less money on hair gel, they could get what they wanted.

I am not including awful individuals like Ray Romano and Seinfeld because I’m going to choose to believe that I’m supposed to hate them. These are characters that other people love and that receive a lot of the show’s focus.

I do not love Raymond

I know that there needs to be an everyman who the typical audience can relate to. These guys aren’t the goofballs or the comic relief, they’re ordinary and responsible. Many people do relate to the characters I’m about to harp on, but that doesn’t convince me they’re not terrible.I thought about calling this article “5 Worst Straight Men” because they are the “straight guys” playing against each show’s jokers, but realized that might have other connotations…

And the Em-y goes to…

I have a lot of opinions about television, actors, characters and awards. My opinions don’t always align with the mainstream. For example, I still don’t really understand Downton Abby or Mad Men. When I watch them, I like them, but I don’t feel a burning desire to watch them on my own. So the Academy and I aren’t exactly twins. Because of this, I thought the world should know who I think deserves accolades for their performances and where I think the Academy got it wrong.

The Academy and I do agree more on actors than actresses, such as Michael C. Hall, Don Cheadle, Max Greenfield and Ed O’Neill’s well-deserved noms, so most of my list consists of the incredible actresses that have made television better over the past year. I am awarding them an Em-y. Aka an award from Emily. I’m Emily. Some of them won’t surprise you because I’ve talked about how great these people are before, but I’ve thrown in a few new faces as well!

The official Em-y

Regina Mills is not your typical villain

Mayor Regina Mills of Once Upon a Time is the best villain currently on TV. She is cunning, powerful and has just a hint of crazy. She also cares very much for her adopted son, Henry. In the land of fairy tales, Regina is The Evil Queen. She is just the right kind of evil: snarky, conflicted and magical. Even in Storybrooke, where she does not have her powers, the way that Regina carries herself and engages with the town’s residents screams authority.

Amazing in any incarnation

I have very confused feelings about Girls

Almost a week after the finale, and I’m still not sure of my feelings about Girls on HBO.

Despite the world’s love for Girls, I’m on the fence. I tuned in every week. I looked forward to watching it. But every time I’ve watched, my end reaction has been “Huh…” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Clearly there’s a reason I watched it every week. In honor of the upcoming “Girlsathon,” I thought I would try to figure out what made it a hit, where it went wrong, and share all of my thoughts on my new favorite actress Allison Williams.

The first thing Girls has going for it is the accuracy of its title