Gladdening Surprises in the Emmy Nominations

Plus: Are You The One?, the opera and what's making us happy [NPR] by Glen Weldon Welcome! It was the week when, in the overhead bins of [planes headed to San Diego]( light sabers jostled against sonic screwdrivers, wands, Pokeballs, phasers, One Rings, Infinity Gauntlets and Batarangs. It was the week we noticed that the [Emmy nominations were queerer than ever]( (not, like Tonys-level queer, mind you, but that’s a high bar). It was the week we learned that the word “jellicle” actually means “[grotesque, unholy, make it stop]( my eyes, unmake me here, all is lost, we are in hell.” And it was the week we learned of very real and not-at-all fake podcasting terms like [“podfade” and “bantercasts,”]( which, again, are entirely real terms actually used every day by all of the big-time podcasting-industry insiders, every last one of them, for real. Let’s get to it. Opening Argument It’s getting harder to whine about the Emmys. The Television Academy’s longstanding tendency to stick to the tried-and-true, to reward the oft-rewarded and to whip an Emmy at the head of any and all acclaimed film actors who deigned to book a two-episode run on ER so they could impart warmly wry life-lessons through their oxygen masks before dying with pluckiness and grit — those days are over. (Or at least temporarily gone.) This year’s crop, [announced Tuesday morning]( contained a slew of gladdening surprises in the form of first-time nominees. [Emmy statues] Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images Now, sure, in several cases, the absence of long-established ringers due to quirks in season schedules and eligibility rules made room for fresh blood. In the outstanding drama category, for instance, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Crown, Westworld, Big Little Lies and Stranger Things didn’t air during the eligibility window. (The last few episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale’s previous season are, however, eligible — and earned 11 nominations in other categories.) (Don’t think about this too hard.) Rushing in to fill that vacuum are a lot of first-season shows like Succession, Bodyguard and Pose, as well as second-season shows like Ozark and, happily, Killing Eve. And speaking of Phoebe Waller-Bridge (and oh, let’s do, do let’s, as often as possible), while the first season of Fleabag went criminally overlooked, Season 2 raked in 11 nominations, including best comedy, lead actress in a comedy, comedy writing, supporting actress in a comedy (both Sian Clifford and Olivia Colman, which: woo!) and guest actress in a comedy (both Kristin Scott Thomas and Fiona Shaw — who was also nominated as supporting actress in a drama for Killing Eve, so I’m betting Shaw’s people sent a great big honkin’ floral bouquet, or two, to Waller-Bridge’s people on Tuesday morning). (Also: Woo, squared!) Past outstanding-comedy nominees like Silicon Valley and Atlanta didn’t air during the Academy’s eligibility window. Past nominees that were eligible (black-ish, GLOW and — in its final season — Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) didn’t make the cut, which is sad. But that left room for a heartening assortment of comedies getting their very first nominations, like The Good Place’s third season, Fleabag’s second, Russian Doll’s first, and — real talk — long-overdue recognition for Schitt’s Creek, for its fifth season. Speaking of: Reader, the sight of Catherine O’Hara’s name among the outstanding actress in a comedy nominations on Tuesday morning caused this helpless fanboy to whoop, involuntarily, as he de-planed in Detroit, startling his fellow passengers and Detroit-based flight crew. Look, I’m in the tank for her, [I have been since SCTV]( (for which she won her only Emmy, in 1982) — but there’s a solid case to be made for her to take the gold this year. On Schitt’s Creek, her Moira Rose vibrates at a higher frequency than the characters around her. She’s a larger personality, a construction of actorly tics, performative affectations, a weirdly diversiform vocabulary and a baffling but wondrous style of elocution. And yet, she’s real. O’Hara plays her as someone who has carefully constructed her persona, and when real life served her a turn of events that threatened to shatter that persona, she simply doubled down on it as a means of self-protection. Also — crucially — she’s the main bulwark against the show’s increasing penchant for heartwarming sweetness. Every bowl of guacamole needs some acid, and Moira’s fierce determination to stay true to herself is the lime juice that lends the brightness necessary to keep the whole thing from turning insipid. Now, her fellow nominees this year are kind of prohibitively great: Previous winner Rachel Brosnahan, Christina Applegate and Natasha Lyonne — that would be bad enough. But in a truly sadistic twist, the Academy has pitted O’Hara against Waller-Bridge and … Julia Louis-Dreyfus. That’s Julia “Has Won Every Time She Was Nominated For Veep” Louis-Dreyfus. Julia “Last Season Of Her Show” Louis-Dreyfus. Julia “Just Overcame A Health Crisis” Louis-Drefyus. She’s a sure bet, and I can’t begrudge her that. And anyway, there’s one more season of Schitt’s Creek to go, which is likely to demand even more from O’Hara than she’s shown us yet. And make no mistake: she’s shown us a lot. I mean, [that fruit-wine commercial alone.