Emmys: all the glitz, glamour
IN FOCUS: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE WINS FOR SPOOFING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The Handmaid’s Tale depicts an authoritarian US.
Television’s Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles placed politics front and centre on Sunday, lavishing The Handmaid’s Tale with awards for its bleak portrait of an authoritarian America.
Host Stephen Colbert set the tone in his opening speech. “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.
House of Cards, American Horror Story, The Handmaid’s Tale and Big Little Lies were the big winners, with five statuettes each.
Big Little Lies cast members Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard all got Emmys, as did director Jean-Marc Vallee. The Handmaid’s Tale won awards for writing and directing as well as the biggest prize – outstanding drama series. Ann Dowd picked up her first Emmy while lead actress Elisabeth Moss delivered an expletive-strewn speech.
On a night that rewarded ethnic diversity, Sterling K Brown picked up the award for lead actor in a drama for This is Us while Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe, Riz Ahmed 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 royal drama The Crown.
NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) had 22 nominations – the joint-highest total with 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 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 getting best supporting actress in a comedy for her portrayal of Hillary Clinton. Alec Baldwin took home best supporting actor in a comedy for his Trump impersonation. SNL also got awards for best variety sketch show and outstanding directing.
Glover took home a brace of statuettes for directing and starring in the FX comedy series Atlanta. He got a loud cheer when he took to the stage and thanked Trump for “making black people number one on the most oppressed list”.
Game of Thrones was ineligible for the 69th Primetime Emmys, having started its seventh season too late.
HBO led the networks with 10 Emmys, next was NBC (six), Hulu (five), Netflix (four) and FX (two). –