Lifestyle
Tired of waiting for the delayed Emmys? Our TV critic presents The Deggy Awards
So what if the second season of The Bear isn’t eligible for Monday’s Emmys? The annual, imaginary Deggy Awards aren’t concerned with arbitrary cutoffs or categories. Above, Jeremy Allen White and Molly Gordon in The Bear, Season 2.
Chuck Hodes/FX
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Chuck Hodes/FX
So what if the second season of The Bear isn’t eligible for Monday’s Emmys? The annual, imaginary Deggy Awards aren’t concerned with arbitrary cutoffs or categories. Above, Jeremy Allen White and Molly Gordon in The Bear, Season 2.
Chuck Hodes/FX
There may not be a more confusing time for the 75th Emmy awards to take the stage.
That’s because 2023’s Emmys ceremony, delayed by the Hollywood writers and performers strikes to Monday, Jan. 15, will probably wind up honoring a different set of TV episodes than the programs honored a day earlier by the Critics’ Choice Awards or this past Sunday by the Golden Globes.
Let’s look at FX’s The Bear – a searing drama with touches of humor, already confusingly classified as a comedy. It’s nominated at the Emmys for its first season, which aired before the May 31, 2023, cutoff for the current nominees. But at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, The Bear is judged on episodes from its second season, which dropped on Hulu June 22, because those shows can honor anything that aired in 2023.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy’s mother, Donna, in Season 2 of The Bear.
Chuck Hodes/FX
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Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy’s mother, Donna, in Season 2 of The Bear.
Chuck Hodes/FX
(So please, don’t send me any emails or social media posts complaining that Jamie Lee Curtis got robbed at the Emmys. Her excellent turn in The Bear‘s second season as Carmy Berzatto’s unhinged mom won’t be eligible until this fall, when she will likely scoop up all the flowers she deserves at the 76th Emmy awards.)
All this serves as a poignant argument for why the Emmys academy (officially known as the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) might need a little help picking out the best TV performances in a turbulent year. Yes, TV fanatics, it’s time for my own, annual – strike-delayed – edition of The Deggys.
Improving the Emmys with The Deggys
Through tireless TV watching and a know-it-all critic’s stubborn insistence that my opinion can kickstart a fun pop culture conversation, I’ve managed to turn The Deggys into something of an NPR tradition. The rules are pretty simple – there aren’t many. That’s because too often those knuckleheaded requirements – like cutoff dates for when series are eligible – can keep the most deserving efforts from the winners circle. Not on my watch, pal.
Here’s is where I get to dish on what should and will win, with few-holds-barred and a skeptical eye out for groupthink and prevailing trends.
As a bonus, this can be your handy guide to what’s worth watching on TV from 2023 that you might have missed. So let’s get into it!
Best Drama Series
Nominees: Andor (Disney+), Better Call Saul (AMC), The Crown (Netflix), House of the Dragon (HBO), The Last of Us (HBO), Succession (HBO), The White Lotus (HBO), Yellowjackets (Showtime).
And the Deggy goes to … Succession.
Matthew MacFadyen and Sarah Snook in HBO’s Succession.
HBO
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HBO
Matthew MacFadyen and Sarah Snook in HBO’s Succession.
HBO
One of the toughest things to do in television is to provide a finale that is surprising, thrilling, appropriate and completely true-to-form for a high-quality series that, frankly, every fan on the planet has already gamed out with their own proposed endings. But somehow, creator/showrunner Jesse Armstrong and the crew at Succession pulled it off, denying Jeremy Strong’s man-child Kendall control of the family-run, Murdoch-ish media behemoth, while staying true to the series’ incisive look at a corrosive family and America’s dysfunctional political/business systems.
I also wonder if Emmy voters will even remember some of these competing series enough to consider them seriously as contenders. Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff Andor debuted in September 2022; Better Call Saul concluded its stellar run with a mesmerizing finale in August 2022. Good as some of these other contenders were, none of them achieved what Succession did in a final season where sticking the landing justified the obsessive focus so many of us had on this show from its very first season.