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend Do any of you remember when The Real World premiered, back in the late Jurassic? And everyone you knew watched it? And we all, who’d never seen anything like it before, who’d not yet coined the term “reality television,” managed to almost convince ourselves that it was more than just another lousy TV show? That it was somehow … important? A bold sociological experiment, even? I felt something very like that powerful (but deluded) (but no less powerful) sensation recently, watching MTV’s Are You The One?: Come One, Come All. It’s the kind of reality show I tend to avoid: where horny young people stuck in a house with nothing to do but swill booze, hook up, resent one another for hooking up and talk endlessly about their feeeeeelings. (If I’m gonna watch a reality show, there needs to some craft, some skill, some process involved. If at the end of the hour there’s no tangible product — a dish or cake or dress or lip-sync — color me bored.) But the twist in this season of [Are You The One?]( is that every horny young thing stuck in that house is sexually fluid, so the odds of them finding their “perfect match” (a patently ridiculous construct upon which the show is [ricketedly] built) is exponentially more challenging/fascinating than it was in previous seasons, which featured boring ol’ cis-heteros doing whatever the hell it is they do. Look, the show is filled with nonsense like Truth Booths and Relationship Challenges and Matching Ceremonies and Beams-Of-Light Mastermind (long story). But what can I say? Watching these kids make terrible-horrible-no-good choices as they blithely accept the show’s extremely dubious premise is weirdly compelling. Make no mistake: Like The Real World before it, Are You The One? is, at the end of the day, just another lousy TV show. But the cast keeps surprising me — a show like this is down to the casting directors as much as anything else — and the editing seems refreshingly reluctant to reduce the contestants into standard reality show types. Ultimately, there are enough moments of (seemingly) authentic, queer, joyous self-discovery, like when they hold themselves a Queer Prom, to keep me watching … albeit through my fingers. (Max, what are you even thinking? Basit, Jonathan is not worth your fierce gorgeous tiiiiiiiiiiimmmme!) “Welcome to Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s? [The podcast where I ask the question]( ‘Whatever happened to the pizza at McDonalds?’ I am your host, Brian Thompson.” (Start with [episode one]( obviously.) (And ride that 15-second skip button; the ads are annoying.) --------------------------------------------------------------- What We Did This Week [Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera] Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera On Wednesday’s episode of PCHH, we [visited the Metropolitan Opera]( and saw their production of Rigoletto, and we invited O.G. panelist Trey Graham along. We talked about our backstage tour, the production itself, and opera writ large. It’s a fun one. That link also leads you to Linda’s write-up of the experience, which is also pretty great. The folks over at NPR Music adapted my [thoughts comparing and contrasting]( the two Lion Kings’ (or is that Lions King?) versions of “Be Prepared,” but you read last week’s PCHH Newsletter already, so you don’t need to read it again, right? Riiiiiight? On Friday’s episode of PCHH, we tackled [the new Lion King]( with Katie Presley and Aisha Harris. I know, it sounds sordid, but we weren’t rewarded. Injustice, indifferently squared, etc. (If you’re still not sick of hearing our Lion King takes, here’s [a video newscast]( I try to cram a review into two minutes.) --------------------------------------------------------------- What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - Stephen, Dad Supreme: [The Wirecutter]( - Katie: [Maud's Line]( Margaret Verble]( - Aisha: [The Albert Brooks film Mother]( - Glen: [The HBO series Years And Years]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! 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