Team Experience Emmy Reactions Pt 1: Ode to the Emmy Snubs!
Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 4:40PM We asked members of Team Experience how they felt about the Emmy nominations (podcast coming up, too). Here's how they felt about those that were missing from the list.
PERFORMERS
ERIC: It was wonderful seeing so many actors from Severance recognized, but it would have been even lovelier if they'd have made room for lead Britt Lower, who provides a perfect tension between hope and dread, and the off-center comic stylings of Tramell Tillman, the sweet-dancing supervisor. Both actors really helped to keep the show in a dangerous zone...
ABE: In Gaslit, Shea Whigham delivered an astonishing, fully invested turn as G. Gordon Liddy, one of the most committed performances in recent memory. On a show full of great actors playing memorable characters, he was distinctive and unforgettable.
PATRICK: Renee Elise Goldsberry is an actor who understood the tone, energy, and rhythm of the Girls5Eva universe from episode one and delivers unhinged zinger after unhinged zinger to not *nearly* enough acclaim. No one puts Wickie in a corner.
MARK: Anne Hathaway, perfectly, deludedly awful in WeCrashed
BEN: I'm beyond thrilled Rhea Seehorn finally go her nomination, but pour one out for Better Call Saul's Michael Mando. In a role originally perceived as a villain turned into a man embed with doomed sympathy. I hope he gets some meaty material out of it.
NATHANIEL: I will never get over Michelle Pfeiffer's absence for Best Actress in a Limited Series. This is why we can't have nice things. First the Oscars took her genius for granted on the regular and now the Emmys show an indication of doing the same. What can be done?
CLÁUDIO: Part of me wants to focus on the Limited Series Best Actress race, a category with a variety of stellar options that ended up delivering a disappointing lineup (Why is Paulson there?). However, I will, instead, focus my love on Juliette Binoche. She took on The Staircase's most problematic role and somehow made it work, navigating its trickiness with such skill that I momentarily forgot the real-life controversies surrounding her character's role in the show. While I'm ecstatic Firth and Collette made it, the French Oscar-winner deserved an Emmy nomination alongside them.
NICK: Yes, it’s great that the Comedy categories largely backed off from giving slots to SNL and other sketch comedy series, because that is not the same kind of acting that Quinta Brunson is doing. Yet, I am still sad that Robin Thede could not get a nomination for her work in A Black Lady Sketch Show, where she’s as hysterical as she always is, and proves her comedic bonafides in so many ridiculous situations. The whole ensemble is on fire, but the average craziness of Thede’s characters and her brilliance in those roles is probably the highest of her co-stars, so give it to her! She deserves it.
SHOWS
JASMINE: Maid was a heart-wrenching show about the issues and flaws of the justice system. It had beautiful performances and compelling character and you wanted nothing but for Alex (Margaret Qualley) to succeed. Also angry about the acting snub for Anika Noni Rose and especially Nick Robinson. He played an awful character but with such nuance that he gave it depth and meaning.
CLÁUDIO: The continual snubbing of The Good Fight will always be aggravating to me. However, this year, I was rooting for Gentleman Jack to show up somewhere, especially considering it has been canceled after two seasons. Initially, I feared the period piece would lean too much on 'girlboss' clichés. Still, it delivered a thoughtful examination of the lives of queer women in the 19th century and how oppressed people can also be oppressors. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth in how its complex representational politics articulate brutal realities in our world today. In addition, it shows how certain marginalized people may still benefit from socio-economic privileges that beckon a steady defense of the status quo. On a shallower note, I love the costumes and wish they had been nominated.
ABE: It was probably too under-the-radar to begin with, but anyone who has seen Somebody Somewhere will tell you how incredible and down-to-earth it is, a true gem of a show that's both funny and heartwarming.
BEN: I love that both Fanning and Houlton got nominations, but The Great is worthy of it's own accolades. Not only is the central pair great, the writing, art direction, costumes, and the rest of a deft ensemble should have gotten more attention.
