By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
This year’s Emmy Awards had a bit of déjà vu in the mix. With the last Emmy Awards being just eight months ago due to the Writers’ Guild of America strike, it’s only natural that this year’s awards ceremony feels like it rolled around so quickly.
The hosts of this year’s ceremony were the famous father-son duo, Dan and Eugene Levy. The Levys hosted the Sept. 15 awards show in the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles at 8 p.m.
This year’s Emmys did not contain many surprises, as “Shogun” and “The Bear” came in as the predictable winners, taking home most of the awards for the night.
Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” was also one of the night’s standout successes. The series won big in the Limited or Anthology Series category, sweeping up six awards for its screenwriting, actors and film editing. “Baby Reindeer” is based on the true story of the lead actor, Richard Gadd, who experienced prolonged sexual harassment from an older woman. Gadd reflected on this journey in his acceptance speech.
“I never ever thought I’d be able to rectify myself for what happened to me and get myself back on my feet again,” he said. “And then here I am, just over a decade later, picking up one of the biggest writing awards in television.”
“Shogun” dominated the Emmys with 18 awards to its name, while also earning the record for most Emmy Awards won in the award show’s history. This series has managed to revive the historical epic genre in all its glory, which has seen a slump in popularity for the past several decades, according to Hollywood Insider.
“The Bear” did face some competition from “Hacks,” due to the controversy over whether “The Bear” should be classified as a comedy. While “The Bear” took home awards for lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress and directing, it lost the lead actress category to Jean Smart from “Hacks.” “Hacks” also won an award for Outstanding Comedy Series, which appeared to settle the debate over “The Bear’s” classification.
Eugene Levy even had a quip of his own at the start of the ceremony that touched on this controversy, which garnered a laugh from the audience.
“I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether ‘The Bear’ is really a comedy,” Levy said. “But in the true spirit of ‘The Bear,’ we will not be making any jokes.”
The second season of the murder mystery game show “The Traitors” also broke “RuPaul’s Drag Race’s” five-year win streak for the Outstanding Reality Competition Series category. This comes after “The Traitors” host, Alan Cumming, snagged a Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 7 for his talents.
While this year’s Emmy Awards may have been overshadowed by the 75th Emmys in January, it was nice to see deserving winners on stage.
Reports from The Washington Post, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, among others, were not as generous, claiming that the 76th Emmys was underwhelming. Maybe next year’s Emmys will have a little more luck in terms of bringing on the excitement.
