How are voters supposed to judge laugh-out-loud series against darkly comedic dramas all in the same race?
“That’sa comedy?!”
Are shows/actors simply being submitted in the wrong categories?
(L-R) Jean Smart and Kaley Cuoco.HBO Max; Phil Caruso/HBO MAX
Or is it time for the TV Academy to finally introduce a dramedy category?
Historically, comedies and dramas were completely separate mediums.
Comedies were literally filmed differently than dramas, using multi-camera setups in front of live studio audiences.
The comedy was situational, jokes came fast and loose, and viewers were only there for the yucks.
so, too, has the way the Academy judges it.
Well, the time to act on those discussions is now or actually, a few years overdue.
How doesTed Danson’s broad-comedy performance onThe Good Placenever win an Emmy?
Because darker, more serious dramedies likeMaster of None,Atlanta,Transparent,andBarrydominate the conversation.
And yet all of that Netflix series' nominations and wins come in the comedy category.
(Allof best comedy nomineeThe Flight Attendant’s eight episodes clock in at 41-minutes or longer.)
But is the length of an episode truly the best way to delineate between the two categories?
The issue then becomes how to judge whether a show is a comedy, drama, or dramedy.
Half-hour vs. hour runtimes have nothing to do with genre anymore.
Does it matter if it’s multi-camera or single-camera?
Does it boil down to simple data like joke-per-episode counts?
That isn’t as clear either.
And don’t even get us started onall the snubsin the comedy category (Girls5eva5eva).
“But in comedy, they cover such a broad spectrum.
That’s sort of been the case already withVeepandMaster of None, evenFleabag.
They all feel very different than, say,Modern Family.
It would be hard to categorize that specific [dramedy] category.
There are ones that feel both dramatic and comedic.
And then we’d be up againstSuccession, which also has comedy and drama.”
But for now, all these comedies and dramedies are left to duke it out in the same race.
And when that happens, no one wins.
Additional reporting by Lynette Rice.
