Emmy Nomination Advice, Part 4: Best Drama Series

Three drama series that simply cannot be excluded from the final Emmy ballot: ABC's Lost, Fox' 24 and HBO's Deadwood.

During the period between the July 14 announcement of the official 2005 Emmy nominations and the actual awards presentation on September 18, we'll handicap the five shows selected in the drama category and complain about deserving shows that will inevitably be overlooked. Indeed, it was such a strong year for so many dramas that the very act of choosing one as superior to all seems somehow wrong.

For now, we'll assert that there are three drama series that simply cannot and will not be excluded from the final five: ABC's Lost, Fox' 24 and HBO's Deadwood. "Lost" and "Deadwood" each did no less than create wholly unique societies populated by numerous distinctive, fascinating characters, and viewers had no problem at all following the complexities of their stories. "24" had its best season ever, with most of its episodes playing like theatrical films, many more effective than most of what has been offered at multiplexes during 2005, a year of significant financial concerns for the movie industry brought on by unremarkable, under-performing releases. (Perhaps moviegoers are choosing to ignore the junk at their local theaters in favor of the many stimulating, challenging, high quality dramatic programs on television.)

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That FX's Nip/Tuck might go without a nomination is inconceivable, but it happened last year, and Academy members can always be counted on to make at least one spectacular collective botch while narrowing their choices. Assuming they don't screw up again this time, and these four shows do indeed emerge among the five nominated for Best Drama Series, it seems likely that the fifth nod will go to FX's The Shield or Fox' House, unless Academy members settle for tired tradition and select NBC's The West Wing or HBO's Six Feet Under, neither as strong as in its prime.

Anyone looking for proof that this is a great time for television drama need only look at the list of terrific drama series that will probably be overlooked: CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace and Cold Case; NBC's Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; ABC's NYPD Blue and Grey's Anatomy; The WB's Everwood; UPN's Veronica Mars, and HBO's Carnivale and The Wire. In leaner times, Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica and USA Network's The 4400 might also merit Emmy recognition.

Of the top choices, the drama series most deserving of honor as the year's best is Lost. Flawlessly acted and directed, this show stands apart from the rest for many reasons, two of them extraordinary: It is a broadcast drama that has attracted millions of viewers who generally show little interest in broadcast dramas, and with its constant time-shifting between the ever-evolving, increasingly more complex mysteries unfolding on the island and the gripping backstories of the castaways, seen through frequent flashbacks, it has created a new way of telling and presenting stories on television. The past and the present inform each other as the series moves along, and each character's personal dramas, as detailed in the flashbacks, stand among the most interesting stories told on any television series this year. It's a stunning achievement by everyone involved, especially executive producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, and the only good reason not to give the award in this category to Nip/Tuck, a profound, humbling, uncommonly insightful study of basic human strengths and weaknesses.