It was already going to be an historic Emmy night for FX, and a most deserved one at that. Its epic dramatic series SHOGUN had already made history last week by winning no less than 14 Creative Arts trophies, establishing an all-time record for wins in a single year, and as THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Patrick Brzeski reported last night, it improved markedly upon that:
(T)he show further cemented its rule inside the Peacock Theater at the Prime Time Emmys, winning an additional four awards, including the top categories of best drama series, best actress in a drama series for Anna Sawai, best actor in a drama series for Hiroyuki Sanada, and best drama directing for Frederick E.O. Toye. Shogun‘s triumph is momentous on several fronts. The historic awards haul represents a huge win for FX and parent company Disney for a pricey series that took nearly 10 years to bring to fruition and once looked like a very uncertain bet. It’s also a major moment for Asian representation and non-English-language television. Shogun is the very first majority non-English-language series to win in the outstanding drama series category (Netflix’s Korean sensation Squid Game was nominated in 2022 but lost to HBO’s Succession), and Sanada and Sawai are the first Japanese actors ever to win Emmys.
So my former colleagues had already cemented their place in TV history even before the awards for comedies began being tallied. And their stellar entry, THE BEAR, had already copped seven Creative Arts awards, and was already scoring early evening wins last night as well. The victory for Liza Colon-Zayas in the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category was especially noteworthy, as NJ.com’s Amy Kuperinsky reported:
Liza Colón-Zayas made history with her first Emmys win Sunday, for her performance in “The Bear.” She became the first Latina actor to win the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series. The actor started off her speech by saying that her husband, fellow actor David Zayas (”Dexter,” “Oz”), told her to write a speech but she didn’t, because she didn’t think a win would be possible. “How could I have thought it would be possible to be in the presence of Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett and Janelle (James) and Sheryl Lee Ralph and Hannah (Einbinder),” Colón-Zayas said. “I love you all, I revere you to the bottom of my heart.”
But just as the night was beginning to border on predictable, when the Best Actress Award for a comedy was being announced by the equally reverable Candice Bergen, it was not, as many predicted, THE BEAR’s Ayo Edebiri, or even the equally groundbreaking Selena Gomez of ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING. Rather, it was, as Bergen gushed, the “brilliant” Jean Smart, who was part of the cast of DESIGNING WOMEN that complimented Bergen’s MURPHY BROWN in CBS’ memorable Monday night sitcom lineup more than three decades ago. And by night’s end, Smart’s current series, HACKS, had also received its due. As yet another THR scribe, Ryan Gajewski, reported last night:
Hacks cooked up a major upset for the final category at the 2024 Emmys. The Max series won the Emmy Award for best comedy series for its third season, marking its third win of the ceremony. Hacks also won for…best writing in a comedy series for Aniello, Downs and Jen Statsky. Hacks, which also stars Hannah Einbinder, earned 16 nominations ahead of the 2024 Emmys.
And what this an especially sweet victory was the fact that it was an honest-to-goodness, laugh-filled, comedy. A fact not lost on many observers and competitors, as Gajewski expounded:
The show’s win for best comedy series was seen as a surprise, with many pundits expecting the FX/Hulu series The Bear to top the category for the second year in a row. The Bear‘s wins in the comedy categories have spurred debate regarding whether the show is too dramatic to be seen as a comedy.
Eugene Levy, who co-hosted the ceremony with son Dan Levy from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, poked fun at the discourse surrounding whether The Bear should indeed be considered a comedy.
“I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy,” Eugene Levy told the crowd during the co-hosts’ monologue. “But in the true spirit of The Bear, we will not be making any jokes.”
During the ceremony, Einbinder’s mother, Saturday Night Live alum Laraine Newman, posted messages to social media that criticized The Bear for being nominated as a comedy. Newman wrote, “Every time I think about The Bear being in the comedy category for the Emmys I can feel an ulcer developing.”
Now, in fairness, THE BEAR does have its funny moments, and its most recent season which aired this summer was noticeably lighter in tone and filled with many strong comedic moments. Indeed, the performances of the male award winners, lead actor Jeremy Allen White and supporting actor Ebon Mass-Bachrach, featured numerous WTF moments. But those were not what was actually supposed to have been considered by Emmy voters, as these awards were for the show’s prior season, one that VULTURE’s
Season two, to its great credit, becomes a different kind of show — a season with its own set of questions and preoccupations. The Bear’s ten-episode second season relies on one of TV’s best, most underused story arcs: a bunch of caring, flawed people who come together to build something they all love. It’s a little bit Halt and Catch Fire in that respect and a little bit Ramy (an earlier show from creator Christopher Storer) in its mix of darkness and light and the way it deploys self-contained episodic ideas. At times, it even has a “late ’80s drama” vibe with sexy, blue-hued montages and unapologetically on-the-nose musical cue.
In the wake of a Season Three that had just completed its arc as this year’s ballots were being circulated, it’s all but unavoidable for those actors’ more balanced performances to at least be top of mind. I suspect the pundits who were making predictions may have been more guilty of such recency bias than they might be inclined to admit. And don’t think that reality wasn’t lost on the tenacious FX executive team that doggedly fights for every possible advantage and angle to snare more hardware for their efforts.
But many Emmy voters, particularly the older base that tends to take their job more seriously, are savvy enough to recognize such tactics. And they were also the ideal demographic base for a show like HACKS, a fact of life very much top of mind, again per Gajewski:
Co-star and co-creator Paul W. Downs also addressed the crowd, noting that the team didn’t know if the series would initially sell, given that it featured two female characters, one of whom – stand-up comedy legend Deborah Vance, as played by Jean Smart – was over 60.
“About 20 percent of our population is over 60-plus, and there are only 3 percent of those characters in television,” Downs said. “I would like to see more of them because, while I am a great, young supporting actor, I really want to be a good old lead.”
Frankly, that’s a destiny that many of us share.
So for as much as I love to celebrate my former FX colleagues–and they deserve every shred of accolade that they’re getting–I’m gratified that there’s still room for unquestionably funny people who have honed their crafts for a long, long time. Room for the likes of Smart to still be a winner. Room for the likes of Levy to host. Room for the likes of Bergen to take her own bow and genuinely embrace a fellow veteran.
HACKS has indeed been renewed for a fourth season, but it’s unlikely it will air early enough for consideration for next year’s Emmys. THE BEAR, of course, is assured of its nominatability and will likely not lose a step in its own record-breaking pace.
So there’s winners everywhere, and of every vintage. Funny how sometimes those kind of things work out.
Until next time…