The 2016 Emmys are in the books. There were some surprises, some less-than-surprises, and some, uh… sandwiches. Game of Thrones won for Outstanding Drama again, which seems fair because, as I said in my predictions post, none of the other dramas featured a 20-foot-tall giant named Wun-Wun ripping someone in half. Although that certainly would have spiced up House of Cards. Something to consider for next season, I suppose.
Anyway, you can check out the full list of nominees and winners from last night, if you want the comprehensive rundown. But right now, we are not doing comprehensive. We are doing just the night’s biggest winners and losers, as decided by a panel of noted award show experts and histori-…noppppppe, just me. Let’s get started
Winner: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
The night’s biggest winner was the first installment of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story limited series, The People v. O.J. Simpson, which took home awards for Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Sarah Paulson), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Courtney B. Vance), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Sterling K. Brown), and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie (D.V. DeVincentis). That’s … [slides beans around on abacus] … that’s a lot of awards. The show more or less swept the limited series categories, losing only for directing and supporting actress, the latter of which was only a mild snub, seeing as they didn’t have anyone nominated.
It was even a good night for the people from the show who didn’t win. John Travolta showed up with hair that made him look like a cross between a vampire and an elementary school child on picture day, and Jimmy Kimmel got in a nice little joke about Schwimmer’s character calling O.J. “Juice” all the time. I guess, if we’re being sticklers about the facts, these things were more about my personal enjoyment than the continued success of the series, but isn’t that what’s really important here? I think so.
Cheers.
Loser: FX
It’s a little odd to declare a network a loser moments after trumpeting the dominance of its biggest and flashiest program, but it’s worth noting that both Fargo and The Americans got shut out last night. This is a shame. Fargo turned in a really breathtaking second season and, in another O.J.-free universe, I could have seen both the show and Bokeem Woodbine come away with trophies. The show just ran into a buzzsaw that was released by its own network. Friendly buzzsaw fire, if you will. A flaming buzzsaw.
And the night was even more cruel for The Americans, FX’s long-excellent, long-ignored spy drama, which finally got a bunch of nominations in the prestige categories (Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Outstanding Drama) only to get sent home empty-handed. It’s not that the winners in those categories weren’t deserving (more on them in a bit), but man, this was a little like watching an honor roll student get invited to the prom only to have her date spend all night making out with a cheerleader.
Winner: Stars of very strange, high-concept dramas that involve multiple personalities
Heeeeyyy this was cool. The top acting awards in drama went to Rami Malek and Tatiana Maslany, stars of Mr. Robot and Orphan Black, respectively, which are both very strange shows in which their characters inhabit multiple personalities. They go about it in very different ways (Malek’s character has a hallucinatory alter ego played by Christian Slater; Maslany plays about a million different clones), but still, that’s kind of a cool little coincidence. And it’s a nice break from our now decade-plus run of these categories being dominated by portrayals of brooding high-status narcissists (Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper, Frank Underwood) and their mistreated but resilient wives (Carmela Soprano, Skylar White, Claire Underwood).
The supporting acting nods for drama going to Ben Mendelsohn and Maggie Smith over, say, Jonathan Banks and Lena Headey was… less good. But let’s pick our battles here.
Loser: Anyone silly enough to challenge Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has now won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy five years in a row. At some point this stops becoming a trend and starts becoming an inevitability. They should just name the award after her. In fact, that should be a thing. You win five times in a row, you are no longer eligible, but the award gets named after you. The Julia Louis-Dreyfus Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Has a nice ring to it.
Three more to go for you, Tambor.
Winner: Parks and Recreation
Now, technically, Parks and Recreation didn’t win any Emmys, because it wasn’t nominated for any, because it ended in 2015 and last year was its final official go-round on the awards circuit. But I would still like to bring this tweet to your attention:
https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/777713007568777216
Categorizing Oswalt, Key, and Maslany as alums is a teeny bit of a stretch considering they each just had small little guest arcs on the show, but even saying that, it’s a testament to what a killer lineup of guest stars the show had over the years. And then you add the wins by Ansari and Poehler (the latter of which was long overdue), and throw in the fact that a dude who was like sixth or seventh on the call sheet is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and…
I miss Parks and Recreation. I think that’s what I’m getting at.
Loser: Broadcasting, again
Another rough year for the broadcast networks. The big four only took home two Emmys on the night (for the bigger categories, at least): Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Regina King for American Crime) and Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Kate McKinnon for SNL). This has been a trend for a while now, ever since voters realized there are comedies other than Modern Family. I suspect we’ll see a snap back in the other direction one of these years. There are some really good network shows right now that contain award-worthy performances, especially on the comedy side. Black-ish, Jake Johnson, Andre Braugher, Constance Wu, and so on. We’re just in a cable and streaming groove right now.
Winner: Jimmy Kimmel
Hosting an awards show is basically an impossible job. All you can really ask for is a solid monologue (check), a few nice bits (Matt Damon strolling on stage to taunt him while casually eating an apple was the funniest part of the night), and for the show to come in reasonably on schedule (check). Kimmel did all of that. I know that sounds like the faintest praise possible, but I really don’t think everyone realizes how hard it is to pull off just that, especially with all the plate-spinning and chaos that goes on every single moment the host isn’t looking into a camera. Think of it like being a referee at the Super Bowl. You can do a good job, sure. That’s a bonus. But your primary objective is to not screw it up. Kimmel succeeded in that, and managed to go above and beyond. It was a fun night. Can’t ask for much more.
