‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 7: Kurt Sutter’s latest Emmy response, and the flaws in the system
We know that for many “Sons of Anarchy” fans out there, a routine of sorts has come out of waiting for the day Emmy nominations are released, and then heading online to see what show creator Kurt Sutter has to say about most of them. It’s almost masochistic in a way, knowing that year in and year out, we get our hopes up for a nomination or two only to experience pain when it’s a shutout. We thought that Charlie Hunnam was a darkhorse this year, and that Maggie Siff had a serious shot at Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Still, nothing. The show did receive a nod for Original Song as it has before, but that was it.
We’ve discussed the way that the Emmys tend to look at either successful shows are “genre” programs in the past, at least in that typically, they ignore them. While “Game of Thrones” gets love in the nominations, Peter Dinklage is the only winner they’ve ever had in a major category. Meanwhile, “The Walking Dead” is routinely snubbed, and Melissa McBride was considered a contender this year on the same level as Siff. These are two of the most-popular shows on cable that fall out of the typical Emmy voting “window,” and rarely go home with any gold.
While “Sons of Anarchy” may not fall into the fantasy / sci-fi department, it doesn’t fit the mold, and also often has to rely on success and adoration from fans as its only reward. It is It’s consistently a ratings monster for FX, but we’ve heard a myriad of excuses about why the Emmys haven’t recognized it. Sometimes, it’s because it’s too dark, too gritty, too violent, too young-skewing for older viewers, or that it’s up against heavy competition. How many excuses can you have? Over time, they cease being anything other than babble.
Sutter has written some pretty extensive responses to snubs over the years, and his latest one over at NikkiFinke.com is an interesting read in full (with slightly less cursing, but still some, than in years past). The quote that we wanted to pull out here is the most interesting for this discussion, mostly in how it addresses some of the issues that we’ve addressed in the past two months:
“… Here’s the rub — I know on an intellectual level that the Emmys are not and have never been a valid qualifier of talent. I know the people who vote are busy industry people with limited time and departmental biases (Costumers, Production Designers, Makeup, etc.). Throw in the fact that studios and networks spend millions on Emmy campaigns to influence votes, and you end up with a very flawed system where most folks rush to fill in circles for friends and shows they’ve seen once or twice or ‘heard’ were really good.”
Sutter is completely right, but are we looking at a problem without a solution? We stand by everything that we said that the Critics’ Choice TV Awards have the most accurate and complete nominations of any show recognizing TV, but how do you think the industry would feel about losing their power to a group of people who write about TV for the internet? The only other solution is to create a means for voters to only vote in the categories they care about and understand, but there is no way to police that. The problem is that there are many categories where people are asleep at the wheel for, and we’re left with regurgitation after regurgitation. We have a feeling that some will keep nominating “The Amazing Race” as a Reality Competition Show years after it is eventually canceled.
The Emmys are a fantastic honor, and anyone who receives one should celebrate that. However, when the dust settles the joy of watching a show you love is all the celebration you need. You can control your own product as a showrunner to a certain extent, but the one thing that is always uncontrollable is what a flawed system chooses to put on an envelope for a fancy awards show. That’s a combination of acclaim, politics, and seeing the industry through oblivious eyes.
You can see the full list of nominations, if you are so inclined, at the link here, and also sign up now for further updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: FX