The Hollywood Reporter
DANIEL FIENBERG: The Television Academy has done it again! And I’m not sure I mean that as a compliment.
I’m happy to see two of my favorite comedies of the past year, Succession and The White Lotus, dominating the nominations. On the drama side.
And I’m glad to see Emmy voters finally recognized that my absolute favorite show of last year, Reservation Dogs, exists. Or exists enough to receive one nomination in the sound category.
And how nice that Emmy voters also noticed Dead Ringers. For cinematography. But somehow left Rachel Weisz out of the Lead Actress in a Limited Series category.
Once again, it was an Emmy nomination slate that suggests voters watch a half-dozen shows, which allows dozens more to slip through the cracks. Nowhere is that clearer than the supporting categories, where nearly every actor from The White Lotus got nominated (NEARLY… sorry to Haley Lu Richardson and Beatrice Grannó), and the guest categories (ALL Succession and The Last of Us?!?). Countless worthy contenders are left scratching their heads.
ANGIE HAN: I, too, would like to start by “really?”-ing some of these choices. Don’t get me wrong: I’m pleased to see The Other Two get some love (for writing), or Perpetually Forgotten Roy Kid Alan Ruck finally enter the race. But also: nothing for Somebody Somewhere, one of the most heart-burstingly joyous comedies of the past year? No love for Mo or Party Down or This Is Going to Hurt? Sarah Goldberg going empty-handed after four seasons’ worth of heartbreaking, hilarious, jaw-dropping work on Barry?
Then there are the head-scratchers of shows that did get named, but not in the categories I’d have predicted. I wasn’t a huge fan of Love & Death overall, but I’d have thought Elizabeth Olsen would be the contender for her wide-ranging performance; instead, only Jesse Plemons made it in. And I like the entire core cast of Shrinking, but Harrison Ford was the clear standout to me, not Jason Segel. (Congrats to Jessica Williams, though — that one I did see coming.)
And while it’s nice that Reservation Dogs hasn’t been completely shut out, how terribly sad that its actors, writers, directors, etc., have been — Devery Jacobs in particular has been crushing it as a star and a writer this past season, and I wish Zahn McClarnon had gotten some recognition for the killer year he’s had between this and Dark Winds. Bemoaning the basic tastes of Emmy voters might be a tradition as old as the Emmys itself, but I do think Reservation Dogs going mostly ignored is an oversight we’ll be shaking our heads over for years to come.
As I think is more or less the TV critic refrain on Emmy nominations morning: I’m not surprised, but I am disappointed. Which skips stung you the most, Dan?
FIENBERG: The problem is that it’s my nature to get hung up on the snubs — and some of these are SNUBS, not casual omissions — rather than focusing on the good stuff and, as you say, it isn’t like there isn’t good stuff.
Like, look at Rhea Seehorn! Second straight year with a nomination for somebody whose absence I used to have to lament annually. But no nomination for Carol Burnett, no Better Call Saul nominations for directing or cinematography. Heck, no Bryan Cranston guest acting nomination and I’ve been predicting BryCrans would be the unlikely person to break that Better Call Saul Emmy shut-out streak. Instead, it’s impossible to imagine Saul winning in any of its categories, which would put its final tally at zero wins and 53 nominations — almost unfathomable.
Speaking of shows ending their runs with an Emmy whimper? Remember when Atlanta was a voter favorite? One nomination. For cinematography. How do Francesca Sloane and Karen Joseph Adcock not get nominations for writing “The Goof Who Sat By the Door”? Or Janine Nabers for writing “Work Ethic!”? How do you look at what Brian Tyree Henry did in “Andrew Wyeth. Alfred’s World.” or what Zazie Beetz did in “Snipe Hunt” and not find nominations for them?
Did voters completely miss the cinematography in Amazon’s The English, much less the performances by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer? That Amazon had limited series with Weisz and Blunt and neither of them were nominated is such total nonsense. I guess Amazon put its weight behind Daisy Jones and the Six, which wasn’t nearly as good. And then somehow Daisy Jones and the Six didn’t get a song nomination? Then again, “Your Personal Trash Man Can” from Marvelous Mrs. Maisel did? I’m guessing this was a weird morning at Amazon headquarters, celebration-wise.
Sigh. OK. I’m sure we’ll return to annoyance, but… let’s be positive for a second.
Dominique Fishback! Yay! Padma Lakshmi with nominations for Top Chef hosting and Taste the Nation! Lots of very fun nominations for Prey (but not Amber Midthunder). Brian Cox for lead actor even though he was barely a guest star this season!
Sigh. Back on my bullshit, as the social media kids say.
Angie, say some nice things.
HAN: See, even the positives you just pointed out come with a side helping of grumbles. You reminded me that Prey was a spectacularly fun flick, but also that, for all we’ve seen more Native representation in film and TV over the past couple years, Native performers like Midthunder and Spencer and the entire casts of Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls and Dark Winds have continued to go under-appreciated by awards voters. You know I adore Succession, but its dominance in the acting categories makes me wish just one of its three Lead Actor slots might have gone to another series. (Brian Cox, I love you but what are you even doing in this category?)
