‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘Big Little Lies’ rake in most of Emmys crop
TELEVISION’S Emmys placed politics front and centre on Sunday, lavishing The Handmaid’s Tale with awards for its bleak portrait of an authoritarian US.
The glitzy ceremony in downtown Los Angeles – the first under the administration of President Donald Trump – was widely expected to have a strongly political flavour, and host Stephen Colbert set the tone in his opening monologue.
“However you feel about the president, and you do feel about the president, you can’t deny that every show was influenced by Donald Trump in some way,” he said.
“All the late-night shows, obviously, House of Cards, the new season of American Horror Story, as well as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and HBO miniseries Big Little Lies, were the big winners, with five statuettes each.
Big Little Lies cast members Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard all took home Emmys, along with director Jean-Marc Vallee. It also won outstanding limited series.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu’s acclaimed series based on the 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, won awards for writing and directing, as well as the biggest prize of the night – outstanding drama series.
Ann Dowd, picking up her first Emmy at age 61 for her portrayal of brutal instructor Aunt Lydia, spoke of how her award was “a dream” while outstanding lead actress Elisabeth Moss turned the air blue with an expletive-strewn acceptance speech.
Hulu will have the most to celebrate as the post-show parties get started, stealing a march on rival streaming platform Netflix, which won just four statuettes all evening.
On a night that rewarded ethnic diversity, Sterling K Brown picked up lead actor in a drama for This Is Us while Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe (outstanding writing for a comedy series for Master of None), Riz Ahmed (outstanding supporting actor in a drama series) and Donald Glover also made it to the podium.
But politics was always going to be the story of the awards from the moment John Lithgow picked up the first one: best supporting actor in a drama for his acclaimed turn as Winston Churchill in Netflix’s The Crown.
“In these crazy times his life even as an old man reminds us what leadership and courage in government really looks like,” the US actor said.
NBC’s long-running comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL) went into Emmys week with 22 nominations – the joint-highest total alongside Westworld – after a year of spoofing the new commander-in-chief.
Its haul of five Creative Arts statuettes included outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for Melissa McCarthy, whose “Unhinged Spicey” take on Sean Spicer came to embody early criticism of the administration.
SNL took four statuettes, with Kate McKinnon tearfully accepting the award for best supporting actress in a comedy series for her portrayal of Hillary Clinton.
Alec Baldwin took home best supporting actor in a comedy for his Trump impersonation.
“I suppose I should say at long last, Mr President, here is your Emmy,” he joked, in a dig at Trump’s oft-stated annoyance at never having won a statuette for reality show The Apprentice or its celebrity spin-off. — AFP