Like a high-speed rail service in a nation that actually invests in infrastructure, the 2023 Emmys in 2024 were accelerated, predictable, and smoothly unremarkable. The three big shows that entered the night as expected winners — Succession for drama, The Bear for comedy, and Beef for limited series — steamrolled their categories, which meant we saw a lot of the same faces onstage and often the same faces smiling back from the audience. The show was making up for lost time during the dual WGA and SAG strikes and awkwardly fitting itself into the rest of the film-dominated winter awards season, with many of the winners making return appearances from the Golden Globes last week (and even last night’s Critics Choice Awards, if anyone happened to watch those). Still, the Emmys did their best to emphasize the TV-ness of it all, reuniting casts from various classic programs in honor of its own 75th anniversary — though that incidentally became a reminder of how few “classic” series actually got their due at this awards show. The presiding spirit of the night seemed to be the insistence that everyone not pay too much attention to whatever might feel a little out of joint, whether in terms of divine TV justice or wider current events. Instead, everyone took the note to keep it short and keep it moving, or else Anthony Anderson’s mother would call you out. |
