Here we have the The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, a television special from just a few days ago and the event ran for over 2 hours. I will go a bit into detail now about several aspects of it and tell why I think it sucked overall. Lets begin with the two hosts. The white guy was extremely weak with his line delivery, the black fella slightly better, so maybe it was that they just picked these two (also far from big stars or famous faces) to make one look better than the other in the face of diversity. I mean it is pretty telling that the only good joke related to them that night did not come from them directly, but by Jimmy Kimmel instead saying these two are him and the guy from 30 Rock in 30 years (maybe 10 years too many Jimmy?). I mean it says it all when a generally not too funny guy like Kimmel steals the show from them in one moment only. Bad hosting. Next year better please. Another thumbs-down to the fact that the only announcer who had to be beeped that night because she was using obscene and inappropriate language was an African American presenter, surely not the best sign in terms of diversity. But now lets take a look at some really general facts here, namely changes compared to previous Emmy editions. And I would like to mention three that I found really distracting and bad choices where I hope they will reverse them in 2019 again. The first, probably most crucial, would be that the announcers really only announced the winners, not the nominees anymore and it did not feel smooth when we heard the nominees from a voice-over, then saw the announcers come to the stage, do their little stand-up routine and eventually say the name of the winner. It just wasn't right. The second would be that they no longer said it is his xth Emmy nomination and yth win and I quite liked that part as it also includes references not only to the person's history with the Emmys, but also to previous Emmy editions when they said "last year" for example. And the third and final is that it is nice when they tell us who won the guest actor/actress categories. Honestly, I think they should be included fully in the ceremony anyway, but really just letting the winners (not sure if all of them were there) announce some other winners is really disrespectful. In this case they can just ditch the category completely.
Still, even with these crucial flaws, it was a better event than 2017 where it was basically nothing but Trump bashing from start to finish and nobody even cared this was an awards show at its core. Like the way you have so many music performances during music award shows these days that you don't even remember it is an awards show. Still, in 2018 there were some anti-Republican references again too, for example the blind Roseanne bashing early on that was pretty disrespectful. I mean she lost her show already, no need to insult her any further. Also a bit uncofortable for Laurie Metcalf, an actual nominee, I assume. Or later one some announcer said they should recast the President, which was neither witty nor smart, and maybe it is time to respect the democratic process really and be loyal to the President the ways in which they expected Republicans to be loyal to the Obama for example. Now for the winners, I cannot say too much as I simply have not seen too much. But I liked the love for Mrs. Maisel, even if my dear Monk Tony Shalhoub lost out unfortunately as pretty much the only one from the show. Kinda nice to see Baldwin lose as well, didn't care much for McKinnon either. There was one really ironic moment though that had me question the entire show and that was when Darren Criss, maybe the least talented person in the room, gets an Emmy by Larry David, maybe the most talented person in the room and he still hasn't received one for Curb Your Enthusiasm. What a genius this show is. Besides that, it surprised me a bit to see Ricky Martin as an Emmy nominee, but I guess it was the right movie at the right time for him and there's a reason he was featured in the pretty forgettable opening number. "Forgettable" is a word that summarizes the entire event very much I'd say. The low rating here on imdb is not inaccurate. Even the marriage proposal moment was overshadowed by the fact that I found it disrespectful to his mother how quickly he moves on from one subject close to his heart to the next. Surprises there were some like Glover losing probably and I think Wever's win over Cruz was also a bit of a sensation. Then again the TV people do not always go for the big names. Game of Thrones I am not a great fan at all, but this win did not surprise me really. In the drama category we can be kinda glad though mediocre soap opera pseudo drama stuff like How to Get Away with Murder is no longer a factor and honestly with how things looked like in the last years, maybe it's not too much of a pity that Veep wasn't there this year. I think that's all that comes to mind right now. Plemons winning could have been great too, he is really a reliable force on the small screen these days and has been for years despite his young age still. Also no idea what Michael Douglas was rambling on about. Will Ferrell disappointed me too this time, usually he's spot-on, but that night not so much. And the whole recurring joke that the situation between several awards presenters was way too awkward to continue (intended in a comedic fashion of course) and they just switched to announcing the winners became repetitive quickly. The only ones who did it right were Brosnahan and David and I don't think that's even a subjective statement, even if I liked the two. I like Del Toro for example as well, but his thingey with Arquette just wasn't working at all. So yeah, to sum it all up the comedy category was dominated by a marvellous show, but this one here was far from marvellous which is really disappointing looking at how great television is right now. Skip the 2018 Emmys. Highlights were really rare and you should watch a quality movie instead, maybe a television movie actually. This way you also miss the horribly cringeworthy Maya Rudolph performance (yep, another!). No idea why she still gets invited. I mean it cannot just be the diversity factor. This time, it was really very difficult to stomach.
