As summer ends, one of the things that I personally look forward to is the awards season.
It perhaps sounds like an insipid statement, especially since I (or anybody that I personally know for that matter) have never even been close to stepping a foot into a Hollywood studio. But, truth is, I find a certain gratification in seeing some of my TV favorites win an award, and that is perhaps a sentiment that everyone can agree on. Good cinematography, after all, is made to be dissected and appreciated, and like Nietzche argued, one needs to enjoy a little of dyonisyan entertainment too.
But I’m going to be honest, it is becoming harder and harder to sit through an award ceremony — especially the Emmys. It might be because my generation is simply not invested in these anymore, or it might be because of the failed and cringe-worthy attempts that seem to be more and more recurrent during each ceremony. It may also be a combination of all the previously mentioned. TV is simply dying — and the once traditionally appreciated award ceremonies are dying with it too.
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, a hostless, cringe-worthy, and irreparably chaotic ceremony from the start, is plain proof of this.
Not a single person that I know watched this year’s Emmy Awards. Most people that I know kept up with the ceremony though (shoutout to yours truly, social media). There were, of course, certain highlights throughout the night — some of them undoubtedly big and historic. But overall, this year’s viewer-painful Emmys wasn’t worth watching — and this is coming from someone who always gets excited with the prospect of extravagant dresses and expected nail-biting moments that are typical of award-shows.
Right from the very start, this year’s “biggest night of television” was simply terrible.
The extremely, horrendously, painfully bad:
The hostless ceremony began with nobody else but Homer Simpson — I’m not lying. Homer Simpsom came out on stage and quickly stepped and fell into a hole in the floor, a visual that did not necessarily start the night with the right foot.
I get it: Fox, who presented this year’s awards, was desperately trying to prove it still exists after Disney bought every single Fox thing that wasn’t the Fox broadcast network. I get it. I truly do. We all love Homer. But, honestly, who thought that an animated appearance was going to be the best way to start off the night? Or the best way for Fox to prove it still relevant? It was simply painful to watch — and mind this was only a few seconds into the ceremony.
Black-ish’s Anthony Anderson then came on stage, joking about saving the night and handing over the spotlight to Bryan Cranston, who gave an unnecessary speech about the importance of television and how the moon landing inspired his acting career. At this point, the visual and auditory pain that I was experiencing was so acute that I can’t even describe it. Perhaps the Oscars were able to go without a host, but this year’s Emmys miserably failed at being hostless.
Ben Stiller then came on stage to present the first award of the night. Before saying who the winner was though, he hung out on stage with wax figures — yeah, wax figures. Bob Newhart was hiding as one of the wax figures, as to what he then came out to present the award with Stiller and point out how weird the wax-figure sketch had been. I’m not going to lie, it was really weird.
The show was honestly already bad as it was— “but hey,” one would think, “could it possibly get worse?” Well, when Ken Jeong appeared on stage with Nick Cannon, Jeong said “hold my beer kiddos” and proceeded to perform one of the worst moments of the night. Jeong asked the audience to help him make a Tik ToK for his daughter, a sketch that straight up felt like an awkward promotional for the video platform. Even Jeong seemed aware that the joke wasn’t funny, making a pained expression towards the end and commenting about how it would end his career. It was so bad.
For God’s sake, why did the people in charge of the Emmys possibly allowed any of these unfunny, awkward, and cringe-worthy sketches to happen?
The not so bad:
Like I said though, there were actually some good moments throughout the award-show.
As expected, HBO’s Game of Thrones (which went into the ceremony with a record-breaking 32 nominations) triumphed at Sunday’s show, winning two trophies including Best Drama Series and Supporting Actor for Peter Dinklage. Many fans, of course, were outraged because the famous and much-loved show didn’t win as many trophies as expected. Game of Thrones, nonetheless, had a good night at the Emmys.
Billy Porter won the award for “Lead Actor in a Drama Series” for his work in Pose, becoming the first black man to ever win in this category — a most-certainly plausible moment of the night. Jharrel Jerome also won the award for “Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie” for his work on the acclaimed-Duvernay directed “When They See Us” — this was an expected win yet one of the most awaited moments of the night.
In the comedy category, Amazon’s critically acclaimed “Fleabag” brought home top prizes, taking the best comedy series award, directing award (Harry Bradbeer), and writing and actress awards (Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch also won best Television Movie — honestly, a well-deserved award.
Yeah, besides those few good moments, that’s pretty much it.
The 71st Emmy Awards was undeniably painful to watch. It was so bad that its repeatedly and various cringe-worthy moments perhaps took the spotlight away from its good aspects.
If this was truly television’s biggest night, I honestly don’t want to see its lowest.
