Oh, the cruelty of letting D’Arcy Carden announce the 2019 Emmy nominations. From relative obscurity, she’s undoubtedly had a barnstormer of a year; The Good Place – one of the most talent-stuffed shows on TV – essentially sidelined the entire cast for an episode to give her a virtuoso multi-character performance, and in Barry she has a role in television’s most aggressively improved series. Really, today’s announcements should have just consisted of the Emmy board handing D’Arcy Carden a suitcase full of awards and sending her on her way.
And yet, come the nominations, she was nowhere to be found. The supporting actress in a comedy category is jammed with unbelievable talent – Olivia Colman and Sian Clifford are there from Fleabag, Sarah Goldberg is there from Barry, Betty Gilpin is there from GLOW – and yet there was still room for two cast members from The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Carden deserved both of their places. Gilpin is tremendous and all, but Carden was given the showiest role of the year and she blasted it clean out of the park. The fact that she wasn’t nominated – and therefore won’t win – is nothing short of a crime.
More importantly, where the hell is I Think You Should Leave? As usual, the outstanding variety sketch category bears all the hallmarks of having been picked by people who haven’t actually watched any sketch comedy. At Home With Amy Sedaris is fine, but nothing special. Drunk History is long in the tooth. Who Is America? was a disappointment. I Love You America was watched by six people and then canned. Saturday Night Live had a historically weak year. Documentary Now will be a fine winner, but nothing on television has scaled the giddy heights of I Think You Should Leave. It is possibly the defining comedy show of the year, and certainly the funniest. Nevertheless the Emmys shut it out completely, the choads. May they live to regret it.
The outstanding comedy series category is as strong as it has ever been – and by God if Barry doesn’t win I’m going to start drinking bleach – but I still would have enjoyed some recognition for Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider’s The Other Two, a silly, funny, beautifully observed sitcom that feels more of the moment than any of the other nominees, Veep included.
In best drama, The Good Fight was awol while Ozark was nominated, even though The Good Fight is one of the best shows on TV and Ozark is just Jason Bateman mumbling behind a blue filter for hours at a time. And no mention of Billions either, a very good drama that cannot cut a break when it comes to awards.
The Emmys has always had a historical weak spot when it comes to movie stars - look at them, adding glamour and pizzazz to the dowdy world of television, let’s chuck awards at them – but there was no love for the two biggest examples of the year. Julia Roberts received no recognition for Homecoming, nor did Jonah Hill or Emma Stone for Maniac. This isn’t exactly an outrage – Homecoming was deliberately low key and Maniac was actively annoying – but a surprise nonetheless.
But let’s not end this on a bummer. While some of the snubs were inarguable – seriously, D’Arcy Carden must have assumed her nomination was a lock – at least there were some pleasant surprises. Schitt’s Creek began with almost no expectation from anyone, so to see it flower into a genuinely beloved series with legitimate awards potential is nothing short of lovely. And while Succession is a clear outsider in the drama series category, its nomination is perfectly deserved.
And then there’s Barry. Barry was nominated in just about every category it was eligible for, and it couldn’t be more well-deserved. This most recent series has been head and shoulders above almost everything else on television – pacy, aggressive, beautiful, and as tense as any show since Breaking Bad – and it deserves everything that it will get. Which will be nothing, because this is the Emmys so they’ll just hurl stuff at The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and The Kominsky Method like usual, but let’s deal with that outrage when we come to it.
