Emmy nominations were announced this morning. And as always, there were some interesting shows in the mix.
The Bible, History Channel’s surprise hit of a miniseries, earned a nomination for Best Miniseries or Movie, Joining the likes of American Horror Story: Asylum (FX), Behind the Candelabra (HBO), Phil Spector (HBO), Political Animals (USA) and Top of the Lake (Sundance). American Horror Story scored 17 nominations to lead the pack, followed by Game of Thrones with 16.
Traditional broadcast networks continue to see their awards-season moxie erode. Sure, they had four of the six nominees for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program (CBS’ The Amazing Race, ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and NBC’s The Voice). And they still had a strong presence in the Outstanding Comedy category: The Big Bang Theory (CBS), Modern Family (ABC) and the departing 30 Rock (NBC) join HBO’s Girls and Veep as well as FX’s Louie as contenders for the golden statuette. But not a single broadcast network landed a show in the Best Drama derby. The only top drama viewable via the traditional TV rabbit ears was PBS’ Downton Abbey.
But here’s what I found really interesting, and what may have the most relevance for today’s parents: One of the year’s Best Drama nominees wasn’t, technically, on a network at all.
Netflix’ House of Cards was one of the six nominated dramas, joining Abbey, AMC’s Breaking Bad and Mad Men, HBO’s Game of Thrones and Showtime’s Homeland. And while most Cards‘ viewers likely watched the program on their family room tube, it’s a curious outlier: It doesn’t have a home on a broadcast, cable or premium television network. All of its episodes were released at once, breaking yet another staple of traditional TV—that of weekly rationing of content. It marks the first time ever that a non-television television show cracked Emmy’s most prestigious category.
Its two lead actors, Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, earned Emmy nods, too. And while Netflix’ other high-profile show, Arrested Development, didn’t get nominated as an outstanding comedy, actor Jason Bateman was nominated as Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Overall, Netflix earned 14 Emmy noms—three fewer than American Horror Story and 94 fewer than HBO. Still, the showing wasn’t too shabby for the new kid on the block.
Netflix’ entry into the Emmy derby tells us something that we already know: Television is changing, and quickly. And while all that change may arguably have upped the technical quality of television, it’s a challenging time for parents.
Back when I was a kid, few people had cable. Parents had to monitor a handful of broadcast networks and that was about it. Things were trickier when my children were growing up. We had cable, and thus had dozens of choices of what to watch. But that wasn’t entirely bad. We stuck to Disney and the Cartoon Network back then (already much of broadcast TV wasn’t really fit for my family), stayed away from MTV and we were good.
Now, families must monitor hundreds of channels. Previously “safe” networks aren’t always so safe. Often, the “best” shows are often the worst—filled with so much content as to make them completely unwatchable by families.
And while there are tools to help parents—the ability to block certain programs, for example—kids don’t necessarily watch television on the family TV anymore. Loads of problematic programs are available online, through Hulu or iTunes or networks’ own sites.
And still more content comes. Netflix isn’t the only non-traditional service getting into the television game. DirecTV has been saving airing challenging castoff shows (Friday Night Lights and Damages, for starters) for years, and is now producing its own slate of original programs. Earlier this year, Hulu unleashed a barrage of pilots for its own stand-alone programming—some of it quite salacious. YouTube has thousands of regular “shows” generated by users. Some of it’s pretty good. Some of it is incredibly inappropriate. And almost all of it is available to anyone with a computer or smartphone.
As parents, it’s no longer enough to keep an eye on the remote control. Not only must they protect their kids from problematic content, but to seriously talk with them about why they are trying to protect them. “Because I say so” isn’t enough anymore—not with so many avenues available to kids who might sneak around their parents’ wishes. It’s important to raise your children to be conscientious in their entertainment habits.
Teaching discernment is hard. But it’s important, too. And we’ll try to help you as much as we can.
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