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Who is making ‘moronic’ decisions at the Emmys? · The Front

0:08
Speaker 1: From The Australian.
0:09
Speaker 2: This is the weekend edition of The front I'm Claire Harvey, Severance,
0:15
Speaker 2: the Bear, Adolescence, the studio TV has never been better
0:20
Speaker 2: and those shows are just some of the front runners
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Speaker 2: at Sunday's seventy seventh Annual Emmy Awards. Today, I'm joined
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Speaker 2: by the Australians Bianco far Marcus to discuss what's nominated,
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Speaker 2: pull win, and why Hollywood is so obsessed with awards. Anyway,
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Speaker 2: you have to feel for the television academy that presents
0:46
Speaker 2: the Primetime Emmys. When MIMI started in nineteen forty nine,
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Speaker 2: most American homes had one TV channel, NBC. In twenty
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Speaker 2: twenty five, there's a screen in every hand and now
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Speaker 2: a vast poor of Emmy's entries thirty eight submissions in
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Speaker 2: the animation category alone. Apple TV's dystopian workplace drama series
1:13
Speaker 2: Severance has wracked up twenty seven Emmy nominations this year,
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Speaker 2: including Outstanding Drama Series. The anchor I often feel it
1:26
Speaker 2: working in news, were exposed to so much sadness and
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Speaker 2: hardship in the world that the last thing I want
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Speaker 2: from my entertainment is dystopia. But what are the kind
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Speaker 2: of TV values of severance that has got at these nominations.
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Speaker 3: Do you think from all public anecdotes, I don't think
1:41
Speaker 3: this is necessarily an industry thing. The fact that it's
1:44
Speaker 3: come from Ben Stella has come is quite a shock
1:46
Speaker 3: to a lot of viewers who are used to, you know,
1:48
Speaker 3: the Zoolander antics and the comedy stylings of him for
1:52
Speaker 3: years and years. But he has shaped up, particularly with
1:55
Speaker 3: this television show, to be one of the most bona
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Speaker 3: fide and solid directors and producers that have come out
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Speaker 3: in the past few years. I also think, as much
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Speaker 3: as it repulses me to watch anything that reminds me
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Speaker 3: of work, with the exception of Succession, I do think
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Speaker 3: there is that kind of interesting allure people find from
2:16
Speaker 3: these sorts of programs where it's like there is that
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Speaker 3: element of the familiarity with the extension of the absolutely insane,
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Speaker 3: so you can take it to your colleagues the next
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Speaker 3: day and be like, things are so bad here, but
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Speaker 3: can you imagine if they were like that? So it's
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Speaker 3: sexy in that way because it is immediately a talking point,
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Speaker 3: which is why TV as a whole is kind of
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Speaker 3: use so films. I mean, that's a whole other conversation,
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Speaker 3: but it gives that sort of gravitas to whatever you're
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Speaker 3: viewing at home that night, especially when you spend the
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Speaker 3: majority of your life at work. I mean, you've got
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Speaker 3: to talk about something.
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Speaker 2: Speaking of workplace dramas, the worst boss who's ever been
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Speaker 2: on TV is up for an Emmy, and that's Gary
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Speaker 2: Oldman playing this superspy Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses. He's,
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Speaker 2: of course, a disgraced six superspy who's running the six
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Speaker 2: Duds unit, exiled from their main office and amazingly solving
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Speaker 2: a whole lot of international espionage crimes along the way.
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Speaker 1: Sorry about that, fella, Oh my god? Was that far? Yeah?
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Speaker 1: Mostly I know what you're doing.
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Speaker 2: Gary Oldman farts a lot, he drinks way too much.
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Speaker 2: But he's kind of the film actors film actor, isn't he?
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Speaker 2: Now he's on TV. Is this a moment where TV
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Speaker 2: really has taken over from film as the destination for
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Speaker 2: the best actors?
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Speaker 3: Definitely. I mean that sort of started to take place
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Speaker 3: in the mid twenty ten. Is this really massive push
4:02
Speaker 3: from these glorified film stars moving on to the small screen.
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Speaker 3: And it kind of came as a shock at the time,
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Speaker 3: but now it's starting to make sense given the money
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Speaker 3: and the production value that you can put into these programs.
