The line between Emmys and Oscars for "Movies" is still quite blurry. What to do?

Perusing the TV Movie Emmy ballots, it's easy to be reminded that streaming movies are always a either/or prospects in terms of awards. Sometimes they're submitted for the Emmys and sometimes Oscars. It's not always clear which it will be since TV and Movies stopped feeling so separate as artforms once streaming upended screen entertainment. Sometimes movies are designed as theatrical features, premiere at film festivals and be bought by a streamer (remember Bad Education?) and try for Emmys. It's difficult to know which is which these days unless you're constantly on the phone with publicists but those decisions can be reversed or made later in some cases. Oscar is requiring theatrical releases again for eligibility purposes but that's easy for major corporations to work around by "four-walling" theaters without any publicity for a week to hedge awards bets. Netflix bought a couple of movie theaters almost specifically for this purpose.

Long story short here are Emmy eligible movies that people (including sometimes myself) might have previously mistaken for movie-movies for various reasons... 

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TCA Nominations 2022 + Notes about This Award in General

by Nathaniel R

Quinta Brunson in "Abbott Elementary" © ABC

The Television Critics Association have announced their nominees for the past year of television, aiming straight towards being "influencers" since they announced the day Emmy voting began (yesterday). ABC's wonderful hit sitcom Abbott Elementary led the nominations with five while Better Call Saul, Yellowjackets and Severance were not far behind with 4 citations each. 

Generally speaking this organization continues to have good taste though we have two gripes with them that we'll share after the jump. Here's what they loved this year in their 11 categories...

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FYC: The Network Sitcom Makes a Comeback

By Christopher James

ABC's breakout hit "Abbott Elementary" isn't the only network success this season.

When was the last time anxiously awaited new weekly episodes of a network TV comedy? It’s been nearly a generation since comedies like Roseanne, Friends and Seinfeld ruled the airways. It’s even been a decade since critical darlings like The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation amassed their devout followings. Ratings for network TV comedies have continued to dwindle while critics and the Television Academy lost interest. In the past 10 years, only five shows have been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys: 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, black-ish and The Good Place. In short, the writing was on the wall that the network sitcom was dead.

Everybody loves a comeback, though...

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Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: 'True Blood' & 'Paparazzi'

The next episode of our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives tomorrow. It's focused on Alexander Skarsgård's Hollywood breakthrough. Specifically, we're looking at his first True Blood episode in 2008 and the following year's Lady Gaga music video Paparazzi. Here's Cláudio's entry.

Prince Amleth of Hrafnsey is far from the first Northman in Alexander Skarsgård's resume. From 2008 to 2014, the Swedish actor played another heir to a 10th-century Viking King in the HBO hit series True Blood. But of course, Eric Northman has long left his motherland when we meet him in the show's fourth episode, "Escape from Dragon House." Deep in the Louisiana backwoods, the former prince turned vampire has found himself playing the part of Sheriff in the region's undead community. Instead of an ancient castle, his domain's a seedy nightclub that goes by the name Fangtasia. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, from noble northern warrior to lowly vice peddler…

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The First Lady, Ep. 1 - 'That White House'

by Eric Blume

Showtime's limited series The First Lady kicked off its premiere episode last week. It's a bit of a mixed bag out of the gate. The episode consists of several 10-minute-ish scenes covering each of our protagonists:  Michelle Obama (Viola Davis); Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer); and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).  A ticker on the bottom of the screen whisks us backward and forward between these women whose stories are about forty years apart from each other. 

There's not a great deal of grace in this back-and-forth execution, feeding us small glimpses of each lady in semi-satisfying increments that don't seem to have a meaningful connection between them outside of generic "I'm my own person" theme.  It's probably easiest to tackle these three stories independently, because episode one doesn't give us much of a linking thread or powerful throughline yet, and because there are pleasures to be had within the confines of this awkward setup...

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