There wasn’t a thread on it, but we can’t expect Anne Laurie to hold up the entire world, now can we? Anyhoo, I did not watch the Emmys, but I did see a few clips of my favorites’ speeches over coffee early this morning.
I was pleased that Kate Winslet and Julianne Nicholson both won awards for their work in “Mare of Easttown,” which I highly recommend. It was also gratifying that the excellent Jean Smart (also in “Mare”) won an award for her role as the hilarious Vegas comedy diva in “Hacks” (also highly recommended) and that Evan Peters also picked up an award for his stand-out performance as Detective Zabel in “Mare.”
Weirdly, I couldn’t find a decent Emmys highlights clip on YouTube (now I’m starting to wonder — did it even happen?), but here’s something kind of related that is fascinating (to me, at least) — it’s about dialect coaches and how their role in TV and film has grown in importance over the decades:
The segment suggests that Meryl Streep’s performance in “Sophie’s Choice” in the 1980s sparked a golden age of dialect coaches and that they should maybe be recognized as essential to show design, as are costume designers, etc. Interesting idea!
Tangentially, I’ve often wondered why some folks find it so easy to imitate accents, whereas it is completely beyond the linguistic capabilities of others. I am firmly in the latter category and have often wished I could do a passable Scottish brogue, if only to better tell that joke with the punchline “But ye fuck ONE goat…”
Anyhoo, you can find a complete list of nominees and winners courtesy of CBS News here. Looks like “The Crown” and “Ted Lasso” cleaned up. I haven’t seen “Lasso” yet but will do a free trial of Apple TV one day and binge it. (I can’t justify another subscription at present.)
I’m a fan of “The Crown” and thought Olivia Colman was terrific as the Queen. Josh O’Connor — who portrayed Prince Charles with a convincing stoop-shouldered mixture of hauteur, misery and awkwardness — also took home an award, as did Gillian Anderson for her performance as Maggie Thatcher. I thought Anderson nailed Thatcher’s speech patterns, but a British friend tells me I am SO wrong about that, so I probably am.
I was sorry there weren’t two outstanding lead actress awards to give out because Anya Taylor-Joy deserved one for “The Queen’s Gambit” too. I’ve heard that Michaela Coel’s performance in “I May Destroy You” was also off-the-charts great, but I haven’t had the courage to watch that show yet. Same with Elizabeth Olsen in “WandaVision,” which I also haven’t seen but intend to eventually.
Opinions on who got robbed, who’s overrated, etc.? Otherwise, open thread.
CAUTION: Thread may contain spoilers, and that’s A-OK with me. Avoid it if spoilers piss you off! (BTW, we need an entirely new spoiler etiquette for the streaming age, but I am not the gal to write it.)
Old School
I watched the first 90 minutes or so. DVR’d the rest, but probably won’t ever watch it.
Did enjoy Ted Lasso, so feel like they deserved to win a bunch. The AppleTV subscription has lapsed, but will probably watch season 2 at some point.
SiubhanDuinne
Also vital for the joke whose punchline is “The regiment voted ‘Aye’.”
brendancalling
I saw some live bluegrass, and it was more satisfying.
UncleEbeneezer
If you love Gillian Anderson, her performances on Sex Education and The Fall are even better than The Crown (which I love but found her Thatcher kind of annoying).
You’re absolutely right about Taylor-Joy and Coel. Both deserved an Emmy, even more than Colman, imo.
I’m still trying to figure out how Sex Education, Snowfall and For All Mankind keep getting ignored by the Emmys.
Citizen Alan
I’m disappointed that WandaVision didn’t do better given the extraordinary number of nominations it got. Then again, it’s not surprising given the general disdain the Emmy (and Oscar) voters have for genre shows. At least Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez won Outstanding Lyrics and Music for “Agatha All Along,” though they should have won for Title Song(s) as well.