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Speaker 3: I will firmly say, as a lifelong lover of Gary Oldman,
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Speaker 3: this is the role he was born to play. Quite
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Speaker 3: possibly also a summation of every character he's ever had
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Speaker 3: and what I assume is his personality in a complimentary way.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think he's wearing a fat suit.
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Speaker 3: No, not at all.
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Speaker 2: I think he really enjoyed smoking a lot of durries,
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Speaker 2: drinking a lot of whiskey, and eating a lot of
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Speaker 2: you know, greasy kebabs to get that shape.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and when what's not to love with that? I mean,
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Speaker 3: from the man who played Sid Vicious to Winston Churchill,
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Speaker 3: you now get him in Slow Horses and you think bang.
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Speaker 3: That is the ven diagram of who I assume Gary
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Speaker 3: Oldman is. But it's interesting the breeding ground television has
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Speaker 3: sprung up for these high profile actors because it did
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Speaker 3: have that red mutation right, and the Emmys carries their
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Speaker 3: reputation of It's just not as important as a film now,
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Speaker 3: I think, particularly in this digitalized economy and this sort
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Speaker 3: of attention deficit economy, production companies have caught on to
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Speaker 3: the fact that they need to actually look after their audience,
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Speaker 3: which means they need these programs that are as impressive
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Speaker 3: technically as a film and do have that beauty and
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Speaker 3: that allure to them or that kind of mystique in
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Speaker 3: the way that they're cultivated. But they're more gripping. So
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Speaker 3: you can walk into a cinema, you can watch something
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Speaker 3: for an hour and a half or more likely two
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Speaker 3: and a half hours with the runtime of some of
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Speaker 3: these programs at the moment, or you can spend a
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Speaker 3: weekend binging a program that is going to absolutely hook you,
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Speaker 3: give you forty seven talking points you can repeat to
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Speaker 3: five different friendship groups, which is what I do. They're
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Speaker 3: also a lot more clever at engaging those online communities,
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Speaker 3: so fans of films, obviously they have places like letterbox
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Speaker 3: where they can leave a comment or a sarcastic review
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Speaker 3: and rejoice at what their fellow film buffs thought of.
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Speaker 3: TV groups have Twitter threads, Reddit threads, and it does
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Speaker 3: give you that sort of breadth of I'm still watching
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Speaker 3: with people, and I do have people to argue with,
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Speaker 3: or gossip with, or hate watch with, as we've seen
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Speaker 3: with and just like that.
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Speaker 2: As audiences have kind of stepped away from linear TV.
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Speaker 2: You know, we're all watching at seven thirty pm on
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Speaker 2: a Sunday night to see whatever, or we're waiting for
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Speaker 2: the movie of the week to be shown on a
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Speaker 2: Saturday evening. I think there was an idea that that
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Speaker 2: would be the end of the water cooler conversation where
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Speaker 2: everybody's watching something all at the same time. It feels
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Speaker 2: to me like the streamers have reclaimed that moment, though,
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Speaker 2: haven't they in their strategy of releasing these big TV shows.
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Speaker 3: I definitely agree with that. I think where we would
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Speaker 3: have kind of scheduled conversational sesshas off the back of
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Speaker 3: whatever we read in those paper TV guides. Now we
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Speaker 3: have a form of community hysteria. So you see this
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Speaker 3: is in the top ten shows of the week, this
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Speaker 3: is released on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, you
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Speaker 3: definitely have a friend that has who will then force
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Speaker 3: you to see it. I think we saw that particularly
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Speaker 3: this year with Adolescence, which is up for less than
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Speaker 3: shows like Severance, but it is clearly a very strong
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Speaker 3: front runner.
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Speaker 4: You move, maybe I told me off the ball a
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Speaker 4: little bit.
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Speaker 1: On what he was in his room Wearnie, can he
7:47
Speaker 1: do in there? Okay? I want you to solve a
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Speaker 1: mystery for me.
7:51
Speaker 2: The Bear, which is about the zad sec antics of
7:55
Speaker 2: Chef Come and Berzado trying to deal with the death
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Speaker 2: of his brother and take over the family restaurant. That's
8:01
Speaker 2: a finalist in Outstanding Comedy Series. The White Lotus, which
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Speaker 2: in this season was about a disgusting Southern family showing
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Speaker 2: up in Thailand and just being entitled and horrible, which
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Speaker 2: was hilarious, is Outstanding Drama as a finalist.
