Its as if the Emmys are trying,
almost all at once, to rectify the decades of complacency, where every year the
same series and actors won again, there was little room for improvement. They
still have a long way to go (and I'll admit, most of the great leaps were taken
because Game of Thrones was
ineligible), but last nights award were a huge step forward.
Some might argue otherwise, particularly
in the Best Comedy category where once again, Veep (for the third straight season) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (for
the sixth) emerged victorious after what was (at least in my mind) a mostly
desultory season. But there was so much progress, particularly in the
recognition of Atlanta where Donald Glover took two deserved
Emmys both in front and behind the camera. And when Master of None became the first series to honor a female African
American writer (and she was a lesbian too!), it was proof that diversity is
now emerging behind the camera as well as in front. (And real class Aziz,
letting your co-writer make the acceptance speech. You just continue to amaze).
Indeed, some could argue that HBO
remained dominant, particularly in the Limited Series category, where it won
practically every award. But having seen every performance in the acting
categories, the Emmys would have been hard-pressed to make better choice. Sure,
I would have preferred Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley prevail instead
of Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern, but there were literally no loser in either
category. And Riz Ahmed's work in The
Night of got buried under so many other award shows that I thought they'd
overlook him again. I was glad to be proven wrong. And lest we think the voters
have gone soft, remember Best TV Movie and Best Writing went to an episode of
Netflix's Black Mirror, a series so dark and dystopian even a year
ago, you wouldn't have thought it could prevail. The times are a-changing.
And NBC had a particularly good
night. By my last count, they won fourteen awards. Most of them were for Saturday Night Live, a show that had
perhaps one of its most impressive seasons in years. I may quibble about Alec
Baldwin and Kate McKinnon taking up spots that could go to actors from actual
comedies (if this trend continues, we may have to create a couple of awards for
sketch comedy) but they were so hysterical in all of their foibles that its
hard to imagine anyone being more impressive.
I've only seen a couple of episodes
of The Handmaid's Tale, but despite
my delays I was overjoyed that two of the greatest actresses in TV history, one
completely shutout by the Emmys when she was doing her best work (Elisabeth
Moss) and one who was basically ignored by them in her greatest role (Alexis
Bleidel) ended up picking up trophies. Was a show too late? Maybe. But I didn't
object when Claire Danes starting winning for Homeland and I'm not going to object now.
But my favorite award of the night,
by far, was Sterling Brown for his incredible work on This is Us. If his performance wasn't enough to make me love him,
his speech would win over everybody else. He name-checked Bryan Cranston, Jon
Hamm and Andre Braugher (Homicide shoutout!)
considered that he was the luckiest black actor raised by a white family, and
tried valiantly to do a Cuba Gooding, Jr.
I'm not certain how well to rank
the Emmys as a ceremony, though I though Stephen Colbert did a mostly good job
keeping the political spiel away from the awards after the monologue. (He left
that to the presenters and the recipients.) But generally, I was happy to see
that there was more of a system in place for giving out the awards,
particularly as the Emmys are beginning to realizing the limited series
category now has nearly as much excitement as the bigger awards. And it was
good to see so many acting legends on the screen. The 9 to 5 reunion was wonderful. Seeing Carol
Burnett and Norman Lear give out the award for Best Comedy, great. Cicely Tyson
presenting Best limited series, powerful. The fact that the Emmys remember their history
better than the Oscars do is reassuring.
(On a side note, I want to see
Rachel Bloom host an award show next year. Any award show. Everything she does
is marvelous. But her great song and dance number to open the Creative Arts
Emmys, and her hysterical one celebrating the accountants make me love her even
more. If you're not going to give her an Emmy, let her host.)
Was I thrilled with everything? Of
course not. Stranger Things and Fargo were basically shut out, and I don't know what
Better Call Saul has to do to win an
Emmy. But the fact that there are so many great series out there to actually
deserve to be in the same room make me think that the Emmys is finally giving
reparations after years of staleness. Of course, the dragons will be back next
year, so I won't get cocky.
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