Emmy Watch Final Phase: My Professional - And Personal - Reactions To the 2024 GALECA TV Awards

 

Well readers, we’re in the final countdown. The 2024 Emmy Awards are little more than a month away which means I’m going to spend much of the next month going through the pregame. This week that means covering the last of the major pre-Emmy awards for TV by various critics groups.

But before we get officially started, a couple of personal notes. Not long after I posted an incredibly favorable reception of this year’s Dorian TV Award nominations, given by GALECA (Gay & Lesbian Critics Association) I received something I had never received in all my years of writing for a medium.

A member of GALECA found my article and extended a professional and personal courtesy by thanking me for my praise of their nominations. I suspect the fact that I titled my article about how the awards made me proud to be a critic had something to do with it.

I was deeply moved. I’ve received much praise for my work over the years but this was the first time a professional critic reached out with a work of thanks. It is always nice to be appreciated.

And that leads me to something I think I don’t make clear often enough in these articles. I realize that for much of the past three years I have gone to a great deal of trouble to say that many professional critics, past and present, have a very harsh and unrealistic view of being unable to parse the difference that they view what they review as having to meet the standards of art when it has just as much – if not more – to do with commerce. I have no intention of backing away from that point; I’m actually going to be following up on it in the weeks and months to come, especially in my own field.

That being said, it doesn’t mean I don’t respect – and deeply appreciate – the work that so many TV critics have done over the years and particularly the organizations that give out nominations and awards. This pertains not just to GALECA but the Critics Choice Awards, the TCA and of course the Astras which I’ll be covering in detail later this week. I know as well as they do what a difficult job they have. I respect and admire your work, even if I don’t always agree with it. And it is organizations like yourselves that have been my north star during my professional career and make me glad I’ve chosen to work in TV criticism. You keep the bar high and I am grateful for what you to do.

So now let’s get down the business. Earlier today the Dorian Awards for television were given. As I mentioned in my article praising the nominations, I suspected that even more than this year the GALECA awards might have their finger on the pulse more than they have in the past. To be sure many of their nominated series don’t necessarily have LGBTQ+ themes:  Succession was their big winner in drama last year and this year their major nominees included Shogun and The Bear. But because this year features a sizable amount of programming where LGBTQ+ characters are front and center (in the Best Limited Series category alone, four of the nominees for Best Actor are in series where they are playing gay characters) I thought there was an excellent chance that the Dorian Awards might hew closer to the Emmys then previous years.

And now that the awards have been given, there is certainly a chance that might be so in some cases and in other cases the Dorian Awards show just how far ahead they can be of the curve.

One of the biggest winners in comedy was Hacks. This show come as a shock to no one: of the five nominees for comedy (all five of which were nominated by the Emmys, score one for the Dorians) Hacks had by far the most gay and lesbian characters. The series took Best Comedy, both TV Performance awards (Jean Smart for Lead; Hannah Einbinder for Supporting) and also took the prize for best written TV show, which again is far from a shock.

I must mention both categories don’t differentiate by gender and while I normally object this with other awards shows given the nature of the membership of GALECA I was more than willing to make an exception. I should mention that Smart was competing of what would be four of her five fellow Emmy nominees for Best Actress in a comedy: Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, and she also managed to defeat Jeremy Allen White for The Bear. Matt Berry was also nominated by the Emmys for What We Do In The Shadows and Martin Short was nominated for Only Murders in the Building. The only performers who were nominated by the Emmys this year were Devery Jacobs for Reservation Dogs and Renee Elise Goldberry for Girls5eva. Goldberry had no realistic chance of a nomination and while Jacobs wasn’t nominated, the show and her male lead were.

As for Einbinder she defeated what would end up being four  of her fellow nominees in this category: Carol Burnett, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and, yes, she did beat Meryl. She also defeated Ebon Moss-Bachrach, heavily favored to win Best Supporting Actor for The Bear and Jamie Lee Curtis, the heavy favorite for Best Guest Actress. She also managed to beat her co-star Megan Stalter (who was shafted by the Emmys) and Harvey Guillen, nominated twice before for What We Do In The Shadows. Only Joel Kim Booster of Loot had no realistic chance of a nomination.

Not only does this make the Dorian Awards look incredibly good with their foresight in nominations, it does much to add momentum to both actress in the Emmys. Smart has already won twice before and Einbinder was a formidable contender who has been ignored twice (though honestly she didn’t lose ignobly).

Reservation Dogs was among the nominees for Best Comedy series and while it didn’t win, it picked up a worthy consolation prize for Best Unsung TV Show. This is an awards which would have saved a lot of trouble if the Emmys had it.

