Emmy Awards: The Morning After

I didn’t get a chance to post reactions after the show last night, so here goes. I miss the days that awards shows used to have clips galore and really get excited about the shows or movies or whatever that were nominated. In an effort to keep the show to a strict three hours, there wasn’t a single montage, and even the tribute to Robin Williams was unexpectedly short. They asked comedy stars what the best direction they got was, but that was the only time that the nominees were announced in a creative way. The funniest part was inarguably the Billy Eichner and Seth Meyers clip featuring a laugh-out-loud moment when a woman answered unintelligibly about the name of the awards show. Weird Al’s main title theme music with words bit was fun, but hardly as funny as it should have been.

And then, there were the winners. I correctly predicted a dismal four wins, three of which were in top categories – “Breaking Bad” for Best Drama Series, “Fargo” for Best Miniseries, and “The Normal Heart” for Best TV Movie – and the fourth of which was Allison Janney for “Mom.” I’m more disappointed in the winners than in my predictions, namely because Janney was the only series winner who hadn’t won before for her show, and she already has five Emmys. Giving Cranston his fourth trophy, Margulies her second (for this role), Paul his third, Gunn her second, Parsons his fourth, Louis-Dreyfus her third, and Burrell his second suggests that there is nothing creative or new about the Emmys. It doesn’t matter that other actors had better submissions since clearly the favorites always win. Somewhat along the same lines, the miniseries and TV movie acting prizes went to stars of projects that have been nominated before, “Sherlock” and “American Horror Story.” I’m not arguing that they’re not deserving, and it’s more exciting to see Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman take home Emmys even if they couldn’t be there to accept them, but it’s strange that these standalone categories still have repeat nominees. “Fargo” was probably the best thing on television this past year, but “True Detective” will be back in the same format next year, so why are they in different categories? That’s a whole separate mess.

As always, I conclude that I like the nominations process more, predicting the nominees, watching the announcement, and then screening all the episodes submitted. Maybe it doesn’t matter to voters which episodes were picked, but that’s still what gets me most excited about the Emmys.

In more satisfying news (for me, at least), the 8th Annual AFT Awards, my own choices for the best in television this past season, will begin in September when I take some time off to get married! Stay tuned, and then get ready for what’s sure to be an exciting pilot season! Thanks for reading!