“Heirs” on the throne – Newspaper Kommersant No. 169 (7370) of 09/14/2022

The 74th American Television Academy Emmy Awards took place in Los Angeles. Best Drama Series for the second time was HBO’s Descendants, which already won the award in 2020 and led in the number of nominations, while Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso won Best Comedy Series, building on last year’s success. comments Yulia Shagelman.

After a brief shake-up due to the pandemic, which put many well-deserved shows on pause, but at the same time gave newcomers a chance (among them last year was “Ted Lasso”, which quickly turned from an intimate small series into a national favorite), the American TV Academy returned to its usual practice: to reward the usual favorites, turning a blind eye to the existence of everyone else. For example, once again the brilliant project of the AMC channel “Better Call Saul” was left without awards, not only not inferior to its predecessor “Breaking Bad”, but even surpassing it in some way. Not to mention the many new series released on streaming during the award period. Comedian Keenan Thompson, who hosted the current ceremony at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater, even joked about it in his opening monologue: “Today we’re honoring hundreds and hundreds of projects that were created in the past year, and then we’re giving away prizes for five of them.” .

The ceremony itself, in this regard, was completely devoid of any intrigue, although it recorded several historical milestones for the award.

Chief among them was the award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. It was received by Lee Jong Jae, who starred in the hit Netflix “Playing squid”. He became the first Asian to win this award, and in principle the first actor to be awarded for his role in a non-English-language series. In total, the South Korean thriller about survival games with an anti-capitalist message was nominated in 14 categories and won 6 of them. In addition to Lee Jong Jae, Hwang Dong Hyuk won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series, and Lee Yoo Mi won Best Guest Actress in this category. Her award, along with three technical awards (Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects and Best Stunt Performance), were presented the week before at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Two Other Notable Achievements: Sheryl Lee Ralph became the second African-American woman to win an Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (“Abbott Elementary School”), and Zendaya is the youngest two-time winner of the award. She received her second Best Actress in a Drama Series award for troubled high school student Ru. in “Euphoria”. “Abbott Elementary School”, one of the few new Emmys, was also awarded Best Screenplay and Best Casting for a Comedy Series.

Another new name in the lists of nominees – “White Lotus” HBO, which became the best mini-series. This wicked satire about the guests and staff of an expensive tropical resort turned out to be the number one award winner. She took five in her category, including Best Director and Best Screenplay for creator Michael White and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Coolidge, known to film buffs whose teenage years were in the early 2000s as Stifler’s mom from American Pie. and now experiencing a career renaissance. Murray Bartlett also received an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. In addition, “White Lotus” won in five “technical” nominations and, apparently, was registered among the TV academy favorites for a long time, because, despite the status of a mini-series, it was renewed for a second season, which will be aired very soon, in October.

However, most of the current laureates of TV academics have chosen from among their longtime favorites.

“Heirs”, which lost the top prize to The Crown last year, have made a triumphant comeback, winning not only it, but also two other major awards in their category: Best Actor (Matthew Macfadyen) and Best Screenplay (Jesse Armstrong, creator of the show). True, out of its 25 nominations, the drama about the dysfunctional family of a media mogul won only four, which cannot be called a crushing success.

“Ted Lasso” the second season sank a little compared to the phenomenal first, but the TV academy doesn’t seem to think so. The series was once again a comedy winner, with Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldsteen winning Best Actor in a Leading Role and a Supporting Role for the second time, respectively. In addition, the Good TV flagship won an Emmy for best director in its category (M. J. Delaney). The award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, also for the second year in a row, went to Jean Smart for her performance as an aging stand-up star. in “Tricks” HBO Max. However, with all due respect to these truly outstanding professionals, I would like to hope that next year we will still see a greater variety of names and projects among the nominees and laureates.