THE EMMY AWARDS JUST REMIND ME HOW MUCH TIME I SPEND WATCHING TV
In between the free-to-air channels and their secondary offshoots; all those Foxtel channels; streaming services like Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video, and other random online portals, there are a lot of places to consume television shows. As a result, there is an enormous amount of TV to watch. And nothing reinforces just how much television I – and, I presume, plenty of other people – get through quite like the Emmy Awards (airs Mon., Sep. 23 at 9am; FOX8).
The original title for this column was going to be: ‘The Emmy Awards just remind me how many shows I still need to watch’, but then I took a look down the list of this year’s nominations and realised there weren’t actually that many shows I hadn’t at least sampled. And even though it’s my job to stay abreast of all the latest series launching, I would probably watch about the same amount of TV as I do now regardless. And I know plenty of other people also line up show after show to binge.
Because here’s the thing: there are a lot of great TV shows being made. It’s simple maths – the more television being churned out by everyone from Showtime to SBS, Hulu to HBO and ABC (Australia) to ABC (America), the more good series there are. Obviously, the flip side is true, and there are also many more boring and/or awful shows being made too. But let’s keep things upbeat and focus on the fact that more TV means more programs that are worth your time.
The Emmy nominations bear this out. More series than ever before are nominated in the Most Outstanding Drama category – eight, while just five years ago, the category only had six nominees. (The Outstanding Comedy category is down from eight nominees last year to seven this year, but it also only had six in 2014.)
And I have watched some of all eight dramas. Some, like Killing Eve, Bodyguard, Game of Thrones and Succession I’ve seen every single episode of. I’ve watched even more of the comedies – Schitt’s Creek, The Good Place and Veep are favourites, and while the latter has been recognised (and often won) for years, it’s great to see the other two getting the level of recognition they now receive.
It’s not just ongoing series. I’ve also watched more than my fair share of miniseries and TV movies, reality shows and documentaries. And the Emmys nominations are like a summary of my viewing habits for the last year, which is handy because I’m always having conversations with friends about what I’ve watched and what they should watch next – and I really should just refer them to the list of nominees.
As for the Emmy-nominated series I haven’t watched, it’s usually not because I don’t want to watch them. I just haven’t found time for When They See Us or Fosse/Verdon, for example – although both are on my to-watch list. •