"The Walking Dead," "Boardwalk Empire," '"Justified" Land WGA Nominations

"The Walking Dead," "Boardwalk Empire," '"Justified" Land WGA Nominations

Television News

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

The Writers Guild of America usually does a good job at predicting what TV series will garner major awards love come next year's big ceremonies, and this time around is no different.

HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," FX's "Justified" and AMC's "The Walking Dead" are among the nominees for Best New Series, with TNT's "Men of a Certain Age" and another HBO series, "Treme," filling out the category.

The new series category is always a favorite of mine, and this year I think it really showcases some truly great series that hopefully will stick around for years to come. "Boardwalk" ended its first season on a high note and it already is gearing up for season two. "The Walking Dead" gained popularity like wildfire and I can only imagine what they'll do when they have 13 episodes up from just 6 in the first year.

But out of all the shows nominated, I am most happy to see "Justified" score here because I feel it was one of the best and most underrated shows of the entire season. Timothy Olyphant's acting was superb, but even more so was the writing, which was sharp with humor and intelligently crafted.

"Boardwalk" also scored a Best Drama nomination along with established shows such as "Breaking Bad," "Friday Night Lights." "Dexter" and "Mad Men." This category is extremely strong from the top down, with five shows that could easily take the award with no arguments from me. I say "Mad Men" is the front-runner, although "Breaking Bad" arguably had its strongest season yet this past year.

On the comedy side, this year's Emmy newcomers, Fox's "Glee" and ABC's "Modern Family" made the list along with Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," and NBC's "30 Rock" and "The Office." While I absolutely love "Modern Family" and have great respect for all of the other shows nominated, no series does a better job when it comes to writing than "The Office," so I'm hoping they pull out with the award.

While the winners of the awards aren't always a perfect prediction as to who will be victorious at next year's Emmy's, the WGA always seems to get their nominations right. I was hard pressed to find series that were undeserving of their nominations.

The awards will be handed out Feb. 5 at the 2011 Writers Guild Awards. The full awards list can be found at the link.