Emmy Watch Phase 3: The 2024 Dorian TV Nominations
Once Again GALECA Makes Me Proud (Pun Not Intended) To Be A Critic
If you followed my column last year, you know that only recently I became aware of the existence of the Dorian TV nominations. They are a group associated with GALECA, the society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and have existed since 2009. I realize I only became aware of the existence in the past two years but in my defense I only recently realize what a good job the Image awards were doing in regard to TV and they’ve been around much longer.
The GALECA awards when it comes to TV are just as willing to recognize series that have no prominent LGBTQ+ actors or storylines as I found out when they gave significant recognition to Succession and The Bear same as every other show. But they also were willing recognize shows the Emmys should recognize such as The Other Two and Somebody Somewhere. I was impressed both with the nominations and eventually the awards.
Now given how many of the most significant dramas and comedies of the 2023–2024 season involved LGBTQ+ stories and actors, I figured there might be a better chance they could presage the Emmy nominations in a few weeks and on some fronts surpass it. When the nominations came out yesterday the Dorian Awards more than lived up to my expectations. I would support this organization regardless and at this point the Emmys should more than follow the Dorians examples.
Here are the nominations broken down by category.
BEST TV DRAMA
Shogun and The Gilded Age more than deserve to me here and The Curse and Fallout have a very good chance of being nominated. AMC’s Interview With The Vampire has been taken very seriously by critics organizations even without the prominent LGBTQ storylines. Given the enormous popularity of Heartstopper I don’t question it belonging.
BEST TV COMEDY
Abbott Elementary, The Bear and Hacks will be the most nominated shows by the Emmys in this category. What We Do In The Shadows has been in the past and I hope Reservation Dogs is included.
BEST LGBTQ+ SHOW
Hacks more than deserves to be here, Baby Reindeer is already the frontrunner for Best Limited Series and the Emmys seriously need to nominate Fellow Travelers. One can’t question either Interview with the Vampire or Heartstopper being here.
BEST TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES
With the exception of Fargo being here in the place of True Detective I honestly want all of the nominated series here up for Emmys. Considering I’ve advocated for Baby Reindeer, Capote Vs The Swans, Fellow Travelers and Ripley the Emmys would be doing a disservice to the category if it didn’t nominate all of these series.
BEST UNSUNG TV SHOW
Really the Emmys should have had this category years ago. It would have solved so many problems.
One can hardly argue with Reservation Dogs, Interview with the Vampire, We are Lady Parts and Our Flag Means Death. I might not have gone with Chucky, but maybe they just ran out of room. There are a lot of unsung shows after all.
BEST WRITTEN TV SHOW
I can’t argue that Abbott Elementary, The Bear and Hacks aren’t among the best written comedies and Baby Reindeer and Fellow Travelers the best written Limited Series. Perhaps they good have broken it down but maybe next year.
BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE TV SHOW
This one puzzles me a little because I’m pretty sure Fellow Travelers, Hacks and The Bear are written in English. Elite and Lupin I don’t question. I’ll let it go for Best LGBTQ+ English Language TV because I don’t recognize the nominees.
BEST TV PERFORMANCE — DRAMA
As I mentioned last year, the Dorians don’t discriminate between genders in their acting categories and while I don’t normally approve of it elsewhere, given the nature of the organization I can understand why.
The lion’s share of nominees are near certain to get acting nominations but with the exception of Emma Stone for The Curse and Anna Sawai for Shogun, the likely nominees are all in Limited Series. But few could fault their choices: Matt Bomer, Jodie Foster, Richard Gadd, Andrew Scott and Tom Hollander. Less likely is Lily Gladstone for Under the Bridge and Jacob Anderson for Interview With the Vampire and Ncuti Gatwa for Dr. Who have no chance at all. Still props for nominating them.
