The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards came to a close the previous Sunday night (Monday morning, for you and me), pulling the curtains down on another year of television-based glitz, glamour and predictability. While most of the awards went to the same people and shows it usually did (Julia Louis-Dreyfus picked up her fifth straight Emmy), there were a few notable moments.
Rami Malek took home the Emmy in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series category for Mr. Robot , in a ‘surprise’ win that felt obligatory. There’s no denying that Malek was excellent in his performance as the neurotic hacker, Elliot. It felt unfair to me because some of the other actors in his category (and by some, I mean Matthew Rhys) had given better performances over a longer span of time. Mr. Robot’s second season is already far less impressive than the first, so although the Emmys took the apparently unconventional route this winner, it didn’t come across as deserving. The Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series was also a surprise, albeit more meritorious — Tatiana Maslany, after three years of being snubbed, took home the award for playing multiple characters in Orphan Black .
Aziz Ansari also took home an Emmy, although it wasn’t in the Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series category. Instead, Ansari, along with Alan Yang, won the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Master of None . Although Ansari didn’t get to talk much (the orchestra began playing before he could even finish his thank-yous), Yang made a comment in his speech about how there are 17 million Asian Americans in the United States, and about the same number of Italian Americans. He went on to say that the Italians have The Sopranos, The Godfather, Rocky and Goodfellas , whereas the Asians have Long Duk Dong (an Asian exchange student in the 1984 film Sixteen Candles, known for his bizarre behaviour and over-the-top clumsiness). Yang also asked Asian American parents to get their kids “cameras instead of violins”. Yang’s speech was definitely one of the more dramatic ones that the evening saw, but it comes at an important time; after all, it has taken till 2016 for Asians and South Asians to be portrayed with depth, and not as inhuman parents constantly preoccupied with their children’s grades or bumbling owners of grocery shops.
The final hour was as predictable as the final hour of most masala movies — surprise winners notwithstanding, everyone knew who the winner was, even before their names were announced. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story , which was nominated in a whopping 22 categories, took home the Outstanding Limited Series award. The Outstanding Drama Series went to Game of Thrones . Veep won Outstanding Comedy Series for the second year in a row. Now, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story , Veep and Game of Thrones are, without doubt, studies in television excellence which deserved to win — but why does disappointment linger? Maybe it’s because from time to time, we want a David toppling a Goliath. Maybe it’s because we watch far too much television, for if we didn’t, we would know that underdogs hijacking spotlights doesn’t really happen in the real world.
