‘Television’s Biggest Night’ reviewed

Over the weekend, the biggest night for Television, the 71st Emmys, took place. This year they changed things up and went hostless, similar to how the Oscars did earlier in the year.

The main difference being that instead of going hostless due to controversy, they chose to be. They did not even try to look.

If the Oscars can do it then so can the Emmys, and with the great selection of nominees, the night was sure to be a hit. The show lasted about three hours and did not go over, a rare occurrence in award shows.

Stage Antics

With the lack of a host and a strict time frame, this years Emmys did not have as many fun adventures, pranks or antics that these shows tend to have.

That does not mean it did not have its share of funny moments.

The show opened with Homer Simpson filling in as the host only for a piano to fall on-top of him. This prompted “Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson to exclaim “What the hell was that?” and take to the stage.

He ran backstage desperately trying to find a host, as well as having his mom stash Emmys in her purse. While she was pocketing Emmys, Bryan Cranston star of “Breaking Bad” was dragged onstage to declare that there has never been a better time for television.

He sure is right.

There were other jokes throughout that had audiences laughing their heads off. Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert came on stage to present an award and lectured the Emmys on the fact that they had no host; telling everyone that they are going to replace presenters with Alexa next.

Maya Rudolph and Ike Barinholtz came on stage to present the award for best lead actor in a comedy series wearing large black sunglasses. Each of them claimed they had gotten LASIK before the show and ended up pronouncing every show name and actor name wrong. Some were close while others sounded nothing like the real name.

Throughout the show there was also a voiceover from Thomas Lennon who would make remarks after every award and before every commercial break.

The Awards

There were not really any huge upsets but many surprises. “Game of Thrones” was nominated for many awards but did not win that many. They took home some big awards but compared to what they were nominated for it was a tiny amount.

The “Game of Thrones” actresses got snubbed while Peter Dinklage took home an award for his role in the show. The show also took home best drama series.

No surprise to many “Chernobyl” took home a couple awards: best limited series, directing for limited series and writing for limited series.

“Fleabag” also took home many awards like writing for a comedy series, best actress and best comedy. If you haven’t checked it out, these awards seem to be a good recommendation.

One surprise came with the best television movie. It was awarded to “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”. It was up against some tough competition and upon its release, it did not seem like the internet liked it very much. Enough people must have liked it, or the right people, since it took home the award.

Another surprise came when Jason Bateman won directing a drama series for “Ozark”, beating out three different “Game of Thrones” episodes.

In Memoriam

The in-memoriam section would have made anyone cry. Halsey came on stage to sing “Time After Time” while the presentation of everyone we lost in the past year played behind her.

The song was amazing and the presentation was powerful; just seeing Cameron Boyce and Stan Lee really hit hard. There were many others in this portion, like director John Singleton and actor Rip Torn.

Making History

Billy Porter (and his amazing hat) became the first openly gay man to win an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for “Pose”. Running on stage you could feel the excitement in him, and his enthusiasm made you want to root for him.

Seriously the hat was impressive, and his role in “Pose” most likely is as well. After the win, it’s a must-watch.

The Emmys do not have the amazing performances that the Academy Awards do, but that is because they don’t have any music awards. It is strictly television and more about the writing, acting and directing.

The 72nd will be an interesting one with shows like “Euphoria” eligible for an award and a lack of “Game of Thrones” will open the drama category to even more shows. With the slate of shows coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and the soon to be Disney Plus, the competition will be fierce.