Pictured: Dr. Tim Whatley and Elaine Benes

Well, the Emmy Awards happened again tonight.

My thoughts are about as predictable as most of the winners. In a year of excellent new shows, the common theme was to tread the same ground. However, that is not saying that some of those winners were not deserved.

Overall, with a great host and some memorable moments, the Emmys reminded me why TV is so great right now, and why film needs to catch up. However, many of the winners last night did not reflect the greatness of television right now. Hold the phone, you’re telling me that an award show is out of touch with what is popular and innovative right now? I don’t believe it.

Without further adieu, here are the highlights and lowlights of last night’s ceremony:

Seth Meyers As expected, Seth Meyers gave a fantastic monologue that makes me miss his presence on Weekend Update and also makes me wish I put in some effort to watch him on Late Night. NBC must be pretty chill, because he mostly just made fun of their poor ratings (30 Rock is over, so somebody has got to do it). Meyers also spent most of his monologue reminding everyone that network television still exists. Speaking of which…

Network vs. Cable vs. Streaming The big theme of the night was that network and cable are now just pawns in a game that will one day be dominated by streaming. Voters decided to teach Netflix a lesson, as they walked home empty handed. Yeah, how dare they take risks and try and elevate the format!

Modern Family Just a few short minutes after Bryan Cranston encouraged everybody to take more risks, Modern Family won the Emmy for Best Comedy for the fifth time. Modern Family was once a great show that is now past its prime. The fact that it wins every year makes me dig deep into the conspiracy theory handbook. As Matt Zoller Seitz said, “Modern Family has dirty pictures of everyone in the Academy.” Sure, you could debate whether or not Orange is the New Black is a comedy, but like it or not, it was far and away the best show nominated for Best Comedy this year. I am starting to realize that the Emmys might not know anything about comedy.

Billy Eichner It wasn’t all bad news for comedy. The amazing Billy Eichner got to showcase his talent with a special edition of Billy on the Street. It is so great to see how far he has come. He deserves all the success he gets.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Bryan Cranston They are the king and queen of television.

Fargo It is a shame that Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, and Billy Bob Thornton went home empty handed. However, I am thrilled that Fargo won Best Miniseries. It is my favorite show of 2014 so far. Fargo did exactly what the film version did: showed me that the world is a horrible place, yet it still managed to warm my heart. For the first time ever, I actually gave a crap about this category. The Coen Brothers might not pay attention to the Emmys, but I hope they know that Noah Hawley did them proud.

Best Joke You Didn’t Hear While engaging in awkward yet endearing banter on stage, Woody Harrelson told True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey that “[he's] grateful that [McConaughey] got all the plagiarized lines.” This is in reference to the recent controversy surrounding the authenticity of True Detective. The line didn’t get too big of a laugh, but it was a great little bit of self-deprecating humor.

Best Gaffe: Gwen Stefani referred to The Colbert Report as “The Colbort Report” (with “report” pronounced properly). On a scale of 1 to Adele Dazeem, I give it a 7.

Cary Fukunga: Bro of the Century Fukunga’s win for Best Director for True Detective was well deserved. The guy became a sort of star in a very short period of time. It doesn’t seem like Hollywood has gotten to him yet because holy crap, what a bro. He seems like a way less competitive version of Otto Rocket. After the show, Fukunga reportedly called some friends and asked if they wanted to catch some waves at Pismo Beach.

Film: A lot of jabs were made at the expense of movies tonight. Fair enough. However, TV should be nice. Without film, there would be no TV. There would be no Louie, True Detective, or Fargo. So maybe the popcorn is overpriced, but hey, it’s a great excuse to leave the house. Now, give us Matthew McConaughey back.

Broad City You’re still the winner in my heart.

Band of misfits. Image via Business Insider

Okay, so being negative about awards is fun. But I got that out of my system yesterday. So today, it is time to be nice.

Luckily, there is a lot to be nice about, because Emmy voters did a pretty good job this year. They didn’t do the best that they could have. On that note, can somebody please photoshop a picture of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer holding Emmys?

Anyway, if you look close enough at the nominations, you will see that this year’s lineup does as good a job as possible at reflecting the incredibly diverse array of programming that makes up the current golden age of television that we are living in.

For this, I have decided not to include shows like Game of Thrones, Louie, or Breaking Bad. While their inclusion makes me happy, their nominations were foregone conclusions. So instead, let’s focus on some of the people and shows that might not have expected to heard their names called yesterday morning:

Adam Driver (Girls)

In a sometimes inconsistent season of Girls, Adam Driver was the most consistently good part about it. While his character is incredibly unpredictable, you know that (most of the time) he does things because he actually believes in them. Even if you hate Lena Dunham, he makes the show worth sticking around for. With Inside Llewyn Davis last year and Star Wars down the road, Adam Driver is about to explode. We don’t even know what we are in for.