PATRICK: Forever a Survivor stan and after 40+ seasons now, the way it has injected freshness, fun, and new energy into its formula (even with sometimes uneven results) blows my mind. Somehow it’s still such a important part of the television landscape and talked about more than it has been in a decade plus. But the Emmys are just over it. *starts petition to get Daddy Jeff nominated again*
MARK: “Never the new,” always The Gilded Age
NATHANIEL: Beyond the double-worthiness of Abbott Elementary and Only Murders in the Building it was a rough year at the Emmys for fresh comedies. The Television Academy has a very hard time letting old favourites go which makes breaking in more difficult than it should be for new shows that really deliver. It was especially sad to see no love for Minx or I Love That For You, which both had clever writing and ace ensemble casts and, even better, felt like originals. We'll have to hope that both have even better second seasons (if renewed) and can break through all the noise.
ERIC: It's a shame that Netflix didn't enter Sex Education into this race at all, subjecting them to the International Emmys instead. It's the most sex-positive, fresh high school comedy series ever made adn the work the actors and creative team do together each episode is transcendent.
Finally we asked the question, "If you could change one thing about Emmys voting system what would it be?"
8 of the 10 stars of THE WHITE LOTUS were nominated
CLÁUDIO: I would eradicate the current voting system where each member can select an unlimited number of contenders from the ballot. That's how we end up with a category with seven slots only representing two shows. I know the Emmys are notoriously allergic to the whole 'spread the wealth' concept, but this is absurd.
ABE: It would be great to have something about screentime or a reminder of what episodes performers were actually in during this season. Maybe a recurring character category would be helpful, or an additional distinction between supporting and guest? More categories should hopefully mean more deserving nominees, unless voters truly just watch the same shows.
NICK: There just HAS to be something we can do about how each branch treats their supporting and guest acting categories. Two dozen slots per branch at minimum and they all go to four shows. I won’t say any given nominee is categorically undeserving, but it makes a lot of good TV reek of default status because voters don’t try. Supporting Actress in a Limited Series recognizing only two shows is just embarrassing, no matter the quality of the roster.
NATHANIEL: There needs to be SOME form of quality control so that it's not just the same 8 shows over and over again in 117 categories. So I propose a "Executive Committee" solution with two rounds to get the nominations like the Oscars did with International Feature Film category (which inarguably improved the results). There's no reason to think something like that wouldn't work for the Emmys. Say, Emmy voters who volunteer get to choose 75% of the finalists for a category and the Executive Committe chooses the other 25%. Then the entire Academy votes from that narrowed down pool of options. (That and perhaps instituting a limit on how many nominations one show can receive per category -- as great as Succession and The White Lotus were, it's strange to believe that they alone hold 70% of the best performances of television from literally hundreds upon hundreds of shows)
MARK: Keep your number of nominees consistent—not ever changing, all over the place!
WHAT ABOUT YOU, DEAR READER? You've had a couple of days to think about the nominations. What still smarts?
Emmys, Nick Robinson, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Severance, Shea Wigham, TV, The Great
Reader Comments (8)
performers:
the entire cast of what we do in the shadows
william jackson harper & jessica williams - love life
jeff hiller - somebody somewhere
juliette lews- yellowjackets
sarah goldberg - barry
shows:
ghosts
love life [2nd season]
reservation dogs
I want to chime in about Mandy Moore. She was EXCELLENT throughout that show's run and was the show's MVP in its final season which, for the most part, wrapped that gargantuan beast of a show with its multiple timeline stories and a cast of thousands in a satisfying way.
We did NOT need to honor Sandra Oh or Jodie Comer (for a wan final season and hated series finale) or hell even Reese Witherspoon. Christine Baranski is doing Oscar-winning stuff in The Good Wife while Carrie Coon is giving us BRILLIANT DIVA in The Gilded Age. Or yes, Britt Lower which you guys already mentioned. The show's finale would've been less thrilling without her.
