Let me get the good stuff out of the way first! The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards aired this past Sunday, honoring the best television programming between June 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021. I was worried The Queen’s Gambit (a show I liked, btw) would win too many awards considering how it dominated the Creative Arts Emmys last week over so many better shows, most notably Barry Jenkins’s masterful The Underground Railroad, one of the most phenomenal pieces of work I’ve ever seen. I’m super bitter that The Queen’s Gambit won Best Cinematography and Best Music Composition over The Underground Railroad! Also, Steve McQueen pumped out five ambitious films in his Small Axe series and that only netted him ONE nomination (for Cinematography), which is a damn shame.
Anyway, back to last night. Ted Lasso, Hacks, and Mare of Easttown were my favorite shows going into the night and, thankfully, they each won major awards. Ted Lasso won Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jason Sudeikis), Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Brett Goldstein), and Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Hannah Waddingham). Hacks won Best Lead Actress in a Comedy (Jean Smart), Directing for a Comedy Series (over Ted Lasso, which I can’t be too upset about because I love Hacks), and Writing for a Comedy Series (again, over Ted Lasso, but it is bittersweet because it beat my favorite episode from Ted Lasso, “Make Rebecca Great Again”). And Mare of Easttown won Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Kate Winslet), Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Even Peters), Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Julianne Nicholson).
The Queen’s Gambit only won three awards (thankfully) out of its six nominations. Unfortunately, it once again beat The Underground Railroad (and Mare of Easttown) for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie…
Also, this happened:
“Awkwafina being the one to present the Best Comedy Emmy to Ted Lasso is my villain origin story
— @4outof4kents
Though I was super excited that many of the shows I loved and supported won, it resulted in a white-washed ceremony. A record-breaking number of non-white actors were nominated this year, but all of its major acting awards went to white actors. Even though I think many of the winners were well-deserved, it’s evident that there’s a problem when so many non-white performers (who are also deserving to win) are shut out year after year no matter how many nominations they get. The demographics of the voting body needs to be looked at, the nomination and voting process needs to be reformed, etc. If the BAFTAs can fix its system, so can the Emmys.
S*mu L*u might be an MRAsian???
Shortly after this in-depth report about MRAsians was released, a lot of folks on Twitter started bringing attention to a certain Asian Marvel superhero for many (allegedly) terrible acts in his past. I’m hoping it’s not true, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they were. Let’s hope there is more clarity within the next few days, but in the meantime you can read more about these allegations here, here, and here.
so ed has now gone private, meaning an important tweet in my thread is now hidden, but this is in relation the simu being a MRA or a Male Rights Asian, a group know for attacking and putting down Asian women, and also being anti black
— @simuliudaily
Awkwafina finally gets called out for her Blaccent
I don’t know which god Simu and Awkwafina angered, but literally right after the Simu MRAsian controversy broke out on Twitter, attention switched to Awkwafina after this interview clip went viral. It’s the first and only interview I’ve ever seen where someone actually asked her about her use of a Blaccent! Unsurprisingly, she had a terrible response (again, I’m begging people to stop saying you “welcome” these conversations without actually engaging in these conversations).
.@awkwafina addresses controversy of her using a ‘blaccent’ in films
— @ReutersShowbiz
Further Reading:
Black Voices: Artists are Black until no longer needed
Performing Blackness Won't Fill Our Asian-American Culture Deficit
stop casting Awkwafina I literally would rather not have representation
— @huhbhp
Blue Bayou is being called out for being problematic
After all the “representation” talk over Shang-Chi’s release, I was really hoping that same attention would be focused on Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou, which came out this weekend. It’s a heavy film that depicts an important topic: the deportation of Asian American adoptees. But, alas, nothing is sacred because I’ve just been informed by one of my adoptee friends that the film is being criticized by transnational adoptees, the very community Chon tried to accurately depict. Basically Chon and the film are being called out for:
Not advocating for the specific legislation that aims to solve the very problem the film addresses (i.e. a call to action)
Using a real person’s story without permission as inspiration for the film
Not casting adoptees in the film
Not inviting adoptees to the film’s premieres or prioritizing adoptee interviewers
Having adoptees as consultants on the film’s script but none of whom were “impacted” adoptees
These criticisms are hard to digest because this is a film we want to root for, but at the same time, these criticisms are valid and should be given attention. It’s a reminder that “representation” is such complicated matter. I believe Chon created this film with the best intentions based on his interviews about how he didn’t know about the deportation issue until his adoptee friends told him about it, and how he felt it was a great injustice. But intent and impact are two different things, and we should clearly listen to what the transnational adoptee community has to say on a film that seeks to represent them. You can read more about it here and in the screenshots below (which are from the Instagram stories my friend sent me that first brought my attention to the issue). In the meantime, you can also spend 30 seconds to send an email to your representatives to help pass these bills to stop the deportation of transnational adoptees.
Diversity at the box office
One of my pet peeves is when people lambast an article and it’s clear they didn’t actually read the article. This happened last week when a Forbes article with this headline was tweeted: “‘Shang-Chi’ Tops $150M: A Look At Hollywood’s Decades-Old Efforts To Bring Diversity To Its Action Franchises.” Many accounts I follow quote tweeted this article, saying it’s an unfair criticism against non-white films, especially during a pandemic, etc. But upon reading the article, the main point the writer was saying was that no matter how “diverse” a film is, audiences won’t actually show up in large droves unless it’s a film they already want to see (i.e. a franchise, brand, or piece of IP they’re already familiar with). That’s why “diverse” films like F9 (the ninth film in the miraculously successful Fast and Furious franchise ) or Black Panther and Shang-Chi, which featured B-list characters starring lesser-known actors, are successful (because of the power of Marvel’s brand), as opposed to the underperformance of other “diverse” films like In the Heights (based on an 11-year-old lesser-known-than-Hamilton musical), Snake Eyes (the G.I. Joe films haven’t exactly been critical or box office successes), Terminator: Dark Fate (the terrible sequels that came before Dark Fate ruined the franchise’s reputation), etc. It’s funny because I was thinking about the very same thing the article addressed, so I’m glad someone put it into words, and in-depth with research.
People not reading past the headline here but there’s a great point being made in this article about how diversity only seems to win the box office as long as it’s tied to a brand.
There’s no insistence in here that the movie flopped.
— @firewalkwjaime
How we doing, Asian diaspora?
— @lsirikul
This week was a lot. I will just end on a happy note: I finally started the comedy series The Other Two and I love it—you should too! It’s streaming on HBO Max.