Every year, The Hollywood Reporter surveys anonymous Emmys voters. They do the same thing for the Oscars. Both are infuriating. For the Oscars, the interviews are full of voters admitting they didn’t see most of the movies and definitely don’t know the difference between sound mixing and editing. For the Emmys … well, it’s easy to see why Modern Family and Chuck Lorre are still around.
Here are a few thoughts of a self-described “old white guy.”
Drama Series
Westworld is “pretentious bullshit.” The Handmaid’s Tale is “too monotone” and “everything after episode two felt like filling in time.” He loves This Is Us because of all the tears and also because “I like TV networks.”
“There’s something about them that harkens back to the days of Ed Sullivan or Friends or M*A*S*H, when everyone across America watched the same thing. It made me feel good to see that happening again.”
Is it surprising that this guy describes himself as an Anglophile? It’s not, is it?
Comedy Series
“I’m very old-fashioned when it comes to comedies — I like them to be funny — and Atlanta is not funny.”
Also:
“I enjoy Master of None more in theory than I do in practice; it’s just a little too preachy and sanctimonious. Similar thing with Black-ish: it’s funny, but I always feel like I’m being scolded and educated, and while I don’t mind John Oliver educating me about obscure things, I don’t need that from a network comedy. It just got a little too up its own ass this year.”
This seems like a good time to mention that the last (and I believe only) time a non-white-led show won this category was The Cosby Show in 1985. And yes, this guy loves Modern Family. His vote is going to Silicon Valley. Shocking.
Variety Talk Show
He likes Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, but “there’s a certain smugness about that show that doesn’t work for me.” Real Time with Bill Maher, though? You know, the practical definition of smugness? He says “I love that show.”
Also, he says he feels like he has “a duty” to vote for Full Frontal “because the host is a woman” [thanks for the condescending tokenism, buddy]. He’s also “tempted” to vote for Bill Maher “just to push back against the oppressive political-correctness that he faced” after he said the n-word on television. Yes, let’s reward that with an Emmy.
His vote (and my reaction to his terrible opinions):
Television Movie
He says “there was no way I wasn’t going to vote for Black Mirror, which I think was one of the greatest things on television in a long time.”
I agree!
But then: “I actually thought ‘San Junipero,’ the one they submitted, was one of the lesser ones.”
These are just his opinions. He’s entitled to them. But his opinions also influence the outcome of these awards, which in turn has a strong impact on the future of those shows, the salaries and future opportunities of the casts and creative teams, and television trends in general.
(via Hollywood Reporter, image: Hulu)
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