In no particular order, things mostly political thoughts that struck me about the shows and roles that garnered Emmy nominations this year:

1. No love for Archer? I don’t adore the show, but it’s spiky and smart, a useful deconstruction of espionage in a pop culture that generally lionizes spies. And the animated programs feel tremendously calcified.

2. The movie or miniseries and casting nominations for Cinema Verite and Too Big to Fail are richly deserved. I loved both movies, which I thought were smart, stylish, and really valuable and entertaining distillations of big issues — the blurring line between reality and entertainment, and the financial crisis. Both augur good things for the large number of political projects HBO has on its slate.

3. Louis C.K. deserves every accolade he gets. I doubt he’ll beat Steve Carrell or Alec Baldwin for best actor in a comedy, but where those two performances toe up to the vast ocean of male insecurity and run away from it, Louis goes swimming in it. Presumably with his shirt on over a bathing suit.

4. Ditto for Idris Elba. The lack of Emmy love for The Wire or David Simon more generally is mystifying. But I do think Luther uses more of Elba’s range than Stringer Bell. And I’d like to see more British shows with short seasons get in the Emmy pool through the miniseries or movie category, if they’re not going to get in through the main series ones. I haven’t watched The Big C yet, so I’m yet to form an opinion on his guest role there, but clearly he’s an Emmy favorite. It’ll be interesting to see if an American network notices that and acts accordingly.
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Whether because he’s grown sick of being a spectacle or because he forgot, Charlie Sheen neglected to submit himself for Emmy consideration. This spares us the spectacle of camera pans to see if he’s behaving himself and the possibility of devoting even more airtime to a man who is at minimum wildly narcissistic and quite possibly very ill were he to give an acceptance speech or rush the stage, Kanye-like.

But the thing that kills me is that Sheen apparently missed the deadline to put himself in contention, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave the guy more time on the grounds that it’s a good idea to make sure “all eligible entrants” are in the running. They have the right to extend the deadline, but this is a case where discretion seems, well, less than entirely necessary or wise. This is a man whose network has declared that they don’t need him for their hit show. Charlie Sheen is not such a paragon of society or such an artistic treasure that he merits special consideration. The Academy might want the ratings that an addict who shot his fiancee, righteously pissed off his producer, and conned a bunch of Americans out of ticket money could bring into a broadcast, but there’s something distasteful about anything that even hints at an acknowledgement of that.