As a perpetual champion of the underdogs (and a fan of too many TV shows gone before their time), I was positively ecstatic to see that the winners of the Critics' Choice Television Awards included such fantastic actors as Busy Philipps, who plays the bubbly and hysterical Laurie on Cougar Town; John Noble, whose performance as tortured mad scientist Walter (and his evil doppelgänger) on Fringe gets more spectacular by the week; and The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, who has already won a Golden Globe for her role on The Good Wife, but she's just so unbelievably good that no amount of awards can begin to adequately honor her greatness. I was also pleased that Community was nominated for Best Comedy Series, and Danny Pudi (who plays the aforementioned Abed on Community) earned a well-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. This category also included Nick Offerman from Parks and Recreation (whose mustache alone deserves an award), and winner Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother). I would have been thrilled to see any of them win, but NPH deserved it.
Looking at the list of nominees for the Critics' Choice Awards, I really felt like most of them deserved to be nominated. I'm not saying I'm the most qualified person to determine who's worthy of a nomination and who's not, I'm just noting that my personal opinions are very well reflected by the Critics' Choice Awards, while I tend to curse profusely at the Emmy nominations and winners when they're announced. Maybe it's because I'm just more prone to agree with the critics when it comes to TV (except about Mad Men), or maybe it's that I still have hope for network television, which the Critics' Choice Awards seem to vindicate, while the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is busy throwing Emmys at HBO and AMC. Or maybe it's just nice to see my favorite shows finally get some recognition other than being on a list of "bubble shows" or having the lowest ratings in its time slot. So thank you, Critics' Choice Television Awards, for honoring the overlooked, the underrated, and the misunderstood. (Seriously, it shouldn't even be called Cougar Town!) Here's hoping that the Emmys will follow your lead and spread the love to some of the great shows that no one watches.
You can find a full list of the Critics' Choice Award winners here.