There's Something About Emmy
As far as masturbatory award shows go, the Emmys are no Oscars, but they're still a fairly big deal...especially in these current times where binge-watching shows on Netflix is overtaking going out to the movie theater when it comes to taking in entertainment, and actors who are known for their film roles are taking on television series due to the increased validity the medium is enjoying. Recent Emmy favorites like Breaking Bad and Mad Men may be over, but there's still a healthy crop of shows on right now for TV snobs to wax poetically about. And now the Emmy Awards are fast approaching, and it's time to pay homage to the past year of television, in the form of a foot-and-a-half tall statuette of a winged woman inexplicably holding an atom.
"The Creative Arts" portion of the awards (the show business version of the kid's table at the family Thanksgiving dinner) went down on September 10th and 11th, during which guest performances, animated series, and all of the technical categories (cinematography, casting, choreography, etc.) were honored. A few highlights include: Making a Murderer winning best documentary series (to nobody's surprise), James Corden's Carpool Karaoke somehow winning Outstanding Variety Special (beating out Amy Schumer and Beyonce, of all people), and the three most nominated shows (Veep, Game of Thrones, and the People v. O.J. Simpson) winning for Outstanding Casting in each of their categories (Comedy, Drama, and Limited Series, respectively). All of that was merely warm up, however for the real spectacle on Sunday.
Looking over the list of nominees, one thing is immediately obvious. It's no secret that for the last couple of years, the lists of Oscars nominees have been whiter than the customer base of Whole Foods. Not so for the Emmys - just about every major category includes at least one person of color, with the most notable exception being Outstanding Variety Talk Series.
Even if every other nominee had been black, the inclusion of James Corden would STILL have made it the whitest category.
Breaking the nominees down by network, there's a heavy concentration of nominations among a few networks (which isn't unusual). HBO is the clear winner, dominating in both drama (Game of Thrones) as well as comedy (Veep, Silicon Valley) with 40 nominations. Next up is FX, home of such shows as Fargo, American Horror Story, and The People v. O.J. Simpson, with 28. And Netflix has increased their number of nominations for the third year in a row with 17 - among them, House of Cards, Master of None, and Bloodline.
I'll fully admit that my finger is not always on the pulse of America when it comes to pop culture - which is why I'm so qualified to be a writer for an entertainment blog - but for what it's worth, here are some of my predictions for who's going to win:
Outstanding Drama: Game of Thrones
Outstanding Comedy: Veep
Outstanding Limited Series: The People v. O.J. Simpson
Outstanding TV Movie: Luther
Outstanding Actor/Actress in a Drama: Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder)
Outstanding Actor/Actress in a Comedy: Aziz Ansari (Master of None), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)
Outstanding Actor/Actress in a Limited Series: Cuba Gooding, Jr. (The People v. O.J. Simpson), Kirsten Dunst (Fargo)
The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sunday, September 18th, on ABC, for anyone who feels that their sins are so great that they warrant actually sitting through the award show in an act of self-punishment.