Still, even with these crucial flaws, it was a better event than 2017 where it was basically nothing but Trump bashing from start to finish and nobody even cared this was an awards show at its core. Like the way you have so many music performances during music award shows these days that you don't even remember it is an awards show. Still, in 2018 there were some anti-Republican references again too, for example the blind Roseanne bashing early on that was pretty disrespectful. I mean she lost her show already, no need to insult her any further. Also a bit uncofortable for Laurie Metcalf, an actual nominee, I assume. Or later one some announcer said they should recast the President, which was neither witty nor smart, and maybe it is time to respect the democratic process really and be loyal to the President the ways in which they expected Republicans to be loyal to the Obama for example. Now for the winners, I cannot say too much as I simply have not seen too much. But I liked the love for Mrs. Maisel, even if my dear Monk Tony Shalhoub lost out unfortunately as pretty much the only one from the show. Kinda nice to see Baldwin lose as well, didn't care much for McKinnon either. There was one really ironic moment though that had me question the entire show and that was when Darren Criss, maybe the least talented person in the room, gets an Emmy by Larry David, maybe the most talented person in the room and he still hasn't received one for Curb Your Enthusiasm. What a genius this show is. Besides that, it surprised me a bit to see Ricky Martin as an Emmy nominee, but I guess it was the right movie at the right time for him and there's a reason he was featured in the pretty forgettable opening number. "Forgettable" is a word that summarizes the entire event very much I'd say. The low rating here on imdb is not inaccurate. Even the marriage proposal moment was overshadowed by the fact that I found it disrespectful to his mother how quickly he moves on from one subject close to his heart to the next. Surprises there were some like Glover losing probably and I think Wever's win over Cruz was also a bit of a sensation. Then again the TV people do not always go for the big names. Game of Thrones I am not a great fan at all, but this win did not surprise me really. In the drama category we can be kinda glad though mediocre soap opera pseudo drama stuff like How to Get Away with Murder is no longer a factor and honestly with how things looked like in the last years, maybe it's not too much of a pity that Veep wasn't there this year. I think that's all that comes to mind right now. Plemons winning could have been great too, he is really a reliable force on the small screen these days and has been for years despite his young age still. Also no idea what Michael Douglas was rambling on about. Will Ferrell disappointed me too this time, usually he's spot-on, but that night not so much. And the whole recurring joke that the situation between several awards presenters was way too awkward to continue (intended in a comedic fashion of course) and they just switched to announcing the winners became repetitive quickly. The only ones who did it right were Brosnahan and David and I don't think that's even a subjective statement, even if I liked the two. I like Del Toro for example as well, but his thingey with Arquette just wasn't working at all. So yeah, to sum it all up the comedy category was dominated by a marvellous show, but this one here was far from marvellous which is really disappointing looking at how great television is right now. Skip the 2018 Emmys. Highlights were really rare and you should watch a quality movie instead, maybe a television movie actually. This way you also miss the horribly cringeworthy Maya Rudolph performance (yep, another!). No idea why she still gets invited. I mean it cannot just be the diversity factor. This time, it was really very difficult to stomach.
