2020 Emmy Awards

[Sabin]

I think it's safe to say Damon Lindelof has restored his name.

[OscarGuy]

I think Schitt's Creek is a great show. It's hilarious and charming and one of the most progressive shows on television.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
I think the only precedent, in a different genre, might be Angels in America.

Well... here's hoping that's the only thing about this year that has 2004 vibes.

[Mister Tee]

This is a record, right? There's never been a show that's won series, every acting award, writing, and directing, right?

I think the only precedent, in a different genre, might be Angels in America.

I don't know that any other show has ever won all four acting awards, which is the hardest part of this (series/writing/directing has of late gone to mostly the same show -- Fleabag did it just last year).

[Sabin]

This is a record, right? There's never been a show that's won series, every acting award, writing, and directing, right?

[Mister Tee]

Is Schitt’s Creek that good?

I've been watching it in doses -- on nights when I have time for 22 or 44 minutes, not an hour or two -- and find pretty much every episode (through season 4 to date) makes me laugh helplessly. Pretty much everyone on the show has exceptional off-beat comic timing.

Oh, and I've loved Gene Levy and Catherine O'Hara since SCTV in the early 90s, so I'm thrilled for them.

[mlrg]

mlrg wrote
Is Schitt’s Creek that good?

I didn't really like Season One but people really seem to love it. It's a pretty classic structure so there's no real reason to believe it isn't effective.

It just can't be better than The Good Place though, right?

On the comedy side I’ve seen The Kominsky Method, Dead to Me and The Great and really enjoyed all of them.

[Sabin]

mlrg wrote
Is Schitt’s Creek that good?

I didn't really like Season One but people really seem to love it. It's a pretty classic structure so there's no real reason to believe it isn't effective.

It just can't be better than The Good Place though, right?

[mlrg]

Is Schitt’s Creek that good?

[Sabin]

EMMY WINS AS THEY ROLL IN...

Outstanding Drama Series: Succession
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Jeremy Strong, Succession
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Zendaya, Euphoria
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Julia Garner, Ozark
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series: Jesse Armstrong, Succession
Outstanding Director in a Drama Series: Andrij Parekh, Succession


Outstanding Comedy Series: Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Eugene Levy, Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek
Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series: Andrew Cividino & Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek

Outstanding Limited Series: Watchmen
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series/Movie: Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series/Movie: Regina King, Watchmen
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series/Movie: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series/Movie: Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America
Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series: Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson, Watchmen
Outstanding Director in a Limited Series: Maria Schrader, Unorthodox

Outstanding Variety Talk Series; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Outstanding Competition Program: Ru Paul's Drag Race

[mlrg]

I hope Succession takes it all. It’s the best television series since The Sopranos

[Sabin]

anonymous1980 wrote
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

I have a question. Please explain it to me as someone who has largely stopped watching television over the past year for a host of annoying reasons...

How is Annie Murphy not going to win this? I've only really seen season one of Schitt's Creek but her character is very funny. I don't know if her character is the most beloved on the show but you could make the argument. A hit song came out of her character this season, one that celebrates her that's been played everywhere. You'd think if one person this season was going to win it would be her. What am I missing?

NOTE:

anonymous1980 wrote
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

I know it's a lost cause at this point but I think the win that would make me happiest of the evening would be William Jackson Harper for The Good Place. I think I'm fonder of Chidi than any character on television in years. It's a terribly difficult role that could easily come off as a scold or a holier than thou. But his take on indecisiveness feels like a mic drop on the human condition. That he was so close to quitting makes it especially powerful. Go Chidi!

Michael Shur winning for writing would also make me very happy.

[anonymous1980]

Final predictions!

