Emmys: The Rise and Popularity of the TV Limited Series | Face Time With Feinberg - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

There’s no stronger category at the 2021 Emmys than best limited or anthology series. The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg breaks down how and why this happened in the new series 'Face Time With Feinberg.'

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, I'm Scott Feinberg, and thank you for tuning in to FaceTime with Feinberg,

00:03a new video series for The Hollywood Reporter, in which I will riff for a few minutes about

00:07something on my mind. Today, for our inaugural episode, I want to talk about the fact that

00:11there is no stronger category at this year's Emmys than Best Limited or Anthology Series,

00:16and how unimaginable that would have been just a few years ago.

00:20First, let's note how much TV has changed generally since the explosion of premium cable

00:24and streamers. When Jennifer Aniston was doing the comedy series Friends for NBC,

00:28she had to shoot 24 or 25 episodes a season. The first season of her most recent show,

00:33Apple TV Plus' The Morning Show, was comprised of 10, and the entire two-season run of Amazon's

00:39Fleabag ran just 12. A big part of this is that viewers and talent don't really like long series

00:45anymore. Big-name stars don't want to work that much or that hard, and viewers and Emmys voters

00:50don't have the attention span for them. It's part of why shows from the broadcast networks have almost

00:54entirely disappeared from the major Emmys categories. I would argue that it is not coincidental

01:00that concurrent with the decline of the long series has been the resurgence of the short series,

01:05aka the miniseries, aka the limited or anthology series. Decades ago, when there were just three

01:10or four networks, these things were huge rating straws. Roots, The Thorn Birds, and Lonesome Dove

01:15are still among the most highly rated and acclaimed programs in TV history. Somewhere along the line,

01:20though, they grew out of fashion. To the extent that a decade ago, from 2011 through 2013, the TV

01:27Academy actually merged the miniseries and TV movie categories because there weren't even enough

01:31outstanding examples to fill each separately. Ironically, that was exactly when the limited

01:36series began to roar back to life, with Mildred Pierce, Downton Abbey, American Horror Story,

01:41Hatfields and McCoys, The Bible, Top of the Lake, Fargo, Olive Kittredge, American Crime,

01:46The People vs. O.J. Simpson, The Night Manager, Big Little Lies, Feud, Betty and Joan, Genius,

01:51The Night Of, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Patrick Melrose, Chernobyl, Escape at Dannemora,

01:56Fosse Verde, and Sharp Objects, When They See Us, Mrs. America, Unbelievable, Unorthodox,

02:01Watchmen, and the list goes on. Now, limited series, from Downton Abbey to Big Little Lies,

02:06are even spawning regular series. What a difference a decade makes. So what happened? With it harder than

02:13ever to get a movie made that isn't from Marvel, Pixar, or Lucasfilm, and is truly original,

02:18ambitious, and appealing to creative talent, talent want the next best thing, and that is the

02:23limited series. Consider the cinematic bona fides of this year's field of contenders.

02:28Multipart projects directed in their entirety by Best Picture Oscar winners Steve McQueen

02:32and Barry Jenkins, Small Axe and Amazon's The Underground Railroad, respectively, and Susanna

02:37Beer, the director of a Best International Feature Oscar winner, with The Undoing.

02:41Star vehicles for A-listers like Kate Winslet with HBO's Mare of Easttown, Brian Cranston

02:46with Showtime's Your Honor, Ewan McGregor with Netflix's Halston, Jeff Daniels with Showtime's

02:51The Comey Rule, Ethan Hawke with Showtime's The Good Lord Bird, and Nicole Kidman and Hugh

02:56Grant with The Undoing. Even Marvel has gotten into the game, with its first programming for

03:00Disney+, WandaVision. And of course, FX has its latest incarnation of Fargo, which was inspired

03:06by the 1996 Coen Brothers film of the same name. That's to say nothing of a bunch of other

03:11outstanding entries, including Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, HBO's I May Destroy You,

03:16and Nat Geo's Genius Aretha. The bottom line? Long TV series have never been weaker, and short

03:22or limited series have never been stronger. For The Hollywood Reporter, I'm Scott Feinberg,

03:26and thank you for tuning in to FaceTime with Feinberg.

Emmys: The Rise and Popularity of the TV Limited Series | Face Time With Feinberg

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