Downton Abbey takes on Breaking Bad in transatlantic battle of the Emmys

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/21/downton-abbey-breaking-bad-emmys

Version 0 of 1.

One is the story of starched collars, tea trays and the last days of the stately homes of England. The other tells of the bleak descent into hell of an unassuming chemistry teacher who becomes a drugs baron in New Mexico. While ITV's Downton Abbey offers solace and shimmering evening dresses, AMC's Breaking Bad confronts us with a contemporary underworld of vacant-eyed addicts.

These two hit series represent opposite poles of a thriving television culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Each has reached big and loyal audiences by taking wildly different approaches to drama. But on Sunday night the shows will be up against each other in the battle for an Emmy at the annual television awards show staged in Los Angeles.

The popularity of Downton Abbey in America has been put down to a nostalgic appetite for the imagined certainties and glamour of a bygone age, and is also credited with a growth in interest in everything English among Americans, encompassing not just our actors but our royals.

Yet pundits suspect this may not be enough to ensure Downton Abbey wins the top prize for outstanding drama series. For it is not a simple choice between cocktails at six in Downton's drawing room or crystal meth at midnight in Albuquerque; the field is unusually strong across the board. Homeland is in contention, alongside House of Cards, the enduring quality of Mad Men and the outlandish spectacle of HBO's Game of Thrones.

American TV critics are placing bets on Game of Thrones, which also has 15 award nominations in other categories. Some others are backing Showtime's Homeland over Breaking Bad, although reviews of the second series of the terrorism drama starring Damian Lewis and Clare Danes generally rated it less powerful than their first outing. Breaking Bad has already been nominated four times during its history, while Mad Men boasts more victories than any other show.

The new kudos of the small screen means that across the Emmy awards lineup there are more established heavyweight theatre and film names – from David Mamet to Tom Stoppard, and Kevin Spacey to Diana Rigg – in contention than ever.

Host Neil Patrick Harris, who stars in CBS's How I Met Your Mother, will be looking out over a Nokia Theatre audience of stars to rival Oscar night. And with so many shows available to British viewers just after being aired in America, the event is now of greater relevance here, with or without a long list of British awards contenders.

Netflix, a web-only channel, made Emmy history this year with three shows nominated: Arrested Development, Hemlock Grove and House of Cards.

Scottish comic writer Armando Iannucci is up for best comedy with Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a US vice-president, but he must fend off Lena Dunham's daring show Girls, as well as Modern Family, 30 Rock, Louie and The Big Bang Theory. Downton's Michelle Dockery is in the running for a lead actress prize but must beat two women who have dominated screens this year; Clare Danes and Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss. Downton is also in with a chance for lead actor, with Hugh Bonneville up against fellow Brit Damian Lewis.

For a British triumph, Hollywood stars Jeff Daniels and Kevin Spacey would have to be defeated, to say nothing of Mad Men's Jon Hamm and the evil chemistry teacher Walter White from Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston.

The British talents nominated this year face fierce opposition from Hollywood's big guns. Al Pacino is nominated for his role in Phil Spector, and Matt Damon and Michael Douglas for the Liberace film, Behind the Candelabra.

And in a twist that further emphasises the growing power of television drama, the Emmys has its own ratings challenge: it is pitted against the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad on a rival channel.

British Emmy hopes

Dame Maggie Smith battles another striking redhead on Sunday, Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, for the outstanding supporting actress title, and a second English actress is nominated: Emilia Clarke, the 26-year-old who plays Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones.

Jim Carter is up for supporting actor as the Downton Abbey butler, Carson… and his wife, Imelda Staunton, for supporting actress as Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma in HBO's mini-series, The Girl.

Jeremy Webb, Downton Abbey's director, and writer, Julian Fellowes, are nominated.

Other Brits up for awards are: director Julian Jarrold and actor Toby Jones for The Girl; Rupert Friend for Homeland; Diana Rigg for Game of Thrones; Helen Mirren for Phil Spector; Benedict Cumberbatch for Parade's End; and Peter Mullan for Top of the Lake. Abi Morgan, writer of BBC2's The Hour, is up against David Mamet, as is Tom Stoppard, who adapted Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End, also for BBC2.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.