Tuesday, August 3, 2010

AFT Awards: Best Directing for a Drama Series

This is the thirteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television this past season. This year, semi-finalists are included to recognize more of the impressive work being done on television today. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them.

Best Directing for a Drama Series


Last year’s nominees: Battlestar Galactica (The Oath), Lost (The Incident), Mad Men (The Jet Set), Rescue Me (Iceman), The Shield (Family Meeting), True Blood (You’ll Be the Death of Me)

Emmy nominees: Breaking Bad (One Minute), Dexter (The Getaway), Lost (The End), Mad Men (Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency), Treme (Pilot)

Honorable mentions: Breaking Bad (Caballo Sin Nombre), Breaking Bad (I.F.T.), Breaking Bad (Sunset), The Good Wife (Hybristophilia), Human Target (Rewind), Justified (Bulletsville), Justified (Pilot), Sons of Anarchy (Culling), Sons of Anarchy (Service), Treme (I’ll Fly Away), True Blood (Keep This Party Going)

The nominees:

Breaking Bad (Full Measure)
Dexter (Hungry Man)
Dollhouse (Getting Closer)
Mad Men (Shut the Door, Have a Seat)

The season finales of both “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” were the best of both AMC series’ seasons. The former was insanely intense and breathless, while the latter was subtler and more slowly revealed its twists. The Thanksgiving episode of “Dexter” showed both Dexter and Arthur in a light under which we hadn’t before seen them, and the third-to-last “Dollhouse” piled on multiple surprises and executed them astonishingly.

The winner:
Flash Forward (No More Good Days)
This pilot kicked off the season’s most intriguing new show with a mysterious blackout experienced ‘round the world. Even if subsequent episodes couldn’t match it, this first installment was awesome.

Next up: Best Writing for a Drama Series

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