Mandarama
I am so not into sports OR television, and I absolutely love Ted Lasso. My kiddo dragged me into watching it, and now I’m in love with both Ted and Roy Kent, which I recognize is fairly schizophrenic. ?
FelonyGovt
Didn’t watch it, but I’m pleased about the Ted Lasso honors. What a great show. Before I watched I thought the premise sounded predictable- and stupid – but it’s just a delight.
This last week I kept saying I was channeling my inner Roy Kent.
Jake Gibson
I went to bed after the “in memoriam”.
I have seen almost none of it, so I have no idea who deserved it. I watched a couple of episodes of The Queen’s Gambit, but didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole. I just don’t have the patience and stamina I once had.
Plus I only subscribe to Netflix and ESPN+. And I not sure why I keep Netflix. My wife does watch it some.
Benw
It’s nice to see some genre stuff like The Mandalorian and WandaVision, both of which I really liked, get some nods (yes, I know Disney owns it all now). I think Loki is easily the best MCU TV show of the bunch and Tom Hiddleston should get all the awards, he’s so fucking great. But maybe it was released too late?
I would’ve given Brendan Hunt the win for Ted Lasso. IMO he, Jason, and Hannah Waddingham absolutely killed it the first season, and the show would have totally bombed without them.
Also, didn’t watch, I’ve boycotted the Emmys since Metallica was robbed!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kinda how I feel, I’m still in “Oh god make it stop! I need some brain candy” mode, especially when it comes to video. With colder weather and shorter days coming, I’ll probably be more in the mood for some more serious stuff.
Spoilers are a tricky thing, and so hard to avoid. I know what “It was Agatha All Along” means even though I’ve never seen that show, because I like Katherine Hahn and a random post somewhere caught my eye and gave it away. I quit watching Orange Is the New Black after season 3, I think?, but I know what happened to that one beloved character from the internet. OTOH, I often skip Marc Maron’s interview with cast members of movies I want to see, because he gets screeners and thinks nothing of giving away major plot points of movies that haven’t even been released. “My god, dude, when you kill your mother at the end, the look in your eyes! How do you do that?”
Mike in NC
We started to watch at 8 PM but at some point must have nodded off. Ted Lasso is a fun show and they did well. Will try to catch the highlights on YouTube today.
eclare
I watched the Emmys, and I was so glad to see the awards for the actors in Mare of Easttown. That show was amazingly well cast. I got one episode in on I Will Destroy You, and I stopped because I couldn’t understand the dialogue. I’ve noticed that more and more with British shows, maybe it’s me? I dunno.
lowtechcyclist
@SiubhanDuinne:
We should have a thread sometime that consists of just the punch lines.
Delk
RuPaul won an 11th Emmy and solidified his place as the most decorated Black artist in Emmy Awards history.
gwangung
Still….award winners were kinda white…..
prostratedragon
Heh:
msb
“I thought Anderson nailed Thatcher’s speech patterns”
so did I – at least as far as she reproduced Thatcher’s supercilious disdain for any opinion but her own.
Almost Retired
I watched the whole blessed thing, but only because I live in Los Angeles where viewership is mandatory by city ordinance.
The Emmys now join the VMAs in making me feel old and out of touch. My response to most of the nominees was “who”? or “huh?”
This is hardly an original observation, but with viewership so fragmented across the networks and streaming services, the handful of shows that achieve some buzz like “The Crown” and “Ted Lasso,” are going to clean up – if for no other reason than that they are more likely to be seen by voters. Notable that all acting awards went to white people (including near sweeps by the two titles mentioned above). Lovecraft Country, with its diverse cast, seems to have been overlooked, but that kind of science fiction isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
ALurkSupreme
Haven’t watched any award shows since I can’t remember when.
planetjanet
I did not watch (no more streaming subscriptions!), but kept refreshing the Emmys website for the winners. I was excited that the son of a good friend of mine was nominated for the Inauguration special under the category Variety Special (live). Sadly he did not win. Stephen Colbert’s election night special won the category.
cope
@eclare: If we’re watching a show with unfamiliar accents or dialectics, I make sure to have our sound bar on. It really makes a difference with shows like Ted Lasso.
