by Nathaniel R
FIRE ISLAND © Searchlight wins the Dorian
GALECA, the Society of LGBTQ+ Entertainment critics have been busy of late, launching the theater wing of their Dorian Awards, and this week announcing their annual TV Dorian Award winners (which multiple members of The Film Experience vote on). HBO and HBOMax or Max – whatever you want to call them – led the nominations in a landslide with The Last of Us, Somebody Somewhere, Succession, and The White Lotus all scoring in a big way. HBO’s nomination tally was literally more than double any of its competitors.
The big winners were Succession, Abbott Elementary, last summers great streaming romcom Fire Island. The complete list of winners and nominees (plus a few comments) are after the jump...
DORIAN TV AWARDS WINNERS / NOMINEES -- FULL LIST
BEST TV DRAMA
Interview with the Vampire (AMC)
The Last of Us (HBO)
★ Succession (HBO)
The White Lotus (HBO)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
The only real surprise here is the inclusion of Interview with the Vampire. Not that it isn’t without its moments but there is so much competition for "best" on television.
BEST TV COMEDY
★ Abbott Elementary (ABC)
The Bear (Hulu)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Poker Face (Peacock)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Thrilled with this line up as they're all quite different but all excellent. No notes.
BEST LGBTQ TV SHOW
Interview with the Vampire (AMC)
A League of Their Own (Amazon)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
The Last of Us (HBO)
★ The Other Two (HBO Max)
I admit that I find A League of Their Own distasteful with its lazy anachronisms and the kind of language that’s more fitting in a setting like The Sopranos or Deadwood. Sailors in the 1940s probably didnt even throw the F word into their conversations as much as these baseball women do. But that might just be me. Anyway I gave up after a couple of episodes since it soiled the memory of the great great (and family friendly!) movie for me.
The Other Two is a wonderful show (though I'm a bit behind there and voted for Somebody Somewhere).
BEST TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Beef (Netflix)
Daisy Jones & The Six (Amazon)
Dead Ringers (Amazon)
★ Fire Island (Hulu)
Rye Lane (Hulu)
Beef and Fire Island are unmissable. I was a bit surprised to see Daisy Jones & The Six nominated given that the praise seemed quite muted.
BEST UNSUNG SHOW
A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)
Derry Girls (Netflix)
Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)
Los Espookys (HBO
Reservation Dogs (FX)
★ Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Seeing Somebody Somewhere here is one of those strange quirks of categories without strong definitions. If I was in charge I would say that you could lead the balloting in this category but be disqualified (and replaced with the next contender) if you made one of the top three categories (Drama / Comedy / Miniseries) in much the same way a performance can only be nominated in one acting category at the Oscars even if it has enough votes to place in both lead and supporting. Because once you've made the big leagues, are you really "undersung"? I think not!
BEST NON-ENGLISH SHOW
Elite (Netflix)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)
★ Los Espookys (HBO)
Smiley (Netflix)
Young Royals (Netflix)
Love Smiley so much – everyone should watch it. Less enamored of Young Royals which I was excited about initially (given love of all things Scandinavian) but lost interest quickly.
BEST TV PERFORMANCE—DRAMA
Kieran Culkin, Succession (HBO)
Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us (HBO)
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us (HBO)
★ Sarah Snook, Succession (HBO)
While TFE readers know that we have long stanned for the perfect Melanie Lynskey (who even blessed us with some guest-blogging and podcast visits back in the day) it might have been nice to see Juliette Lewis here instead as the Yellowjackets representative given Season 2’s narrative weight and arc being much less Lynskey focused this time around. But this is always the trouble with TV awards, they are invariably about general feelings for a show rather than season-based. They'd be much more volatile from year to year if they were season-only decisions.
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE—DRAMA
Murray Bartlett, The Last of Us (HBO)
★ Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus (HBO)
Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus (HBO)
Nick Offerman, The Last of Us (HBO)
Aubrey Plaza, The White Lotus (HBO)
Only two shows honored? Sigh. Not that these performances aren’t worthy but some spreading of the wealth might have been called for.
BEST TV PERFORMANCE—COMEDY
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
★ Bridget Everett, Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face (Peacock)
Ali Wong, Beef (Netflix)
Disappointed not to see Steven Yeun place for Beef. Just incredible work… though what’s incredible about it falls more on the dramatic side of the equation.
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE—COMEDY
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
★ Ayo Edebiri, The Bear (Hulu)
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Another lineup that is solid though it’s hard not to wish that others might have been included. Some of my personal favourites that aren’t on here: Dove Cameron (Schmigadoon!), Titus Burgess (Schmigadoon!), Marcia Gay Harden (Uncoupled), and Harrison Ford (Shrinking)
BEST TV MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Kaala Bhairava & Rahul Sipligunj, "Naatu Naatu," 95th Academy Awards (ABC)
★ Ariana DeBose, “Angela Bassett Did the Thing (Opening Number),” BAFTA Film Awards (Britbox)
Bridgett Everett, "Gloria," Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Jane Krakowski, "Bells and Whistles," Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
Nick Offerman, "Long, Long Time," The Last of Us (HBO)
Fun list.
BEST TV DOCUMENTARY OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Pamela, A Love Story (Netflix)
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (Hulu)
★ Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror (Shudder)
The Rehearsal (HBO)
The 1619 Project (Hulu)
BEST LGBTQ DOCUMENTARY OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
The Book of Queer (Discovery+)
Generation Drag (Discovery+)
Mama’s Boy (HBO)
★ Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror (Shudder)
We’re Here (HBO)
Very happy to see Queer for Fear recognized. Just an excellent doc-series. If only it had been longer (and you don’t hear me say that often!). That said it's always a bit of a bummer when something wins two very similar categories if you believe in spreading the wealth and We're Here is also just stunning (and had an incredible season).
BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS SHOW
The Amber Ruffin Show (Peacock)
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
★ Ziwe (Showtime)
BEST ANIMATED SHOW
Big Mouth (Netflix)
Dead End: Paranormal Park (Netflix)
★ Harley Quinn (HBO Max)
South Park (Comedy Central)
The Simpsons (Fox)
Some long long in the tooth shows here. Are any of you watching Velma or Clone High?
BEST REALITY SHOW
★ Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)
Queer Eye (Netflix)
Rupaul's Drag Race (MTV)
The Traitors (Peacock)
The Ultimatum: Queer Love (Netflix)
MOST VISUALLY STRIKING SHOW
Andor (Disney+)
Dead Ringers (Amazon)
★ The Last of Us (HBO)
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon)
The White Lotus (HBO)
CAMPIEST TV SHOW
Dead Ringers (Amazon)
Eurovision Song Contest (Peacock)
Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney+)
★ Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+)
Wednesday (Netflix)
I generally abstain from voting in the “campiest” categories as the term is too broad to be meaningful with numerous people feeling different ways about what “camp” is.
WILDE WIT AWARD
To a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse
Joel Kim Booster
Quinta Brunson
Lizzo
★ Wanda Sykes
Bowen Yang
GALECA TV ICON AWARD
To a uniquely talented star we adore
★ Jennifer Coolidge
GALECA TRAILBLAZER AWARD
For creating art that inspires empathy, truth, and equity
★ Elliott Page