Emmy Episodes: Getting On

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Getting On: Season 3, Episode 4 “Am I Still Me?” (B-)
Nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Laurie Metcalf)

If you’ve been following these posts, I don’t need to reiterate the fact that Metcalf is nominated in three different categories this year for three different shows, bringing her total nomination haul to ten, with three trophies won for “Roseanne” a while back. I already wrote in my review of “Getting On” costar Niecy Nash’s episode that I don’t like this show, and I just don’t get why Emmy voters love it. In this case, it’s because Metcalf is an Emmy superstar at the moment, and this episode is on par with her “Horace and Pete” guest spot in terms of a tremendous showcase. The problem is there’s little funny about it, and this exemplifies why this show isn’t really a comedy. As Metcalf’s Dr. Jenna James prepares for a major ceremony in which she might take home an award, she has to contend with a British know-it-all colleague who ends up winning the award. She loses the prize and just walks it off, but she also hears that her mother dies, walks right past it, and then overheads Nash’s DiDi saying mean things about her. Metcalf wears her emotions on her face, which is always hard to read in the best way. While Metcalf does have a superb showcase here, there’s absolutely no reason that she needed to bump the likes of Rachel Bloom from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” who truly is a talented comic actress. This performance has its merits, but I can’t imagine that she’d really be able to take home an Emmy for this of all turns, especially in this category.

Emmy Episodes: Getting On

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Getting On: Season 3, Episode 2 “Don’t Let It Get in You or on You” (C+)
Nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Niecy Nash)

I don’t understand this show, and I was perplexed beyond belief that it got Niecy Nash nominated for an Emmy last year. Unfortunately, this year the show expanded to two nominations. This is the first chronological episode cited, one that focuses on a number of weird, depressing plotlines that are very, very occasionally funny and otherwise just off-putting. It’s hard to know when to laugh on this show, and that’s even truer of Nash’s scenes, since she’s so quiet and unenergetic in her delivery. In this installment, DiDi has to contend with her sister-in-law stopping by the hospital to confront her about things going on in her personal life, namely the deteriorating health of her mother-in-law, which is still a major plotline in Laurie Metcalf’s submitted episode. She gets the chance to assert herself a bit when she talks to her sister-in-law, but I still don’t quite understand the appeal of her performance. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it’s not particularly dramatic or particularly funny, and I can’t comprehend why she’s nominated with the likes of comediennes like Allison Janney and Kate McKinnon and strong dramatic performers like Judith Light and Gaby Hoffman. This is Nash’s second consecutive nomination, and being joined by Metcalf this year bodes well for her, but she also managed to achieve three separate nods for different projects this year, indicating that when it comes to her it’s all about the actress. If Nash won, I’d be floored, but the fact that she made it in twice a row is still making my head spin.