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Speaker 1: What's going on?
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Speaker 3: This is one of the most long held conundrums since
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Speaker 3: the show started. I don't know what more on does
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Speaker 3: the genre categorizing Every year there is a rigorous debate
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Speaker 3: online as to why The Bear is a comedy and
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Speaker 3: The White Lotus is a drama when they're very clearly
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Speaker 3: the opposite. From what I know about the voting and
8:39
Speaker 3: the selection process is it is very smart in the
8:43
Speaker 3: sense that they will clearly win those categories every single time,
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Speaker 3: and it's subsequently been the case, like we've seen sweeps
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Speaker 3: for The Bears come left, right, and center since it
8:52
Speaker 3: sprung onto platforms four years ago, and the same with
8:56
Speaker 3: The White lotus, and I always come back to the
8:59
Speaker 3: fact that Jennifer Coolidge finally got her jews with an
9:03
Speaker 3: Acting Emmy and then gave a thank you speech with
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Speaker 3: comedic antics that have rivaled absolutely anything The Bear has
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Speaker 3: ever put into its scripts. Not to say it's not
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Speaker 3: funny at sometimes, but you think thirty seconds worth of
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Speaker 3: her mumbling versus four seasons of a show that's classified
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Speaker 3: as a comedy, you have to really start to wonder
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Speaker 3: about these things, you know.
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Speaker 4: I just want to say, you know, I took a
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Speaker 4: lavender bath tonight and right before the show, and it
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Speaker 4: made me swell up inside my dress and I'm having
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Speaker 4: a hard time speaking. But anyway, I.
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Speaker 2: Am someone who'll genuinely feel ripped off if you doesn't
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Speaker 2: win a bunch of Emmies.
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Speaker 1: Is Seth Rogan.
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Speaker 2: His show The Studio, I think presented itself as a
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Speaker 2: parody of Hollywood, but was really an homage to Hollywood
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Speaker 2: as he wants it to be. It's very self referential,
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Speaker 2: lots of inside jokes and gags about producers and directors
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Speaker 2: and people making fun of themselves. It's up for a
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Speaker 2: bunch of awards, including for the cameo stars who played themselves,
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Speaker 2: like Martin Scorsese, If the Studio does win a bunch
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Speaker 2: of Emmys, what do you think that'll say about where
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Speaker 2: Hollywood's at in terms of its reflection on itself at
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Speaker 2: the moment.
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Speaker 3: I say this as an enormous fan of that program,
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Speaker 3: but I think if the Studio sweeps the Emmys, it
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Speaker 3: exemplifies everything fundamentally wrong with this award show, everything fundamentally
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Speaker 3: wrong with Hollywood, and why, quite frankly, no one cares
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Speaker 3: about the Emmys. The fact that it has been nominated
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Speaker 3: for twenty three Emmys with multiple actors in the same category,
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Speaker 3: to me, quite frankly, is a disgrace and it just
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Speaker 3: shows the complete irrelevance of this program. So when I
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Speaker 3: was looking at the numbers of who's ranking with what,
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Speaker 3: the first thing that immediately sprung to mind is what
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Speaker 3: is this Hollywood's Participation Award? Everyone was in a program
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Speaker 3: that everyone liked, and it's a popularity contest of people
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Speaker 3: with immense talent but no real sense of competition or
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Speaker 3: what their viewers are watching. But my gripe with the
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Speaker 3: Studio being nominated for so many things is that that,
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Speaker 3: to me doesn't really reflect that these people were the
11:17
Speaker 3: best performer in those categories. I mean the Martin Scorsese
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Speaker 3: coming back to do a cameo. He was fantastic in it,
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Speaker 3: but it does not quantify an award nomination. And quite frankly,
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Speaker 3: I think he would agree with me on this. He
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Speaker 3: doesn't need anymore. He really doesn't. The viewing numbers over
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Speaker 3: the past six years have had very minimal peaks. They've
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Speaker 3: basically slumped perpetually since twenty eighteen, and now we're seeing
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Speaker 3: things like the current nomination list come out where basically
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Speaker 3: you can kind of toss a coin and figure out
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Speaker 3: who's going to win what, And to me, it represents
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Speaker 3: a bit of a you scratch my bag, I'll scratch
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Speaker 3: yours in the industry with no kind of recognition of
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Speaker 3: who they make this show for.
