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This year’s Emmy nominations have just been revealed in a colossal 118-category megadump. So with this in mind, let me be the first to say that Survivor was absolutely robbed blind for outstanding sound mixing for a reality program. Its lack of a nomination deserves nothing but scorn, and the 26,000 members of the television academy deserve to hang their heads in shame.
But, on the slim off-chance that you didn’t come here for an explosive 800-word screed about the injustice of failing to recognise a 26-year-old television programme in a category I didn’t know existed until about 15 minutes ago, the Emmys fortunately managed to ignore a wealth of bigger shows, too. Chiefly I’m talking about Stranger Things here.
Stranger Things is an undeniably enormous show, and one whose success put Netflix on the map. Typically the Emmys has a habit of rewarding shows for their final seasons, but this year the show was cut out of the main categories entirely. Unless you have a real fondness for prosthetic design or stunt coordination, this simply has not been Stranger Things’s year. Obviously if you actually watched it, you might understand the snub, given that it was the most gormless thing that had ever been splattered across a screen, but nevertheless this cannot have been the result that Netflix wanted.
Similarly, aside from a supporting actor for Richard Gadd, Half Man was also shut out. This one will also sting, because the show was positioned as the sort of difficult prestige watch that voters tend to go crazy for, but perhaps even they have their limits, given how relentlessly grim it was.
The flipside of this is the lack of an acting nomination for Jon Hamm in Apple’s Your Friends and Neighbors. The show itself picked up a best drama nod, which is a sign that people like it. But since it hinges so heavily on Hamm’s central performance, it seems a little bizarre that he missed out. Could it be that people like it despite him? That seems unlikely. The same could also be said of Paul Anthony Kelly. Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette received a plethora of nominations – including one incredibly well deserved one for Sarah Pidgeon’s immediately star-making turn – but Kelly was also shut out.
Still, let’s move on to the happier territory of surprises. And in this regard the winner of the entire day has to be Matthew Rhys, who finds himself in the position of being nominated for two different roles in two different genres. As Nile Jarvis in Netflix’s The Beast in Me, he was nominated for actor in a limited or anthology series, and as Tom Loftis in Apple’s Widow’s Bay he was nominated for actor in a comedy series.
In honesty he is not the only multi-hyphenate nominee this year, because there were a glut of them. Colman Domingo was nominated for both Euphoria and The Four Seasons, Jason Bateman was nominated for Black Rabbit and DTF St Louis and Martin Short was nominated for Only Murders in the Building and Match Game. Similarly Laurie Metcalf received nominations for both Monster: The Ed Gein Story and Hacks, and Nick Offerman was nominated for Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Death By Lightning.
But let’s single Rhys out, partly because no other actor demonstrated the same level of breadth that he did while playing lead roles, but also because both of his performances were strong enough for him to feasibly win both. If nothing else, he should be a lock for the comedy, since he was an utter revelation in Widow’s Bay. In fact, the whole show is probably the best of the last year. Not every nominee from the show will be able to win, since Dale Dickey and Kate O’Flynn are both nominated for best supporting actress, but that still leaves a potential 18 Emmys on the table for it to take home.
It won’t be an easy fight, because Hacks was also nominated for a record 24 nominations, and that has a proven track record. But you always got the sense that Hacks won its Emmys not because it was good, but because there wasn’t anything better to nominate. This year there is.
Also, let’s save some cheer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which (at least in the turbo-franchise world of Game of Thrones) counts as something of an underdog. For something so scrappy and self-consciously low stakes to gain a best drama nomination has to count for something.
The Emmy awards will take place in September. Unless you are an aggrieved fan of Survivor’s sound mixing and plan to boycott the ceremony, it should be an exciting one.
