I would have liked to watch this one live, though. There were a handful of good surprises, including Rick and Morty presenting an award, Thandie Newton's fleeting F-bomb, and a genuinely touching marriage proposal. The Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special category has never been so exciting! I was less enthused about Betty White's awkward appearance and the constant talk about diversity efforts. Oh well, at least it was better than talking about Donald Trump all night, and I thought Michael Che's "Reparations Emmys" were fun. Politics were otherwise mostly off the table - but why was John McCain in the "In Memoriam" segment?
I've pretty well given up trying to treat any of the races seriously, since it seems like the Emmy voters don't bother to. The only races where I had watched enough of the nominees to follow at all this year were the drama categories, and the winners felt random. How else to explain Thandie Newton and Peter Dinklage's wins? How did "Game of Thrones" win again for one of their most lackluster seasons? David Lynch lost to Ryan Murphy?! Broader trends, however, were more telling. "The Marvelous Ms. Maisel" was an overwhelming winner for Amazon, now the second streaming service to snag a major series victory after Hulu's success with "The Handmaid's Tale" last year. "The Americans" also scored its first major wins for its final season - and I'd completely forgotten that Matthew Rhys was a Brit. And good grief, AMC didn't get a single major nod.
Netflix had the most nominations and walked away with the most trophies, narrowly beating HBO. I think their continued presence at the Emmys is going to be good for everyone in the long run. More people actually watch their shows than the ones on most other platforms, so the Emmys benefit from a more engaged audience. Almost no broadcast network shows got major nominations, so Netflix is the populist option by default. On the flip side, I wonder how many people were in on the joke involving the creepy Teddy Perkins from "Atlanta." Or then there was Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen doing their odd schtick as Emmy experts. Was that supposed to be a tie-in to their new Amazon show, "Forever"? The ratings for the telecast have come in, and they're not great.
However, I thought that this was a very well produced and structured Emmys. Things were very brisk. I like how they presented the nominees, with every category listing them with clips before the presenters even went onstage to do their bits. That saved a lot of time, and prevented any flubs with reading names. In past ceremonies, which categories got clips and which didn't, often felt completely arbitrary. This year's set design was essentially a giant screen acting as a backdrop, with sections that would move to form entry and exit ways. This meant that little time was lost to scenery changes, and the "Rick and Morty" segment was integrated perfectly.
There's still noticeable monkeying around with the categories themselves though. We got to see Charlie Brooker accept an Emmy for writing "Black Mirror," but not for it winning Best TV Movie, which was presented as part of the Creative Arts Emmys roughly a week ago. I really should pay more attention to the Creative Arts Emmys. How long has there been a Best Narrator Emmy category?
Colin Jost and Michael Che from SNL's "Weekend Update" hosted, and were pretty unmemorable and unobtrusive. I don't think I'll ever forgive NBC for banishing Conan O'Brien a year before they got the Emmys again, forever denying us a follow-up to his legendary 2006 hosting turn. Alas, three more years until the telecast is back on CBS and Stephen Colbert has another go.
Happy 70th, Primetime Emmys. But the way things are going, will you still be broadcast on television in another ten?
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