For reasons that have more to do with real life than anything else, I have been unable until today to post my reactions to this year’s Emmy nominations which came out Tuesday. Those of you who have read my column for years are well aware of my frustrations with both the nominations and so many of the awards the Emmys have given. Before I get to my specific issues (and to be honest, there are some pleasures mixed in) I think I now have a greater understand of why I and probably so many other people find the Emmys frustrating.
There are, of course, the justified complaints of recognizing certain cable channels over other ones (HBO over basically anything) and the emphasis of essentially ignoring the bets that network TV can over for what is often the mediocrities of streaming. But I think a larger problem that has becoming increasingly clear is the lack of imagination. I spent much of last week raving about everything the HCA does in regards to its recent television nominations. In just their second year of existence, they have demonstrated everything an awards group can do right. I don’t just mean the separation of all categories into broadcast, cable or streaming (although trust me that’s a big deal) but rather the fact that they, much like another awards group I have expressed admiration for over the years, the Critics Choice Awards, are willing to go beyond even the narrow straights of the bigger name projects. They were willing to give nominations and awards to Freeform’s Cruel Summer a network the Emmys refuses to acknowledge exist. They were willing to make space for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist last year and Better Things this year, willing to recognize that limited series like The Thing About Pam and Gaslit can provide the same measure of quality that flashier projects like Pam and Tommy or Under the Banner of Heaven do. They do everything in their power to have a big tent and to reach beyond the usual suspects every years.
While the Emmys occasionally does this, they have been for the past decade slaves to the systems of conformity. Despite the backlash against Game of Thrones in its final season, they nevertheless crowned it with eleven Emmys because it fit their standards. They would much rather give recognition to a conventional period piece like Downton Abbey then a more imaginative contemporary one like The Good Wife. And while they will every so often widen their net when it comes to new services, at the end of the day they are fundamentally stuck given nominations and awards to the same eight or nine major services. Hulu can put up the most humdrum season of The Handmaid’s Tale and it will get eight acting nominations. Paramount plus can put up brilliant shows like The Good Fight or Evil and they have yet to be welcome to the party. Even when they are forced to acknowledges series that are such a critical success they can be ignored – I’m speaking of Fleabag in particular – they’re usually on a service already in the club. The fact that Schitt’s Creek managed such an unprecedented sweep two years ago was astounding. That it took until the final year for it to get that far was far less so.
This is the problem with the Emmys: the lack of diversity. I don’t mean racial diversity, although that it’s taken to this point to get far is appalling. I mean network diversity. Often the most mediocre HBO series (and I’m going to get to that in the drama section believe me) will outscore the most explosive Showtime or FX or basically any other cable network series when it comes to nominations and awards (except until fairly recently AMC). And then, it’s a rotating club where the advantages of incumbency far outweigh that of the challenger. This year demonstrated that often you don’t even need to have been their the previous year to drown in nominations, but that’s a trend that become common the past decade. Critics will make arguments for reforms by eliminating gender for acting nominees or categories for shows in general, which as I’ve said would give us a whole new set of problems. It is clear by now, that at some point, we need systematic reform. I’ve given suggestions of what they should be in the past, and perhaps we need to follow the HCA model more carefully if we are ever to resolve this problem. Because that’s the real issue the Emmys have, and it has nothing to do with the surface issues that critics are bitching about.
That’s the broad op-ed of this article. I’ll get into more generalities the further we go. Now I deal with this year in particular. I was very satisfied with this year’s nominations for comedy, disappointed (but really not terribly surprised) by the drama nominees and frustrated as hell with the Limited Series nominees. Since this has not been an easy week, I shall start with something that will spark joy and deal with comedy first.
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Okay. Five of the eight nominated comedies were the ones I was pressing for the most in my columns on the Emmys last month. So I have no problem with Abbott Elementary, Barry, Only Murders in the Building, Ted Lasso and Hacks. Further, I have no real issues when it comes to Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or What We Do In the Shadows. I thought Reservation Dogs was the superior FX comedy, but I’m willing to bend on that.
I guess my major issue that Curb Your Enthusiasm, a comedy series whose appeal has always been lost on me, was nominated over the final season of Insecure or Atlanta both infinitely more enjoyable series in my opinion. This may be the only real example of laziness in the entire Comedy nominations, so I’m willing to relent. (I admit I’d be far more irked if Emily in Paris were here.)
