The title "The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards" is pretty telling here because yep last night was Emmy night again. I will comment a bit now on the winners, nominees and the show in general. Overall, not counting commercial breaks it went for sllightly over 2 hours and the director was prolific award show director Hamish Hamilton, himself an Emmy nominee. Lets begin with comedy. Actually I was pretty glad that Veep did not end up triumphant again. I would not have minded Hale winning admittedly, but Louis-Dreyfus is so overrated and it's good she did not break the record. Well, she probably will atg some point in the future. However, that Fleabag would win acting, directing, writing and the big prize surely could not really be expected. What a night for Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I have not seen Fleabag yet, but now I really want to. Happy Hader won and also Tony Shalhoub took home the prize I did like as a Monk fan. Both were frontrunners and it's nice they prevailed. Now maybe Cheadle would have finally deserved one as he reminded us in that presentation (and reunion) with him and Bell, but I am not that big on him really, so I can deal with it. Can't really say anything about Borstein. As for Drama: I accidentally spoilered myself this morning reading that Game of Thrones broke a record, so i thought they would dominate the show, but no they didn't. And I am kinda glad. The pretty much safe win for Dinklage was no surprise and same also about the Best Drama big prize at the end. But that was it on the show itself. The girls did not score. And they also surprisingly lost both writing and directing. But winning the most important category was probably there was not one other drama series that really stood out, so the love was shared and enough people loved GoT for the win. The biggest sensation of the night probably came for Jason Bateman who won best Directing Drama. Now that I did not see coming, especially after he lost Best Actor where he was considered to have a much better shot at winning. Writing was also a big upset for Succession taking the prize against Killing Eve and Game of Thrones. I cannot say too much about the two lead actor/actress winners as I have not seen their shows, but I heard a lot of good about (Comer on) Killing Eve, so it is probably not undeserving. Nothing to say about Garner either. Limited Series made me happy overall. Really nice to see Chernobyl dominate and not When they See Us. Okay, it would have been even sweeter if Jared Harris had won, but I have to say that as a big Mad men fan obviously, but writing, directing and Best Limited Series I take it. Well done to Renck and the gang. Michelle Williams won Best Actress there (interesting speech,) and as I also like Rockwell (and Cabaret), I will certainly check out Vernon/Fosse at some point. Arquette took home another Emmy, not too surprising. Awards bodies love her and maybe it was even more surprising she did not go two for two. But as I am not exactly a Patricia Clarkson fan, I'm fine with it and admittedly Arquette did look pretty good in both snippets from her projects this year what they showed us. The Deadwood movie did not get any love for acting really and that's why I am not surprised it lost out to Black Mirror last night too. Ben Whishaw I don't mind. Certainly have to watch A Very English Scandal also for Hugh Grant and Whishaw also took hom ea Golden Globe and BAFTA this year, so he must be pretty good. Competition I really don't care. I read that RuPaul is the big favorite, so surely he won as expected, but I really have zero interest in eeing him or his show and same pretty much about the other nominees. Variety series also all as exoected with SNL and John oliver pulling through. Little interest here for me too. The glory days there are long gone and nobody from the new group of hosts has 10% of Letterman's or Carson's class, probably not even Leno's. They all feel like liberal string puppets to me now who never take any risks in their comedy whatsoever. But it felt really strange, almost like an error they announced one of the two big prize winners before announcing which director would win. Truly bizarre. So much for the awards.
The four guest actor/actress (yes there is nothing wrong wwith being called an actress, folks) awards were not handed out last night, but already a week earlier and I don't like that decision. It's fairly disrespectful and probably only handled like this, so everybody else cannot complain who got their categories announced before the live broadcast. I'd even prefer them being included over reality, variety.. which of course is not gonna happen. Now a few words on the presenters we had last night. Again many question marks above my head when it comes to these. I will give you a handful of names who in my opinion had no business being there, even if I like some of them: Marisa Tomei (even if she looks stunning in her mid-50s), Kristen Bell (can't stand her, zero Emmy history), Zendaya (what? why is she still everywhere, she is so irrelevant), Maya Rudolph (good God she is the worst, even if she was a nominee this year again, no idea what people see in her, she is so limited and cringeworthy and her laser operation skit was terribly unfunny), Gwyneth Paltrow (she may be an Emmy winner, but guest actress a long time ago come on), Naomi Watts, Tim Allen (lucky Toy Story keeps his career alive), Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian (both no comment), Nick Cannon, James Corden, Ken Jeong etc. many others too who felt out of place. Again subjectively, I also did not like Kimmel and especially Colbert. They joked about this being hostless, which is the first time in many years. Homer Simpson early on was a nice idea, but the way how they removed him was not funny at all, really nice for everybody who thinks the Simpsons have sucked for a long time. They sure weren't at their best last night either. Brief Family Guy introduction mocking Bill Cosby and Roseanne not too nice either. Later on Felicity Huffman got her share too. Oh yeah, lets not forget about the guy who was in charge of making quick comments after the winners were announced. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Really unbearable he was trying so hard to be funny and completely failing every single time. really scares me that he had material ready for all the other dozens of people who did not win. Shockingly bad. Please don't bring him back next year. It's not a problem there is no host at all, but get rid of this fella as soon as possible. At least he shut up when big prizes drama and comedy were announced luckily. But his statements on Chernobyl were downright offense and utterly disrespectful. The little nuclear catastrophe that could? Really? Now had he said something like that about Blacks in case Chernobyl's big rival would have won more last night, the world would be up in arms about him I'm sure. But I guess as long as it is not race that you make stupid jokes about, it is fine. Away from him now, he's clearly not deserving the attention. Nice to see Bryan Cranston again as well as Hugh Laurie and Jon Hamm as I liked/loved their shows, especially the first two have really grown old, which is a bit sad to see. Hamm is also not the man anymore every woman desired as he was during the days of Mad Men. The perhaps best moment of the night was the in memoriam. Halsey gave a mesmerizing performance truly with a good song. Cheers to her. Okay this is pretty much all I would like to say then. Ah yes another big thumbs-down here I must say for spoilers about Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory. And as we are talking about GoT already, I did not like the idea that this and Veep got their own announcements and cast lined up at the stage. Yes they were good shows, but that was too much, even if Hale was kinda funny there again. But why Dinklage was in the middle making the statement? He was supporting, Clarke was lead. Only because everybody knew he would win? Or because he won a few times already. I don't know, but I don't like the idea. And finally, just another snippet from my very subjective position that Empire is also nowhere near deserving of a tribute, even if it was just for a minute. So all in all, I am mostly happy about the winners, or at least about the majority, even if it is not perfect either I'd say, but the way how the show went in detail in terms of schedule, organization etc. it could have been done a lot better. Yeah well you of course also get the self-explanatory "go vote"-message. Let my vote go to Kevin Spacey here. We miss you, man.
The four guest actor/actress (yes there is nothing wrong wwith being called an actress, folks) awards were not handed out last night, but already a week earlier and I don't like that decision. It's fairly disrespectful and probably only handled like this, so everybody else cannot complain who got their categories announced before the live broadcast. I'd even prefer them being included over reality, variety.. which of course is not gonna happen. Now a few words on the presenters we had last night. Again many question marks above my head when it comes to these. I will give you a handful of names who in my opinion had no business being there, even if I like some of them: Marisa Tomei (even if she looks stunning in her mid-50s), Kristen Bell (can't stand her, zero Emmy history), Zendaya (what? why is she still everywhere, she is so irrelevant), Maya Rudolph (good God she is the worst, even if she was a nominee this year again, no idea what people see in her, she is so limited and cringeworthy and her laser operation skit was terribly unfunny), Gwyneth Paltrow (she may be an Emmy winner, but guest actress a long time ago come on), Naomi Watts, Tim Allen (lucky Toy Story keeps his career alive), Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian (both no comment), Nick Cannon, James Corden, Ken Jeong etc. many others too who felt out of place. Again subjectively, I also did not like Kimmel and especially Colbert. They joked about this being hostless, which is the first time in many years. Homer Simpson early on was a nice idea, but the way how they removed him was not funny at all, really nice for everybody who thinks the Simpsons have sucked for a long time. They sure weren't at their best last night either. Brief Family Guy introduction mocking Bill Cosby and Roseanne not too nice either. Later on Felicity Huffman got her share too. Oh yeah, lets not forget about the guy who was in charge of making quick comments after the winners were announced. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Really unbearable he was trying so hard to be funny and completely failing every single time. really scares me that he had material ready for all the other dozens of people who did not win. Shockingly bad. Please don't bring him back next year. It's not a problem there is no host at all, but get rid of this fella as soon as possible. At least he shut up when big prizes drama and comedy were announced luckily. But his statements on Chernobyl were downright offense and utterly disrespectful. The little nuclear catastrophe that could? Really? Now had he said something like that about Blacks in case Chernobyl's big rival would have won more last night, the world would be up in arms about him I'm sure. But I guess as long as it is not race that you make stupid jokes about, it is fine. Away from him now, he's clearly not deserving the attention. Nice to see Bryan Cranston again as well as Hugh Laurie and Jon Hamm as I liked/loved their shows, especially the first two have really grown old, which is a bit sad to see. Hamm is also not the man anymore every woman desired as he was during the days of Mad Men. The perhaps best moment of the night was the in memoriam. Halsey gave a mesmerizing performance truly with a good song. Cheers to her. Okay this is pretty much all I would like to say then. Ah yes another big thumbs-down here I must say for spoilers about Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory. And as we are talking about GoT already, I did not like the idea that this and Veep got their own announcements and cast lined up at the stage. Yes they were good shows, but that was too much, even if Hale was kinda funny there again. But why Dinklage was in the middle making the statement? He was supporting, Clarke was lead. Only because everybody knew he would win? Or because he won a few times already. I don't know, but I don't like the idea. And finally, just another snippet from my very subjective position that Empire is also nowhere near deserving of a tribute, even if it was just for a minute. So all in all, I am mostly happy about the winners, or at least about the majority, even if it is not perfect either I'd say, but the way how the show went in detail in terms of schedule, organization etc. it could have been done a lot better. Yeah well you of course also get the self-explanatory "go vote"-message. Let my vote go to Kevin Spacey here. We miss you, man.
