This year’s Emmy awards reconfirmed a feeling that I’ve had for some time now. That is, while the inclusion of streaming services has opened the doors to so much more variety and viewing options, it has also simultaneously made it almost impossible to watch and follow every critically acclaimed show. A decade ago, while watching the Emmy Awards, chances are most individuals watched or at least were somewhat familiar with most nominees in the Drama and Comedy categories, as they most likely aired on one of the big network channels.

Today, that’s not the case. And unfortunately, it sometimes makes it hard to truly be invested and care about these award shows. This was particularly striking to me during this year’s ceremony, when watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel almost sweep the Comedy categories. I was happy for the cast and crew but the truth is, not having Amazon Prime streaming service, I’ve never seen the show so I can’t say I cared that much about their success.

And if I’m being honest, that feeling of general apathy was really my default setting for most of the ceremony. That said, it wasn’t all bad. There were some bright spots for me.

BEST

1. Betty White Honored – Surprised it took this long. But it is wonderful that she is still around to have accepted in person and was able to deliver a speech as only Betty White could. The word icon gets thrown around very loosely way too often in my opinion but there is no arguing that Betty White truly is a television icon and treasure. What an indelible mark she’s left on the comedy world.

 

2. Matthew Rhys Wins Best Actor – If I’m being completely honest, I was actually rooting for Milo Ventimiglia who I truly believe has been incredibly underrated for his role as Jack on This Is Us, in favor of Sterling Knight’s showier performance as Randall. That said, The Americans has been of the most criminally underrated shows for years and the powerful performances delivered consistently by Matthew and Keri Russell woefully under-appreciated. So while my heart was rooting for Milo, I cannot say I wasn’t thrilled for Rhys.

 

3. RuPaul’s Drag Race Wins Best Competitive Reality Show – Yes hunty – sashay you stay. Okay, in the interest of fairness, at this point I was just any show but The Voice, which I believe is grossly overrated. But seeing this little show that could, that I watched in its earliest seasons, when it mostly just had a small cult following of fans, grow into something respected and legitimized by the industry was pretty heartwarming.

 

4. Henry Winkler Wins His First Emmy – Admit it, like many, you probably thought Winkler already had an Emmy. It seems crazy to imagine that someone who has been such a part of television pop culture for so long, never won an Emmy. But that was the case for Winkler until this past Monday. And the wait was worth it as you could tell how genuinely moved and emotional he was in the moment.

 

5. Darren Criss & Assassination of Gianni Versace Win Big – This was a thrilling moment for me for a few reasons. One, I watched the season, loved it and thought the wins were deserved. Two, I felt like coming on the heels of the hugely popular first season – The People vs. O.J. Simpson, this season was unfairly judged against the former and not given a fair and deserving chance by many. So I loved seeing it get that validation by winning for Best Limited Series/MiniSeries. And finally, I was thrilled for Darren Criss as someone who lived through the Glee fandom and particularly the latter years of the show. Let’s just say some weren’t always very kind about Criss. So seeing him receive this validation for his stellar performance was a joy for me and a slightly petty, “in your face haters”.

 

WORST

1. Marriage Proposal – Go ahead and judge me if you must. But sorry, not sorry, live proposals make me cringe in the worse way. I’m sure Glenn Weiss and his new fiancé are lovely people but frankly, I don’t care about them in any way to have wanted to inadvertently be part of this huge moment in their lives. Good for them but yeah, I could have done without having to see it.

 

2. All The Talk About Diversity – Oh don’t get me wrong, diversity and more importantly, the need for greater diversity in entertainment, is always an important and timely topic. That said, from the opening number to many of the bits, it started to feel less like shining a light on an important issue and the show patting itself on what they believed was their very inclusive and diverse Emmy Awards.

 

3. The Hosts Without The Most – Let’s be honest, did they really add anything of significance to the show? There were a few chuckle moments, a few cute asides and small bits but in general, they were fairly uneventful and kind of forgettable.

 

4. Will Ferrell – He showed up. Seriously, that’s all that was needed for this to be one of my worse. I don’t know if this is considered criminally unpopular in the pop culture world but I do not and have never found Will Ferrell to be funny. And in fact, I literally groan whenever he shows up to present an award at any one of these shows because his bits are almost always cringe-worthy bad.

 

5. The Energy of the Night – In general, this year’s Primetime Emmy’s just felt dull. I don’t know if it was a combination of the lackluster hosts, meh comedic bits, the same old nominees mixed in with a few new but maybe not so well known faces but whatever it was, the general feeling I had for most of the ceremony was just a big old meh.

 

FASHION

I, of course, could not conclude this review without discussing the fashion. There were definitely a few stand out moments for me and quite a few “what the actual hell” moments. However, to keep this brief, I’m only going to list my absolute favorite look of the night and the disaster that surpassed all the other disasters.

BEST

Angela Sarafyan in Christian Siriano – I feel like this dress was picked and worn with the intention of making every Best Dressed list. Admittedly I thought it was a bit dramatic for the Primetime Emmy Awards and had more of an Oscars feel but hey, when you’re unlikely to win an award during the night’s ceremony, what better way to make sure that all eyes are still on you?

WORST

Tracee Ellis Ross in Maison Valentino – It was a tight race between her and Taraji P. Henson in Giambattista Valli. But while Taraji’s gown certainly had a lot going on, this pink monstrosity rose above all else. Like seriously, what is happening here? She looks like she’s wearing a giant pink garbage bag. It’s just all poofs and material. Not to mention that that it’s also wrinkled.