OK, but who will actually win? That’s also Succession. For years now, I’ve been giving away my big secret for predicting awards show winners, which involves looking at the list of most-nominated programs overall. That tells you what the voting body thinks of each series, and Succession has the most nominations of any series this time around at 27 – including nominations for just about every major performer on the program. So it seems like the Emmy academy is tracking with my own taste on this one, despite strong competition from The Last of Us (24 nominations) and The White Lotus (23 nominations).
Best Comedy Series
Nominees: Abbott Elementary (ABC), Barry (HBO), The Bear (FX/Hulu), Jury Duty (Peacock), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), Ted Lasso (Apple TV+), Wednesday (Netflix).
And the Deggy goes to … The Bear
Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto in The Bear.
Chuck Hodes/FX
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Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto in The Bear.
Chuck Hodes/FX
This, of course, is the reason why FX decided to place the show in this category, where its gritty emotionalism would stand out, away from the cage match of Succession vs. White Lotus vs. The Last of Us. Normally, I wouldn’t reward such shenanigans, but The Bear is a show which has flowered mightily over two seasons, finding its voice while speaking on issues of class, race, capitalism, and found family vs the biological kind, and the scars each can leave. That edges it past Ted Lasso‘s less-assured third season (Apple TV+ still won’t even say if that was the show’s finale run) and inspired-yet-not-quite transcendent turns from Only Murders in the Building and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Runner-up: Barry, which turned TV upside down with so much of its production and content. But the finale was even grimmer than The Bear, and left me less excited about the show overall.
OK, but who will actually win? Ted Lasso. Looking at the total nominations, Ted Lasso has nearly twice the number as The Bear (21 versus 13). And in this oddball, delayed Emmycast, Ted Lasso‘s finale season, which wrapped up May 31, is competing against The Bear‘s first season, which was a little less impressive than its world-building, cameo-filled second go-round. Fortunately, the Deggys can cut through all that deadline stuff to focus on the episodes which aired in 2023.
Best Limited or Anthology Series
Nominees: Beef (Netflix), Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer series (Netflix), Daisy Jones & the Six (Prime Video), Fleishman Is in Trouble (FX), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
And the Deggy goes to … Beef.
Steven Yeun as Danny in Beef.
Andrew Cooper/Netflix
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Steven Yeun as Danny in Beef.
Andrew Cooper/Netflix
For me, it’s not even close. This gonzo look at how an incident of road rage in a parking lot spirals into a blood feud that exposed the hollow hypocrisy of two lives – in the process taking on everything from Asian American family culture to runaway capitalism and forgiveness – is one of the most unexpected pleasures of last year’s TV season. Add in Steven Yeun and Ali Wong acting their behinds off – yes, they’re getting Deggys for best actor and actress in a limited series, to go with their Golden Globe wins – and you have an undeniable triumph. Which is why…
OK, who will actually win? Beef, once again. Mostly because it doesn’t have the moral complications of elevating a serial killer like the Dahmer series, or the uneven story of Daisy Jones and Fleishman or the inexplicable nomination of a moribund Star Wars series in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even the Emmy academy can’t mess up this category that badly. I hope.
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
Nominees: Aubrey Plaza, The White Lotus; Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown; J. Smith-Cameron, Succession; Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus; Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus; Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul; Sabrina Impacciatore, The White Lotus; Simona Tabasco, The White Lotus.
And the Deggy goes to … Elizabeth Debicki, J. Smith-Cameron AND Rhea Seehorn.
Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown
Netflix
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Netflix
Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown
Netflix
Didn’t I say there were few rules here? This follows in a couple of Deggy traditions, handing an award to Seehorn — an actor criminally overlooked by the Emmys during her time on Better Call Saul – and giving multiple honors to deserving nominees in the same category (still waiting on my “thank you” from Steve Martin and Martin Short for 2022, by the way).
Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul.
Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures TV
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Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures TV
Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul.
Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures TV
But these performers all turned in mind-boggling performances this cycle, from Smith-Cameron’s exasperated, always-surviving underling Gerri to Debicki’s spellbinding ability to embody Princess Diana without ever looking like she was delivering an impression or mimicry. And Seehorn already has a Deggy for her bravura performance as Kim Wexler, a woman who decided to save her soul by leaving behind a man she loved. Fortunately, for the Deggys, I don’t have to pick between them.
