EMMYS: ‘Mrs. Maisel’, ‘Game of Thrones’ win
Amazon comedy earns five trophies in a brisk night front-loaded with laughs
Smart, stylish, allegorically topical, funny and lovable, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” struck comedy gold at the Emmy Awards on Monday night. The Amazon series about a New York woman who finds her voice as a stand-up comedian took home five awards, including outstanding comedy series, along with writing and directing awards for creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and lead actress in a comedy for Rachel Brosnahan. “My panic room is going to look so pretty,” Sherman-Palladino said after winning her second trophy of the night — a line in tone with the humor on her hit show.
Another newcomer, “Barry,” about a burned out hit man wishing to become an actor, won two awards for lead actor in a comedy series for creator Bill Hader and supporting actor in a comedy series for Henry Winkler.
On the drama side, the awards were spread out a little more evenly. “Game of Thrones” won two, including outstanding drama and supporting actor for Peter Dinklage, who talked about how his role as Tyrion Lannister has made it difficult for him to walk down a street unnoticed.
The Emmy Awards turned 70 trying to correct its course. Though we find ourselves in a golden age for the medium, the greatness of 21st-century television hasn’t translated to increased interest in the Emmy telecast. NBC took the wheel this year with “Saturday Night Live” news anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost from as hosts, and nudged the show from a Sunday to a Monday. The hope was to improve on the anemic 11.4 million viewers who tuned into the Emmys each of the past two years.
Ratings will arrive later. But the telecast underscored the difficulty in staging a bit of 20thcentury pomp in the 21st century. The producers simply couldn’t resist opening with a musical number about diversity that was every bit as hammy as it sounds. Che and Jost stepped in with a tux-clad, TV-centric version of their “Weekend Update” patter that served its purpose with amusing distinction.
And then Winkler won the evening’s first award: supporting actor in a comedy series for “Barry.”
“I wrote this 43 years ago,” an exuberant Winkler said, referring to his first Emmy nomination way back when. Happy days were upon us. This was his first win.
That category — supporting actor in a comedy — underscores just how strange the Emmy process has become with seven nominees — and at least six of them worthy of recognition.
Logistically, this awards show is a daunting procedure. Winners feel arbitrary because the pool of quality shows is so deep. “Maisel” and, say, “Atlanta,” are entirely different creatures in tone and execution. Both are lovingly and brilliantly realized. “Atlanta” won a few awards last year, but truly found its feet in its second season when Donald Glover reconceived the means of comedic storytelling with his strange stories.
Once was the time TV’s best offerings were presented by one of three — sometimes four — networks. We’re not even 15 years removed from the first win by “The Sopranos,” the first paid cable series to win best drama. This year Netflix and HBO together tallied far more nominations together than NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox combined.
The idea of dynastic winners has also largely faded out. For one, the quality of TV programming is so good and broad. And the scheduling has also changed, so that a prestige show like “Game of Thrones” could miss an entire Emmy cycle, as it did last year. Though, Julia LouisDreyfus not having a season of her HBO comedy “Veep” due to health reasons, probably helped Brosnahan win. (Louis-Dreyfus had won the award four straight years.)
Brosnahan was certainly deserving for her work on “Maisel.” Yet my mind keeps returning to Tracee Ellis Ross from “Blackish,” whose work in a postpartum depression episode was quietly devastating.
That such discussions and debates exist, though, only confirms how wonderful our present is with regard to television.
As for the rest of the telecast, some small decisions made about the format of the production paid off. The presentation of awards was streamlined, with nominees announced before the presenters took the stage to declare the winners. Stilted banter was minimized. And four awards were presented in the first 30 minutes, a brisk pace that gave the entire show some needed energy.
Also, the show’s flow felt more fluid by frontloading the funny stuff rather than toggling between awards for comedy and drama.
Admittedly, the most diverse pool of Emmy nominees didn’t yield much in the way of winner diversity, prompting presenter James Corden to crack about #EmmysSoWhite trending moments before Regina King won for lead actress in a limited series or movie for “Seven Seconds.”
In an evening full of them, the standout big-hearted moment had to have been Glenn Weiss’ acceptance for directing the Oscars telecast. Weiss has a bunch of Emmys already. For this one, he remembered his mother, who just passed, and with her wedding ring he surprised the room by proposing to his girlfriend.
When Matthew Rhys won for lead actor in a drama for his work in “The Americans” he revealed that his co-star and partner Keri Russell said, “If you propose to me, I’ll punch you clean in the mouth.”
Also sweet was a moment when Betty White was honored for her long distinguished career. She was already 27 years old and a TV veteran of a decade when the first Emmy telecast took place.
A teary-eyed White, 96, looked out at the crowd and cracked, “I should just quit while I’m ahead.”