Emmy Nominees: Best Drama Series

My predictions: 5/7, choosing “Boston Legal” over “Big Love” and “Breaking Bad”

It figures that the first time I actually decide to give up and predict “Boston Legal,” it doesn’t get nominated. I’m ecstatic, of course. Sorry JG. What has me scratching my head is the inclusion of “Big Love,” which made it in for its third season after earning only a Best Directing nod for the pilot and a guest actress mention for Ellen Burstyn last year. Even more strangely, it’s the only nomination for Big Love this year, just like “Scrubs” when it earned zero other nominations a few years ago. Its inclusion is strange, but it shouldn’t figure it to the running for the win at all. Breaking Bad, on the other hand, achieved an enormous breakthrough by getting a nomination here, and it’s a well-deserved one that’s been building from a superb season. The other five nominees all transfer over from last year. Like when the five-nominee category expanded last year to include Dexter, this year it did the same to add the new two shows while keeping “Dexter” and returning nominees Damages, House, Lost, and Mad Men. It’s very sad that “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Shield,” and “True Blood” aren’t here, but it’s not that much of a surprise, sadly. I suppose there was only one spot reserved for thinking outside the box, and at least “Breaking Bad” got that instead of something like "Fringe" or "The Mentalist."

Who should win? “Mad Men” though “Breaking Bad” was quite good
Who will win? “Breaking Bad” actually represents a legitimate threat to “Mad Men,” but for now I think “Mad Men” still takes it