Edited to answer the original question: we watched the middle parts. Saw some good (Jean Smart) and some horrible (that winning director who rudely kept telling them to turn the overtime music off).
Geminid
“…but we can’t expect Annie Laurie to hold up the entire world, now can we?”
This suggests a dramatic short story about a blog, titled “Annie Shrugged.”
MazeDancer
Mj Rodriguez was robbed for Pose.
What about Billy Porter, Jonathan Majors, or Rene-Jean Page?
Michael K. Williams – maybe the voting was before he died. Tobias Menzies was good but not earth shaking.
All The Crown people put in excellent performances. But they were just being post Brits. If they can’t pull off that, then what was the point of their training?
Yes, Gillian Anderson did a good job of being completely irritating in The Crown. But Mj Rodriguez moved the earth, often.
Betty Cracker
@cope: Or, absent a sound bar, turn on captions. I don’t have any trouble understanding most English dialects, but my husband does. He finds the conversation on shows like “Shetland” unintelligible without captions.
hells littlest angel
The show should have been called Mare of Mare, Mare Mare Mare Mare Mare, since it tried to derive all its blue-collar Philly authenticity from the fact that everyone called her Mare at every opportunity. Aside from that and the tedious, by-the-numbers plot, it was pretty good.
FridayNext
No matter how many dialect coaches are employed to make movies and television shows, natives of the regions that are being portrayed will ALWAYS think the accents suck. ALWAYS.
trollhattan
@Almost Retired:
It’s true, not possible for one person to have access to every series presented, and broadcast networks barely show up in the nominations now. Even if you know a particular interesting show exists, are you signing up for a $20/mo service to just watch that? Perhaps more importantly, how will you learn it exists?
Almost Retired
@trollhattan: True ‘dat, although eligible Emmy voters are provided access to all of the nominated performances, to my understanding.
trollhattan
@FridayNext: Wish I could find it–perhaps ten years ago BBC posted a video of an actress doing a tour of UK accents, gliding from one to the next and covering a LOT, maybe twenty? My kid thinks she has “an English accent” nailed and now ironically, has a roommate from outside Leeds with an accent so posh she could go read news for World Service, tomorrow.
In lieu of the video I present “Essex and London accents deemed less intelligent, researchers find”.
trollhattan
Also, this.
Wicked smaht. Gillian had to climb the mountain of being compared against “Iron Lady” edition Thatcher, and IDK how one does that. She’s legit American-English having been born in the States and raised in London, so accents shouldn’t be a stretch. Like Hugh Laurie, I had no idea of her roots while watching the show she became known for. I fully believe the American accent to be less of a challenge for UK actors than the reverse.
SiubhanDuinne
@lowtechcyclist:
“Thirty-seven!!”
raven
We watched all the winners. Jean is not supposed to be likable and she wasn’t but we were won over by the end.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Is this it?
Betty Cracker
@raven: In which show?
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
That is the one, good find!
West of the Rockies
@SiubhanDuinne:
Groan… some BJers just can’t tell a joke.
Leto
@Mandarama:
ROY KENT!
ROY KENT!
HE’S HERE, HE’S THERE, HE’S EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE!
ROY KENT!
Was hoping WandaVision would’ve taken home more, that LoveCraft Country would’ve taken home some, and that the Mandolorian would’ve done better. Loki came out too late for this season’s awards, but should do well next season. We’re Ted Lasso fanatics so we were happy they did so well. Jean Smart’s win for Hacks was so well deserved. That show is wicked smart and we can’t wait for season 2.
For anyone needing a brief explanation of Mare of Easttown, here you go: https://youtu.be/qaKZi6p6sxg
frosty
@lowtechcyclist: Just punch lines? Now THAT would be a spoiler thread to beat them all!
Felanius Kootea
I’ve also been putting off watching “I May Destroy You” because I know it was inspired by her real life sexual assault but I will see it before the end of the year. The shows I did watch (Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, Mandalorian, didn’t clean up like the shows I’ve never watched – Mare, Ted Lasso). I’m still on season 1 of The Crown, so I need to start back up.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Hacks, Jean Smart
NotMax
Heh. Noticed that there is but a single nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical at the upcoming (Sept. 26) Tonys.
Which doesn’t automatically guarantee he’ll win.
raven
Wow, we are trying to decide between a built-in tub, walk-in shower or a clawfoot with shower. I put it on the horrible Facebook and a neighbor is going to sell us a great 6 footer with fixtures for $500 and the contractor doing his work is going to move it!!!! Insane deal.
Steeplejack
I was happy that Julianne Nicholson won. I didn’t watch the show and didn’t really know much about the nominees, but when a friend I was texting with mentioned something about Mare of Easttown I asked if Nicholson was up for an award. Boom—“she just won!”
I liked her on Law and Order: Criminal Intent—the crown jewel of the franchise, in my opinion—and remembered her from a few other things in addition to Easttown, but I was surprised to see on IMDB how much stuff she has been in.
UncleEbeneezer
@Felanius Kootea: IMDY does have some very funny moments too. And while it’s obviously about a very dark topic, what makes it interesting is what it has to say about the gray areas of consent as well as today’s cultural obsession with social media. It’s not doom and gloom the whole time, if that’s the impression you have, but it does have a heavy/dark theme that is always there. Still very much worth watching, and like Unbelievable, probably essential viewing on Rape Culture™.
NotMax
@raven
Smart clocked in an incredibly malevolent performance during the season of Fargo in which she appeared several years back.
Old School
@NotMax: That would quite a snub if the one nominee didn’t win.
VeniceRiley
Speaking of Ted Lasso, travel restrictions on inbound UK/EU are lifting for the vaxxed in November! This jackal is getting MARRIED!
eMMYS: So disappointed in the Crown winning so much. meh. And on the genre show point, I am sad about Lovecraft Country, which was incredible … but also horror. You gotta see it!
Queen’s gambit stealing the night from Mare was cheered by me for the following reason: It’s not a cop show with a twist.
Jean Smart in Hacks was a tour de force and she deserves all the things. Such a nuanced, multi layered performance. So well done.
Hi Debbie Allen you utter badass! Can’t help your sister, but you rock.
Benw
@VeniceRiley: Married? Congrats!
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: “Unbelievable” was another show with mega buzz that I resisted because the subject matter seemed too heavy to bear at the time. But I’m glad I got around to watching it because it was really great — terrific actors.
The Dangerman
@lowtechcyclist: That might work for limericks as well:
“…in Buckingham Palace”
Emerald
@trollhattan: Years ago when I was less old I met Peter Ustinov backstage at the Ahmanson. He attempted to do an American accent. It was awful. Back then the only Brit who could do a good American accent was Peter Sellers. The newer generations have grown up on American TV, though, so for them it’s a cinch.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Thanks — wasn’t sure if you meant JS in “Mare” or “Hacks.” She was gloriously curmudgeonly in both.
raven
@Betty Cracker: And in Fargo!
MattF
I was irked, but not too badly, that Taylor-Joy didn’t win an acting award— considering that Queen’s Gambit won best limited series. And that distinction between the two series sort of makes sense, QG was very much a phenomenal combination of acting and technical craft. Also, everyone agrees that Winslett was great in Mare. I mean, she was interviewed by Mo Dowd, right?
raven
@Emerald: Better than Alan Arkin’s Russian?
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t watched Unbelievable for the same reason you weren’t going to watch it.
VeniceRiley
@MattF: But Mare is getting an S2, although they may not have known that at the time. That makes it not a limited series.
Feathers
The complaints about the acting awards all going to white actors, and especially The Crown’s multiple awards aren’t taking into account the way voting blocs work. And by blocs, I don’t mean anything nefarious, just broadly shared tastes. For the recent while, we’ve tended to have multiple “mainstream” nominees, with maybe one, outside the box, often black nominee. That actually helped the Black actor get the award, as the bland vote was spread across multiple nominees. We are now getting the reverse. Several groundbreaking, challenging works from POC, and The Crown. So the challenging works vote gets diluted and the period drama Brits sweep through.
Note in streaming services: I’ve switched to only getting them during daylight savings time, unless there is a series I really want to watch in real time (Loki!). Have found this really ups my enjoyment of the services I do get, as I have stuff I’m looking forward to, as well as things I don’t want to miss, as opposed to it all always being there.
WaterGirl
@VeniceRiley:
Wowser! Congratulations!! Are we all invited?
How long have you been waiting for travel to do that?
Chief Oshkosh
@hells littlest angel: Yep. I couldn’t get past the first half of the first episode. ‘Mare’ was the eastern PA version of Winter’s Bone, and fell far short of that bar. All just my opinion, of course.
UncleEbeneezer
@Betty Cracker: Totally. I mean, even as a man it was really hard to watch, so I can only imagine how triggering it would be for women. Though I do know a fair amount of women who said “Yes! Finally a show that actually shows the sexist bullshit of our criminal justice system.”
I feel like The Night Of and When they See Us (Central Park 5) are similar must-watches for understanding the inherent racism of our justice system. Hard to watch for sure, but also really important ones.
I think what made all of them, ultimately good enough to push through the triggering content is that they all had women/PoC driving the writing/production and always making it fairly clear that the whole point was for them to be heard.
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: It’s rough but excellent. And there’s alot of girl power (incredible performances, overt feminist messages etc.) to celebrate throughout, that helps keep it from being too harsh to even watch. But it’s definitely the kind of thing you won’t want to watch a second time because it is HEAVY. It’s similar to Handmaid’s Tale in that regard. Totally worth the praise but you definitely gotta be in the right headspace (and I don’t blame any woman for saying, nah, I live enough of this…pass).
Leto
@raven: Grats on the awesome find for your tub! We just bought a home and need to remove the tub to put in a walk in shower. It’s not safe for me to step over it on a regular basis. All the contractors around here are super busy so hopefully we can get it done soon.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think “Mare” works without Smart’s character–would have been too relentlessly depressing and stress-filled. “Wisecracking mom who drinks a lot” is not an easy character needle to thread. She does.
jackmac
I’ve always been intrigued at how Brit actors manage to completely extinguish their accents for American roles. Martin Freeman comes immediately to mind (British accents in The Hobbit, Sherlock and multiple other roles) then he adopts a flat Minnesota-like accent for his roles in the various Marvel movies). There are, of course, many other examples of actors pulling this off.
eclare
@Betty Cracker: Unbelievable was an amazing show. I am not a binger, and I watched the whole show in one day.
MattF
@jackmac: The Brits may be helped by an intense cultural awareness of accents. They know and can often reproduce all the different British regional and societal accents. Whereas we ignorant Americans can’t distinguish between an Australian accent and any other.
AM in NC
Didn’t watch, but checked this morning to see the results. BY FAR the biggest disappointment for me was no wins for Underground Railroad. It was just a stunning work of art – story, direction, art direction, sound, acting. Just like nothing else on TV, and so.very.powerful. It’s a crime that the show did not get more attention. A very difficult subject to watch, but so important and done so well.
Loved Hannah Waddingham’s winning for Ted Lasso – the first season was just really good, and what we needed at the time. Sophomore slump doesn’t begin to describe the letdown of season 2 so far.
Gillian Anderson’s highly mannered performance of Thatcher in the Crown wasn’t for me – I found it hella distracting, frankly.
And speaking of Hannah Waddingham and Gillian Anderson – why is Sex Education not getting any attention? What a great show that is like nothing else out there! Sharp, funny, hot, honest – you’d think it would be getting all sorts of love (but maybe it’s too in your face about tens and sex?)
I thought the Mare of Eastown acting wins were deserved – Julianne Moore was fabulous and I’m glad she got recognized, especially.
And yes, all the love to Jean Smart.
my 2 cents
zhena gogolia
I haven’t seen any of the shows except Hamilton. It was great.
Betty Cracker
@jackmac: I saw an explanation for that from a dialog coach who speculated that it’s because Brit actors tend to grow up watching more American TV shows and films than vice versa. Don’t know whether that’s true or not. I’ve always watched a ton of UK-based TV, and my crap imitation of a British accent makes Dick Van Dyke’s Bert the Chimney Sweep sound like Sir John Gielgud.
UncleEbeneezer
@AM in NC: If you loved Underground Railroad, check out Underground too (you can rent on Amazon). It was made by some of the same people who did Lovecraft Country. Really amazing, overlooked series that ended way too soon.
Couldn’t agree more about Sex Education. It’s the best comedy on tv, imo. Better than Hacks, Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek.
Bobby Thomson
Evan Peters’ performance in Mare of Easttown was good, but I didn’t think it stood out in any way. I think it was one of those “reward the career” awards.
citizen dave
The Sunday Morning piece made me realize why so many if the old actors/movies have that weird Lite Brit accent. Cary Grant, etc. Hollywood decided on the “Mid-Atlantic ” accent. Horrible. Some unholy mixture of American and English. Like a Wendy’s Frostie.
Just Chuck
@FridayNext: I’ve heard of plenty of occasions where actors’ accents were panned by the locals … and it was their native accent. People are really bad at recognizing their own accent when their preconception is that it’s fake.
Bobby Thomson
@hells littlest angel: whatever. I live in SEPA and thought they captured Delco perfectly.
Bobby Thomson
@West of the Rockies: it’s all in the delivery
jl
Not much of it. Boring, even for shows that I’ve watched a little. Who cares what some bunch of hokey inbred clubby judges think? I saw a youtube clip that supposedly showed Conan O’Brien pulling some stunt from the audience that livened things up for a few moments.
cope
@raven: Did you check your clearances? The one time we bought a claw foot tub to go where there hadn’t been one before we had to knock a hole in the bathroom/kitchen wall to get it in the bathroom.
TheronWare
Agree, Winslet and Joy’s performances were equally great and made it impossible for me to choose one vs the other! Also as a big AHS fan, I was really glad to see Evan Peters win for best supporting actor in a limited series.
Cmorenc
“Ted Lasso” deservedly cleaned up awards – it will be regarded as one of the finest comedic drama series of all time. That they manage to make the absurd basic premise of the plot believable, an American division II pointy-football championship coach who is clueless about soccer gets hired to be head coach of an English Premier League team and succeeds because if his ability to insightfully relate to people, is a clear indicator of the quality of the writing and ensemble acting. You need not know or care about soccer to enjoy watching, though its even better if you do, of course.
raven
@cope: We’ll do that!
Luigidaman
Murder Durdur by SNL. A great funny way to look at “Mare of Eastown” and the accents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaKZi6p6sxg
Barney
@citizen dave: Cary Grant was born in England (Bristol) and came to the USA aged 16. So he has the best excuse for a mid-Atlantic accent.
Another Scott
Dead thread, but speaking of accents…
rofl.
(Brexit strikes again…)
Cheers,
Scott.
Dr. Omed
Cary Grant had a Cary Grant accent. He had a perfect Cary Grant accent because he was Cary Grant. @Barney: @Barney:
Bonnie
I’m glad you mentioned the emmys. I am also glad to hear that both Kate Winslet and Julie Nicholson won awards. I watched Mare of Easttown and was truly stunned by the great acting I was watching. They were great! I was really moved by their relationship/friendship. I don’t think I would have been so moved if the acting hadn’t been the best. I just bought the dvd so I can watch it with fewer interruptions. And, Jean Smart was equally good in her part.