Squid Game, Andor snubbed: Does anyone at the Emmys know what they are doing?

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It’s a familiar refrain in the world of awards nights: shocks, surprises and snubs. Every year there’s a victory lap for the ones that made it - Severance, The Studio - and a lot of hand-wringing over those that did not - The Squid Game, the cast of Andor and more.

Of course, they are not alone. In the history of the Emmys, the road to the chicken fricassee and lemon parfait at the Governor’s Ball is littered with the corpses of the shows that never got their due, and the performances that were overlooked.

Hunger games or a pile of squid? Just what is going on at the Emmys?

The Wire? It isn’t enough that it’s widely considered to be the best scripted drama of all time, and consistently tops audience and expert polls, but for the duration of its run it received only two – that’s correct two – nominations for an Emmy Award, and no wins.

During original run of The Wire – 2002 to 2008 – the winners of the best drama Emmy were The West Wing, The Sopranos, Lost, 24 and Mad Men. All deserving winners, but was each better than The Wire? The West Wing, The Sopranos and Mad Men, perhaps, but Lost and 24?

Better Call Saul (2015-2022) has more nominations than many of us have had hot dinners, but no wins. Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) was also ignored for a long time, while arguably weaker comedies got all the love. And deeper in the history books, truly groundbreaking shows, such as Good Times (1974-1979) and Oz (1997-2003) got zip.

Which begs the question: does anyone at the Emmys know what they are doing?

If they do not, they might not be alone. Australia’s Logies have, for several years, blended the everyone-knows-where-they-stand “popular” and “outstanding” categories into a nebulous the half-data, half-good luck moniker “best”. It wouldn’t be an issue, if it was not giving us some 1975 vibes.

The Oscars aren’t much better. They gave the Oscar that should have gone to Citizen Kane in 1941 to How Green Was My Valley. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial got nothing. And despite Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960) getting nominations, Alfred Hitchcock never won a directing Oscar.

And don’t even mention the words The Princess Bride. One Oscar nomination – for best original song, which it lost to (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing – and no win. The history books have already made those Academy voters hang their heads in shame.

Then there was the time, at the Emmys in 2012, that Jon Cryer from Two and a Half Men, a sitcom which was about as hilarious as a headache, won the lead actor in a comedy category, but Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) did not.

Or when in 2007, Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy – America’s answer to The Young Doctors – won the supporting actress in a drama Emmy but Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) did not.

What can you say other than gently putting those receipts on the ground and slowly backing away from them? Oh, there is something you can say: there was also that year when they gave the Emmy for best children’s program to High School Musical.

So what are we supposed to make of this year’s Emmy nominations? Some things they got right, some they did not. Andor is rightfully in outstanding drama series, but how could Denise Gough’s performance as Imperial Security Bureau officer Dedra Meero not land a nomination? She will end up in the history books as an all-time TV villainess.

Where was Allison Janney from The Diplomat in supporting actress in a drama? Or Meryl Streep from Only Murders in the Building in supporting actress in a comedy. Or indeed Renée Zellweger? It’s good enough to nominate Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy for best television film, thanks to its streaming debut in the US, but not Bridget Jones herself?

Perhaps what’s going on with the Emmys is simply one of those unanswerable mysteries. Like, was Leslie Knope president in the flash-forward at the end of Parks & Recreation? Did Tony Soprano die in the final episode of The Sopranos? And what was written on the card that Jim wrote to Pam in the Christmas episode of The Office?

Sometimes it’s better just not knowing.

The winners of the 77th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be announced on September 6 and 7. The winners of the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced on September 14.