Wednesday, September 4, 2013

AFT Awards: Best Directing for a Drama Series

This is the thirteenth category of the 7th Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television during the 2012-2013 seasons. Finalists and semi-finalists are included to recognize more of the impressive work done on television today. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them.

Best Directing for a Drama Series


Last year’s nominees: Pilot (Alcatraz), Salud (Breaking Bad), Blackwater (Game of Thrones), Pilot (Homeland), The Gunfighter (Justified), Pilot (Terra Nova)

Emmy nominees: Margate Sands (Boardwalk Empire), Gliding Over All (Breaking Bad), Episode 4 (Downton Abbey), Q and A (Homeland), Chapter 1 (House of Cards)

Semi-finalists: A Landmark Story (Elementary), Arrow on the Doorpost (The Walking Dead), Beirut Is Back (Homeland), Blue Bell Boy (Boardwalk Empire), Conditions of Existence (Orphan Black), Helter Skelter (Dexter), I'll Fly Away (Homeland), In Care of (Mad Men), Killer Within (The Walking Dead), Kissed By Fire (Game of Thrones), Man with a Plan (Mad Men), Mania (Boss), Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner (Orphan Black), Say My Name (Breaking Bad), Spaghetti and Coffee (Boardwalk Empire), The 112th Congress (The Newsroom), The Choice (Homeland), The Clearing (Homeland), The Doorway (Mad Men), The Flood (Mad Men), The Greater Fool (The Newsroom), The Suicide King (The Walking Dead), Through and Through (Boss), True Enough (Boss), Unfinished Business (Longmire), When Push Comes to Shove (Alphas), Wicks (Banshee), Zero Day (Person of Interest)

Finalists: New Car Smell (Homeland), I'll Try to Fix You (The Newsroom), Blood Moon Rising (Hell on Wheels), Gliding Over All (Breaking Bad), God Mode (Person of Interest)

The nominees:

A Mixture of Madness (Banshee)
Relevance (Person of Interest)
Laying Pipe (Sons of Anarchy)
House of Cards (Episode 4)

All four of these hours represented a serious shift to the intensely dramatic, wrecking one minor character’s life, reframing the entire show in an entirely different context, brutally killing off a major player without a moment’s hesitation, and changing course to set a whole new story in motion.

The winner:

Two Imposters (Boardwalk Empire) showed a formerly stable operation in full-blown crisis mode, and it couldn’t have been more captivating.

Next up: Best Writing for a Drama Series

No comments: