Television’s biggest night this year has ended once again. The Handmaid’s Tale, Veep, and Big Little Lies won the biggest categories. I now consider this as the best Emmy awards so far in my recent memory. I will explain it why with my analysis on the winners.
First of all, I wanna say that Stephen Colbert did a decent job on hosting the ceremony. Most of his jokes went well especially the unexpected Sean Spicer cameo. Although, I’m not going to discuss the ceremony itself as I will focus more on the results as it is the only reason why there is an Emmy awards ceremony. There were a lot of historic wins at the Emmys this year. Also, there wasn’t any huge upset that swirl our heads just like when Ben Mendelsohn won last year for playing some sort of a ghost against Jon Snow. There were some surprises but we were happy when they won.
The Handmaid’s Tale was able to win in all categories that they are nominated. Apparently, the Television Academy loves the show so much. I actually predicted Stranger Things just because of the buzz and its five wins during the Creative Arts. Unfortunately, the show didn’t win any award on the main ceremony. I was happy to see Ann Dowd win Drama Supporting Actress because I believe that she is overdue. She has been in the industry for a long time and she finally got recognized by her peers. She won for playing the ruthless Aunt Lydia and she was great on playing that role especially since she made her such a very interesting character. I like to think of her Emmy win as a consolation for her performance as Patti Levin on The Leftovers in which I also think was a great performance of her. Her win was considered as a surprise given that she is in competition with Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) and Thandie Newton (Westworld). Nevertheless, I’m glad that she finally earned an Emmy for her iconic performance as Aunt Lydia. Acting students should look up to an actress like her.
I was also happy to see Elisabeth Moss win since it is also her first career Emmy after a bunch of nominations for Mad Men and Top of the Lake. Her performance as Offred was astonishing. Claire Foy (The Crown) or Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld) could have also won but this is Moss’ time to shine. The show also won for directing and writing. I didn’t predict the show to win these but I was still fine with the results since I think that the writing was also great and Reed Morano’s direction of the pilot is brilliant. Also, it’s been 22 years since a woman won so this is a historic win for her. I’m also happy when Sterling K. Brown won Drama Lead Actor for This Is Us. Considering that he is also in competition with Kevin Spacey and Anthony Hopkins, this is an impressive win for him and it’s his second nomination after his win last year for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Also, it’s been 19 years since an African-American won the category so this is also historic and another well-deserved win. The most expected win in the drama categories is John Lithgow for The Crown. His performance as Winston Churchill has been critically-acclaimed for many months. He also deserved the award as his performance as Churchill was breathtaking. It could have gone to Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) or Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us) but this is Lithgow’s career best performance and this is the best way to reward him.
In the comedy categories, Veep took the Best Comedy Series trophy again for the third consecutive time. It was expected given the current political situation. Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her sixth consecutive Emmy which is a record-breaking win as she is now the actress with the most Emmys for the same character and show. Her win was expected and also well-deserved. The next season will be the final so I wouldn’t be surprised if she will be rewarded again for the final time. Donald Glover won the Comedy Lead Actor award. To be honest, I’m not a fan of Atlanta so I don’t understand the rave for the show. I would have prefer to see Zach Galifianakis (Baskets) or Aziz Ansari (Master of None) win. Glover also won for Comedy Directing which is historic since he is the first African-American to win the award. This one was more well-deserved as I love his direction of the “B.A.N.” episode especially with those fake commercials.
Saturday Night Live took sweeps for the comedy supporting categories. As expected, Alec Baldwin won for his iconic Trump impersonation on the show. I would have prefer to see Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) win but Baldwin’s Trump impersonation gave us comfort in times like this so there is no wonder that he won. For the second consecutive time, Kate McKinnon won for Comedy Supporting Actress. It was also expected given the buzz of her Hillary Clinton and Kellyanne Conway impersonation. It was also well-deserved and I couldn’t be more happier. It would be more funnier though to see Leslie Jones win and go on stage. I’m also happy when Master of None won for Comedy Writing. The show won for the episode “Thanksgiving” which is one of the best TV episodes that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ve seen it twice and it gets better the second time around. Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe are the recipients of the award. Waithe is the first African-American woman to win the award.
In the limited series and TV movie categories, Big Little Lies took the sweep in all categories that they are nominated except one. It snagged the Best Limited Series which was expected. Nicole Kidman won for Limited Series/TV Movie Lead Actress. I love her performance on the show but I was actually rooting for Jessica Lange (Feud: Bette and Joan). Although, still, Kidman deserves the award. Alexander Skarsgard won the supporting actor category. He was great on the show especially on the second half but I was rooting for Alfred Molina (Feud: Bette and Joan). Laura Dern won her first career Emmy in the supporting actress category. She deserved it so much. I love her character on the show. I would have also love to see Jackie Hoffman (Feud: Bette and Joan) win. The show also won the directing award which was also expected. Jean Marc-Vallee’s direction of the show was breathtaking. Although, it would have been also lovely to see Ryan Murphy win for the infamous Oscars episode of Feud: Bette and Joan.
Riz Ahmed won the Limited Series/TV Movie Lead Actor for his brilliant performance as Naz Khan on The Night Of. It would be nice to see his co-star John Turturro win the award as well but Ahmed stands out for his performance that transformed as the episodes go by. Black Mirror: San Junipero won the Best TV Movie award (even though it’s not technically a TV movie) which rejoices fans of the episode and the LGBT community. It also won the writing award which was unexpected and, also, the only award that Big Little Lies didn’t win.
The reason why I’m calling this Emmys as “the best one yet” is because the results were something that everyone can agree on. All of the winners were deserving and expected. We saw a lot of historic wins in this ceremony. A veteran actress was finally awarded. The winners on the series categories are all starred by a woman/women. There’s really something about this year’s Emmys that would just make you feel like this is the best one yet. The results are just perfect and you can’t argue that the winners here don’t deserve their win. All of them have valid reasons to win whether their work was great or the other nominees had vote-splitting. Nevertheless, I love the results of this year’s Emmys. Next year will be exciting as Game of Thrones is back and I’m curious to see how it will head-to-head with The Handmaid’s Tale. Praised be, the Emmys!
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