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Speaker 1: Coming up, we're off to the red carpet.
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Speaker 2: Because white and cream is the color of the evening
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Speaker 2: here so custom by Siriana tailored. One fun thing about
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Speaker 2: these awards ceremonies is the red carpet.
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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, so you were a vision and red
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Speaker 1: that is what you are? You? Yeah, I really loved
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Speaker 1: the stress well it fits you beautifully.
12:41
Speaker 2: Last year I thought it was a little less fun
12:43
Speaker 2: because o Zempic had arrived and suddenly everybody weighed forty kilos.
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Speaker 1: What do you think we're going to see this year?
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Speaker 2: Will you be watching and is it going to be
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Speaker 2: for the Red Carpet all the awards itself?
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Speaker 3: I will absolutely be watching the Emmys for the Red
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Speaker 3: Carpet itself. Ozempic maybe usurped by one of its new alternatives,
13:02
Speaker 3: which I kind of remember the name of, but there's
13:04
Speaker 3: about forty on the market now, so Thinn is still
13:06
Speaker 3: in Unfortunately. I do think there will be an element
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Speaker 3: of tenderness on the Red Carpet because, as I mentioned previously,
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Speaker 3: there are some very unique stars that I actually think
13:20
Speaker 3: do deserve their du so. Ioadeboiris is one of them.
13:23
Speaker 3: She directed one of the episodes of The Bed and
13:27
Speaker 3: it was a masterclass in kind of deconstructing how race
13:31
Speaker 3: and poverty impacts your status in America. I think that's
13:34
Speaker 3: a very very important conversation, particularly when you look at
13:37
Speaker 3: the global state of affairs now, and it does show
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Speaker 3: this young black director who truly deserves the acknowledgment she's getting.
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Speaker 3: I can't wait to see Stephen Graham in any way,
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Speaker 3: shape or form. I hope he doesn't skip the red
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Speaker 3: carpet because I can imagine him just not really caring
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Speaker 3: about it. One thing I am curious to see with
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Speaker 3: the Emmys is there has been, you know, a bit
14:03
Speaker 3: of a murder spree when it comes to comedy. We're
14:05
Speaker 3: even seeing that with the choice of hosts this year.
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Speaker 3: Nate Bagatsi, who's you know, was considered a couple of
14:10
Speaker 3: years ago a bit of a mid tier comedian, but
14:12
Speaker 3: shot to prominence, and he is also widely regarded in
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Speaker 3: the industry as a safe pair of hands. So you're
14:18
Speaker 3: not going to get you know, Ricky Gervais of the
14:20
Speaker 3: Golden Globes offending everyone, but SNL is up for a
14:25
Speaker 3: few awards, and it's almost touching in a sense that
14:29
Speaker 3: they are in their you know, their fiftieth anniversary and
14:31
Speaker 3: with all the hype around that, because we're seeing kind
14:34
Speaker 3: of this excommunication of comedy in the world, possibly when
14:39
Speaker 3: we need it the most. But also I wonder if
14:41
Speaker 3: that will be kind of a statement for the Emmys
14:43
Speaker 3: to turn around and be like, you know what, we
14:45
Speaker 3: do support our late night comedians. We do support these
14:48
Speaker 3: people who do take risks, and ultimately, whether they confront
14:52
Speaker 3: subject matter and possibly polarize audiences. Their ultimate goal is
14:56
Speaker 3: to make people laugh, and we're going about that with
14:59
Speaker 3: this sea.
15:07
Speaker 2: Bianca far Marcus is a journalist and videographer at The Australian.
15:10
Speaker 2: You can check out her work anytime at The Australian
15:13
Speaker 2: dot com dot au. And we'll be covering the Emmys live.
15:17
Speaker 2: This episode at the Front was hosted by me Claire
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Speaker 2: Harvey and produced by Jasper Leek, who edited the episode
15:22
Speaker 2: and also wrote our theme. Thanks for joining us on
15:25
Speaker 2: the Front this week. Our team also includes Kristin Amiot, Leat, Sammaglue,
15:29
Speaker 2: Tiffany Dimack, Josh Burton and Stephanie Coombs.