Emmys Shit Talk: It Was Pretty Good
With some gratifying wins and a mind toward how we consider content, the Awards show hit the mark
Aside from a bevy of fashyion mo-ments, last night’s Emmy Awards were actually pretty damn entertaining and, dare I say, somewhat gratifying. I couldn’t possibly cover everything, but let’s get into some highlights.
Photo from Variety: Christoper Polk
The Levy Effect
You cannot go wrong with one Levy, let alone two. With just their spex and smiles, Dan and Eugene could charm the price of a brand new Toyota Corolla down a few thou, minimum. Their jokes were cute (“Some of us are expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy, but in the true spirit of The Bear, we will not be making any jokes”), and they carried the night on their shoulder pads with ease and panache. I’ve had the great pleasure of interviewing Dan for Shondaland and found him to be incredibly affable.
Reunions! Nostalgia! Tropes!
Nostalgia is such a thing online. I may just be up here croning, but thanks to the Internet and the rapid-fire way we now consume content, it feels like we’re nostalgic for things that happened within shorter windows of time than before (Gen Z waxes nostalgic for shit that happened like, 5 minutes ago). The seemingly Gen X and Millennial Emmys producers mined this fondness for yesterday by staging reunions from shows of actual yore like Happy Days and The West Wing (ending with Schitt’s Creek, natch), and deploying theme songs from shows past (Quincy Jones’s theme to Sanford & Son was once my ringtone) to a heartwarming effect.
Round-ups!
Also thanks to the Internet, we consider content in bite-sized round-ups for fast and easy digestion. By grouping past and present nominees in various configurations of character tropes (TV Dads, TV Lawyers, TV Fentanyl Dealers, jk) producers and writers once again leveraged nostalgia to maximize star power on the screen at all times to keep us from channel-surfing or lengthy fridge breaks.
The Gratifying Glory of a Liza Colón-Zayas Win
Sloppy TV photo, me
In a previous post, I wrote at length about how The Bear nailed the topic of ageism with Liza Colón-Zayas’s vital performance in “Napkins” and BOOM, here’s the Emmy. I could write an entire post on the importance of how this long-overlooked Latina 50-something actress landed the role of a lifetime and acted the shit out of an entire episode about being ignored and dismissed by younger employers because of her age and ethnicity to the tune of this Emmy win, but this graf will have to do.
See what happens when you give 50-something women a chance to do our FCKNG thing? We knock it out of the park and make you look damn good. We’re not done until we say we’re done.
She ended her speech with a call to action: “To all the Latinas who are looking at me, keep believing and vote. Vote for your rights.” Chef’s kiss!
The Bear, In General
What makes a series successful is a combination of great writing, compelling direction, and actors who can unzip the skin of their characters and step into them seamlessly. While many critics struggled with the unconventional pacing of The Bear this season, material that allows the actors to focus on the internal life of their characters can prove rewarding in every way for everyone. Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy award was well-deserved, as was Jeremy Allen White’s Best Actor award. Ayo Edebiri is a genius, is luminous as hell, and deserves everything. I mean, Abby Elliott was great, Lionel Boyce was tremendous, Jamie Lee Curtis (hello!)—every episode gave each actor an incredible opportunity to flex and this is why I will dutifully watch to The Bear’s natural end.
Candice Bergen
Leave it to Bergen to slay her introduction for Best Actress in a Comedy. Recalling how her own Emmy-winning character Murphy Brown was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when she decided to be a single mother, she mused: “Oh how far we’ve come. Today a Republican candidate for Vice President would never attack a woman for not having kids so as they say, my work here is done. Meow.”
The Baby Reindeer Effect
OMFG this show. As I wrote here previously, it was an excruciating yet necessary watch. Harrowingly enough, writer/comedian/actor Richard Gadd developed Baby Reindeer based on events that took place in his life. In a GQ profile, Gadd said he wrote the show “after six years of paranoia, 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, and 350 hours of voicemail.” Among so many things, it catalyzed us to examine how hurt people hurt people, the beauty and danger of forging connections, and the impact of boundaries on our parasocial relationships.
As the first trans nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama, Nava Mau made history with her brilliant performance as Teri, but it was Jessica Gunning as Martha who had the material to win that award. Series creator Richard Gadd, the reindeer himself, took home statuettes for Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. After saying he thought he’d “never, ever get his life together,” Gadd was sure to encourage other victims of sexual assault to keep going. “Here I am, just over a decade later, picking up one of the biggest writing awards in television,” Gadd said. “I don’t mean that to sound arrogant—I mean it as encouragement for anyone going through a difficult time right now to persevere.”
The Shogun Sweep
Before the Emmys even began, Shogun swept the Creative Arts Emmys, making it the most decorated show in a single season. Admittedly, I’ve slacked on this series and should probably get on it because it sounds like a work of FCKNG art.
Hacks Were Anything But
Hacks had a poignant season of seasons (I’ve written about how exquisitely validating it was right here on this very Substack) and the reward was the 16 Emmy noms it earned this year, sweeping awards for Outstanding Comedy Series (usurping The Bear), Best Actress in a Comedy, and Best Writing in a Comedy Series. After graciously thanking the crew, showrunner Paul W. Downs addressed ageism: “When we pitched this show about two women, one of whom was over 60, we didn’t know if we would sell it,” said Downs. “About 20 percent of our population is over 60+ but there are only 3 percent of those characters on television. I would like to see more of them because while I’m a great young supporting actor, I really want to be a good old lead.” Chin, chin!
Y Tu Papi Tambien
That’s just ‘cause. You’re welcome! Don’t ever say I don’t give you anything.
xo
MF
LOVED, LOVED, LOOOOOOOVVVED that Liza Colon-Zayas won!!!!!!!!!!! A long overdue win for a very talented actress.
I missed Candace. But caught all the others. I cried when Gadd said. “I don’t mean that to sound arrogant—I mean it as encouragement for anyone going through a difficult time right now to persevere.” and i am not a crier! I too will watch The Bear to the end. XXX