Staying Fit
The big winners in the 73rd Emmy Awards, which concluded last night, were two shows much beloved by viewers over 50: The Crown and The Queen’s Gambit each won 11 golden trophies. Both are on Netflix, which was propelled by pandemic binge-watching to a startling 44 Emmy wins — tying the record set by CBS in 1974. In a sign of the times, CBS (long known as the high-quality “Tiffany network”), which broadcast the Emmys, got zero Emmys. Ted Lasso won Apple TV+ its first best-comedy Emmy, so the top three categories were swept, for the first time ever, by streaming channels. Streaming channels are taking over prestige TV. And the Emmys remain a handy guide for what to watch, or catch up on. Here are the grownup-powered shows you should click to watch now while the Emmy glow is still hot.
Hacks
The night’s most tear-inducing triumph was the standing ovation for Jean Smart, who won her first lead acting Emmy, at age 70, for playing a tart-tongued Vegas stand-up comic forced to mentor an up-and-coming comic (Hannah Einbinder, who’s as good as her mom, SNL’s Laraine Newman). "That's the good thing about being an actor,” Smart told AARP. “They always need older actors. You can act until you are 100."
Watch it here: Hacks, on HBO
DON’T MISS THIS: Jean Smart Is on Top of Her Game
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The Crown
The show even Britain’s royal family watches ruled the Emmys, with wins including best drama and writing, and for the actors playing royals Elizabeth II and Philip (Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies), Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Margaret Thatcher (X-Files’ Gillian Anderson, 53). Historical drama doesn’t get much better, and it was gratifying to hear directing winner Jessica Hobbs thank the founder of her family TV dynasty: “I would particularly like to pay tribute to my mum, who at 77 is still directing.”
Watch it here: The Crown, on Netflix
Mare of Easttown
At 45, miniseries lead-actress winner Kate Winslet struck a blow for grownups in her brilliant performance as Mare, a middle-aged detective hunting a killer of young women. She made the director keep her “bulgy bit of belly” in a sex scene and insisted on crow’s feet in the show’s poster, saying, “Guys, I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye. Please put them all back.” She thinks viewers are starved for authentic older characters — say, Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson (50) as Mare’s friend, Jean Smart as her tough-love ma, and Guy Pearce (53) as her professor-suitor.
Watch it here: Mare of Easttown, on HBO
The Queen’s Gambit
Anya Taylor-Joy got all the glory as an orphan with a genius for chess. But what gives this high-IQ show its biggest emotional wallop is the champ’s relationship with her childhood chess instructor, played by genius character actor Bill Camp (56) — he’s ubiquitous in grownup arthouse hits like 12 Years a Slave, Lincoln and The Night Of, which earned him an Emmy nomination.
Watch it here: The Queen’s Gambit, on Netflix
Ted Lasso
The feel-good comedy about an American football coach hired to coach an English soccer team got us through pandemic days by making us believe that anything is possible. And it won best comedy, best comedy actor for Jason Sudeikis (46) and six other Emmys. Apple TV+ earned a total of 11 Emmys this year.
Watch it here: Ted Lasso, on Apple TV+
Halston
Ewan McGregor (50) won his first Emmy for a role even more mythical than his Obi-Wan Kenobi: poor, lonely Indiana lad Roy Halston Frowick, who reinvented himself as the fashion designer of Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat and eye-popping costumes for Liza Minnelli, and blew it all on blow, rent boys, orchids, overreaching greed and way too many wee-hours of reveling with bold-faced names at Studio 54. Accepting his Emmy, McGregor got emotional over the many female winners this year, like Winslet. Women could use some wins: Actresses only take up 38 percent of TV screen time, and after 50, their share shrinks to 8 percent.
Watch it here: Halston, on Netflix
RuPaul’s Drag Race
When the stylish drag show of RuPaul Charles (60) won for outstanding competition program (not to mention editing, casting and directing), the impresario’s lifetime Emmy wins now total 11 — making him the most-awarded Black artist in Emmy history. It was bittersweet, though, because except for him and Michaela Coel, best-writing winner for the must-see sexual-assault drama I May Destroy You, Black artists didn’t win many Emmys this year, and they took zero acting wins.
Watch it here: RuPaul's Drag Race, on VH1
DON’T MISS THIS: The 9 Most Fabulous TV Shows and Movies About Drag Queens
Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square
Dolly Parton (75) won the best television movie at last week's Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her campy, irresistible musical, starring her as a homeless angel who tries to convince the Scrooge-like Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski, 69) not to sell her hometown's land to a mall developer. Black-ish matriarch Jenifer Lewis, 64, costars as the beauty shop owner, Margeline. Emmy usually looks down on holiday movies, so this is the first one to win since Ed Asner's The Gathering from 1977. No one can resist Dolly, nor the show’s director-producer-choreographer Debbie Allen (71), who was honored at last night's Primetime Emmys with the television academy’s Board of Governors Award. “It feels good to know that I’m for sure still in the game,” Allen said.
Watch it here: Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square, on Netflix
All the Emmy nominations and winners 2021:
LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES, OR MOVIE CATEGORY
Limited Series
I May Destroy You
Mare of Easttown
The Queen's Gambit — WINNER
The Underground Railroad
WandaVision
Direction for a Limited Series
Barry Jenkins (The Underground Railroad)
Craig Zobel (Mare of Easttown)
Thomas Kail (Hamilton)
Matt Shakman (WandaVision)
Michaela Coel and Sam Miller (I May Destroy You)
Sam Miller (I May Destroy You)
Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) — WINNER
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