{"id":3330,"date":"2016-03-19T21:15:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T15:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3330"},"modified":"2016-03-19T21:15:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T15:45:24","slug":"are-the-emmys-the-most-boring-of-all-award-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3330","title":{"rendered":"Are the Emmys the Most Boring of All Award Functions?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>\u2019ll be honest, the Emmy Awards might be TV\u2019s biggest night, but they are <\/p>nobody\u2019s favourite<\/span><\/a>. They\u2019re less glamorous than the Oscars and not as wholesome as the Golden Globes. They also lack the campy, show-stopping magic of the Tony Awards, and the hipster factor of the Grammys. And it\u2019ll still remain the least favourite, even when Childish Gambino attends both the Grammys and the Emmys. <\/span>\n\nThis year\u2019s ceremony was especially disappointing, even by Emmy standards. Hosts, Colin Jost and Michael Che failed to live up to <\/span>expectations<\/span><\/a> as <\/span>Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i> cast members, delivering stale jokes and subdued energy that ironically matched the tone of the night. Even comedians Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen bombed in a #fail that would have seemed impossible before it actually happened. The most exciting moment of the night was when director Glenn Weiss \u2013 winning in a category that may as well be called \u201cBathroom Break\u201d or \u201cTime to Check <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a>\u201d \u2013 proposed to his girlfriend during his acceptance speech. Sure, it was an endearing scene, but was it an Emmy moment? Not so much.<\/span>\n\nBut perhaps the greatest disappointment was the ceremony\u2019s wavering focus on equality. The Emmys opened with a sarcastic musical <\/span>tribute<\/span><\/a> to Hollywood\u2019s diversity problem called \u201cWe Solved It\u201d. Performed by Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Tituss Burgess, Kristen Bell, Sterling K Brown, Ricky Martin, RuPaul, and John Legend, it included a troupe of \u201cone-of-each\u201d dancers in rainbow colours. The lyrics even poked fun at Hollywood\u2019s tokenism and its inability to walk the talk.<\/span>\n\nUnfortunately, the satire sliced too close to reality, as category after category kept throwing up white winners. Despite a heavily panned season, <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i> won the award for Best Drama, while the equally lily-white <\/span>Marvelous Mrs Maisel<\/span><\/i> took home a host of awards. The only exceptions were Thandie Newton, who won for her terrifying turn in HBO\u2019s <\/span>Westworld<\/span><\/i>, Darren Criss winning the Lead Actor in a Limited Series, and Regina King winning the same for a show that was almost cancelled by <\/span>Netflix<\/span><\/a>. But with not even a handful of racially diverse winners, the hosts\u2019 inability to address the white elephant in the room was perhaps its weakest link.<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s even more surprising considering there was a promising slate of nominees of colour representing an extraordinarily diverse year of TV \u2013 a fact that was prematurely celebrated by the hosts. Donald Glover\u2019s crowning glory, <\/span>Atlanta<\/span><\/i>, was up for several nods, as were <\/span>Black-ish <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Insecure. Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/span><\/i> alum Sandra Oh was nominated for <\/span>Killing Eve<\/span><\/i>, becoming the first Asian to be nominated for Lead Actress in the Drama category. But as the awards were handed out, it became increasingly evident that it was merely <\/span>lip-service<\/span><\/a>. For the Emmys, affording room for actors of colour in its nominations was victory enough. TV critic, Sonia Saraiya <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> in Vanity Fair, \u201c<\/span>The awards clearly made an effort to bring diverse talent onstage to present the awards, and the winners at the pre-broadcast Creative Arts Emmys included an unprecedented number of actors of colour winning for guest and supporting roles. But when it came to the major prizes, the Academy seemed to show a preference for shows that elide the problem of race or eschew discussing it entirely.\u201d<\/span>\n

But as the awards were handed out, it became increasingly evident that it was merely lip-service. For the Emmys, affording room for actors of colour in its nominations was victory enough<\/blockquote>\nMore than its victories, the 70th Emmy Awards will be remembered for its <\/span>dismal<\/span><\/a> snubs. As Oh quipped during the ceremony, \u201cIt\u2019s an honour just to be Asian,\u201d a joke that is even more heartbreaking when you realise how cruelly the Emmys treated the hopes of so many nominees \u2013 inviting them to the party but leaving them out in the cold. That the ceremony was boring AF did little to help.<\/span>\n\nBarely a month back, Jon M Chu\u2019s <\/span>Crazy Rich Asians<\/span><\/i>, the first Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast since <\/span>The Joy Luck Club<\/span><\/i> (1993), smashed box office expectations and is poised to gross $150 million \u2013 even before its release in India this week. The widespread <\/span>adulation<\/span><\/a> for this modest film was a result of Hollywood finally looking beyond its white privilege.<\/span>\n\nAnd it is this precise moment that the Emmys failed to capture this year: the joy of seeing the underdog win; the passionate plea for equality from a Viola Davis or an Oprah Winfrey, as we have seen at other awards shows; the historic victory that could have belonged to Oh; the acceptance speech of Donald Glover, who <\/span>attended<\/span><\/a> the ceremony dressed in whiteface as his <\/span>Atlanta<\/span><\/i> character Teddy Perkins.<\/span>\n\nAwards ceremonies have long been criticised for being <\/span>bloated<\/span><\/a> and self-indulgent affairs, designed by the rich, white, and famous for the rich, white and famous. If the Emmys this year were any evidence, there\u2019s still a long way to go before this narrative is changed.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award ceremonies have long been criticised for being self-indulgent affairs, designed by the rich, white, and famous \u2013 for the rich, white, and famous. If the Emmys this year, defined by its snubs, were any evidence, there\u2019s still a long way to go before that changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":3331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[2333,6447,5475,6448,518,2753,6449,720,6450,309,3746,6451,6452,5850,6453,3710],"class_list":["post-3330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-atlanta","tag-blackish","tag-boring","tag-childish-gambino","tag-diversity","tag-donald-glover","tag-drag-race","tag-emmys","tag-emmys-2018","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-issa-rae","tag-regina-king","tag-rupaul","tag-sandra-oh","tag-thandie-newton","tag-westworld"],"yoast_head":"\nAre the Emmys the Most Boring of All Award Functions?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Award ceremonies have long been criticised for being self-indulgent affairs, designed by the rich, white, and famous \u2013 for the rich, white, and famous. If the Emmys this year, defined by its snubs, were any evidence, there\u2019s still a long way to go before that changes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are the Emmys the Most Boring of All Award Functions?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Award ceremonies have long been criticised for being self-indulgent affairs, designed by the rich, white, and famous \u2013 for the rich, white, and famous. 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