Emmys: Down To the 'Wire' In Battle for Writing Award

Battlestar Galactica is up against the The Wire--in its final season--for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. Neither show has won an Emmy. NBC Universal

 

A curious thing has happened with this year's nominations for Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series. Two widely respected but overlooked shows have their only major nominations in this category. Both Battlestar Galactica and The Wire have regularly spent time on critical best-show lists, but both will put all their eggs in the writing basket on Sunday night.

The Emmy history of The Wire is long and largely empty. Despite being considered by not a few critics to be among the best dramas in the history of television, it's managed a towering one nomination prior to this year: another writing nomination, in 2005. (It lost to a very fine episode of House.)

What should win and what will win, after the jump...

None of its actors have ever been nominated. During its fourth season, when it traced the wrenching stories of four Baltimore teenagers being slowly destroyed by the inadequacies of every institution they encountered, it got nothing -- zero -- from the Academy. The typical explanation has been the low exposure the show received on cable. But Mad Men managed 16 nominations for a season that was watched by substantially fewer people than watched The Wire.

This year's nomination for The Wire is for the writing of the finale that capped the fifth and final season -- a season I generally felt was the weakest in the show's history, for reasons that have been addressed by plenty of critics. Nevertheless, the finale was a very dark, though not entirely hopeless, closer to five outstanding seasons. It would at least throw a bone to the show to recognize it for something. Considering the backlash that has resulted from the show's snubbing, I tend to think it has a shot at the win here.

But Battlestar Galactica also got its only nomination in this category. For many people, the words "Battlestar Galactica" still bring to mind the cheesy science fiction of the late 1970s. But the current Battlestar is a popular and acclaimed series known for political allegories and excellent storytelling, and it's gone largely unrecognized as well. Not quite as much as The Wire -- it's received some nominations on the tech side, at least, and last year, it even managed directing and writing nominations.

That these two excellent shows have all their hopes pinned to the writing category is no reason to believe either one of them will win. The other nominees include the pilot of Outstanding Drama nominee Damages, as well as both the first and last episodes of Mad Men. Damages seems like a longshot, but either of the Mad Men episodes could easily win, leaving both The Wire and Battlestar Galactica with nothing.

For The Wire in particular, it might seem like a suitable end to the story -- the show that gets nothing continues to get nothing, forever and ever, amen. Its showrunner, David Simon, has a way of running his mouth (in an often delightful way), so seeing him up there to accept an award after being left in the dust for the show's entire history could be interesting. I'll be rooting for him, but I think this is the year to bet on Mad Men in most categories, including this one.

--Linda Holmes