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Zef Wagner's avatar

Why don't the Emmys just change the categories to "Best Short-Form Ongoing Television Show" and "Best Long-Form Ongoing Television Show" or something like that? I know that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it would solve this whole comedy/drama nonsense and focus on the main difference being the length of the episodes. The Oscars have Short Film and Feature Film categories, why not for television? The reason a show like The Bear just "feels different" than hour-long dramas is not that it's comedic and the longer shows are dramas, it's that the length itself creates a different kind of pacing and narrative drive. So that seems like the better differentiation than genre.

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KAS's avatar

Very interesting that the TV Academy changed its rules essentially just to punish Netflix, and only Netflix.

I don't have a dog in the fight, really, but to my mind The Bear is a drama with comedic moments. I wondered why FX didn't just accept that and move it to the drama category, where it would have easily won given the dearth of good dramas out this year. (Until Shogun pulled its move, Best Drama was looking pretty dire. Even in a world where it's Shogun vs The Bear for Best Drama, I don't know who wins that.) They probably didn't because they want to preserve wins in comedy for future years when the other dramas are back...which does feel like gaming the system, a bit. This year feels particularly egregious for gaming the system, but perhaps that's just because it was a bad TV year, especially on the drama side.

I wish shows weren't sweeping awards these days. I know it's because people in the industry only watch 3 shows, but remember the wild days when Tatiana Maslany could (deservedly!) win Best Actress for Orphan Black? That feels impossible now, which is a shame.

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