Let’s get the obvious out of the way first… choosing the shows to nominate was HARD. I knew it would be, but I didn’t know the exact ways in which it would be, and now we do.
Firstly, a point specifically on TV shows. We decided to exclude any show that had been recognized with an Emmy or Golden Globe in one of the “big” categories. So what we have here are not balanced slates of picks we wish had been chosen; it is, instead, a list to go alongside those. This had some unfortunate side effects. For example, GLOW flew almost entirely under the radar with only a supporting actress nomination, but that one nomination excludes it from these lists. We absolutely think you’d enjoy it, along with Pose, Schitt’s Creek, and any number of other shows that were nominated. A complete list of excluded shows will be posted later.
Secondly, after considering nominations from our Academy (meaning our friends and everyone who responded to the call for suggestions – thank you all!), we filled in from a variety of lists. Those will be linked in a separate post for transparency.
Thirdly, to highlight the largest number of shows, we chose to nominate each show in only one category. This means that unlike other awards, you can’t get an idea of the (perceived) quality of a show by counting its nominations. The fact that a show was nominated for best acting, for example, doesn’t mean that we recommended it any less than a show nominated for best drama.
Rankings from the Rotten Tomatoes website turned into an interesting exercise. Sometimes the audience ratings are much higher than the critic ratings, possibly indicating a fun show to watch that the critics don’t value as “worthy” in some sense. But some shows that we initially rejected for having low audience scores turned out to be happy additions to our lists. Shows with a female led cast, diversity in characters, or LGBTQ content can become a dumping ground for people who are not reacting to the show itself, but rather projecting their insecurities or grinding their own outdated axe. The fact that award show nominations and winners may be affected by a diluted version of this is the reason we’re here, so a low audience score did not disqualify any shows.
We hope this gives you a little insight into the problems we faced and how we approached them. The best we can really say is that these are biased lists, but at least we acknowledge our bias, and they are hopefully biased in a different way than the nominations for the big awards shows are.