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE — DRAMA
There are more likely nominees in the drama category here: Christine Baranski for The Gilded Age, Elizabeth Debicki for The Crown and Moeka Hoshi for Shogun. I’ve overjoyed to see Jennifer Jason Leigh here for Fargo, Jonathan Bailey is a frontrunner for Fellow Travelers and both Jessica Gunning and Nama Mau are likely contenders for Baby Reindeer. Kali Reis is currently the front runner for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series. Benny Sadfie is at best a dark horse for his work in The Curse and Jinkx Monsoon has no chance for Doctor Who.
BEST TV PERFORMANCE — COMEDY
Three of the nominated performers — Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri and Jean Smart — are the front runners for Best Actress in a Comedy. I mentioned the likelihood of Kristen Wiig or Maya Rudolph’s inclusion and I’m thrilled to see Devery Jacobs here for Reservation Dogs. (Emmy voters pat attention.) Renee Elise Goldberry was nominated for her work in Girls5Eva by the TCA so they’ve covered the spread. Jeremy Allan White is here as in Martin Short. Only Matt Berry for What We Do In the Shadows seems unlikely to get a corresponding Emmy nomination. No notes.
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE COMEDY
Hannah Einbinder, Meryl Streep, Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph will be battling it out for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. I take a note of pride (pardon me) to see that Dorian agrees with me on Meg Stalter’s wok in Hacks. I have no problem if Carol Burnett is among the nominees (and trust me, I’ll be getting to Palm Royale soon.)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach is the front runner for Supporting Actor and Harvey Guillen has been nominated for his wonderful work on What We Do In The Shadows. Jamie Lee Curtis seems certain to win for guest work in The Bear. Only Joel Kim Booster for Loot has no realistic chance.
I don’t normally acknowledge TV Musical Performance but having seen the incredible work by Ryan Gosling on this year’s Oscars and Maya Rudolph’s opening number on her SNL stint, I will tip my hat to the Dorians for that category.
I will skip documentary series but as to LGBTQ TV Documentary series, I actually saw some of them and I give credit to Dorian for recognizing Jerrod Carmichael’s reality show, Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed and The Stroll.
Best Current Affairs has the usual suspects (basically cut and paste most of the late night comedy shows) and I’m not qualified to discuss reality TV, However:
BEST GENRE TV SHOW
Another category that would have solved a lot of problems for the Emmys over the years. Fallout and What We Do In The Shadows are like Emmy nominees in their respective categories. More love for Interview and Chucky and props to Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
MOST VISUALLY STRIKING TV SHOW
I can’t argue with Ripley, Shogun or Night Country and considering what I’ve seen of Interview with a Vampire and heard about Fallout no one should question their presence. I’ll get to Palm Royale.
CAMPIEST TV SHOW
I am hardly the best arbiter of camp but given what I already know about Palm Royale, Chucky and The Traitors it’s hard not to blame them for being here. Bridgerton really deserves the title camp as I’m pretty sure all things Shondaland don’t deserve to be taken seriously. I’m assuming Capote Vs. The Swans is an example of high quality camp, like some of the best of Ryan Murphy.
They also give awards for individual performers. There is the Wilde Wit Award, and few could question that Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri and Hannah Einbinder are not, according to the site: ‘performers, writers or commentators whose observations both challenge and amuse.” I don’t know enough about Joel Kim Booster but given what I’ve seen of his Fantasmas Julio Torres certainly qualifies.
As For Their TV Icon Award anyone whose watched TV for as long as I can knows that Gillian Anderson, Angela Bassett, Carol Burnett, Levar Burton and Julia Louis-Dreyfus don’t need an award to prove that to us. I’ll leave the Trailblazer Part out of the equation but I can’t exactly argue that RuPaul, Margaret Cho and Alan Cumming haven’t spent their careers doing that and that Emma D’Arcy and Ncuti Gatwa are doing so now.
Honestly if the Emmys nominates three-quarters of the shows and performers that GALECA has here, they should still be ashamed of themselves at how truly bad the Dorians make them look — and I don’t just mean when it comes to such things as LGBTQ+ I am, if anything, more impressed by what GALECA did this year then before. For any of this group, it is an honor just to be nominated.
Next week, I wrap this part of it up with the 2024 Astra (former Hollywood Critics Association) TV nominations.