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VULTURE
Gli Emmy Awards hanno già decretato un vincitore: Netflix
"Showbiz bible
Variety led its first take on today's Emmy
nominations with the fact that Netflix had scored a historic
breakthrough, and this is as it should be. This
is a milestone,
one that will almost certainly be cited by historians when chronicling
the collapse of linear television about, oh, seven years from now. By
ignoring how
House of Cards and
Arrested Development and
Hemlock Grove
got to viewers, and instead focusing on the content of those three
s
Mad Men); the Best Comedy nod for
Louie
(the first time a basic cable network has squeezed into this category);
and the inclusion of Yahoo and Funny or Die in a short-form category,
which also includes the Super Bowl halftime show and Adult Swim's
Childrens Hospital.
"What this shows is that disruption can come from anywhere in our
business," Sundance Channel chief Sarah Barnett told Vulture. "It can
come from the nature of the platform or from a small network you
wouldn't have expected to be a contender. In the end, great content wins
out."
hows, Emmy voters demonstrated, and admirably so, that they're platform
agnostic. Academy members proved this with other nominations as well:
the ten nods dished out to Sundance Channel (a network even more obscure
than its sister station AMC, pre–
Barnett is right, of course: Today's nominations are a nice
demonstration of progressiveness from a voting bloc that, just a decade
ago, somehow failed to award a single nomination to The Wire, a
series considered by many to be TV's greatest ever. And yet, look more
closely at most of the "breakthrough" nominations revealed today, and
something else quickly becomes clear: Emmy voters may be okay with
alternative distribution methods, but they're still very much in love
with Big Names. Star power remains Emmy's everything.
It takes nothing away from Netflix or House of Cards to
point out that its biggest nominations were for people who have been
nominated for (or have won) Oscars and Golden Globes: Kevin Spacey,
Robin Wright, and David Fincher. Sure, it's historic that their
nominations were for a show which didn't air on a "network," but it is
otherwise not at all surprising that these very well-known talents woke
up to good news this morning. It is equally not a shock that the
lesser-known actor Corey Stoll, who delivered House of Cards's
most unexpected and searing performance, was overlooked. But Emmy's
obsession with well-known names played out in other arenas as well:
• Sundance's Top of the Lake is certainly deserving of the Emmy love it got, but so was the network's Rectify, which
got almost identical critical acclaim. The difference between the two:
One starred Emmy vet Elisabeth Moss and was co-written by Oscar winner
Jane Campion, and the other hailed from relative unknowns. (The good
news for Barnett: Rectify will make it on many critics' year-end
lists of best shows, and the fact that it's even being discussed as a
"snub" is victory of itself, given how relatively small Sundance is.)
• Tatiana Maslany, star of BBC America's Orphan Black, had
the backing of every single person on Twitter and countless critics.
Anyone who's stunned that the Canadian actress didn't get a nominated
today hasn't been paying attention to Emmys.
• Those nominations for Yahoo and Funny or Die in the short-form
programming category sound less impressive when you see who's attached
to them: Ben Stiller (for Burning Love) and Zach Galifianakis (Behind Two Ferns). The nonfiction counterpart of the same category is equally dominated by stars, including Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno.
• Comedy Central has had a great year reinventing sketch comedy with shows such as Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer, and Nathan For You. Did any of them displace long-in-the-tooth veterans Stewart, Colbert, Maher, or SNL in the variety categories? Of course not, because none of the people on those shows is currently a star. (Portlandia is nominated, but it co-stars SNL veteran Fred Armisen and is executive produced by Lorne Michaels.)
• Political Animals scored five nominations, and for those
of us who really liked the show's soapy shenanigans, that's nice. But
let's not pretend that the presence of Hollywood icons Sigourney Weaver
and Ellyn Burstyn didn't make all the difference. While it helped that
the miniseries category is less crowded than drama, there are lots of
talented actors on Scandal who didn't get nominated because,
unlike the amazing Kerry Washington (who deservedly did get recognized),
those actors just aren't very well-known.
This year's Emmy star fetish is nothing new, but, to the
Academy's credit, neither is it absolute. Academy members absolutely do
step up to reward performers and writers who are unknown; Mad Men alone is proof of how unknown actors and first-time showrunners can become overnight Emmy sensations. Glee and Modern Family also broke through instantly, and last year, some dude named Max Greenfield was nominated for comedy acting in New Girl
(sadly, he was overlooked today). But here's a troubling thought (and
it's just a thought, not a prediction): With so many more outlets now
doing really good TV, and with Netflix opening the doors to even more
platforms for good content, what if it becomes harder than ever for
amazing TV performances to tally enough votes to get nominated? "It's
such a cluttered marketplace," one Hollywood insider notes. "What really
cuts through in terms of the Academy, what gives you a leg up is if
your talent has some sort of profile or recognition. It's naive to think
otherwise."
There's nothing wrong with big stars or high-profile writers
racking up nominations, of course — particularly when the finished
product is as good as Top of the Lake or House of Cards.
And networks such as FX and Sundance and Comedy Central will continue to
make highly watchable, groundbreaking shows, and those networks will
continue to thrive, whether their wares get Emmy's blessing or not.
What's more, it's important to remember that often it just takes time
for Emmy voters to come around to a show or an actor. Be bummed, as we
are, about the shut-out of The Americans or the criminal neglect
of Tatiana Maslany, but then remember this: While Louis C.K. got
nominated the first year he was eligible, Louie was kept out of
the Best Comedy category for three years. Today, as writer Noah Hawley
tweeted, Louis C.K. snagged seven total Emmy nominations for an
"existential comedic experiment. Moral: You thought there were rules?
There [are] no rules." Well, except maybe one: It's still a whole lot
easier to get an Emmy nomination if everybody already knows your name".
(Josef Adalian)
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