“The Good Wife” was the last prestige network drama.
The long-running CBS series regularly received Emmy nominations for acting and won several times (Julianna Margulies, Archie Panjabi, guest star Carrie Preston) and was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series twice (in 2010 and 2011), the last prime-time network show to receive such a distinction.
Its series finale on Sunday doesn’t bode well for the future of the broadcast networks when it comes to awards voted by peers. So wide is the gulf in quality between any cable drama and your basic network show — producing 22 to 24 episodes a season — one has to wonder how the networks will maintain their relevance.
As a result, the system has left some of the best actors on TV at a disadvantage. James Spader, who won three Best Actor Emmys for playing conniving attorney Alan Shore on “The Practice” and “Boston Legal,” can’t get nominated for his current series, NBC’s “The Blacklist.” In the intervening years, cable dramas such as “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Homeland” made stars out of Jon Hamm, Bryan Cranston and Damian Lewis — Emmy winners all — and raised the bar for what is considered an award-worthy performance.
This year, in particular, has been a banner year for actors on cable. The casts of two FX series, “Fargo” and “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” did stellar work. Those two series had so many fine performances — among them, Jean Smart, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons for “Fargo” and Courtney B. Vance, Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown for “O.J.” — that some of their talented co-stars are bound to be left out.
Is there a single network drama that can boast a similar bounty? The airwaves are stocked with “ensemble” series —syndication-friendly procedurals, to name one genre — where the actors don’t get a chance to shine. Comic-book series such as CBS’s “Supergirl” will never be known for their acting. You have to look at “star vehicles” such as “How To Get Away With Murder” and “Empire” to find an actor with the energy and presence of a Viola Davis (last year’s winner for Best Actress) or a Taraji P. Henson who can get a nomination.
It doesn’t have to be this way, of course. As “The Good Wife” proved in its fifth season, when the producers killed off Will Gardner (Josh Charles) and, in the aftermath, revitalized the entire show, fortune favors the brave — Margulies won the Emmy (her second in the role of Alicia Florrick) that year. This year has seen a creative resurgence on “Grey’s Anatomy,” a show in its 12th season that’s expected to be the No. 1 drama on ABC this year. Also, ABC’s “American Crime,” which won an Emmy last year for Regina King as Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, has a chance for a nomination or two.
We know network series can’t take the same dramatic license as cable shows, so perhaps the anthology series (already employed in “American Crime,” Fox’s “Wayward Pines,” ABC’s “Secrets and Lies”), which have shorter production schedules and are more likely to attract A-list talent, are the network’s best weapon against their own obsolescence.
“Jurassic Park” was the name of a hit movie about a dinosaur theme park; these days, it could be a nickname for any of the broadcast networks.