Apple scores 35 Emmy nominations, including 20 for hit series “Ted Lasso” | Hacker News Reader

Apple scores 35 Emmy nominations, including 20 for hit series “Ted Lasso”

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51 pointstodsacerdoti64 comments

Ted Lasso is such a great show. I echo all of the other comments. Jason Sudeikis is from the Kansas City area and there a lot of Easter Eggs/Throwbacks to his roots. It was fun, as a KC resident, seeing some of these Easter Eggs on my screens.

- The opening scene shows Ted Lasso dancing in the locker room after winning a game as head coach of the Wichita State Shocker American Football team. This is a real university, but they haven't field a football team since the mid-1980s.[0]

- The background on his laptop during a video call with his son shows half of the famous Arthur Bryant's BBQ restaurant.[1]

- He wears a hat (or shirt?) with "JoeArthur GateStack" on it. This is an homage to four of the big/main/famous BBQ restaurants in the KC area: Joe's KC, Arthur Bryants, Gates & Sons, Jack Stack. [2]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_State_Shockers_footbal...

[1]: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x87c0fa995f2a80a9%3A0x...

[2]: https://threekcclothingco.com/collections/que

Ted Lasso is a show that I didn't think I'd like at all based on the synopsis. But after a rave review from a friend, I gave it a go and found it to be compulsive watching. It just goes to show that music, movies, and art that is way outside your usual tastes can still appeal if it is really good.

Same here and avoided it for a while. I stayed away because its pushing a tired trope “Americans are so stupid compared to Europeans. Look at what kind of Football they play etc…”.

The premise still bugs me but the comedy and actors are great.

It's all the more amazing that it is based on a series of promos for NBC's premier league soccer coverage (IIRC). Impressive that they created a whole universe from it.

On the other hand, I feel the show also pushes a positive view of American go-getter mentality: optimism and infectious enthusiasm which is sorely lacking in the British characters.

This is one of my favourite things about moving to America that is definitely true.

People are just so optimistic to the point of delusion sometimes.

The writing and the character arcs are fantastic. My better half especially loved Rebecca and Keeley’s err… bromance?

It’s so well written in terms of how much it gets right about the fandom of it all too - and how it only sinks in to Ted how significant it is to the community as the season moves on.

(After all, it’s the hope that kills you!)

I appreciate how it manages not to go wrong, in a whole bunch of ways it easily could have. Could have gone too dark. Or not dark enough. Ted could have been too perfect. All sorts of things they could have done too much of, or too fast, with various relationships. Could have let various plots linger too long, or resolved them too fast. Tons of ways for it to tip off the knife-edge it's on, and it just... never does.

I really enjoyed "For All Mankind" from Apple. I'm surprised that this tv show is not more popular.

Same here. Between this, Ted Lasso, and Trying, I'm extremely impressed with the original content they're putting out.

Really impressed with TL and FAM so will have to give Trying a.. umm… try.

Pun not intended but I’m not displeased that it happened either.

I was under the impression it was one of their bigger shows?

(Although I'm clearly living under a rock or something, as I don't think I've heard of any of the shows mentioned in the linked article - although I think that goes for a lot of the Apple media stuff, maybe they don't advertise to the cheap seats? Not sure.)

It's a one hour heavy drama, so it's harder to consume. I watched all of Ted Lasso in two days, I'm still working my way through For All Mankind. Only so many episodes I can watch in a day before I need to decompress.

It’s honestly IMHO among the best television series that have ever been made.

I could bore with the multitude of reasons why I think that but I really believe it’s just top-to-bottom incredible.

it really is great. a close second for me, right behind the expanse.

It's a show that doesn't know which its audience is. You have to make an effort to block their emotionally overloaded content (people screaming, people stressed, guy finds sexy woman in bar and takes her to bed, wife finds young guy in bar and takes him to bed). If you watch it for the sci-fi content you will find yourself fast-forwarding all the BS.

Did the premise of FAM seem like a really algo-derived mashup to anyone else? The alternate history (like Man in the High Castle) plus feminism (like Handmaid's Tale) plus scifi seemed so intentional and contrived, similar to Netflix's Bright.

I don't know... I thought it all seemed pretty plausible. Given a few different turns in history, and the entire premise is pretty believable. Even aspects like the feminism push could be seen as a likely outcome of further US/Soviet competition... and it's presented cynically in the show to that effect.

As far as alternative histories go, it's much more plausible than the Man in the High Castle.

