A Chaotic Night Manages to Honor Television’s Best and Slam Them, Too

These days, the TV landscape is so vast and unwieldy that I guess it’s fitting that this year’s Emmys ceremony was, in a word, chaotic.

Sunday’s ceremony on CBS was all over the place, mixing genuinely inspiring moments with stilted comedy bits — sometimes right next to each other. These Emmys were strangely anti-TV at times, with a self-deprecating tone that bordered on masochistic. But they also showcased the best that TV has to offer, with surprise wins and stirring speeches that reminded us of the sheer quantity of top-notch programming we’re blessed to have at our fingertips right now. (See the full list of winners here.)

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Comedian Nate Bargatze served as this year’s Emmys host, and I’m a big fan of his stand-up specials, but his down-home comedy style was an odd fit with a fancy showbiz awards show. He gave off an air of someone who wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing there. (Does Nate watch Severance? I’m guessing not.) A lot of his jokes felt weirdly dismissive of the very industry the Emmys are supposed to be honoring. I’m all for taking the hot air out of a self-important awards show, but this actually ruined the vibe of the whole show.

That also applies to Bargatze’s main gimmick: To keep acceptance speeches short, he pledged to donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America… and then deduct $1,000 for every second a winner’s speech went over 45 seconds. An innovative idea, to be sure, but it ended up feeling awkward, with a ticking clock showing the money disappearing and shaming the winners into wrapping up early. Plus, since Bargatze was the one footing the bill, he cheered when the donation decreased — which meant less money for needy kids? It just didn’t work — and it didn’t even matter in the end, since CBS and Bargatze ended up kicking in a combined $350,000 for the charity. (It also didn’t prevent a few endless presenter gags from going on way too long.)

If the ceremony tried to take TV down a peg, Emmy voters made up for it by spreading the wealth around, honoring a wide variety of gems like Severance, Andor, The Pitt and Adolescence and giving them all time to shine. (Side note: This has actually been an exceptionally good year for television, hasn’t it?) We got welcome surprises like wins for The Pitt’s Katherine LaNasa and Somebody Somewhere’s Jeff Hiller, and emotional speeches like Severance’s Tramell Tillman thanking his mom, who was in attendance, for pushing him to achieve his dreams. We also got a dose of the kind of Hollywood glamour we watch awards shows to see. (Hey, where else will you see Sarah Paulson and Colin Farrell grooving along to the Golden Girls theme song?)

As usual, the show lost momentum in the middle, as the Emmys insist on handing out minor awards like best writing on a variety series when they would fit much better at the Creative Arts Emmys. These winners’ contributions deserve to be recognized, of course, but by this point, you can pretty reliably tune out the second hour of the Emmys and not miss much. (A bloated speech from the TV Academy’s chairman didn’t help, either.) But the ceremony also threw in a few quick nostalgia hits to keep us entertained, like Gilmore Girls stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel reuniting on their Stars Hollow porch. These kind of moments are what the Emmys do best, and I’m all for relegating a few awards to give us more reminders of why we love TV in the first place.

In the end, it’s moments like The Penguin winner Cristin Milioti jubilantly yelling out “I love acting so much!” that I’ll remember from this year’s Emmys: a performer at the top of her craft earning the ultimate recognition and celebrating getting the opportunity to create art for a living. You see? It turns out that TV is pretty good after all.

That’s our take — but what’s yours? Give this year’s Emmys broadcast a grade in our poll, and then hit the comments to share your thoughts.

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