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Sorry for derailing the other thread with this, but I still am interested in having this debate. Game of Thrones was competing against what is arguably the weakest drama field ever, and it still won just 2 above-the-line Emmys and performed about the same as Season 7 did against much stronger competition. It had a poorly received final season with nothing but bad buzz around it (and not just on twitter, people were talking about how bad it was a lot in real life) and completely flopped with the winter awards. When it competed with stronger shows in the tech categories like Chernobyl and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it lost quite a bit. So why do people think it was inevitable or unbeatable and not just a weak winner that won in the absence of any notable competition?
ReplyIt lost PGA to Succession season 2 so had it competed directly against it, it probably would have lost.
ReplyCopy URLFYC:
"The Good Fight", "The Other Two" and "Station Eleven" in all categories, Sarah Lancashire ("Julia"), William Jackson Harper ("Love Life") and Luke Kirby ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel")
There’s no clear replacement, basically. Ozark, Succession and Killing Eve were the runner-ups, but none of them had a strong enough buzz to defeat the final season of the show that The TV Academy had an immense bias of. Let’s analyse the competition!
First, can we just eliminate some nominees, such as This Is Us, which was in its critically-worst season and received smaller support in acting (its only hope) than the previous season, and Bodyguard, which had no buzz other than from critics (showed by the writing nomination). Next, we have Pose and Better Call Saul as a mid-tier contender. One had a fresh first season showered with the word “groundbreaking” and ended up having a lead actor winner while the other was given a consistent support from writers and actors branch.
Then we have the big four. I would rank it from bottom to up: Ozark, Succession, Killing Eve, Game of Thrones.
Ozark had never been a critical darling (although its third season was an anomaly with critics weren’t that passionate, but writers branch gave too much nominations), and its second season was not acclaimed. It shocked the whole TV universe with its directing win, but I assumed that it was more about Bateman and vote-splitting than about Ozark. We couldn’t deny, though, that its SAG surprise was shattering the competition, but then we had…
Succession was a show that was (still is and will always be) liked by Brits and critics, as proven with its writing win(s). However, its first season was a real slow-burner, and it couldn’t really gather a vast fandom by the time of the award that helped Tatiana Maslany, so to speak, or its own second season to win. Speaking about fandom,…
Killing Eve had a massive fandom by that time, and while it was not as universally-loved (no matter what Metacritic score said, the first one was the champ of the critics top 10 of 2018), it was still favoured by so many people. This was demonstrated by how it could beat vote-splitting in lead actress category. However, this kind of show should gather much more than a fandom to win the top prize without winning either writing or directing, and BBC America is not HBO, so they should’ve been grateful to be able to reach this runner-up status, unlike the ungrateful one,…
Game of Thrones was too strong. It won when it wasn’t necessary (all of its wins were), and even the best season (season two, I mean) was beaten by Homeland. The Academy was just too obsessive about this show to give a vote to the better ones. It didn’t really have a strong narrative, but the fact that how much this show had contributed to the Golden Age of Television was a strong point already. That triple directing nominations, quandruple acting and technical nods and that incredibly irrelevant writing nomination (oh God, why?!) should’ve easily told us that the competition was done when the lineups were announced.
However, the question is about the stronger competition, and well, Succession season 2 would’ve very effortlessly stomped it no matter what. The Handmaid’s Tale season 1 would have too, and if Killing Eve was, at least, aired on FX, it would have a bigger chance. The Crown season 2, I believe, would not have won against it since it couldn’t get that trophy a year before, but perhaps it could get a writing win (with Beryl, please), so…
ReplyCopy URL"The Lost Daughter" in every eligible category - Film
"Succession" Season 3 in every eligible category - TV
"Heaux Tales" by Jasmine Sullivan in every eligible category - MusicWould it?
Do we have any reason to think it wouldn’t? Succession won 5 above-the-line awards against a much stronger field, while Game of Thrones only won 2. Succession even managed to get 9 above-the-line nominations, just one less than Game of Thrones despite the stronger competition. Winning techs against shows that aren’t anywhere near as showy as it isn’t enough to declare something a dominant front runner that would beat anything. Succession was far more acclaimed and did better at the winter awards.
ReplyCopy URLthat incredibly irrelevant writing nomination (oh God, why?!)
And had Succession and Ozark been as strong as they were the following Emmy cycle, it probably would have been dropped by the writers. It was 5th if not 6th (it’s easy to conflate a show’s strength in series with its strength in writers branch support from what happened with Maisel two years ago when it missed out for Pen15).
ReplyCopy URLFYC:
"The Good Fight", "The Other Two" and "Station Eleven" in all categories, Sarah Lancashire ("Julia"), William Jackson Harper ("Love Life") and Luke Kirby ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel")
And had Succession and Ozark been as strong as they were the following Emmy cycle, it probably would have been dropped by the writers. It was 5th if not 6th (it’s easy to conflate a show’s strength in series with its strength in writers branch support from what happened with Maisel two years ago when it missed out for Pen15).
Succession only submitted one episode, right (just like for its second season, which I still don’t understand since it could have gotten 3 writing nominations for season 2 and still won easily)?
ReplyCopy URLI love it when people argue about a question that doesn’t even have an actual answer.
I guess like all the hypotheticals on Gold Derby.
ReplyCopy URLFYC:
"The Good Fight", "The Other Two" and "Station Eleven" in all categories, Sarah Lancashire ("Julia"), William Jackson Harper ("Love Life") and Luke Kirby ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel")
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