Emmy Thoughts

 


The annual celebration of excellence in television, the Emmy Awards, were held last Sunday. It was an interesting year for TV and nominations as much of what we saw honored happened last Fall and early in the Winter thanks to a strange year for production. It was also one where the consensus shows popular with critics weren't the shows that resonated with me, or that I even regularly watched, in large part. That held true with the winners.

The big winner of the night was the comedy "Schitt's Creek," which is a cable comedy I tried a few episodes of in season one and never went back to. It has some hardcore, dedicated fans and has really established itself. In its final season, winning all the major awards is a testament to the connection it made with audiences.

Similarly, there are many that are taken with HBO's "Succession," which finished its second season last Fall. It won a number of awards, including for performances, which added to the HBO reputation. But it was another HBO series, "Watchmen," that I was most excited to do well.

"Watchmen," which is a sequel of sorts to the famous graphic novel, was created by Damon Lindelof. Will there be another season, no one is certain. But if not, we got a pretty brilliant vision of this storytelling with the season last Fall. For that, it won the award for Best Limited Series.

Also honored were two of the stars of "Watchmen." Regina King won as best Lead Actress in a limited series, and was truly fantastic throughout. But I was excited to see Yahya Abdul-Matten II win for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series. His work in "Watchmen" was excellent and surprising in a number of ways, really helping some of the big twists in the show to land.

Finally, I was happy to see John Oliver and "Last Week Tonight" win again as best variety program. They continue to entertain and put out some really compelling pieces, and it's nice to see him and the show continually recognized.

TV is being produced by more sites and services than ever before and feels more diverse than ever before, so it makes sense that we're seeing awards given all over the landscape. But it also makes it, to me, tougher to connect with than the Oscars, where we have a pretty universal set of films every year. I was excited about the ones I liked that won, and maybe the wins for others will inspire some new viewers.

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