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Entertainment July 26, 2019
And the record for the most Emmy nominations ever goes to... "Game of Thrones Season 8" !
Image via: @ach_showboxIt’s not Emmy or Oscar season without the word “snub.”
Where was Bo Burnham’s exceptionally well-observed “Eighth Grade” at this year’s Oscars? And where is Pamela Adlon’s highly nuanced “Better Things” amongst the 2019 Emmy nominees?
Popular opinion says there is profound upset at the films that have been ignored. A similar upset applies to those that have taken their slot. But it is this same populous that, year-after-year, believe the Holy Grails of opinion are the Emmys and the Oscars.
We may yearn for an American award show that is a good judge of the year’s best in film and television, but these are not it. And we need to stop pretending that they are.
Here are 3 reasons why we should stop holding the Emmys and the Oscars to such a high standard.
Under the guidance of George R. R. Martin’s novels, “Game of Thrones” was about a very relevant topic. It carried the message: we can fight each other for something as petty as the throne, or we can band together to fight the greatest of all threats—death. As the White Walkers marched further South, the need to sit on the Iron Throne seemed increasingly less meaningful. There couldn’t be a better metaphor — or a better plea — for our divided capitalist world needing to unite against climate change, artificial intelligence, the atomic bomb.
Yet, without Martin’s novels for guidance, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrote a structure that contradicted this: they eliminated the force of death in Episode 4, and the far smaller — albeit more interesting — threat of Cercei was saved for the show’s climax. Fighting to sit in a cool-looking chair, it seems, is what’s most important after all.
Structurally problematic, horribly paced, and lacking emotional and dramatic coherence, one would presume that the Academy would leave “Game of Thrones Season 8″ out of the race.
Instead, however, it is nominated for a record-breaking 32 awards; and although nominations in direction or acting are well earned, nominations in Best Writing and Best Dramatic Series expose the Academy’s shortcomings.
Why is it nominated in these categories? We could argue that the Television Academy was oblivious to Season 8‘s flaws. But, given how glaringly apparent these flaws are, this does not seem to be the reason.
Instead, I believe the reason is that the Television Academy wants to honor the show in its entirety; they are giving credit to its previous 7 seasons as well.
But if the Emmys are about the year’s best in television, this reason is preposterous. An audience will forgive a bad beginning, perhaps, but they will not forgive a disappointing end. Where an abysmal third act in a feature film would stop a movie from getting recognition at the Oscars, so too should an atrocious final season strip a show of Emmy acclaim.
Nominating “Game of Thrones Season 8” for Best Writing and Best Dramatic Series exposes one crucial thing: the Emmys are not always voting for quality. And, thus, winning one may be as meaningless as sitting on that Iron Throne.
#OscarsSoWhite addressed a serious issue: seldom were black artists nominated for awards. A predominantly white Academy was also a solid rationale for why this was the case.
With a more diverse Academy, the Oscars have taken a giant leap forward. No longer will minority voices be ignored. And racially problematic films like “The Intouchables” will not see the spotlight.
Oh wait, the feel racist movie of the decade, “Green Book,” won Best Picture…
To be “woke” does not necessarily mean to be “awake.” On the surface, both “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” adhere to Hollywood’s woke agenda. The former, with its diverse cast, seems to condemn racism. The latter, with a gay protagonist in the spotlight, seems to champion homosexuality.
But the Academy — and many audience members — were seduced by these films’ entertainment value. Rather than think critically about what they just watched, they were lulled into passivity and, “asleep,” allowed their unconscious to be tainted by unintentionally racist and homophobic messages.
“Green Book” uses its black protagonist as a tool to redeem its racist white character. And “Bohemian Rhapsody” places homosexuality on the dramatic plain of antagonism, unintentionally equating Freddie coming out with Freddie’s increasing toxic masculinity; if Freddie never came out, the film suggests, the band would have never broken up. (You can argue that these films are based on real events, but that rebuttal is ludicrous; the approach to real life and how it’s handled is still in the hands of the filmmaker. The artist, through their approach to the material, can adhere to the truth of the real event without being unintentionally offensive.)
The irony here is that although the Academy attempted to be ideologically ‘woke,’ they were, in fact, asleep to the films’ regressive ideologies.
“Green Book” won Best Picture, I believe, because of a combination of entertainment value and the appearance of a politically correct ideology. But the accidental regressiveness of these two films’ ideologies — and the obliviousness of the Academy in seeing this regressiveness — shows how unqualified and behind-the-times the Academy still is.
This alone suggests why the Academy of Motion Pictures are not good judges of the year’s best; and I didn’t even get into how “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book” are, on an artistic level, complete failures of craft and innovation…
It is clear that the People’s Choice Awards is about pleasing popular opinion. It is also clear that the Cannes Film Festival is about awarding films based on their artistic merit.
Yet the purpose of the Oscars and the Emmys remains ambiguous. Is it to please popular opinion? To award the quality of art? Is it about the entertainment value? The quality and clarity of the social messages? Or is it about getting ratings and patting Hollywood on its own back?
Perhaps it is a combination of two or more of these things. But one thing is clear: the Academies, it seems, are unaware of their purpose themselves. We can see this in the Academy of Motion Pictures’ introduction — and quick removal — of the Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film category.
The intention here, I believe, is to address the outcries of films such as “Wonder Woman” not getting more recognition. And the Academy’s message: we will not recognize films like “Wonder Woman” or “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” as quality art (and arguably, unlike other box office successes like “Mad Max: Fury Road,” they’re not), but we will acknowledge their value as popular entertainment.
But how dare the Academy of Motion Pictures say that these films are not art! How elitist!
And, thus, the Popular Film category was retracted. Box office success films were then mixed back in with art films, art films were mixed in with social justice films, and no wonder the Academy of Motion Pictures is so confused when deciding on the best film of the year.
Because what constitutes “best” anymore?
It is unclear, not only for the Emmys and Oscars but for all of Hollywood. And the consequences are that we get Academies — the presumed judges of the year’s best — voting for films that attempt to do all of the above-mentioned things. But when we do not have a year that has films (“Moonlight”) that successfully do this, we have years where films and TV shows that are not-quite-well-made, not-quite-politically-correct, and not-quite-popular-entertainment are nominated, because they seem the check off all the boxes when, in fact, they check off almost none.
Taste is and will always be subjective; but what art is or should be needs more objective clarification. We don’t ask the crucial question “what is art” and, because of this, we cannot determine what “best of the year” even means.
So, of course, the Emmys and the Oscars are poor judges of the year’s best; they are attempting to respond to a scattered society that wants contradictory things from their television shows and movies. “Best of the year” can be evaluated by box office success if we’d like. Or it can be evaluated by quality art or politically correct ideology. Or we can just accept that these award shows are solely about telling Hollywood that they’re doin’ a good job.
But what we want our award shows to be about needs to be clear.
And if our goal is to have award shows that recognize the year’s best, then what constitutes “year’s best” needs to be clarified.
For until we address these things, seasons like “Game of Thrones Season 8” will continue to be nominated for Emmys; and films like “Green Book” will continue to win Best Picture.
So let’s stop pretending like the Emmys and the Oscars are good judges of the year’s best. We don’t even know what they should be good judges of. If it is indeed to elect the best film or television of the year, then we must start being clear on what “best” even means.
