It appears that not even people deeply embedded in the industry were particularly enamored with Hollywood’s media offerings of late.
In a scathing report from The Hollywood Reporter, an unnamed “member of the TV Academy’s Producers Peer Group” revealed his candid thoughts on many of the most popular shows competing for Emmy awards — and he wasn’t impressed.
“I ruled out half the nominees [in the Outstanding Drama Series category] immediately, but this is still the strongest single category in the history of the Emmys and I agonized over the other four,” the insider said, acknowledging that there were still some good shows out there.
The insider just didn’t think the big names constituted those “good shows.”
“I had zero interest in The Crown — I watched the first season because my wife asked me to, then I was done,” the insider said.
“The Crown” is a popular Netflix series based on the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
“You couldn’t pay me to watch House of the Dragon — I was a Game of Thrones person, but I watched 10 minutes of this and read the reviews and it just seemed like a money grab,” the insider added. “I devoured the first season of Yellowjackets, but it jumped the shark in season two.
“I love Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, but there have been better seasons of Better Call Saul.”
The insider lauded “Andor” (a Star Wars series) and “The Last of Us” (a series based on a video game about the zombie apocalypse), but ultimately chose “Succession” as his best drama series of the year.
Are you content with the current trajectory of Hollywood?
The insider offered a similar critique of the “Outstanding Comedy” series nominees: “I’ve voted before for Ted Lasso, but this was its weakest season. They had no idea what they were going to do to get out of it; they just decided, ‘We’re done.’ I’ve asked five people what happened at the end, and everyone has a different opinion.
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel jumped the shark several seasons back, so I gave up on it then.
“Only Murders in the Building does the same shtick every episode. I love Steve Martin and Martin Short, and Meryl Streep was a nice addition, but Selena Gomez is totally miscast — she wouldn’t be hanging out with these two guys for three minutes, let alone three years.”
But the insider saved his most biting critique about the current state of entertainment for the “Outstanding Television Movie” category.
“This has become a category of, ‘Oh, we took a movie to Sundance, it didn’t sell, so let’s put it on our network and try to get an Emmy nomination.’ Prey was meant to be a feature — they spent tens of millions of dollars on it — so why should that be allowed to compete against something like Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which is original and great but made on a budget and on the f***ing Roku Channel?” the insider asked “Fire Island? Hocus Pocus 2? Are you kidding me? They were terrible.
“Dolly Parton [Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas] again? Are you serious? People just see her name on the ballot and vote for it. Nobody is watching that movie. Give her a Nobel Prize but don’t keep nominating her TV movies, OK?”
The insider would go on to address the other categories that Emmy nominations will be competing over, but largely kept the same tenor throughout: There was good, but lots of bad and disappointing this year in entertainment media.
The Primetime Emmy Awards took place on Monday, and some of the big winners included:
Drama Series: Succession
Comedy Series: The Bear
Limited or Anthology Series: Beef
TV Movie: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
You can find a comprehensive list of nominees and winners here.