As for shows, they would never be nominated but THE OTHER TWO is up there with the great comedies of our time. So smart and hilarious. I also wished they gave CBS' GHOSTS some love.
Performers - I agree with several of the picks above - Britt Lower, Michael Mando, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Anne Hathaway. I also am really sad that Selena Gomez did not get in.
Shows - Absolutely Pachinko. I guess they could only nominate one Apple TV Plus series per category.
System Change - I really do not mind the many performers nominated from The White Lotus and Succession. Even this long after they premiered, those two shows stand head and shoulders for me above the other series this past year. Two of my favorite nominees were Sydney Sweeney, The White Lotus, and J. Smith-Cameron, Succession, and they would not have been nominated if there weren't such a fevered rush toward both shows. Both are great performances, but much more subtle than others' work in the same programs.
That said, there is definitely a problem with the voters' taste level when they nominate stuff like Inventing Anna and Pam and Tommy - entertaining shows, shows I watched, but definitely not the best tv has to offer in this age - over, say, Under the Banner of Heaven or The Staircase or WeCrashed. I am not sure how you solve that, though.
Station Eleven! Station Eleven! Station Eleven! Including Mackenzie Davis.
Also Selena Gomez and Britt Lower as mentioned.
Emmy nomination/voting system seems broken for a long time now. Can it even be fixed?
These no-noms still make me sad days later:
Performers:
Sarah Lancashire (Julia)
Christine Baranski (The Good Fight)
Pamela Adlon (Better Things, actor, writing)
Lee Min-ho (Pachinko)
Kim Min-ha (Pachinko)
Andie McDowell (Maid)
Naveen Andrews (The Dropout)
Selena Gomez (Only Murders)
Shows:
The Great
Reservation Dogs
We Are Lady Parts
Station Eleven
Pachinko
Maid
The Good Fight
For All Mankind
I'm with Claudio and others that the Good Fight snub stings. Sure, it has missed every season despite its reviews and embrace at TCA, the Critics Choice, and even the Globes, but I still have a bit of hope every year. I think this season, Baranski, Audra, and Mandy Patinkin all deserved nominations. I also would have loved a writing nom for the inventive "Previously On..." Hopefully, Baranski picks up an award at the Critics Choice Awards next year (if she proves worthy in season 6). It's sad to think she hasn't won anything for Diane.
I'm a little shocked they continue to do the unlimited voting thing. I didn't know that, but it really explains why so few shows are nominated now when, even a few years ago, you'd get a stray supporting actor/supporting actress nomination (e.g., Constance Zimmer, etc).
I really liked when they did the Blue Ribbon panels in the mid-aughts until the early 2010s. I thought it ensured strong performances got in, but a lot of popular choices got left out, in some case of performances from canceled shows. It would be interesting to see them develop a system where only the best get in (maybe a top 20, then top 6-8).
I'm not sure the Emmys are 'afraid' to spread the wealth, or allergic to new shows. It feels clearer every year that one of the major problems facing the Emmys is that there's just too much TV for people to watch, even people who are paid to do so for a living! I have no doubt that Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent in The First Lady, but the so-so reviews put me off ever watching it. same with Gaslit, same with a lot of shows and I think that's true of most viewers. Even within this excellent conversation between Film Experience writers I can only see mention of ONE international show. My point is that nobody is watching everything, it's becoming harder and harder to even watch *most* well-reviewed things currently airing and so more interesting or esoteric nominations are only going to become rarer.
Witherspoon over Aniston? I don't get all the fuzz about Zendaya either. Pfeiffer is really good in TFL, but that show is dreadful; Sweeney, happy for her, but she didn't need that nod for TWL, and neither did Coolidge, who's basically playing herself (again); Sharon Stone was criminally overlooked as Guest Actress for her fierce turn in The Flight Attendant; Stranger Things shouldn't have gotten in Drama Series. Chastain should've been nominated for her tour de force in SFAM.