Emmys a Schitt’s show
POP TV SERIES TAKES HOME 7 AWARDS
A surreal Emmys show Sunday night simultaneously mocked and recognized the weird times we live in.
Nothing, however, was less weird than the complete domination by “Schitt’s Creek,” Pop TV’s sweet, heartfelt, hilarious series about the down-on-their-luck Rose family.
The family sitcom made a clean sweep, taking home seven awards: comedy series, lead actor (Eugene Levy), lead actress (Catherine O’Hara), supporting actor (Dan Levy), supporting actress (Annie Murphy), best writing (Dan Levy) and best directing (Andrew Cividino and Dan Levy).
Dan Levy, who created the show along with dad Eugene, honored the “love and kindness” he was able to honor in “Schitt’s Creek.”
Eugene Levy took home his first acting Emmy award, starring alongside longtime collaborator O’Hara. Both won writing Emmys for “SCTV” nearly 40 years ago.
Zendaya, too, made history, becoming the youngest person to win an Emmy for lead actress in a drama at just 24. The former child star took home the award for her role as Rue Bennett, a recovering teenage drug addict in HBO’s “Euphoria.”
“Succession” was another big winner of the night, winning outstanding drama series and outstanding lead actor in a drama for Jeremy Strong, in a surprise win over his on-screen father, Brian Cox.
Showrunner Jesse Armstrong used his acceptance speech for a series of “un-thank yous,” including to coronavirus, to President Trump “for his crummy and uncoordinated response,” and to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson “for doing the same to my country.”
“Watchmen,” the gripping, eerily timely miniseries about the effects of the 1921 Tulsa massacre, took home 11 trophies, including lead actress for Regina King in an outstanding limited series or movie and supporting actor for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
“History is mystery broken into a million puzzle pieces and many are missing. We know where those pieces are but we don’t seek them out because we know finding them will hurt. Sometimes we cause that hurt. Maybe we even benefited from it. But we have to name it before we can repair it,” “Watchmen” creator Damon Lindelof said during his acceptance speech.
“Be careful, be clumsy, run
hot, stay cool, be the bull in the china shop. Pick up what you broke and glue it back together. Don’t stop until it’s great. Affirm it’s never great enough. Dissent. Be consistent. Embrace paradox. Never contradict yourself. And finally, stop worry about getting canceled and ask yourself what you’re doing to get renewed.”
The theme of the night was kindness and how the stories that television tells can — and should — be used off the screen.
Mark Ruffalo, who won the trophy for lead actor in a limited series for playing two brothers in HBO’s dark “I Know This Much Is True,” urged people to “come together with love for each other.”
“If you have privilege, you have to fight for those who are less fortunate and more vulnerable,” he said from the couch with wife Sunny Coigney.
“Are we going to be a country of division, hatred and a country only for a certain kind of people, or are we going to be one of love and strength and fighting for all of us to have the American dream and the pursuit of life and liberty and love and happiness?”
To an empty Staples Center in Los Angeles, host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show by honoring the newfound importance of television.
“It might seem frivolous and unnecessary to do this during a pandemic, but you know what else seems frivolous and unnecessary? Doing it every other year,” said the Brooklyn native, who returned to the Emmys stage for the third time as host after the show went without an MC in 2019.
“It’s fun and, my God, we need fun.”
Occasional real-life human beings came and went throughout the night, including Jason Bateman sitting among the cutouts in the audience, nominee Jennifer Aniston tasked with putting out a manmade trashcan fire that wouldn’t extinguish — an accidental allegory for 2020 — and Randall Park with an alpaca.