When Every Series Is a Blend of Comedy and Drama, What’s an Awards Show to Do?

thewrap.com:

“Barry,” “The Kominsky Method,” “Cobra Kai,” “Dead to Me” and other shows that were nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys even though much of their content was seriously serious?

What was so funny about “Orange Is the New Black” in 2014, when it was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but not in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020, when it was nominated in the drama categories even though the tone of the show hadn’t changed?Blame it on the Emmys slipping and sliding over the treacherous surface of today’s television, where the difference between comedy and drama is becoming increasingly hard to discern.

Hell, the first season of “The White Lotus” won a Directors Guild Award as a comedy series, while its second season is now competing at the Emmys as a drama series.

Meanwhile, “Succession” might be the funniest show on TV, in a very dark and twisted way, but the Emmys would never dare call it a comedy.And this past year has given us a boatload of new shows that could have gone in more than one category. “Bad Sisters” is a drama, according to the Television Academy, but it wouldn’t be far-fetched to call it a comedy. “The Bear” is competing in the comedy categories, but it’s every bit as serious as it is funny. “Poker Face” feels like a crime drama or a murder mystery, but it’s got enough laughs to put it in that category at the Emmys. “Atlanta” is a surrealist satire with hints of the supernatural, but at the Emmys it’s a comedy, too.