The Emmy nominations are in and… sure. I care about award shows more than any normal person and more than most strange people too, but I just can’t bring myself to care this year. Whether it’s the writers on strike and the actors now joining them, the mindless favouritism towards two shows in particular, the continued ridiculousness of its categorisation (The Bear is a comedy?), or the controversy around several nominees, the Emmys just aren’t worth caring about this year.
The first thing you'll notice is that the nominations are dominated by Succession and The White Lotus. It was Succession's last season, and it aired very recently, which are both factors that put a thumb on the scale for votes in its favour. But to have so many sweeping across so many categories, especially with The White Lotus' 'just pretty good' second season taking the lion's share of what's left, it feels like a damning indictment of either the lack of good shows on television or the viewing habits of voters.
Andor, House of the Dragon, and The Crown are all up for Outstanding Drama Series, and between them they have just one other nomination, with Elizabeth Debicki up for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for The Crown. Better Call Saul is also largely overlooked, with only Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn nominated alongside the show itself, and both heavily expected to lose to the Succession cast.
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Of course, there are two types of 'wrong' nominations at an award show. There's 'I don't think this person should have been nominated, that other person was better' (see: no Andy Serkis for Andor, amongst many others), and there's 'how the fuck did this happen?!', and this year, there are three 'how the fuck' nominees, two of which are in the same category.
Cast your eye, if you will, over Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The first thing you'll notice is that out of eight nominees, there are four from Succession and four from The White Lotus, which already feels 'wrong' in the first way. Then your eye will catch a name: F. Murray Abraham. Yes, the same F. Murray Abraham who was allegedly fired from his other show Mythic Quest because of serial sexual harassment in a fairly high profile story. Much less high profile were the allegations against Nicholas Braun, in which numerous 16 year old girls accused him of inappropriate behaviour and one even alleged he told her "don't care" when she told him she was underage after he asked her to his hotel room. This category is going to Matthew Macfadyen anyway, couldn't we have a little bit more variety in the shows represented at the cost of these two?
Then there's Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Importantly, this award is for the casting directors rather than the cast, and is given as recognition of filling each role with the perfect actor for the part. Beef, which caught huge controversy for casting David Choe, made the cut. The whole cast, and indeed Cho, are great in Beef. But this is not an award for the cast, it is for the casting. And casting Cho, who had a podcast in which he bragged about "rapey behaviour" (he later claimed this was a joke: punchline unknown), was a terrible call.
Maybe there's even a third type. Bella Ramsey is an interesting case, and as is tradition with award shows, lots of people are speaking very loudly without knowing very much. Ramsey is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, but the character they play is female, and they publicly identified as female when cast. Though their co-star Pedro Pascal has a long history of trans allyship, the sad truth is Ramsey may not have even been considered if they were out as non-binary when casting began. Leaving that aside though, they were cast, and they did a good job, and thus were nominated. There's some mild outrage that Ramsey has been nominated in the Best Actress category, when they do not consider themselves female, but that is not on the Emmys. Ramsey, in conjunction with HBO, chose to submit in this category - they discussed feeling "uncomfortable" with it, but ultimately they felt getting recognition in a category that didn't fully fit was better than none at all.
Could we do away with gendered categories all together? Sure, but cisgender men predominantly get the biggest roles, the most press, and the most votes. If there were six nominees in the Outstanding Lead in a Drama Series category of any gender, it's highly likely it would have just been the six men. Sarah Snook might have taken a slot, but Ramsey would have missed out. 12 nominees for a category is ridiculous, especially with the implied concession that it should only be half male, so there is no perfect solution, and ultimately Ramsey made the choice to submit for Actress - nothing in the rules stopped them submitting for Actor instead. It's also hard to square the outrage that Ramsey was nominated with the similar outrage that Emma D'Arcy, also non-binary, was not - if they were nominated, they too would likely have been in Actress as that is where they have been placed before, and then we would have had two non-binary people in Best Actress, which would quieten the voices claiming D’Arcy was overlooked but strengthen those objecting to non-binary performers being in gendered categories.
As usual, people will think the two shows they watch a year should have been nominated for everything, and people who don't care about either award shows or television as a whole will be ecstatic or enraged if their favourite wins or loses. But this reliance on a couple of shows is not supposed to extend to the judges themselves, and with so many misfires, it feels like a low point for the Emmys.