The Writers Guild liked Her and Breaking Bad the most this year

By Sean O'Neal | February 3, 2014 | 8:36pm

Aux Features TV

This weekend also saw what is often referred to as “the Super Bowl of screenwriting” by exhausted people who drank too much last night, and are becoming rapidly bored by the need to recap the year’s endless procession of ceremonies—or as you may know it, the Writers Guild Awards. As you might expect from an organization that puts its emphasis on the written word, the WGA broke with its Producers and Directors Guild colleagues in rewarding Spike Jonze’s Her with Best Original Screenplay, its equivalent of Best Picture. And as you might not have expected, it overlooked more writer-friendly choices like the wordy Before Midnight and August: Osage County to instead give Best Adapted Screenplay to Captain Phillips—presumably based on screenwriter Billy Ray’s meticulous spelling out of every drawn-out vowel sound that went into Tom Hanks’ New England accent.

Things were slightly more predictable on the TV side, which was dominated by last hurrahs for Breaking Bad and 30 Rock, nods for sharp-tongued series Veep and The Colbert Report, and, of course, the tragicomic, Beckettian absurdism of Blake Shelton’s Not So Family Christmas. Major winners are below; you can see the full list, including other nominees, on the WGA website.