>The alternate history (like Man in the High Castle) plus feminism (like Handmaid's Tale) plus scifi seemed so intentional and contrived

Not contrived at all.

>The Mercury 13: The women who could have been NASA's first female astronauts

https://www.space.com/mercury-13.html

Mythic Quest is another one that surprised me in how much I enjoyed it. I think its portrayal of how engineers, money-focused sales, and oddball creatives all work together will resonate with many people here.

Having watched the first half of season 2, I felt it lost a lot of its original niche. In the first season they're doing design talks on the game, and the marketing of it, and dealing with in game events.

The second season, for some reason, has dropped almost all of that and instead just focused on the characters' personal problems, many of whom I've felt have become weirdly child like. Not childish as in immature, but literally child like as in they feel like they're all doing a coming of age bit for some reason. Especially the two testers...

Like... they haven't actually worked on the game, aside from the battle royale mode which was just sort of implemented and shipped behind the scenes without any attention.

I love their short story episodes that take place out of plot though. This feels like they get the feeling of being a creative in a really fresh way.

> The second season, for some reason, has dropped almost all of that and instead just focused on the characters' personal problems

My favorite episodes out of both seasons involved the back-story for Carl Longbottom, the older Sci-Fi author working on the staff.

It felt like the first time they have shown a real character development focus instead of just presenting a group of humorous stereotypes.

That middle episode in season 1 was a work of art. That was a seriously beautiful tale.

Ted Lasso is such an uplifting, sincere, and funny show. My favorite of the last five years, and I am indifferent at best to sports generally.

Is there a way to buy it outside of subscribing to Apple TV?

There are some ways to “rent” it for free, then you can decide whether to pay Apple $4.99 for the show or not.

It appears to be an Apple TV+ exclusive, so probably not. However Apple TV+ has a 7-day trial in some countries, and you get 3 months free if you buy an Apple device.

I don’t think there’s any subscription lock-in, so I don’t think you’d ever find it cheaper than the cost of a 1-month subscription to Apple TV+

Ah, didn't consider that. Thanks.

The top nominated networks for 2021:

HBO/HBOMax -- 130

Netflix -- 129

Disney+ -- 71

NBC (excludes Peacock, which had 2) -- 46

AppleTV+ -- 34

CBS -- 26

Hulu -- 25

ABC -- 23

Amazon Prime -- 18

VH1 -- 11

National Geographic -- 10

Everything else was under 10. It's interesting to see that the top 3 are streaming and blowing away the traditional networks. If you had told a network exec 10 years ago that they would get beat in Emmy nods by streaming, they would have laughed you out of the room.

It would be interesting to normalize for size in some way. Maybe "number of shows"?

Number of shows would be an odd thing to normalize on, since not every show is up for possibly nomination. The networks choose what to submit for consideration.

Maybe normalize based on total network content spend? That might be available. Or possibly on total number of shows submitted for noms? Not sure if that's available.

Ted Lasso is about soccer the way Star Trek is about science. It's helpful to have a vague understanding about but the show care about stories and people and doesn't let anything get in the way of that.

Fingers crossed the Foundation series turns out good.

I just started re-reading the series. I had forgotten how difficult it would be to adapt! Each book is sometimes multiple novellas, and each novella is a completely different cast of characters. They could make it an anthology series, but given the cast billing they have, it doesn't seem like they're going that route. Totally curious how they tackle it, and also if they implement the grand narrative (tying in Asimov's other novels) as Asimov tried to do later in his career.

I got a notification a few days ago telling me that my Apple TV+ trial was expiring, and that it was time to pay $4.99 a month.

I can't justify it. Yet I love Ted Lasso. It irritates me that I can't just buy individual episodes of shows any more, I have to buy into a whole ecosystem.

That's two cups of coffees a month to watch your favorite show.

Don't care. I don't want the media I enjoy be held at ransom.

So you don't want the creators to make money off of their work?

I want to purchase the media I like to own it, not rent it.

or 60 dollars a year.

I find that sort of comparison is typically a form of persuasion to help you buy things you normal would not buy. It is an old marketing trick. Make the initial cost look small and lock you into a larger long term commitment. The real cost is usually better looked at per year. In the case of streaming services they give you a small cost but make you feel like you have lost something in your world 'for only a small coffee'.

Renting usually makes sense if you are going to use something once and then never again. Buying is usually better if you want to use it a few times. There are other benefits to streaming but maybe you could use the money more? That is something you have to decide.

If you can say if someone handed you 60 bucks you would put it all into a year long rental go for it. But most of the time for me I find I would rather own something a bit more tangible.

