Is The Bear a comedy? The recent release of the third season of the series that follows the stressful day-to-day life in the kitchen of a restaurant rekindled a debate that had been going on for some time. The Bear (Disney+) broke the record for the most nominated series in a single season at the Emmy Awards this year. The problem is that, in the opinion of many, the series is not a comedy at all, but a drama with episodes of just over half an hour. The 2024 Emmys, whose awards ceremony concluded with this Sunday’s ceremony (after two other galas last weekend), has put the dots on the i’s: it may be The Bear has become the series that has collected the most awards for a single season in a single year, with a total of 11 statuettes. But it was not the best comedy of last season. That title was won by Hacks (Max).
Few expected anyone to be able to cope with the highly praised and award-winning second season of the dramedy (to put it one way: drama, suffering, tragedy might be more accurate) The Bear. The 2024 Emmys script twist came in the last award of the night, when it was revealed that it was Hacksand not The Bear (which had already won four awards during the gala), which took home the award for best comedy. The television industry thus recognised the great joint work of Hacksa real comedy, one that can make you laugh out loud, that can allow two outstanding actresses, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, to shine. And it can also move you, because of course comedy can be linked to emotion. It must. The third season of Hacks It is the best so far of a series that has only grown, supported by masterful scripts and performances, and that has painted a great path of evolution for its protagonists.
In some ways, the Emmys have wanted to support comedy as a genre by standing out with their choice. Or maybe it was just that voters had the third season of Hacks most recent in his memory, while the second of The Bear It aired in the summer of 2023 and the third installment, which was seen this summer, received more lukewarm reviews. One of the things that has been blamed is, precisely, having stumbled in that evolution that Hacks yes it has proven.
Comedy has won at the 2024 Emmys, but so has epic drama. Shogun (Disney+) has become the drama with the most Emmy Awards in a single season in history, with a total of 18 awards. The first season of the samurai game of thrones did meet expectations and added four statuettes this Sunday to those already achieved in the technical awards given out in previous days. The production that could be described as the spiritual heir of Game of Thrones, and which has also managed to unite the pull of audiences, critics and awards, was on the verge of competing as a miniseries, but finally made the leap to the drama categories when it was announced that its story would continue.
The other big winner of the night was My stuffed reindeer (Netflix), which dominated the awards for miniseries. Its victory is the prize for the unexpected. Its creator and star, Richard Gadd, went on stage three times and championed stories that are out of the ordinary. Before its premiere, and before word of mouth began to take effect, no one would have bet that this British series with unknown actors and creator, a story of sexual harassment and abuse based on the real experiences of its protagonist, would become the phenomenon that it became. It achieved this because it went out of the ordinary to tell one of those stories that, normally, are not told and to do so in a stark way.
The 2024 Emmys celebrated the surprise of My stuffed reindeerthe laughter of Hacksthe spectacle of Shogun and the formal commitment and emotional intensity of The Bear. And they also awarded awards for the variety of television. Because contrary to what had become usual in recent years, when three or four titles monopolized the vast majority of the awards at the ceremony broadcast on television, this year the great publicity showcase that is the Emmys wanted to spread the game. In this way, there was a little bit for everyone: The Morning Show, The Crown, Ripley, Fargo, Slow Horses and True Detective They also had their moment in the form of recognition.
But above all, the big winner of these Emmys has been Disney. The platforms and networks owned by it have accumulated a total of 60 awards in this edition. Specifically, FX has won 36, more than any other channel or platform. It is followed by Netflix, which has won 24, while the sum of HBO and Max has had to settle for 14 statuettes. The big loser? Free-to-air television: none of the series that won awards this Sunday are broadcast on an American free-to-air channel.
