"It must have been quite a shock to hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of people (and at least a handful of famous actresses) to wake up to the news on Emmy nomination morning that voters had snubbed Tatiana Maslany and Orphan Black. Who? What? But across the interwebs it was plain to see. Critics had embraced the somewhat obscure freshman season of Orphan Black — a show about identical orphans across the world — but, more than the show itself, had rallied behind its amazing star, Maslany, who plays numerous roles as clone variations of the same person (or at least that person's DNA). Often critics are the first to champion low-profile but high-quality shows on channels viewers struggle to find or identify with. In the exploding world of scripted program across countless channels, this can be a valuable consumer service — not to mention giving a much needed boost to the host channel, in this instance BBC America. Yet what happened with Maslany was unlike most chatter about dark horse Emmy candidates. The drumbeat was ceaseless (as was that from rabid fans of the show) because Maslany was so off-the-charts incredible. She gave, in my view, the best performance by an actress on television last season. That's on any show, not just the best among a group of dark horse candidates. Was it a real long shot that Emmy voters would nominate her? Of course. Maslany was virtually unheard of. Orphan Black was a genre show — ooooh, clones, from the same channel that airs that nerdy, long-lasting Doctor Who and lots of other "sci-fi" shows. So sure, it was doomed. Hell, BBC America was running it on Saturday nights, for God's sake. All true, but that didn't make her jaw-dropping versatility any less great. And so Maslany, and to a lesser extent Orphan Black, were name-dropped extensively as disappointing snubs."