The Emmys were supposed to happen this week, but are being delayed because of the strikes. I've done my yearly analysis piece already though, so it's arriving on schedule.
t's another year of being faced with too many good choices. So it goes. There are still signs of incumbency bias at play, with a couple of nominees like "The Crown" sticking around because they've been so popular in the past. There are completely out of left field picks like "Obi-Wan Kenobi" showing up in Limited or Anthology Series. As usual, I haven't watched enough of any of these categories to feel comfortable actually picking a winner based on merit or on politicking, but I'm a little more in the loop this year. I've actually seen half of the eight Outstanding Comedy nominees, and all but two in Outstanding Drama. I haven't watched "Succession" though, so the acting races are definitely beyond me.
As with all awards races, it's better to focus on who I'm happy made it in versus the expected snubs. So, it's great to see Dominique Fishback here for "Swarm" and Ebon Moss-Bachrach for "The Bear" and everybody involved with "Beef." Natasha Lyonne is in for "Poker Face"! Keri Russell is in for "The Diplomat"! Sharon Horgan is in for "Bad Sisters"! And "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is not eligible for any Oscars, contrary to what the ending credits would have you believe, but it's up for a bunch of Emmys, including Daniel Radcliff in the Movie/Limited Series Actor category. Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman both got Guest Actor nominations for their episode of "The Last of Us." "Jury Duty," despite being a Freevee original, got enough buzz to land in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. And despite being kicked around by Warners, "The Nevers" still got one nomination, for Visual Effects.
The real powerhouse this year, however, is "Succession," which snagged the most nominations, with "The Last of Us" close behind. Add the nominations for "Barry," "The White Lotus," and "The House of the Dragon," and HBO is still comfortably dominating the Emmys. Netflix didn't do too badly, with "Wednesday," "Beef," and "Dahmer" as its major contenders, but it's probably not going home with many statuettes. And again, the only real representative of the networks was "Abbott Elementary." There have been complaints over the years that the Emmys don't actually honor anything that regular people watch - no hide nor hair of any "Yellowstone" here - but this year doesn't strike me as too bad. "Better Call Saul," "Barry," "Ted Lasso," "Succession," and "Mrs. Maisel" are getting their curtain calls. The newcomers like "The Last of Us," "Andor," "The Bear," and "Wednesday" are promising, though they may not stick around for very long.
As usual, there's all kinds of category fraud and lazy voting going on. Good grief, did "White Lotus" really need nine nominations for supporting performances? Did anybody watch anything else for these categories? We didn't have room for Paddy Considine? At least most of them won't be coming back next year, due to the quasi-anthology nature of "White Lotus." How are Rhea Seehorn and Ayo Edibiri Supporting Actresses, while half the regulars on "Succession" are in the Lead Actor category? First time in history we've had three Outstanding Lead Actor nominees from the same show, so I guess the Roys aren't done battling it out. And after the reorganization with the Daytime Emmys, game shows are now part of the Primetime Emmys. It's weird and I really don't like it.
With the writers' strike, this was always going to be a strange year, with a lot of the FYC events canceled or modified. However, it's been quite a few strange years in a row, and I've always had less interest in keeping up with the Emmy races compared to the Oscars. We already know who most of the winners will be, so it's less fun to actually root for anyone (except Jason Sudeikis can't win again, can he?) It's also difficult to provide real commentary when it's so hard to keep up with television as a whole. The best approach may be just to treat this as a nice recommendation smorgasbord, and to be happy that some underseen programs like "Fleishman is in Trouble" are getting some attention.
And the ceremony itself is on Fox this year, so… yeah.
No comments:
Post a Comment