Emmys Reactions - Awards Outlook
Photo from Entertainment Weekly
Awards analysis is provided by Sean from @MathTeacherMovies.
The Emmys have been frequently and wildly predictable over the past few years and this year’s ceremony was shaping up to be just as similar, yet there was still the occasional upset all leading up to a tremendous surprise at the end.
Personally, I did not watch the ceremony… not out of protest, but simply not getting an opportunity to stream it. The ceremony was on ABC, which could stream on Disney+ or Hulu and yet the platform has not figured out how to stream live which is probably more complicated.
The Bear losing Best Comedy is the most shocking headline of the night and this could have been for numerous reasons, but most likely is that the voters finally began to listen to the narrative of this not being a comedy, even though it has the occasional laugh. The show lost to Hacks, which has more of a comedic structure makes far more sense. However, this also could have been because, while these awards were for the second season, the muted reaction to the recently released third season might have affected its popularity much like the release of the second season helping it win many awards at the previous Emmys for its first season.
One performer that benefited from The Bear releasing Season 3 during the voting for Season 2 was Liza Colon-Zayas who had her spotlight performance in the most recent season, but because it had attention she ended up winning for the second season. Both Colon-Zayas and Anna Sawai made history becoming the first Latina to win in the supporting performance category and Sawai the first Asian to win in lead actress in a drama. These were two great moments that should not have taken this long to accomplish.
Jean Smart was able to break through The Bear’s hype for her lead performance in Hacks which definitely and eventually led to the momentum of Hacks winning the top prize of Best Comedy. Billy Crudup also was able to break through the Shogun momentum to once again win for The Morning Show. Unfortunately, Hanna Einbinder wasn't able to catch the Hacks momentum and win in a category that was fairly open which was a shame because this was her biggest chance.
One of the largest surprise wins was for Lamorne Morris in Fargo, beating out Robert Downey Jr. in The Sympathizer for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series. While RDJ wasn't a definitive lock, it seemed like the movie star playing multiple roles with heavy make-up would definitely be the winner, but having a more humble winner was a great moment that night.
Shogun and Baby Reindeer received several of their expected wins and dominated in each of their categories, but there was still some attention to the craft of other less popular shows including the writing of Slow Horses in Drama Series and the directing of Ripley in Limited Series. These shows were equally as great as the frontrunners in their respective categories and it was nice that the Emmys shared the wealth a bit more than usual.
The blending of categories and the various forms of delivery for series is making the Emmys much more unpredictable.