Dear readers, I have no illusions about the supreme good taste arbitration of awards shows. I know they are a deeply flawed institution that rarely hires good hosts, often leaves deserving nominations on the cutting room floor, and always gives at least one award to some project viewers cannot stand. However, I do believe in the concept of elevating great works of art, and since this blog isn’t quite powerful enough yet to do that on its own, we must take the opportunities we have. What follows are a few Emmy-nominated shows that I think you should be watching.
The Weirdo: What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu): I think a lot of TV plays it way too safe these days but I am also sympathetic to the pressures creators are under to pitch something networks and streaming services think they can sell. Having said that, I have no idea how What We Do in the Shadows exists. The FX series is based on a movie from 2014 written, directed, and acted in by Taika Waititi. Waititi is a weird guy who makes a lot of interesting content and has managed to get some majorly weird projects greenlit. Both the movie and the series based on it (which premiered in 2019) are comedy mockumentaries about vampires roommates. The series is a hilarious exploration of eternal life that the Emmys have somehow loved. It has garnered 17 Emmy nominations to date, including two nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show has never struck me as something Emmy nominators would go for, as it is like almost nothing else on television, but I’m wrong and that’s great! Watch if you like mockumentaries, vampires, or the show Los Espookys.
The Critical Darling: Severance (Apple TV+): Severance does not need whatever small power I possess to get it in front of viewers; it has been one of the more talked-about shows of this year. But I want to highlight it because I think it deserves its high praise so much. It’s a show about workism, technology, memory, and identity. In the series, technology has been invented that allows you to mentally sever your work life from your home life. When in the office, you only remember your office persona and when you’re outside the office you can only remember your outside life. Of course, as the show Dollhouse pointed out many years ago, any technology that can be exploited will be exploited. Severance explores how our memories are constitutive of our selves and how without them we are helpless in the face of exploitation and manipulation. I’m excited about this show because it is a big swing, but it pulls off its premise flawlessly. Watch if you debate workism a lot, enjoy the uncanny, or are disturbed by the concept of company towns.
The Unsurprising Snub: 1883 and Yellowstone (Paramount+): I guess these aren’t technically 100% snubbed, because 1883 is nominated in one category (cinematography), but I am using this format that I made up to talk about how the Yellowstone cinematic universe is being overlooked by awards shows and critics and how that is wrong. I’m not the first to note this, several outlets have remarked on how odd it is that the critical intelligentsia isn’t talking about a show (Yellowstone) that consistently pulls in similar ratings to Game of Thrones. Yellowstone is about John Dutton, a ranch owner in Montana, his family, and his struggle to keep his land. It is very much Succession but ranching. 1883, one of my favorite shows of 2021 is a prequel series that follows Dutton’s grandfather as he and his family traverse the Oregon Trail in 1883. Yellowstone in particular is a wide-ranging soap opera that includes a hefty dose of murder, intrigue, and rodeos. It is an explicitly red state political show that consistently airs on the side of sympathy for the plight of the rich white rancher and his murderous family over the indigenous people trying to take back their ancestral lands. It’s possible that all this is what makes it both a popular success and a critical blindspot for awards shows like the Emmys. But that is a shame. Yellowstone is not a perfect show and is often blind to its own politics, but it’s a really good and interesting one and 1883 was one of the best depictions of the late-19th century American West I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend both and hope the Emmys realize one day that shows like 1883 deserve to be recognized for more than their sweeping shots of the prairie. Watch if you like westerns, harsh realism, and operatic dramas.
The Surprise Snub: Pachinko (Apple TV+): Pachinko, based on the family saga novel by Min Jin Lee, seemed a shoo-in for the Emmys. Set in Japan during and after the Korean War, this book has been at the top of seemingly every celebrity book club list since its publication in 2017, and it is a genuinely good book. I was really excited to see it greenlit by Apple TV+ for adaptation, especially in tandem with another period book adaptation, The Essex Serpent. Apple has been making some interesting adaptation choices and has pulled them off quite well, something not all streaming services can claim. I thought this adaptation was beautiful, sensitive, and well-wrought. To see it ignored by the Emmys really surprises me, as awards shows have been attempting to include more non-English content in their nominations and have particularly been including more Korean shows and movies (Squid Game, Parasite). But their overlook doesn’t have to be yours. Watch if you enjoy 20th c. period pieces, finally seeing the Korean War from a non-American perspective, and multilingual stories.