This year, however, there was more cheering than griping. Some would say this is not necessarily a “new” idea, since the tides seemed to turn our way last year — meaning, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences voters’ tastes may have at long last aligned with critics and the public’s.  Let’s give an example:  A few years ago, most people would have expected Emmy voters to snub “Lost” in its final season. Perhaps the thought would be that it was too complex for its own good or, having won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama in 2005, that its moment had already been acknowledged.

But “Lost” will get its shot in the category once again, alongside CBS’s deserving new series “The Good Wife,”  HBO’s fan favorite “True Blood” (which began to soar, creatively speaking, in its second season), Showtime’s “Dexter,” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” a two-time winner already.

Nominees for Best Actress in a Drama include the usual suspects ( as in  “The Closer’s” Kyra Sedgwick, “Damages’” Glenn Close, and “Law & Order: SVU’s” Mariska Hargitay), the easily predictable but deserving nomination for “The Good Wife’s” Julianna Margulies…and hello, January Jones! “Man Men’s” Betty Draper showed a variety of colors last year, and Jones took the storyline and ran away with it.

Our next gift-wrapped present: Fox’s “Glee,” a welcome addition to the Outstanding Comedy mix (just one of its 19 nominations) and another one of those no-brainers that probably would have come up empty on past nomination rounds.  ABC’s “Modern Family,” on the other hand, was a shoo-in,  and joins past winners “30 Rock” and “The Office,” both on NBC, as well as Showtime’s dark half-hour “Nurse Jackie” and HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Among “Glee’s” nominations were individual nods for Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison in actress and actor categories.

Also very much expected was the nominations avalanche for HBO’s “The Pacific.” The premium cable channel’s latest World War II epic racked up 24 nods, nearly a quarter of HBO’s total of 101. That also means that for a straight decade, HBO has led in total nominations.  (Since HBO has had a pretty good year, we’re not yawning this time.)

A complete list of Emmy nominees is, of course, available here.

This is not to imply that everything’s rosy in TV Land today. The voters are getting more things right these days, but Emmy being Emmy, there are enough snubs each year to make TV fans groan loudly and painfully. Here are but a few.

Katey Sagal in "Sons of Anarchy"

1. No Best Actress in a Drama nod for “Sons of Anarchy’s” Katey Sagal. Now, while this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with Emmy’s habits — we’ll elaborate in a moment — Sagal gave a beautifully multifaceted performance as SAMCRO’s matriarch Gemma Teller Morrow. We won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the second season yet, but Sagal took an incredibly difficult plot twist and a controversial treatment of its aftermath, and handled it with dignity, fragility and in the final moments of the season, a sense of controlled power.

The problem is that the second season opener of FX’s “Sons” was overwhelmingly difficult to watch, even for diehard fans, because of what happened to Sagal’s character. The way she dealt with it in subsequent episodes may have rubbed people the wrong way. Emmy voters tend to behave more cautiously than the average viewer. In other words, Katey probably knew she would be sleeping in this morning.

2. No nomination for “Modern Family’s” Ed O’Neill. Given the above snub, we’re wary about mentioning some alleged “Married with Children” curse, but someone should give this kind of omission an official name. How about, the  Eva Longoria Parker Snub? As in, the kind of snub where everyone else in the cast gets nominated, but you come up empty?

Not that we’re quibbling with the nods for Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Plus, whenever Sofia Vergara says “cop-cake,” this writer giggles. (I am not the giggling type, so that has to be worth something.)  But honestly — why not show Ed some love?  We all love Duckie, but did Jon Cryer really need to get nominated again?  Discuss.

3. “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains” — denied! “Survivor” is another past winner and frequent nominee in the reality competition category, but this season was arguably one of the best in the show’s history. Even if you want to debate that point,  one thing you’d be hard-pressed to defend is Emmy’s choice of “Project Runway” over “Survivor.”  Did “Project Runway” ever deserve an Emmy? Of course. Does the most recent season deserve it? Uh…no.

4. No love for any of the leads from “The Pacific.” Yes, the miniseries led HBO’s pack in terms of total nominations. Yes, the odds that viewers watching the Emmys telecast will get the chance to see Jon Seda, James Badge Dale and Joseph Mazzello on the stage at some point are rather high. That does not lessen the sting for anyone who watched these men make us gasp  and tear up for 10 episodes. Additionally, while it’s hard to feign surprise that Rami Malek was left out of the supporting actor mix, we sure think he deserved to be acknowledged.

5. Ditto for anyone from the cast of “True Blood.” Again, Emmy voters, thanks for acknowledging the show. But maybe next year you’ll have seen enough to realize that what makes it so addictive are stellar performances from the likes of Alexander Skarsgård and Nelsan Ellis.  That’s OK, we’ll wait.

But let’s give credit where credit is due. There are some snubs that we’re completely fine with.

Thank you, Emmy, for leaving Katherine Heigl out this time around, giving someone who actually appreciates having a job on a good TV show a shot at some hardware.

Bless you, Emmy, for giving the Heisman hand to Jay Leno in favor of a nod to “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” Surely that scored big points with Team Coco.

We are also completely fine with you denying major category recognition to Charlie Sheen, “24“, “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Family Guy” and, although it seems odd to credit you for doing so, “Jersey Shore.” Admit it, voters. You know you thought about pandering to the kids.

Your turn: Were you satisfied with this round of Emmy nominations?

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Post-show photos of Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris, courtesy of Wire Image

Neil Patrick Harris’s Emmy conquest is now official: The overnight Nielsens indicate that the ratings were actually up over last year’s telecast. That’s significant, because the award show’s numbers have been in decline for several years now.

Barney Stinson’s alter-ego did not defeat football on NBC, which walked away with 18.5 million that night, but an estimated 14.5 million tuned in  to the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards telecast, keeping it in second place throughout the evening. (Which, truthfully, isn’t that surprising when one considers that every other broadcast network pretty much got out of its way.)

Of course, a number of viewers would never watch the Emmys — even if Angelina Jolie played host and promised numerous costume changes, all of them involving bikinis. Exhibit A:  Today’s IMDb poll. More than 46 percent of respondents did not watch. Geez, what does ol’ NPH have to do to get a witness? (Or  few million?)

It’s important to give a credit to all the people who made Harris look good, starting with executive producer Don Mischer, who along with the other producers had the good sense to reorganize the ceremony by genres.  Not only did breaking up the telecast by category help it move along more smoothly, but the order of the awards made sense for once — although it would have been nice to see the Emmy for Best Comedy revealed during that category’s turn instead of at the end of the show. You know, to toss us a bone early on.

But Harris took the spotlight to the point of making the overall repeats in all the major award categories palatable, and scored big among the critics.

“Neil Patrick Harris? So. Much. Better,”  opined USA Today’s Robert Bianco.

“There’s no reason that Harris should not have the Emmy hosting gig for life,” said  Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan, aka The Watcher.

“Let’s hope Neil Patrick Harris enjoyed hosting Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, because there’s a good chance he’s going to be asked to do it again,” said the Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd.

Then again, there’s always somebody who poops on the parade; to that end, here’s the account from Tom Shales.

What did you think? Did NPH nail it?

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