It's that time again. There's more television and web content being produced than ever, and the Emmys' impossible task of trying to decide the cream of the crop has resulted in a really wild, messy set of nominees this year. After watching more current television this spring than I ever have in my entire life, and paying for too many streaming subscriptions, I've seen roughly half of the titles in most of the big categories - comedy is my Achilles heel as usual. This is enough to make me comfortable with offering some thoughts on the nominations - barely informed as they may be.
I take some comfort from knowing that my total failure to keep on top of all the prestige television series that aired in the 2021-2022 eligibility window is shared by the people who actually decide who gets nominated for Emmys. How else to explain some of these choices? How are Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh nominated again, for a widely derided final season of "Killing Eve"? How is it that the only Emmy nomination "Pachinko" received was Main Title Design, while "Squid Game" got fourteen, including Best Drama Series? There are only two nominees for Variety Sketch Comedy Series, and "The Kids in the Hall" revival still couldn't get in?!
Emmy inertia means that "SNL's" Bowen Yang and Kate McKinnon, and the cast of "The Morning Show" are taking up space that should probably go to more deserving performers, but there are several first-timers in the acting categories I'm glad to see. Rhea Seehorn finally has a nomination for playing Kim Wexler in "Better Call Saul." Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are both nominated for their battling Russian royals on "The Great." However, it's hard not to focus on the snubs. "Severance" has seven nods, but Britt Lower was left out. "Only Murders in the Building" has six, but Selena Gomez was left out. "Stranger Things" got thirteen nominations, but only in the technical categories. And I guess we're all just collectively done with "This is Us," aren't we?
Still, this doesn't feel like an egregiously bad or insincere crop of nominees. I'm sure that there are passionate fans behind every single nomination here. Looking at the wider trends, I love that the directing nominees are very close to gender parity, and Hiro Murai made out with two nominations, for "Atlanta" and "Station Eleven." There were a lot of multiple nominees, usually performers like Jason Bateman and Quinta Brunson, who also picked up a nomination for writing or directing. The networks are still being massively outgunned by cable and streaming, with "Abbott Elementary" and "SNL" really the only major nominees representing broadcast television. Any foreign language series getting multiple nominations and a Best Drama Series nod is something to be celebrated, so "Squid Game" has my respect. Also, after the success of "The Mandalorian" and "WandaVision" in previous years, Disney+ is notably absent from the major categories.
As for the snubs, well, the prestige television avalanche has made it so that it's unreasonable to expect the Emmy voters to have seen everything, and I can't be upset that they're taking their cues from whoever campaigned the hardest. It's hard to argue that some of my favorites, like "Station Eleven," should have gotten more recognition when I didn't bother to watch "The Dropout," "Maid," or "Pam & Tommy." Can I really be upset that "Inventing Anna" got awards attention when all that I can accuse it of is a lack of buzz? At least the Emmys seem less prone to being starstruck than I am, and didn't just hand out nominations to projects like "Gaslit" and "The Offer" because of the actors involved. Still, I'd like to see the Emmys spread the wealth more in the future. "Succession" getting nominations for nearly the entire main cast, plus a long list of guest stars just looks lazy.
The worst snub may be the total lack of acknowledgement of "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," which probably won't be eligible for Oscars because of its premiere on Hulu. It didn't make it into the TV Movie category, while the "Chip 'n' Dale" Disney+ reboot and a bunch of other spinoff projects like the "Roy Donovan" movie did. But I suspect that will be a rant for another day.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment