When I first started writing about TV, I would go to cocktail parties. (OK, they were parties with a keg in somebody’s kitchen, but “cocktail parties” sounds so much more elegant. Work with me here.) Anyway, when I was at these cocktail parties, talk would inevitably turn to our careers. There was always one person who would say, “Oh, I don’t watch TV” when I said what I did for a living. If they really wanted to double down, they would say, “Oh, I don’t even own a TV” (this was before the age of streaming, when you actually had to own a TV to watch TV). They would always say it with an air of smugness and superiority—a badge of honor to be worn with pride. My usual response would be to deadpan, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Because, as we all know, TV is awesome. Like any other artistic medium, there’s change-your-life TV, great TV, good TV, okay TV, bad TV and in-the-name-of-all-things-right-and-holy-how-did-that-get-made TV.
You would think that the era of Peak TV would have done away with most of these naysayers. But from my vantage, the disdain for TV in general has been replaced with a disdain for network TV in particular. These days, when I go to those same cocktail parties—Who am I kidding? I have two small kids. I never go out.— it seems that the same people who said they didn’t own a TV now say they only watch HBO, or Netflix, or AMC… you get the idea.
The Emmys now equally favor TV of the non-network variety. Network TV isn’t necessarily the ugly stepchild, so much as the child everyone forgets about. Cable TV and streaming platforms dominated the nominations last year: HBO received 94 to NBC’s 41 and CBS’s 35. The year before, HBO nabbed 126 to ABC’s 42. Last year, Downton Abbey was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, and the other six nominees were on cable. Ditto for 2014 and 2015. And there are truly fantastic shows on cable right now, from The Americans to The Leftovers to Better Call Saul.
I’m here, however, to speak for the network shows. The comedies that might just be straight-up funny without being sardonic. The dramas that don’t feature an anti-hero with a tragic backstory. Network TV, by virtue of being free, casts a wider net, trying to appeal to more of the viewers most of the time. We also know they produce, on average, more episodes per season and have less time between seasons. So I’m here to defend network TV and talk about the series that deserve to have their names called when the Emmy nominations are announced July 13.
The recently cancelled American Crime has received Emmy recognition in the past and should again for its searing, unwavering look at human trafficking this season. ABC also has, without a doubt, some of the strongest comedies on air. But except for black-ish—which received nominations last year for Outstanding Comedy Series and its leads, Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross—and Modern Family—which has outstayed its welcome in the Emmy ranks—the network’s comedies are ignored. What about Wendi McLendon-Covey’s uproariously smothering mother on The Goldbergs? Then there’s Fresh Off the Boat, which regularly explores cultural identity and ‘90s nostalgia with hilarity. Constance Wu is pitch-perfect as the mom whose sky high expectations of her children is only exceeded by her love for them.