OK, who will actually win? Jennifer Coolidge. The Emmy academy loves her take on The White Lotus‘ needy, self-absorbed heiress Tanya McQuoid. And since she – spoiler alert – dies in the most recent episodes, this is the last chance to get a show-stopping Coolidge acceptance speech in the telecast.
Best Talk Series
Nominees: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), The Problem with Jon Stewart (Apple TV+).
And the Deggy goes to … Late Night with Seth Meyers and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Seth Meyers on Dec. 13, 2023.
Lloyd Bishop/NBC
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Lloyd Bishop/NBC
Seth Meyers on Dec. 13, 2023.
Lloyd Bishop/NBC
This time around, the Emmy academy rejiggered its rules so Oliver, who wins this category most every year, would be shunted off to compete against Saturday Night Live, which always wins its category, Scripted Variety Series. But Meyers’ and Oliver’s shows belong in the same category, so I’m undoing that nonsense. Oliver deliberately tackles some of the toughest topics on television and makes them entertaining, insightful and impactful (please check out this one on freight trains, this one on dollar stores and this story on how they hijacked New Zealand’s Bird of the Century contest). Meyers seems to relax into his own skin more every season, offering incisive political takes with an ease and charm that impresses.
Honorable mention/shoutout: The Daily Show, which has reinvented itself every week to accommodate guest hosts since Trevor Noah left the program in late 2022. And props to every show nominated, which saw new episodes halted for months by the Hollywood writers strike, just as questions about the survival of the genre have grown.
OK, so who will actually win? Colbert in his category and Oliver in his. Because Emmy loves those guys in ways they have certainly earned.
President Trump speaks at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery on May 25 in Arlington, Va.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
President Trump has suggested that an event celebrating America’s 250 birthday should instead be a Make America Great Again rally after many of the artists who were announced to perform dropped out.
The Great American State Fair, which is set to begin on June 25 on the National Mall, had featured artists such as Martina McBride, Morris Day and the Time, The Commodores and Poison’s Bret Michaels — who have all since withdrawn from the lineup.
McBride explained why she decided to not to be part of the fair, writing in a social media post she was presented with an opportunity to perform at “a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.”
“In my mind I thought this was a great way to celebrate the states and also bring people together in the way that only music can. I saw it as just a bigger version of so many state fairs I have performed at over the years, celebrating community and what makes each state special,” McBride wrote in the post on Thursday night. “Yesterday things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.”
Some artists plan to still perform at the fair. Vanilla Ice said he would not drop out of the event, writing on social media, “This is not a political platform. This is celebrating America’s birthday.”
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump called the performers who backed away from the event “Third Rate” and said he will give a speech that will rally the U.S. “forward like I have done ever since being President!” Later on Saturday, Trump wrote in another social media post that the event should be canceled and replaced with a rally.
“We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,” Trump wrote.
The fair is being organized by Freedom 250, a public-private group working with the White House to organize the celebration of America’s 250 birthday. The Trump-backed celebrations have drawn criticism and concern that it is centered around himself instead of the country.
Democratic lawmakers and watchdog organizations, such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have also questioned where private donations for the 250th celebrations are coming from.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is involved with planning the celebration, on Sunday said the events are “nonpartisan.”
“It’s not about the transparency of the donors,” Burgum said on CNN’s State of the Union when asked if the donations should become public. “This is about Americans celebrating the 250th anniversary.”
On-air challenge
Every answer is a word, name, or a familiar phrase in which the first syllable is pronounced “fair” — in any spelling. (Ex. Locale for an exhibition –> FAIRGROUND)
1. Long stretch on a golf course
2. Alternative to Celsius in temperatures
3. Alaska city just south of the Arctic Circle
4. Boat that transports passengers across a river or body of water
5. Monarch in ancient Egypt
6. Medical term for the throat
7. Revolving ride at an amusement park
8. “Cinderella” or “Hansel and Gretel”
9. Small, domesticated animal related to the European polecat
10. Historical Jewish sect in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
11. County of northern Virginia that’s adjacent to Washington, D.C.
12. Actress Morgan
13. Louis who leads the Nation of Islam
14. Chemical secreted by the body that’s a stumulant to others
15. Fond goodbye
Last week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Jim Francis, of Kirkland, Wash. Think of a famous female singer (8,4). The first syllable of her first name, the second syllable of her first name backward, and last name forward again are all verbs associated with human desire. Who is this singer?
