The ups, downs and whoas

While this is a triumphant return to in-person awards ceremonies, the 2021 Emmy Awards have also managed to be a triumphant return to disappointing awards ceremonies. Hosted inside a tent that was billed as “outside” but still had walls, a ceiling, and several chandeliers, the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards tried very hard to return to something like a pre-standard. -COVID, and they achieved that a little too well. While there were several landmark moments, including Michaela Coel’s acceptance speech for writing I can destroy you Debbie Allen’s acceptance of the Governors Award and Conan O’Brien’s post-loss decision to troll everyone, in many ways this year’s Emmys felt like a rote celebration of already familiar faces and easily predictable.

On paper, some of the night’s biggest winners might have looked like surprises. Freshman Series Ted lasso won several categories, The Queen’s Gambit crept in as the best limited series, and The crown won Best Drama, something he’s never been able to do in the past. In reality, however, series snub like Underground Railroad and The good Lord bird and specials like Bo Burnham’s Inside only underscored the larger message of the Emmys of the Night: The Emmys! We are back! It’s safe now! Check out all of our safe choices!

LOW: The incomprehensible coverage on the E! Red carpet. E! bravely stumbled upon her traditional red carpet interviews without Rancic and Seacrest and with now it strange‘s Karamo Brown, who didn’t seem to know that Daniel Craig makes an accent in Knives Out, and, for some reason, he was not told to hold his microphone close enough to the mouths of the people he was interviewing. Their attempts to make sense of his questions and answers in a cohesive human way were nothing more than teachers speaking in Peanuts.

WHOA: The opening performance of the group “TV, You Got What I Need”. Cedric the Entertainer kicked off with a prerecorded short track “Hello I Didn’t See You There From My Couch” which led to singing a version of “Just a Friend” by Biz Markie but at About the TV, which apparently has what you need. Things started off pretty mundane with Cedric playing next to a guy with a TV as his head, but quickly escalated as more and more people joined in. Did the mics go to Lil Dicky? Rita Wilson ?? It got uncomfortable, then adorable, then uncomfortable again because, really, someone shouldn’t have let Rita keep her hands on that mic for so long. Chet Haze must be so jealous.

UP / DOWN: Seth Rogen’s Surprisingly Honest COVID Safety Joke. “They told us it was outside! he said. “He is not! I would like not have come to this!

HIGH: Julianne Nicholson’s real surprise in a supporting role for Easttown mare. Jean Smart and Kathryn Hahn might have seemed to be the most likely winners in this category, but it was great that Nicholson’s work was honored and to see her very clearly not expecting that to happen. .

LOW: Whatever the sporting part of Cédric after an advertisement. It involved him being badly photoshopped in a marina and yelling at boaters about sports with references we don’t understand. It’s TV night! Play sports another time!

HIGH: Reggie Watts as a DJ. Watts cutting to commercials with a new accent or a weird new character was a pleasantly surreal addition to an otherwise boring and provocative vibe. It’s a shame the Emmys forgot he existed after the first hour.

HIGH: Kerry Washington’s brief tribute to Michael K. Williams. It was short but poignant. “Michael was – it’s crazy to say ‘was’,” Washington said. Williams did not win for his role in Lovecraft Country (the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama went to Tobias Menzies for The crown), but the timing seemed to belong to Williams, as it should.

LOW: The desire to get back to normal translates into a boring, cornball, paint-by-numbers Emmy production. It was a scary time and everyone seemed delighted to be in a room together again. Still, it’s almost as if this CBS Emmys production is afraid that if it makes bold choices or innovative changes to a cookie-cutter awards show, COVID could sense a weakness and jump out of a corner. There have been some structural changes, including changing the order of nominees listed, then announcing the presenters, and the decision to pre-register all nominees’ names is a great one. (Never again, Adele Dazeem.)

Overall, however, the desire to embrace normalcy was so intense that much of the series seemed just plain boring. In fact, at times “boring” was the highlight – see re: the fly joke below – but when something genuinely exciting seemed to be happening, like O’Brien disrupting the tedious “biggest night for the Academy president’s television “speech, very few of them even appeared on the screen. The audience reacted, but the camera focused insistently on the less interesting guy up front.

HIGH: Ali Barthwell won an Emmy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy shit! Ali !!!!!!!

LOW: The default Emmys to the most predictable picks in so many categories. Despite the number of inventive series nominated, Emmy voters seemed to care only about a handful of series: The crown, Ted lasso, Easttown Mare, then in the variety categories, Last week tonight and SNL. There is a lot of good work on these shows, but it is so. Absolutely. Boring. Seeing the same people walking over and over again, to the point where John Oliver himself had to point out that he had just beaten O’Brien and hey, maybe someone else deserves credit.

HIGH: It’s always nice when Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy can do a little bit. Maybe there should be more award pieces!

LOW: A little on the fly on Mike Pence’s head during a really horrible debate that ended with the line “All flies count”. Counterpoint: No, they shouldn’t. Another proof of the no: the endless sketch that followed, with a bunch of people who hadn’t won Emmys (Scott Bakula, Zooey Deschanel) in group therapy that brought in Dr. Phil. We don’t need to see Dr. Phil.

HIGH: Bowen Yang cautiously entering the stage in his glorious boots. “Yes Kevin Feige, I a m athletic!”

HIGH: Jean Smart’s victory for Hacks. The instant standing ovation was the correct answer. (Giving Jean Smart the orchestral signal to stop speaking was not The right answer.)

LOW: Where are all the non-white winners? Especially in the categories of actors? Two hours after the show started, RuPaul gave a acceptance speech after winning an Outstanding Reality Show for RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Governor’s Award went to Debbie Allen. Until that, no non-white winner had spoken on stage.

HIGH: Conan being Conan. After dragging the president of the Academy, O’Brien took the stage when Colbert won for his election night coverage, smiling and nodding and pretending to be a member of Colbert’s staff.

HIGH: Debbie Allen tells the Emmys to turn off the clock during her speech, “I’m not paying attention. ” She deserved the time to deliver her speech, and for the ceremony, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Ava DuVernay, Ellen Pompeo and Michael Douglas introduce her while holding canes, a very specific reference to her character as Fame.

MEUGLER: Scott Frank’s protracted war with the Emmy directors trying to play it. Frank had a very long speech and insisted on delivering all of it. The Emmys tried to stop him by playing “Time to Say Goodbye”. As Frank continued it became more and more uncomfortable to see him refuse to read the piece, although “Time to Say Goodbye” was a fun choice for the “please stop talking” music. .

HIGH: Michaela Coel won for I can destroy you. It seems odd to call it a ‘high’ because it really is’ the most absolutely obvious choice they could have made; any other choice would have been really embarrassing, ”but look, it’s the Emmys. We cannot take these things for granted.

WHOA: Ewan McGregor won an Emmy for Halston? Remember Halston? The show on Halston. Where they keep saying “Halston”. Halston.

LOW: You shouldn’t film the “In Memoriam” segment in a way that makes it hard to see the people we remember! The segment had a job.

LOW: you don’t have to keep rewarding Hamilton. He already has so many awards! It would have been nice to recognize something else! They probably wouldn’t even have noticed!

UP / DOWN: Well, if you’re running a streaming service, congratulations because streaming TV productions have won all of the major series awards. If you run a network television or cable network business, you’re out of luck. Sorry CBS, host of the TV show! Apart from the gratitude for Colbert, voters did not feel this fall.