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Timberlake Grab Guest Gold   by Tianya

The 2011 Emmys got off to an early start Saturday night in Los Angeles, as the Creative Arts portion honored the more behind-the-scenes aspects of TV production like casting, cinematography, makeup and choreography. The Emmys for best guest starring roles and reality TV categories were also awarded.

HBO’s Atlantic City prohibition drama ‘Boardwalk empire dvd’ led the way with seven wins, including Casting in a Drama Series and Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series.

Discovery Channel’s ‘Deadliest Catch’ won four Emmys, including both Cinematography and Picture Editing for a Reality Series.

Other highlights included: ‘The Walking Dead’ got recognized for its awesome zombies, winning for Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special; Gwyneth Paltrow won the Best Comedy Guest Actress Emmy for her role on ‘Glee’; and Justin Timberlake scored Best Comedy Guest Actor for ‘Saturday Night Live.’

‘The Kennedys,’ ‘Mildred Pierce,’ ‘SNL’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ took home three statues each.

Check out the complete winners list after the jump, courtesy of Goldderby.com. The Creative Arts Emmys air next Sat., Nov. 17, on Reelz Channel, and the Emmys air live Sun., Sept. 18, 8PM ET/5PM PT on Fox.

Margaret Schroeder may be in the most untenable situation of all — she has no man in her life, and in that era, the most accepted roles for women were in the domestic sphere. But she takes a job at the dress shop — thanks to Nucky — and finds that she enjoys the change of pace, if not the haughty proprietor or the entitled clientele. Her life may be full of challenges, but she’s clearly better off than she was when her husband was knocking her around.

But will all the changes the characters are going through result in more pain and misery, or in liberation? ‘Boardwalk Empire’ can sometimes be a little obvious, and I found the last scene’s symbolism to be a little overdone. As Nucky walked through the Ritz’s fancy lobby, he tracked mud and rain in with him, and the final image was of the elevator’s bars closing in front of his face.

Could it be an indication that Agent Van Alden will eventually get his man?

A few final thoughts:

* We’ve never been told how Angela supported herself and her son during Jimmy’s absence. Did she have a job? Maybe her relationship with the photographer was perfectly innocent, but it’s unclear to me how she made money during those years.

* Also unknown at this point: the full history between Gillian and Nucky. Apparently Jimmy’s father was still around when Jimmy was 10 years old, but presumably we’ll find out at some point why Nucky stepped in as the boys’ father figure. .

* Clearly Elias has been jealous of Jimmy and Nucky’s bond for years, just as Elias is rankled by Nucky’s status as the kingpin of the town.

* I wonder if we’ll ever see character die from drinking adulterated alcohol. It’s a little alarming that Chalky’s workers can turn 500 bottles of alcohol into 3000 bottles of doctored hooch. That’s some gross rotgut the people of America were drinking back then.

* It was difficult for the average American to know what soldiers really went through in World War 1, and of course diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorder were unknown at the time. But the show keeps reminding us that Jimmy has just been through one of the most brutal meat-grinders of the 20th Century. That would explain his his reticence when the photographer asked about the “thrilling” experiences must have had over there.

‘Boardwalk Empire’ airs 9PM ET Sundays on HBO.
With the onslaught of new shows around the corner, Ryan McGee and I decided to talk briefly about 10 returning programs we’re quite interested in (we each picked five shows).

And of course, the word “brief” was in our podcast planning documents, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Between our opening gabfest about the FX show ‘Louie,’ which concludes its second season tonight, and the discussions of the other 10 shows, the podcast ended up being about 90 minutes long.
Of course, we’ll talk at greater length about some of these shows when they return or after their seasons have gotten under way. Think of these as the appetizers for some of the returning shows we’ll be following with interest this year.

The usual reminders: You can grab the podcast from iTunes (where you can also subscribe) or you can get this week’s gabfest from the Talking TV home site.

Full archives of every ‘Talking TV’ podcast are available here. The entire ‘Talking TV’ archives are also available on iTunes. Our RSS feed is here.
The first promo for Season 2 of ‘Boardwalk Empire’ was filled with a vague yet omnipresent sense of foreboding. Nucky was surrounded on all sides by enemies and people who want something from him. HBO has released a second, longer trailer that gives us a more specific sense of what’s to come this season.

A few plotlines emerge from the trailer. We see The Commodore and Jimmy Darmondy taking over the Atlantic City’s bootlegging trade, violently pushing out the competition, Nucky included. Agent Van Alden is stepping up his efforts to police the booze trade, ominously saying “heads will roll, gentlemen” and conducting raids. Racial tensions boil over — the Ku Klux Klan fires a crazy rotary machine gun, and Michael K. Williams’ Chalky White gives Nucky an ultimatum that he has to deal with them. Nucky begins to share more of his business dealings with Margaret Schroeder. There’s even a shot at the end that hints Jimmy might be trying to get into politics. And through it all, Atlantic City’s constant party rages on.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Season 2 of ‘Boardwalk Empire’ premieres Sun., Sept. 25 at 9PM ET on HBO.

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Angela Sun

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