A Humdrum Emmys Are Weighed Down by Sparse Crowds and Sponsored Content: TV Review
variety.comAlison Herman TV Critic It’s hard to make a yearly awards show feel special when it’s staged twice in one year. Such was the challenge facing the 76th annual Emmy Awards, which aired just eight months after its warmly nostalgic predecessor due to the prior show’s strike-related delay. (Both shows were helmed by the same producing team.) Factor in the Television Academy’s tendency toward repeat honorees — and more recently, select shows to sweep all awards in their category within a given year — and it’s understandable why Sunday’s broadcast was a relatively muted affair.
But drab is drab. Whatever the justifications, the 76th Emmys were a far less dynamic and more stilted watch than the January show.
Take the signature flourish of a night that was otherwise straightforwardly staged: grouping presenters by archetype of character, from fathers to villains to doctors, and surrounding them with custom sets and backdrops.
The motif recalled the January Emmys’ amped-up cast reunions, but less specific and evocative (if still endearing, which Connie Britton, Kathy Bates and Mindy Kaling could be with their hands tied behind their back).
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