Fargo

I haven’t finished Fargo yet (I have just one episode left), but that has been enough to tell me that this is one of the most unique new shows on television. Given that this is a miniseries, we will have to see if we get anymore of it (or, for that matter, if any one of these characters will make it out alive). Fargo is a pitch perfect black comedy that manages to be the best imitation of the Coen Brothers I have ever seen. Among the many great things about it, there is a tracking shot in it that rivals the much more well known one from True Detective, as well as incredible performances from the likes of Billy Bob Thornton and Allison Tolman.

Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live)

Kate McKinnon is not the first SNL performer to be nominated for acting. However, this occurrence is few and far between, and you have to be really good to bring what are supposed to be two dimensional characters to life. McKinnon can do everything from flawless impressions (some of the best include Justin Bieber and Jemima Kirke) to original characters (Olya the Russian Villager). She is the show’s current answer to Kristen Wiig. And like Wiig, McKinnon will find success in her career long after she leaves Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.

Key & Peele

There’s a lot of weird, yet awesome, sketch comedy happening on TV right now (see: Kroll Show, Comedy Bang! Bang!). Key & Peele does the typical sketch comedy formula well while maintaining its own unique voice. They can execute simple ideas like The East/West Bowl as well as odd ones like Mr. T PSAs. While it didn’t get the nomination for Best Variety Show, a nod for writing is nothing to complain about, even if it doesn’t quite acknowledge the visual genius and directing choices of the show.

Silicon Valley

Sometimes, it is hard for a freshman show to get much attention, but Silicon Valley knew exactly what it wanted to be from the beginning. Silicon Valley is the satire of the modern tech world that I didn’t know we needed at this moment. It has a perfect ensemble that helped bring perhaps the greatest dick joke in the history of television to life. While its cast members were unfortunately overlooked by voters (especially Thomas Middleditch and the late Christopher Evan Welch), it always makes me happy to see Mike Judge get rewarded, given that many of his past projects were overlooked upon initial release.

I come to you today, ranting about awards, not because I want to, but because I need to.

You see, as somebody who doesn’t watch sports, I need some place to let out the insane amount of masculine aggression that lies inside me. So while I can’t complain about that ref who needs to get his eyes checked, I can complain about that voter who needs to stop accepting bribes from Chuck Lorre.

This year, the good news is that the amount of snubs probably come from the fact that there are just so many good shows on television, and not enough awards to give out. I accept the fact that most of my choices aren’t necessarily the ones that beg for awards. However, it just seems wrong that the Emmys almost completely ignored the Comedy Central Renaissance. Seriously, put on Comedy Central at some point. You will be surprised to find that they have a lot more than Tosh.0 re-runs now.

Without much further adieu, here is my list of this year’s most egregious Emmy snubs:

Broad City

Because of the random absurdness and poop and dildo jokes, Broad City never seemed like a likely choice for the Emmys. However, it received far better reviews than many of the shows that did get nominated, so I sense just a bit of snobbishness on the part of Emmy voters. Simply put, Broad City is the best new comedy of the year. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer act as if they have been doing this for decades, yet their show was a radical breath of fresh air. It’s like somebody threw Louie, Workaholics, and Girls into a blender. These two Jewish ladies are television’s most dynamic duo. It is no wonder Amy Poehler put so much faith into this show. Speaking of Ms. Poehler.

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Rec has been on for over half a decade now. Despite critical praise and an audience that seems to grow by the year, Parks still feels greatly underappreciated. Most people think the traditional sitcom is dead, but Parks and Rec is as traditional as they get. It happens to be an incredibly fresh example of something old. Sometimes, I wonder if the creators of Parks and Rec feel like Leslie Knope, who is hardworking and incredibly capable, yet the voters are not too big a fan of her’s.

Nick Kroll (Kroll Show)

Okay, so maybe Kroll Show was too much of a giant inside joke for voters to follow. I mean, it might be the most innovative sketch show of our time, but fine (not really, but I’ll live with it). What might have at least made up for that loss was a nomination for Nick Kroll, who juggles so many roles in a show that bears his name. In a given episode, he can play an old Jewish man, a woman, and a punk kid with a lisp. It’s a performance of Sid Caesar like proportions. And yes, I did just compare Nick Kroll to Sid Caesar.

Dean Norris (Breaking Bad)

This finally looked like the year Dean Norris would get a nomination for his work in Breaking Bad because this was finally the year where he truly got to shine as Agent Hank Schrader. Perhaps one of the most anticipated moments in the series was when Hank and Walt would finally look at each other face to face, with no more secrets to hide. Norris made the moment worth the wait. In five seasons, he went from goofy comic relief to the only source of morality in a dark, dark world.

I want to give a special shout out to Tatiana Maslany. I can’t judge her especially well, because I haven’t seen season two of Orphan Black yet. However her work in season one definitely deserved an Emmy nod. I also hope she hosts SNL one day.