The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards (2016)

"The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards" were aired yesterday and once again it was the defining ceremony in terms of (American) small-screen productions when the Academy honored this year's finest. It ran for slightly over two hours and had "Game of Thrones" and "Veep" go home with the major trophies. I have seen many "Game of Thrones" episodes, but this show never did too much for me. I don't mind "Veep"'s triumph, even if it is not one of my personal favorite comedy shows at this point. Also I really did not like JLD, who is defining for the show of course, in her acceptance speech. She was the low point in liberal anti-Donald Trump propaganda and I really enjoyed one man standing up against this smear campaign that also involved obscene comments on several occasions against Trump's wife. I think it was the producer from "The Voice" and while I don't care at all about casting shows, I still really appreciated his words that made the win worth it already.

The host of the show was Jimmy Kimmel and while I thought he had a decent moment here and there as a host, I still must say these were mostly thanks to his sketch partners, such as Matt Damon who was responsible for one of the greatest moments of the night. When he was on his own, he sometimes really messed up, like with the Cosby introduction joke. I still don't think Kimmel is anywhere on par with some of the greats from his area of comedy such as Leno, Letterman, Kimmel or also rising star John Oliver. Lead acting trophies went to Tambor, Louis-Dreyfus, Malek and Maslany, which apart from the latter were probably everything the way you could expect it. Maybe Malek was a bit of a surprise to as his Golden-Globe winning counterpart Christian Slater was not even nominated.

The awards once again were all about diversity, especially when it came to the small screen, but not only there. It feels a bit cringeworthy to still see people complain about lack of diversity because if there is any, then it certainly does not include African-American actors anymore. That being said, I was kinda happy to see Courtney B. Vance triumph as I always liked him in "Law & Order: Criminal Intent". The O.J. Simpson project won really big last night and I am kinda curious to check it out. Especially nice to see Vance win over Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. which proves that Emmys are not always about the big names, actually really often they are indeed about performances only. On another personal note, it was nice to see Mandy Moore present. Always been a big fan of hers. These were my favorite moments. Of course, Tambor is likable as always too. In terms of transgender, we can also mention Louie Anderson's win for playing a woman, even if it is not really transgender of course.

Other than that, it's the same as always. Maggie Smith still doesn't care and she got called out for it this time. Margo Martindale keeps racking up guest actress trophies. Allison Janney did not win for a change this time. But Patton Oswalt won his first Emmy and Hank Azaria can actually win an Emmy outside the Simpsons universe. Happy for him, he was the best thing about the Smurfs films. Most disappointing win of the night for me probably Maggie Smith as I find Downton Abbey so bland and uninspiring, but even worse is "Sherlock" still getting awards recognition. What a gimmicky uncreative show with the hammiest performance of the new millennium by Benedict Cumberbatch. At least neither him nor Freeman were nominated this year. All in all, a solid ceremony that had some good wins, but for me was overshadowed by a very undeserving Best Draam Series winner and constant liberal propaganda.