The 69th Emmy Awards aired last night, and it was a doozy. After last year’s wins for Tatiana Maslany and Rami Malek I didn’t think I could be more pleasantly surprised – I was wrong. For me, it was a satisfying show with wins going to Black Mirror, Big Little Lies, Donald Glover for Atlanta, Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe for Master of None, and Sterling K. Brown for This is Us.
Many more awards were handed out (see a complete list here) and history was even made, but did you know even more awards were presented a week prior? On Saturday September 9th and Sunday September 10th, the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards took place and there were some notable victors from last weekend too.
Outstanding Choreography
Another tie in this category for 2017: Travis Wall took home the trophy for a couple of routines on So You Think You Can Dance and Mandy Moore nabbed one for her routines on Dancing with the Stars. (FYI: La La Land Mandy Moore, not This is Us Mandy Moore.)
Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special
The Variety Talk Series category was rather stacked this year with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, et al so I couldn’t be too disappointed with John Oliver winning even though I was kinda rooting for Samantha Bee. Consolation prize, Full Frontal won for the Not the White House Correspondents Dinner for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program
RuPaul Charles took home this award for a second year in a row. RuPaul’s Drag Race also won an Emmy for Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming – that only seems appropriate.
Outstanding Main Title Design & Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
Stranger Things took home two of my favorite Emmy Awards. Opening title sequences and theme songs are important and should be celebrated although I was a bit confused as to why Stranger Things won for the main title design when it appears so simplistic. Turns out, they turned to old school techniques to create an authentic look to match the show’s retro setting. Here’s a cool video from Vox.com that explains how they were made.
Outstanding Special Visual Effects
I didn’t catch Westworld last year, but it’s got robots and from what I hear this award was well deserved. And I can believe it, HBO shows don’t half ass anything.
Outstanding Guest Actor / Actress in a Drama Series
Here’s two actors I was excited to see win their very first Emmys: Gerald McRaney as Dr. K aka Dr. Nathan Katowski from This Is Us and Alexis Bledel as Ofglen from The Handmaiden’s Tale!
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie, or Special
As a fan of SyFy’s Face Off, I can’t help but pay more attention to this aspect of the creative process. The 2017 winner was American Horror Story: Roanoke. It beat out the likes of The Walking Dead, Westworld, and Penny Dreadful.
Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or a Variety Program
Stunt Coordination for a comedy is always such a weird category to me, I mean I understand physical comedy requires coordination and safety, it’s just not as an obvious from a viewer’s standpoint as it is for a drama series with car chases or sword fights. But back to the topic at hand, Shameless took home the Emmy for a second year in a row and I’m cool with that. After all, the Gallaghers do spend a lot of time doing dangerous things and / or running from people they’ve pissed off.
Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series, or Movie
Marvel’s Luke Cage took home the Emmy in this more obvious stunt category. From shootouts and explosions to fist fights and building collapses, this show had it all.
Outstanding Costumes
Netflix’s The Crown won in the Period / Fantasy category, which I don’t think surprised anyone. That kinda stuff is Emmy bait. Don’t get me wrong, the clothing is gorgeous, but that time period always seems to do well with academy members. HBO’s Big Little Lies won in the Contemporary category and to that I say “Hell, yeah.” From their everyday clothing, to workout gear, and formal party wear, all the characters were on point at all times.
Outstanding Music Supervision
Outstanding Music Supervision is a brand new category this year (you can read more about how it got added here). And the very first Emmy went to Susan Jacobs for Big Little Lies! The best way to enjoy the music is certainly by watching the series, but you can also listen to the soundtrack on spotify.
To see all the 2017 award categories and winners, visit emmys.com.