Challenge answer
Courtney Love
Winner
Larry Birkenmeyer of Glenview, Illinois
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Mike Reiss, a longtime writer and showrunner for “The Simpsons.” Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, June 4 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
Jean Smart.
HBO Max
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HBO Max
This review of the Hacks series finale includes spoilers for the episode.
It also discusses suicide.
The truth — my truth — about the fifth and final season of HBO Max’s Hacks is that I would have left it at the end of the penultimate episode last week. Deborah’s show in Central Park, improvised after she was thwarted in her efforts to play Madison Square Garden, was a triumph. The story has always been, after all, about Deborah and Ava together, outdoing the expectations other people have for them and outfoxing the people who try to thwart them. So being embraced by a huge outdoor crowd, surrounded by people who love them, was just the right ending. Not too heavy for a comedy, not too idealized and neat.
In this week’s series finale, you get a much more melodramatic story. The earlier hints about Deborah’s health problems mature into the news that she has cancer, but she has decided to forgo treatment and travel to Switzerland to undergo an assisted suicide. She also wants Ava to go with her. Ava is furious and panicked, wanting Deborah to choose differently, but Deborah’s mind is made up. In the end, encouraged by Jimmy to respect Deborah’s decision, Ava appears at the airport, and the two go to Paris for a final vacation before they travel on to Zurich. They laugh and walk, and Deborah gives Ava her first taste of Parisian bread. They shop for skin care, they go to the Louvre (which Deborah buys out just for them), and they debate Van Gogh. They even go dancing.
Perhaps I was naive to never believe the show was going to end with Deborah’s suicide. Perhaps it might have ended that way. But it doesn’t. (Here, I am tempted to say, “Of course it doesn’t.”) After Ava fights Deborah, concedes, fights her again, and concedes again, Deborah suddenly (very suddenly) realizes she still likes writing jokes, and she decides to write a new hour with Ava and begin cancer treatment instead of going to Zurich and ending her life. “Happy Days Are Here Again” plays as they walk together in Paris, and then later in Vegas. The end.
I’ve always been of two minds about Hacks: the scene-level writing is impeccable, the jokes have a high hit rate, and the performances are utterly singular, but I’ve always found the plot choices frustrating. By Season 4, the basic story was repeating over and over (they feud; they make up; they feud; they make up). But even then, the jokes were still working, and the performances were exceptional.
Similarly, in this finale, the scenes in Paris are not only great to look at; they are very funny and wildly charming. Even in a short, slapstick bit where Deborah cracks herself up by making Ava try to learn stick shift driving a boxy little rental car through a roundabout, the kicker line from Ava, “Why am I in the rough draft of a car?” is just a straight-up great line. These are gorgeous scenes between the actresses (who are co-leads and always have been; do not let the Emmys deceive you), and they are a great gift to the many people who have loved Hacks over its very successful run. These characters are soul mates, and it is delightful seeing them, once and for all, on the same side.
But the flip side is this: When you incorporate a story about illness and death, especially very late in a show’s run, and especially if it resolves abruptly, it can seem maudlin or manipulative. Death is just a big bat to swing in a comedy series, and there’s a good argument that Hacks just didn’t need it. There is plenty of emotional heft in the history of Deborah and Ava, and in the stories of their careers, without a death scare. And because it was a death scare, some things got awkward, like … Why did D.J., Deborah’s daughter, play no role in any of this? Certainly, Deborah might not want to tell her, but when begging Deborah not to die and pulling out all the stops, would Ava not have talked about her family? Might “please don’t leave me,” touching as it was, have been accompanied by “or your daughter”?
It’s not that the Hacks finale was bad, not by a longshot. (Though the Jimmy/Kayla triumph where they re-enter Latitude to literal applause was perhaps a bit pat.) It’s the capper to a very successful and very good show, which has been richly rewarded with awards and seems highly likely to rack up a few more this fall. But it did, in the end, feel a bit like a hat on a hat, like they didn’t quite trust what’s been built between those two characters enough to pack a wallop without the Grim Reaper stalking the episode. But perhaps it would not have been a Deborah Vance production if it weren’t just a bit over the top.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 9 8 8 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
This piece also appears in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.
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