FX will finally get the Emmy race it deserves.
Too often relegated to “senior” status during awards seasons and overshadowed by other players in conversations about the rise of television excellence in the late 1990s and 2000s, FX currently sits on top of the world.
For years, HBO dominated the Emmy arms race; in recent years, only Netflix has posed a viable challenge. But this year, FX came out on top in the major categories, with its shows topping the list of drama and comedy contenders and second among miniseries. (Netflix grabbed the lead overall with 107 across all categories, followed by FX with 93 and HBO with 91.)
“The Bear” gave FX a strong showing at the 2023 Emmys, which were held in January because of strike-related delays, but in Wednesday’s nominations it was surpassed by FX’s own series, “Shōgun,” as the most-nominated show with 25 nominations. With 23 nominations, “The Bear” broke the record for a comedy series, a category that also included FX titles “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Reservation Dogs.”
Obviously, last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes narrowed the field for this year’s awards a bit: Season 2 of “House of the Dragon” fell outside the eligibility window, and we’re still waiting for the return of critical and Television Academy favorites “The Last of Us,” “Severance,” “Yellowjackets” and “The White Lotus.”
Still, “The Bear” (which is now in its second season, though the third just premiered) remains one of the most popular and acclaimed series by any standard, though debates about whether it is really a comedy continue. And “Shōgun,” the kind of historical epic that usually captivates viewers and voters alike, is the favorite to win at the main ceremony in September.
More importantly, this year’s Emmy slate puts FX in its rightful place in television history: as a crucial and still-viable force in the art form’s 21st-century revolution. Long before “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” helped revitalize basic cable, FX was already pushing the boundaries of not just the platform but the medium itself with shows like “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Rescue Me.”
As the quality of television forced audiences and critics to reject the notion of TV as “trash TV,” FX also upped its game, both in comedy (“Baskets,” “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Wilfred,” “You're the Worst,” “Better Things,” “Archer”) and drama (“Damages,” “Justified,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Fargo” and, of course, “The Americans”).
Yet outside of Ryan Murphy’s franchises “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story,” which have consistently performed well in the miniseries category but have generally been considered triumphs for Murphy rather than the network, FX’s steady spot on critics’ Top 10 lists has never carried a commensurate Emmy presence. Last year, the cast of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” noted that it had never been nominated, and the dearth of awards for “The Americans” alone may still send many critics and TV fans into apoplexy.
Even with a much-loved and oft-quoted network president, John Landgraf, who coined the famous phrase “peak TV” and is known as “the mayor of television,” FX has never received the awards attention it deserved.
This was pointed out to me in real time when I was a critic writing many of those glory-days articles, and I had to admit it was true. Many FX shows received praise (The Shield is on most lists of the best TV shows of all time, and Damages changed television by giving it a female antihero), but the network itself lived in the shadow of the louder forces of HBO and, more recently, Netflix.
Now, as the HBO brand has been so diluted that it's not even named on its own streaming service and streamers discover that they actually need in-show ads to be profitable, FX is having, if not one last laugh, then perhaps a long-overdue one.
FX wisely didn't try to launch its own subscription service during the recent streaming wars, and its deal with Hulu (now owned by Disney) allows it to maintain its brand while expanding its audience.
That's one reason why this year's Emmy dominance is so important.
It serves as a blessed reminder that while those who consistently do great work aren't always the ones who get the most attention, sometimes the clouds clear and those who have long deserved it get their day in the sun.
