In many categories, the Television Academy largely ignored old favorites and didn’t play it safe, mostly snubbing HBO’s prestige dramas (like Westworld) and Netflix’s period piece The Crown, considered a solid frontrunner for Outstanding Drama Series.
Instead, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale ran the table, winning for Drama Series, Lead Actress (Elisabeth Moss), Supporting Actress (Ann Dowd), Writing, and Directing (along with a previously won Guest Actress trophy for Alexis Bledel). A dystopian drama set in a totalitarian society that brutally subjugates women, the series resonated with critics and voters in this politically charged moment, jumping ahead of works from more established networks. Sterling K. Brown was named Best Actor for This Is Us, a rare network-TV hit airing on NBC, while Best Supporting Actor went to John Lithgow for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Crown.On the comedy side, HBO’s old favorite Veep won its third consecutive award for Comedy Series, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus winning her sixth Lead Actress trophy for the show. But other than that, the Emmys spread the love around, with Donald Glover’s acclaimed new FX series Atlanta winning Best Actor and Best Writing (both going to Glover), the Supporting Actor awards going to Saturday Night Live (Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon), and Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe taking Best Writing for their outstanding “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None.
In taking the stage for their final award of the night, Big Little Lies stars Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon said they had moved into TV because of the lackluster parts being offered in the cinema world, and urged the industry to keep writing more dynamic roles for women. The host Stephen Colbert championed the increased diversity of the nominees, and with this 2017 slate of winners (where, among other things, every Lead Actor award went to a man of color), the Emmys remain far ahead of the Academy Awards on the issue, reflecting encouraging progress in the ever-changing medium.“Walter White held this joint? Dick Whitman held this joint? I may have lost some of y'all, but, y'know, Google it,” said Brown, referring to Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm’s wins in the category. “And 19 years ago, Frank Pembleton won this joint, as impeccably played by Andre Braugher. ...It is my supreme honor to follow in your footsteps.” Brown paid tribute to his This Is Us cast, calling them “the best white TV family that a brother has ever had,” but then was played off by the Emmy orchestra before he’d completed his speech, an awkward conclusion to a heartening win.
Best Actress in a Drama Series went to Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid’s Tale, the first win in nine tries for the veteran of TV (who has also been nominated for Mad Men and Top of the Lake and also has The West Wing in her hall-of-fame credentials). “Margaret Atwood, thank you for what you did in 1985, and thank you for what you continue to do for all of us,” Moss said, before having her tribute to her mother in the audience bleeped out by CBS’s live censor.
But she was back onstage shortly thereafter with the cast and crew of The Handmaid’s Tale after it was named Best Drama Series, a first for its fledgling streaming network, Hulu. “Go home, get to work, we have a lot of things to fight for. Goodnight!” said the creator Bruce Miller, after paying homage to the Handmaid’s Tale novelist Margaret Atwood (who joined him onstage).
“I'm so happy, wow! Thank you guys so much, this is nuts,” said Glover, who beat out Jeffrey Tambor (who won the last two years for Transparent), Aziz Ansari, Anthony Anderson, and Zach Galifianakis, among others. “I wanna thank Trump for making black people number one on the most oppressed list,” he joked. “He's the reason I'm probably up here." Atlanta took two major Emmys in its freshman season and seemed like a plausible threat for Comedy Series.
But that went to Veep, which won for the third year in a row. Louis-Dreyfus took her sixth Emmy in a row for playing Selina Meyer, a new record for consecutive wins playing the same character (beating out Candice Bergen and Don Knotts). “We have a great final season that we're about to start filming,” she said, offering a light at the end of the tunnel to her competitors in the category. “We did have a whole storyline about an impeachment, but we abandoned that because we were worried someone else might get to it first,” she added jokingly. “This is, and it continues to be, the role of a lifetime and an adventure of utter joy!”
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