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If you were surprised to see “Emily in Paris” pick up two Golden Globe nominations on Wednesday while “I May Destroy You” was snubbed, you’re not alone.
Deborah Copaken, a writer for the Netflix series about a young American making her way in the City of Light, says she was shocked — and angered — too.
“Now, am I excited that ‘Emily in Paris’ was nominated?” Copaken wrote in a Guardian article, published Wednesday. “Of course. I’ve never been remotely close to seeing a Golden Globe statue up close, let alone being nominated for one. But that excitement is now unfortunately tempered by my rage over (Michaela) Coel’s snub. That ‘I May Destroy You’ did not get one Golden Globe nod is not only wrong, it’s what is wrong with everything.”
Coel wrote, co-directed and starred in the HBO series, which explores the trauma of sexual assault. Though Copaken considers the show a “work of sheer genius,” it received no Golden Globe nominations.
“‘I May Destroy You’ was not only my favorite show of 2020,” Copaken wrote. “It’s my favorite show ever. It takes the complicated issue of a rape – I’m a sexual assault survivor myself – and infuses it with heart, humor, pathos and a story constructed so well, I had to watch it twice, just to understand how Coel did it.”
“Emily in Paris” was nominated for best comedy or musical, and Lily Collins, who stars as rising influencer Emily Cooper, picked up a nomination for best actress in a comedy or musical.
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Though Copaken is happy to see “Emily in Paris” nominated, she wrote that the show does have its shortcomings.
“Did I take the criticism of the show personally?” she wrote. “Of course. Who wouldn’t? But also not. ‘Emily in Paris’ aired a few months after I’d spent June and July marching for racial justice through the streets of New York with my kids. I could definitely see how a show about a white American selling luxury whiteness, in a pre-pandemic Paris scrubbed free of its vibrant African and Muslim communities, might rankle.”
According to Copaken, the absence of “I May Destroy You” from the nominations list speaks to larger race issues, with the writer referencing a 2017 report from the nonprofit Color of Change that found 91% of showrunners are white and 80% are men.
“Yes, we need art that reflects all of our colors, not just some,” she wrote. “But we also need to give awards to shows (and music and films and plays and musicals) that deserve them, no matter the color of the skin of their creators. Is ‘Hamilton’ great because Lin-Manuel Miranda is Puerto Rican? No. It’s great because it bangs. By that same token, how anyone can watch ‘I May Destroy You’ and not call it a brilliant work of art or Michaela Coel a genius is beyond my capacity to understand how these decisions are made.”
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