But. Anyway. Nice things!
It seemed a given that Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett would get well-deserved nominations for The Last of Us — but I’m glad to see Lamar Johnson and Kevionn Montreal Woodward get in there too, though that means the Guest Actor in a Drama category is now split entirely between two HBO dramas. Meanwhile, over in the Guest Actress categories, I’m tickled to see Harriet Walter nominated twice over, for playing flawed moms on both Ted Lasso and Succession.
While Beef getting a lot of attention was to be expected, despite its offscreen controversy, I’m pleased to see the love extended beyond its big-name leads to less well-known supporting players like Joseph Lee and Young Mazino. I might have also liked to see some of Jury Duty‘s less famous names in the running, given what a feat of acting they pulled off with that long con, but I’m glad James Marsden got his due — and especially that casting director Susie Farris did.
And though Haley Lu Richardson did not get nominated, Portia’s narratively appropriate but eye-searingly awkward outfits, courtesy of The White Lotus costume designer Alex Bovaird, did. Her competition includes Succession‘s Michelle Matland, whose eye for the Roys’ “quiet luxury” versus plebes’ “ludicrously capacious handbags” were so essential to our understanding of their world.
It strikes me, though, that most of the bright spots I’m seeing on this list aren’t exactly shockers. Not that that makes them any less earned, but as a TV fan I generally look forward to some really fun upsets to offset the disappointing snubs … and is it just me, or are there fewer inspired, exciting, inspiring surprises this time around?
FIENBERG: I think Jury Duty was a shocker. Whether it’s an inspiring shocker or an infuriating shocker comes down to whether or not you liked Jury Duty. I did not. And that’s OK. To me, Jury Duty getting nominated for many things and the much more challenging The Rehearsal getting nominated for nothing is a blunder, albeit a populist blunder. And as populist blunders go, I’d rather see Jury Duty come from out of nowhere and get nominations than Emmy voters pandering to Yellowstone. But you know what I’d have liked even more than that? For those Freevee-loving Emmy voters to have noticed High School. Yes, I know, I’ve gone back to negativity.
The truth is that with all of those 20+ nominee juggernauts, there’s simply less room for unlikely dark horses to sneak in. Instead, the positive surprises are the smaller-name actors getting in for bigger name shows, the rising tide that lifted ships like Keivonn Montreal Woodard or Simona Tabasco.
I’m a bit astounded by all of the love for Bad Sisters, with writing and directing nominations and an acting nomination for Sharon Horgan, but I’m pleased because the show was a dark, prickly delight. However, the show was a black comedy and it’s in the drama fields for no good reason. Wait, I’ve already complained about that.
I love that the fiercely iconoclastic anti-authoritarian rage of Andor picked up nominations for drama series and that Beau Willimon and Benjamin Caron got writing and directing nominations. I’d worried that voters might be like, “We need Baby Yoda to recognize a Star Wars series,” but then they went and nominated Obi-Wan Kenobi for movie/miniseries, so… Emmy voters don’t even need quality to recognize a Star Wars series. And where was the Andor nomination for Andy Serkis, whose impassioned delivery was responsible for Willimon getting that writing recognition? Back to negativity.
My big-picture feelings are things that have been running through all of our reactions: Emmy voters aren’t getting to the breadth and depth of television, they’re stuck in a surface-level love affair with a half-dozen shows per year. That’s bad. Emmy voters are struggling with tone and genre, and the “drama” and “comedy” designations are in desperate need of overhaul — and that’s bad. And while you can find pockets of diversity and inclusivity — God bless all of those Beef nominations — there are still these infuriating gaps. And that’s bad.
What do you have in terms of big-picture takeaways?
HAN: Look, I could sit here all day and list people and shows I’m disappointed didn’t get nominated … but then we’d be sitting here all day. So I’ll simply say I cosign a lot of your grievances, but most especially the one about how Emmy voters seem to pick a few shows to give all the nominations each year, and then ignore dozens and dozens of other contenders that might be just as deserving.
I treasure my HBO subscription as much as the next TV lover, and can’t really begrudge Succession, The White Lotus and The Last of Us any of their individual nominations; at the same time, I sigh at the fact that them taking up a combined 80% of the dramatic acting slots leaves precious little room for less expected or less well-known competitors to break through. At least the comedy categories seem a bit more varied; pray this is the year we break the stranglehold of Ted Lasso.
But I don’t suppose there’s much you or I can do about any of this, except to keep doing what we’ve been doing: sifting through the torrent of Peak TV as much as we can, picking out the good shows from the bad ones and the great shows from the good ones. Because someone’s gotta keep banging the drum for the Reservation Dogses and the Somebody Somewheres and the High Schools of the world — whether Emmy voters are listening or not.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