Just torrent it then. It is their fault that you can't buy individual show without buying the whole ecosystem!

This is the type of behavior I just can’t support.

They paid for the show, it’s their right to distribute it how they like. I can agree that the distribution method isn’t ideal, but it doesn’t make it okay to steal it.

why can i go rent a book in a library but i can't rent a show from a library?

i'm not trying to justify piracy, but it is a cognitive dissonance i have for years now. 'streaming' looks like a law loophole for not having to give shows away for free at public libraries.

You can rent a show on DVD from the library. You can also rent ebooks from the library electronically. I’m not sure if they can rent videos electronically.

Adding /s is not fun at all, but some people don't catch even when it should be obvious.

On a serious note, for example, first seasons of GameOfThrones were absolutely unavailable for legal purchase in my country. Is it ok to torrent it if they don't want to sell it to me anyway?

Another example: when last seasons of GoT became available for legal streaming, they were available only in Russian dub. Is it ok to torrent the original English version if they don't want to sell it to me anyway?

Considering individual episodes of shows go for ~$3 USD (I just checked in the Apple TV app for an episode of LOST), $4.99/month is far cheaper than buying individual episodes for a show with weekly releases.

Obviously you don't own the episodes, then, so there is that, I suppose.

Since Apple owns the rights to this content and there is nearly zero marginal cost to distribute it, it’s efficient for them to give you all of the content at a flat rate instead of charging for individual episodes. This argument does rely on the assumption that consumers, on average, get utility from watching more episodes.

Sigh. Reminded me to check if I have canceled my subscription which was free and extended but never used. Turns out they charged me a month already.

I wonder how many people will have set and forget on their Apple TV+ subscription charged on their iTunes Credit or Credit Card without ever checking.

I'm not. Kids loved Avatar: the Last Airbender on Netflix, and really really wanted to watch the sequel series (which at the time wasn't yet on Netflix).

It was, however on CBS, so we signed up for a month, watched all the episodes then cancelled the same month. Cost? $7. Definitely worth it.

I'm kinda shocked that Trying isn't on the list. It's possibly the most heartwarming (in a good way, not overdone/sappy) show I've ever watched. Just fantastic.

I didn't watch Ted Lasso for a while because I'm not particularly interested in soccer. But a friend highly recommended it to me and now my wife and I have watched the whole season 3 times and can barely wait for the next one to drop.

I've watched Mythic Quest several times too. Love that show a lot. For All Mankind is also great. I've been really happy with my Apple subscription and can't wait to see what else they do.

Well deserved. It’s a rare show that is not only genuinely funny but makes you feel better about life.

My SO just got a new iPhone recently and only just realised she missed out on a 1 year free trial for Apple TV by 2 days. What a shame, they should really advertise this deal more.

>Outstanding Contemporary Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program (Non-Prosthetic): “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special”

Oh. my. god.

Not sure if anyone besides me seen that trainwreck of a show, this must've been the most cheesiest thing i watched in my whole life.

The whole thing is blurred to death, if any of the singing is done by Carey herself i'll eat my hat and if there is or is not anything "non-prosthetic" i guess is up for the jury.

However, once you turn this thing on - be ready to watch it whole as you seemingly cannot just turn it off :O

Season two starts on the 23rd.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/reP1gVGpFKo

Amazon Prime Video has just 2 nominations both for one show - The Underground Railroad.

The Boys has six nominations, no? edit: https://www.emmys.com/shows/boys

According to wiki[420], Prime Video has 4 nominations in total: 2 for The Undreground Railroad and 2 for The Boys

But official Emmy’s website shows 6 nominations for The Boys.

[420] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/73rd_Primetime_Emmy_Awards

The page you linked to is for the Primetime Emmys, which are the biggest awards that make it into the main TV broadcast (Prime Video has 4 nominations there). But there are also the Creative Arts Emmys, which include many more awards, often in more technical categories (where Prime has an additional 14 nominations).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/73rd_Primetime_Creative_Arts...

I’m surprised Tehran was passed over. Really well produced show.

Apple is effectively a small country, the individuals inside should be nominated.

I tried subscribing to AppleTV just to not find anything worth watching and justifying subscription, many of my friends say the same. I get this show is great, but maybe for Foundation I will subscribe just to watch it and then drop. I am curious what other shows you like that make you justify that sub, if you have Netflix for example.

The way modern subscriptions services work, you absolutely can just subscribe for a show, watch it, and then drop it. There’s no lock-in, it’s how lots of people do it.

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