I don't really have too much to say about the Emmys, but being a TV blogger (of sorts) I figured I should at least address their existence. The Emmys are perhaps the most continuously disappointing of all of the major award shows - the Oscars can be maddening but at least have an element of spectacle to them, the Golden Globes are little more than a boozy fiasco and the Grammys don't really give a shit about anything. But the Emmys have an aura of wanting to matter and wanting to be this grand celebration of the art of television, but they always fall short. Their winners usually feel a few years dated, the ceremony itself often seems like it doesn't know what to do with itself, and there's just an overall "meh" feeling to the entire event that's hard to shake.
Part of this is that the TV academy, despite how far television has come, still seems to have an inferiority complex with film. It was hard not to let Seth Meyers' joke about TV being the mistress and film being the date you take to dinner cast an aura on the entire night, where the best television that aired in the past year, if it was even nominated, was mostly ignored in favor of old stalwarts. Don't get me wrong - I love Breaking Bad, I love Julia-Louis Dreyfus, and I can respect that a lot of people still passionately adore Modern Family for some reason, but all of them have been showered with so many awards that it just seems like getting together to shower them with some more is wholly unnecessary. This is why, more than ever, I really wish the Academy would consider a "one and done" rule for the Emmys. It might help to get them out of the rut they're in and need to be brought out of. Television is changing and evolving - it's spanning across different mediums and platforms now and it's being watched in new and interesting ways. It's being taken slightly more seriously than it ever has been before, and it's no longer seen as the boozy mistress to film's classy evening date anymore. (It never actually was that, by the way). It's time that we had an awards show that actually celebrated what television is now, rather than what it was 20 years ago, or what it is in the mind of out-of-touch Emmy voters. The Oscars are far, far, far from perfect, but they at least feel like they're celebrating film in a way that the Emmys don't.
Every year around nomination season, we hear things about how certain shows aren't "Emmy material". "Oh, The Americans isn't the type of show the Emmys usually go for." "Sure, Broad City is great, but it's way too niche for Academy recognition". "We all love Community or Parks and Rec or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or The Middle or Review or Nathan for You, but it's not just going to get nominated because it's just....you know, not an Emmy show". But why? Why can't we actually just honor great television instead of only recognizing shows that fit a specific and reductive mold? We don't need the Emmys to tell us what television is great, but having a night where we can all get together and actually celebrate the best of television is something that would be nice. Maybe one day it'll happen. Until then, let's all just sit back and watch Sofia Vergara rotate on a car platform, I guess.
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