"Thank You for Being in That Job"
"To anyone who’s going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job,” said Noah Wyle in collecting his award as Outstanding Lead Actor in A Television series, “This is for you.”
Noah Wyle is such an embraceable—if sporadically edgy—onscreen presence that he can own a swath of popular appeal that is somewhere between Everyman and (say, when you need an expert tracheotomy in a jiffy) Superman. He showed us the latter deep in the first season of “The Pitt” when, as an overworked and overstressed “Dr. Robby,” he maintained an amiable chill as deftest of Emergency Room bosses. And yet, in the scene that most enabled him to swoop in late in the Emmys broadcast to capture Best Actor amidst a tough thespian heat, what may have won the day was a near-meltdown. In Episode 13 of 15, “”7 p.m.” pinwheeling through crises to heal broken bodies and spirits, he needed a solo moment to surreptitiously give in helplessly to pain and sorrow in an empty, overlit room.
It hasn’t been a season of general critical or popular consensus, this past year of streaming. You might call it a vibe shift; in the content industry’s doddering conversion from big screens to small, how many of us could name, say, our current third-favorite streaming show?
You’re lucky to have even one favorite, whether bingeing or serial-viewing. The audience is atomized, fighting through shorter attention spans. Perhaps that’s why last’s night Emmys boasted several winners that dove deep into boldly chosen topics.
In addition to “The Pitt”’s swarmed urban emergency room, there were character-stacked line-up's for those who face the challenges of a broken teenager-dom (multiple surprise winner “Adolescence”), a slightly absurdist and resolutely British spy thriller (“Slow Horses”), or a satirical reminder that the industry we still call Hollywood is still very, very silly (resoundingly awarded satire (“The Studio”).
And how else to explain the thorough skunking (23 noms, but one win, that for composing) that became a voting members’ beat-down for the (over)-celebrated “White Lotus”?
Maybe the voters, many of them just scraping by in an industry that’s fallen on hard times, didn’t feel like rewarding a show about rich folks (albeit also seeded with token, aspirational locals) who are whiningly enduring…rich-folks' emotional problems? (The “White Lotus” cast members interviewed on the red carpet seemed to have a anticipatory la-de-da, here come the wins level of expectation--did I hear one call showrunner Mike White a genius?)
I say this without churlishness, as a stan of “White Lotus” guest-star standout Sam Rockwell (yes, cheers to his dandy monologue no one can shut up about) and also of Walton Goggins (whose intensity teed up Sam’s’ serrated character for the speech.)
In staging the show and picking a host, it may have seemed sensible to the producers to employ golf-cart America’s chosen funnyman Nate Bargatze, with his general affect of “Nuthin matters and what if it did” companionability. Forecasted to bring his vaguely anti-showbiz, boy howdy, Tennessean’s approach, he turned up with his own scheme for mainstreaming the awards show. Yeah. But he overreached with the challenging shtick—to simply crowd-shame any winners whose speeches trespassed over a 45-second timer.
It's the sort of thing that might have worked, Bargatze being as close as comedy presently has to a king. (But America doesn’t have kings, some might riposte with underinformed nostalgia).
Well, rather than indict showbizzy tropes, he enmeshed himself in a sort of pesty game show. Only too predictably, some of the more sincere winners--here’s to you, Trammell Tillman, such a good soul playing against type on “Severance” for the win--were the very ones who seemed to be undercut. Was it a good idea, as the administration butchers programs for disadvantaged folks, to set up a private charity's funding scoop? Feasibly. And okay, bring on two real-life, happy and youthful beneficiaries from the program.
Then, only too soon, we all watched queasily as the funding bled out. The late save of a $350,000 top-up—by Nate and the network, in some dubious cash-ex-machina save—left us watching J.B. Smoove , who actually benefitted from the Boys & Girls Club in his own life, to dance us all back to our regular programming. Thanks for playing, suckers.
Bargatze’s timing, which can be elite, was at several points palpably off, as he burbled ineptly looking for higher ground. (Which he conspicuously failed to find when he pulled the telecast's focus to his origin story by thanking Lorne Michaels --he of the evening’s most self-important soliloquy– for spotlighting him on SNL en route to the comedy crown. We’d best believe that with movie projects, touring, and specials coming up, Bargatze will fully work his current exposure, newly frayed though it may be.
Yes, given the global and national situation we inhabit, disenfranchised and abiding cruelty from an increasingly deep-rooted monarchy, either Bargatze nor anyone else on stage spoke a certain dictator’s name. Just as bringing him up at a dinner party of sane citizens will get you a sideways look—there went the evening!—nowadays Real Life has become this unspeakable thing we avoid referencing , most of all when we’re simply trying to scarf some damn entertainment.
Ah, but. At least the poltroonery of a CBS which canceled Colbert’s show for financial underperformance—oh really?—was fleetingly mocked by the host and amplified by the sustained applause that accompanied every Colbert-centric moment.
And, gratifyingly and most bafflingly, mostly the best stuff won!
In an outburst of utter solipsism, I must assert that readers of my blog might have found useful Arrows to Toyland for good viewing choices in the shows this newsletter championed. There was bias--offered scant news about the much touted “Severance,” still less about the overbearing “The Bear,” (yep, not really a comedy), and little but carping as to the sluggish, now-sedated, now- frantic “White Lotus”.
The voters seemed to largely agree. So, let’s revisit some highlights regarding the winners. The hope here is to supply some takes that appeared on the blog, assessments from across the past year or so as to what made these various faves distinctive.
“The Pitt”:
“For fifty minutes or so,” I wrote in summing up the allure of the “The Pitt” (wins for Drama Series and Lead Actor for Wyle), “We can end the slap and snap of bad news and look through our feet at a portrayal of a manifestly good place–-a place where a biblically compassionate man called Dr. Robby shows us what actual caring is all about.”:
https://www.dogtown.press/can-a-tv-show-make-us-better/
Adolescence:
Just as welcome, and perhaps a bigger surprise as its tally of wins rose, was the array of statuettes for “Adolescence”. Undergirding the win for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, wins came for Lead Actor for Stephen Graham, Supporting Actress for Erin Doherty, then Supporting Actor, with robust volleys of applause, for Owen Cooper, age 15. Also, a Writing win for Graham for the scripts he co-authored with Jack Thorne (looking eight feet tall on TV next to Graham) , and a directing nod for Philip Barantini.
As I wrote of the series in March, alluding to the tragic killing at the story’s center, “Just to let technology wave its forked tail (and you know Elon Musk has one stuffed down the back of his black jeans), as we watch we are forced to ponder anew: just what is the actual effect of the phone and social media addictions the tech overlords have so zealously inculcated in our children?
https://www.dogtown.press/adolescence-hits-hard-if-my-dad-made-me-how-did-i-make-that/
The Studio:
The Studio” was the big dog of the night, as AppleTV+ boss Tim Cook’s frequent grins attested. It scored 13 total wins across the Primetime and Creative Arts Emmys, including best comedy series. Seth Rogen took the win for best actor in a comedy series, shared in a directing award with work buddy Evan Goldberg, and the two of them then joined Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez as they won the Emmy for best writing for a comedy.
It's fair to say I wrote about Bryan Cranston’s thunder crack performance in full expectation of the win he notched last night:
If Cranston's competition is lacing ringing doubles off the wall, Cranston has homered deep into the seats in the ninth inning of game seven of a World Series. As wild and crazy and physically Olympian as his performance is, the real magic lies in how the acting ensemble rises to meet his many and varied comic haymakers. With the entire bunch triggered into hallucinogenic madness, via accidental shroom (etc.) overdoses, they cluster around [his character] to first plead, then wrestle and wrangle, their nearly zombie-fied but somehow still randomly staggering superior.
“Slow Horses”:
The drama (which can play at times as richly if darkly comic ) stood underrated by the TV academy until last year’s Emmys; then, both lead Gary Oldman and supporting actor worthy Jack Lowden were nominated in 2024, and Oldman again this year, (Writer Will Smith also got his second nomination. )
I wrote in early September 2024: Nominated in July for multiple Emmys, it induces we viewers to lean into in the snap and snark of the dialog presenting a cadre of cast-aside operatives who actually wield surprising skill sets. The group’s youthful hero is River Cartwright—as played by next big thing Jack Lowden:
https://www.dogtown.press/brits-to-the-rescue-slow-horses-remounts-with-elan/
When I met Jack Lowden briefly at a screening in mid-November 2024, we had brief moment to talk about his spouse Saoirse Ronan’s excellent turn in film “The Outrun” film:
When season 5 drops—the latest report say September 24,--I’ll take the occasion write in the blog about getting reacquainted with Mr. Oldman, whom I’d interviewed on earlier film.
I’ve had a full taste of what’s coming and the fans—especially those with a certain fondness for rather loopy tech whiz and often-stumped (romantically at least) operative Roderick Ho.
If you’ve not sampled certain of the winning shows in the above gaggle, this is a bet you’ll find there’s plenty to enjoy--and here’s hoping this post spurs that.
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