The Remote: 2013 Emmys were a night of big surprises

Ryan Pait

The natural order was upset on Sunday at the Emmy Awards.

While some frontrunners went on to claim what felt like predestined prizes, others were left in the dust.

It’s nearly impossible to cover everything that happened, but here are some of the best and worst moments of the night.

Best: “Veep” victorious

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won Best Actress in a Comedy for the second year in a row, marking her fourth Emmy win.

Louis-Dreyfus’s costar Tony Hale also brought home the gold in the Supporting Actor in a Comedy category, beating “Modern Family” favorites Ty Burrell and Ed O’Neill.

Best of all? When Louis-Dreyfus went on stage to accept her award, Hale followed her onto the stage and held her bag for her in true “Veep” style.

Worst: Moss and Lange get shut out

In one of the night’s many upsets, Laura Linney took home an Emmy for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for “The Big C: Hereafter.”

Elisabeth Moss (“Top of the Lake”) and Jessica Lange (“American Horror Story: Asylum”) were expected to go head to head for the award, but neither came out on top.

As a fan of both Moss and Lange’s performances, consider me hugely disappointed.

Best: Big shakeups in

Variety Series and Reality Series

Both “The Colbert Report” and “The Voice” pulled off massive upsets in their categories.

“The Colbert Report” finally edged ahead of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for Best Variety Series.

“The Daily Show” has won for the past ten years, so it’s a landmark achievement for Stephen Colbert.

Colbert also graciously thanked his friend and competitor Jon Stewart in his acceptance speech.

In the Reality Series category, “The Voice” did the impossible and beat “The Amazing Race,” which has won repeatedly before.

It seems that NBC’s big investment in “The Voice” has finally paid off.

Worst: “Modern Family” wins again

“Modern Family” finally got shut out of the acting races, but it remained on top by winning Best Comedy Series for the fourth year in a row.

“Modern Family” used to be good, but its third and fourth seasons felt increasingly tired, and it feels more and more like a default winner with each passing year.

When considered next to edgier, and funnier, nominees like “30 Rock,” “Girls,” “Louie” and “Veep,” it’s extremely irksome.

Maybe next year the voters will wake up and reward a show that’s still actually funny.

Best: “Breaking Bad” breaks the mold

TV’s current “it” show and a show for the ages took home some much-deserved awards.

“Breaking Bad” took home the award for Best Drama Series, and Anna Gunn upset Maggie Smith (“Downton Abbey”) for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.

This is huge for Gunn, seeing as Maggie Smith has dominated at the Emmys for the past few years.

Gunn came out on top and looked like a pro doing it, so it looks like all those Skyler White haters can suck it.

Worst: The actual ceremony

While it was nice to see the established order get shaken up with some unexpected wins, the ceremony itself felt dead on arrival.

Host Neil Patrick Harris did his best, but the majority of the show felt tired, and it ran almost 15 minutes over.

Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kevin Spacey and Diahann Carroll were the few bright spots of the night.

Luckily for TV fans like myself, there’s always next year.