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Okay. Give the Emmys credit for nominated six actors over five, and also give them credit for nominated five of the actors I really wanted to be nominated. No one could argue with Donald Glover, Bill Hader, Steve Martin, Martin Short or Jason Sudeikis, certainly not me. This will be a hard fought fight.
I’ll confess that I am a little sad that Anthony Anderson will not get a final chance to win an Emmy for his work on black-ish and I’m still not certain that Nicholas Hoult really is a co-lead on The Great the same way that Elle Fanning is. But honestly, I’d rather have him than Larry David.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Again, they expanded the count to six. Quinta Brunson, Issa Rae and Jean Smart were inevitable and I have no objection to Rachel Brosnahan being here. Kaley Cuoco isn’t exactly a shock either considering her fine work on The Flight Attendant.
I don’t object so much to Elle Fanning being nominated for The Great – she’s been getting nominations from basically every pre-Emmys awards group, so it was a near certainty – but I’m kind of disappointed Selena Gomez couldn’t have been nominated instead. She is as much part of the Only Murders success as the co-stars she had to Google to know who they were. But Season 2 dropped last month, so I’m relatively sure this oversight will be made up for in recent years.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Acknowledge that they had the wisdom to nominate eight actors in this category and if many of them were not the ones I would have chosen, some of them are ones that I never considered realistic possibilities.
Brett Goldstein was inevitable and I have no problem with either Nick Mohammed or Toheeb Jimoh for Ted Lasso. Anthony Carrigan and Henry Winkler more than earned their spots for Barry. I had not dared hope Tyler James Williams would make it for his work on Abbott Elementary and I’m not surprised to see Tony Shalhoub here. Hell, I don’t even have a problem with Bowen Yang for Saturday Night Live. I guess my only real problem is they couldn’t find room for Bryan Tyree Henry or Paul W. Downs for Hacks. But at some point, there are only so many people they can nominate.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Again they went to eight. Four of them were ones I either expected or hoped for, one was an inevitability and one was a delightful surprise. As for the other two, well let’s see:
Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple were inevitable for Ted Lasso. Hannah Einbinder was just as likely for Hacks. I had hoped and prayed Janelle James would be nominated for Abbott Elementary; I did not dare hope that the Emmys would nominate Sheryl Lee Ralph as well. Kate McKinnon was a near inevitability and I’m not the least surprised to see Alex Borstein here.
Was there may be too much love for Ted Lasso? Was Sarah Niles character, who many fans had a problem with, really deserving of a nomination more than say Zasie Beetz for Atlanta or Sarah Goldberg for Barry? This is a minor complaint, considering how good a job the Emmys did with this category and indeed most of the acting categories for comedy in general.
Now I’m going to more specific on Guest Actors and Actress. For the past several years I’ve basically ignored this category because its been fundamentally dominated by hosts of Saturday Night Live. But either because Saturday Night Live had a weak season or so many shows had strong ones, SNL only managed a single nomination out of all twelve. This gave a lot of room for many other series to break through and I have to admit I’m impressed with their choices.
In Guest Actress three of the Hacks nominees – Jane Adams, Laurie Metcalf and Kaitlin Olson all did superb work and Harriet Sansom Harris’ role was magnificent in a different, touching way. I always like Harriet Walter and Jane Lynch can never do wrong. I have no problem with Christopher McDonald being nominated for Hacks, Nathan Lane for his incredible work in Only Murders in the Building and Sam Richardson being nominated for anything. Ditto Bill Hader, even it is for Curb Your Enthusiasm. Well done, and I hope this is a sign of things to come.
As for writing, both of the episodes for Barry are among the best work of this year and I’m glad to see What We Do In the Shadows represented twice. All of the nominated series are good ones, but I am disappointed that none of the imaginative stand-alones for Atlanta could be represented. I’ll hold off on direction because that’s not one I’m an expert in.
Tomorrow I move on to drama, and there’ll be a treatise on how disappointed I am that evil triumphed over good. And yes, there’s more to that statement then just the nominated shows.
No comments:
Post a Comment