Now in Drama, there was no differentiation between traditional drama and limited series. That’s not unusual; organizations like the TCA have a similar pattern. It does mean the acting awards may not give us much of a view into what the Emmys will do.

The winner for Best TV Performance went to Matt Bomer for Fellow Travelers. This is an impressive  victory considering he did defeat three of what would be his fellow nominees in this category: Richard Gadd for Baby Reindeer, Tom Hollander for Capote Vs. The Swans and Andrew Scott for Ripley. The majority of the nominees in this category were nominees from Limited Series and the Dorians didn’t have as much luck here, though they do deserve credit for nominating Lily Gladstone for Under the Bridge a nomination few thought possible. They also nominated Jodie Foster for Night Country.

Other than that they had less luck, though there was no realistic chance of Jacob Anderson getting nominated for Interview With A Vampire (more on that in a minute) or Ncuti Gatwa for Doctor Who. I imagine they were as surprised as anyone when Emma Stone and The Curse were ignored by the Emmys.

Best Supporting TV performance went to Bomer’s co-star Jonathan Bailey. Bailey has been rising dramatically in the odds for the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor and he will be a formidable contender. There were no other nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series in this category, however there were three nominees for Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau for Baby Reindeer and Kali Reis for Night Country. Jennifer Jason Leigh was heavily favored for a nomination for Fargo but she was practically the only member of the cast ignored.

The rest is a mixed bag. Christine Baranski and Elizabeth Debicki were nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama. Benny Sadfie, like the rest of the cast of The Curse was ignored and Jinkx Monsoon had no realistic chance for Doctor Who. Moeka Hoshi being shutout for Shogun was a slight surprise.

The winner of Best TV Drama was, perhaps not surprisingly given its strong LGBTQ+ theme was Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire. The series also won Best LGBTQ TV show which is interesting considering Baby Reindeer and Hacks were heavier Emmy favorites. But Dorian went to the tune of its own drum which is to be encouraged. Shogun took Best Non-English Language Show as a consolation prize, beating among others Lupin, Elite and Young Royals. The latter won Best LGBTQ+ Non-English Show.

As for the other awards Best Current Affairs Show went to Last Week Tonight. Best Genre TV Show went to Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire. Most Visually Striking show went to Ripley and considering the competition was Shogun and Palm Royale that’s saying something. X-Men 97 took Best Animated Series. Campiest TV Show went to Chucky. (I have to say here I disagree with GALECA; having seen Palm Royale, that was a show that screamed camp even for the people who were straight.). I agree with the TV icon award for Carol Burnett but who wouldn’t? And for Alan Cumming as their trailblazer, it’s about damn time. Given everything I’ve seen him due in the last decade – including The Traitors, which took Best Reality Show – his work as Eli in The Good Wife was a greater triumph in acting than I ever thought. I mean, the restraint in that performance.

And just to be clear I think we’re all overjoyed that Ryan Gosling was awarded Best TV Musical Performance for the 96^th Academy Awards. If that didn’t prove that Gosling deserves to EGOT right now, I don’t know what will.

(I’m leaving documentaries off the table because I have seen enough of them to judge. )

All and all, the Dorian TV awards showed the right mix of recognizing series that will likely be acknowledged by the Emmys this year and acknowledging shows that should have been acknowledged by the Emmys this year. Looking back, the decision to nominate 3 Body Problem in favor of not merely Interview but also such favorites as The Curse already looks like a blunder. Shogun, The Gilded Age and Fallout did hit the bullseye

Their track record on comedy is rock solid. Five of the eight nominees for Best Comedy Series were nominated by the Emmys and two shows that received multiple nominations, Palm Royale and Only Murders in the Building were nominated for Best Comedy as well. The only show the Emmys chose they didn’t was Curb Your Enthusiasm. So clearly GALECA is one up there.

And they did superbly with Limited Series, though as I mentioned before given the context of so many of the best ones this year it would have been hard not to. As someone who truly thought Fellow Travelers deserved to be nominated for Best Limited Series ahead of Night Country the recognition for it here is deserving. The fact that they chose to give the lion’s share of their awards for Limited Series not to the heavy favorite Baby Reindeer but Travelers and Ripley shows they are not weighed by the masses.

But as you well know as good as the Dorian TV nominations and awards were, all this was merely prologue. Tomorrow I begin to cover the real meat as I go into glorious detail my predictions for the 2024 Astra Awards which are coming on Sunday. Stay tuned.