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Succession (HBO)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Schitt's Creek (PopTV)

OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
Watchmen (HBO)

OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

OUTSTANDING COMPETITION SERIES
RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Steve Carell, The Morning Show (AppleTV+)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Laura Linney, Ozark (Netflix)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Helena Bonham-Carter, The Crown (Netflix)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A DRAMA SERIES
Benjamin Carron, The Crown ("Aberfan") (Netflix)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jesse Armstrong, Succession ("This Is Not For Tears") (HBO)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Eugene Levy, Schitt's Creek (PopTV)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek (PopTV)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A COMEDY SERIES
Andrew Cividino and Dan Levy, Schitt's Creek ("Happy Ending") (PopTV)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A COMEDY SERIES
Michael Schur, The Good Place ("Whenever You're Ready") (NBC)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Hugh Jackman, Bad Education (HBO)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Regina King, Watchmen (HBO)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Jovan Adepo, Watchmen (HBO)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Jean Smart, Watchmen (HBO)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Nicole Kassell, Watchmen ("It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice") (HBO)

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES or MOVIE
Anna Winger, Unorthodox ("Part 1") (Netflix)

[Sabin]

This has become my de facto catch-up thread as I check out things I missed in the past year:

I'm not quite done with Mrs. America but it's A LOT better than I was anticipating. All I knew was that it was a Ryan Murphy production with Cate Blanchett as Phylis Schlafly. I knew nothing of the structure, which is very effective. Mrs. America is told is chapters, taking us mostly year by year through the 1970's, profiling one woman per year while threading a larger narrative involving all of them. Some, like Shirley Chisholm or Jill Ruckelshaus, really just take stage in one chapter/year, while others (Schlafly, Steinem, Abzug) show up consistently throughout. I think it does a really great job of bringing this history lesson to light. It's never too campy or too dry.

I would imagine that Cate Blanchett has to win the Emmy over Regina King, if only because villains tend to win more than heroes. But also it's such a good part. The series portrays Schlafly as corrupt rather than a true-believer. She can't get anyone to take her seriously as an anti-Kissinger nuclear crusader so she pivots to women's rights because she can find political advantage in that arena. It's never entirely clear how much of a true believer she is. She's a very manipulative person who uses her smile, manners, and linguistic cunning to stay on top of the pecking order. It's always clear when she's bullshitting her way out of confrontation. And yet she is always entirely human as this disempowered woman who goes after power by running a campaign on denying women power. There's a great moment where Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale, excellent) confronts Schlafly's lackeys by accidentally making them realize that in employing them in her crusade she's turned them into working women. And yet Blanchett never quite feels like a revelation in the role. It's just too tailor-made. There's almost a degree of inevitability about her excellence here.

Very good stuff thus far.

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
Sabin, how long did you take to watch it? And this might be presumptious, but what did you think of the graphic novel?

I watched it pretty much within a span of 24 hours. I wish I didn't because I think it would play substantially better broken up week by week to give the mind a chance to race and wonder where it might go next, so then its pivots would be more welcome surprises rather than slightly unsatisfying. So, that's on me. But in truth, I think I'm really just talking about episode 7.

I've read Watchmen many times. The first time must have been somewhere in the late 90's when it was already a sacred cow . Crazy to think when I read it, it had only been in print for a decade and some change. I think the 1980's were the best time to read it because the fears of nuclear anxiety were very real (I grew up past that) and the idea of a complete, alternate history of superheroes was more groundbreaking than a novelty. It felt a bit retro to me and I suspect that most people who read the book will also find it retro. Maybe even quaint. What it felt instead was classic, in the best sense. As a 90's kid reading Marvel crap (and largely it was crap), I was used to the medium of comic books being told to NOT tell a story: to keep interest by teasing things that would never happen, angsty superheroes posing ridiculously, convoluted plot-lines, and mega-events nobody asked for. But mostly no progress. Watchmen was A STORY. And I wasn't used to reading stories. I found it entertaining and occasionally unsettling (especially in the tragedy of Rorsach's arc). And in the years since, I've still never found it groundbreaking. Simply classic, and justifiably.