Emmy nominations: no one knows how to watch TV anymore

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For starters, let me put on my old creepy hat. This isn’t going to be a column full of complaining, but there will be some. That’s because the Emmy nominations came out this week, and while they offered all the usual happy surprises and mean snubs, they also included something else: the names of many shows that came out over four months ago, and some of the great ones from spring. .

In my day (see? curmudgeon), most shows came out in the fall and people had months to get into them. Premium cable networks and streaming services changed that, dropping shows that were random or at times when network programming was interrupted and they were more likely to get noticed. This year things took things to a whole new level with plenty of smashing shows featuring A-list talent – Showtime’s First Lady, Apple TV+’s The Essex Serpent – landing in the spring. In general, it’s a joy to watch new TV in the spring and summer, but this year there was just too much and many viewers threw in the towel.

Not only ordinary viewers, but also members of the Television Academy. “I just don’t think a single voter can really make an effort to watch at least one episode of everything,” one member told Vanity Fair earlier this month. Not that anyone really cares what Emmy voters think — “like what you like,” I always say — but if even the people whose job it is to watch television can’t keep up with, there’s a problem.

Last month, my colleague Jason Kehe made the point that no one knows how to watch movies anymore. He is right; people now just look at things in weird chunks, sneaking in bits and pieces and looking where they can. There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but it leaves everyone with a handful of half-finished—and often never-finished—shows. It’s no surprise then that many of the newcomers of the past year are shows like Severance and Yellowjackets that both came out in the fall and winter and came out weekly, allowing for some slow hype. If you discovered them two or even four weeks late, you didn’t feel like you missed it at all. (Plus, Severance and Yellowjackets are really damn good.)

Frankly, I don’t know if this reaches the level of a problem. It’s an annoyance anyway, and no one complains about too much good television. It’s just, well, so much is lost. How did Reservation Dogs, Our Flag Means Death, and We Are Lady Parts not get Emmy nominations? How did The Staircase only get two? No offense to the Euphoria of the world, or the Ted Lassos, but this is depressing. Maybe it’s time we all started our annual TV marathon in the fall.

This post Emmy nominations: no one knows how to watch TV anymore

was original published at “https://www.wired.com/story/emmy-nominations-severance-yellowjackets/”