Netflix's The Crown Reigned Supreme At The 2021 Emmys
Since its debut in the fall of 2016, Netflix's highly acclaimed dramatic depiction of the British royal family, "The Crown," has racked up nominations and wins at awards shows. In its inaugural season alone, it boasted ten Emmy nominations and three wins. Despite the show's critical success and zealous fanbase up through this past season, it still had yet to take home some of the award show's most coveted prizes. Last night, at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, its "close but no cigar" streak came to a stunning end.
"The Crown" headed into the awards with a dizzying array of Emmy nominations, and had more than one of its actors up for awards in numerous categories. Of those nominations, it managed to take home eleven, and against some seriously fierce competition at that (Bear in mind that widely-acclaimed and beloved series such as "Pose," "The Handmaid's Tale," and the bafflingly cancelled "Lovecraft Country" were all up for awards in the same categories). What's more, the series made history this evening with one of its wins, and in one acceptance speech alone, gave fans even more to look forward to in the months to come.
Certain episodes of The Crown stood out the most
Of its numerous wins, "The Crown" took home four different awards for just two of its episodes. For Season 4's "Fairytale" — wherein Princess Diana (Emma Corrin) first moves in to Buckingham Palace — editor Yan Miles took home the award for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, while cinematographer Adriano Goldman won his first Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour).
For Season 4's finale, titled "War," "The Crown" creator and executive producer Peter Morgan earned the win for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (his first in the category), while director Jessica Hobbs nabbed Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the same episode. Finally, for "The Crown: 48:1," Clare Foy won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her depiction of Elizabeth II — no surprise there, considering that, in 2018, Foy took home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her renowned portrayal of the young queen. Of course, the majority of the show's wins were for what it did over the course of its most dramatic season to date.
The Crown actors swept The Emmys' drama series categories
In 1997, the incomparable Gillian Anderson accepted her first Emmy (for outstanding lead actress in a drama series, no less) for her role as "X-Files" FBI agent and resident skeptic, Dana Scully. For reasons that defy explanation, considering her prolific and acclaimed work in numerous successful television series ("Sex Education" and "Hannibal"), fans had to wait another twenty-four years to see the actor take home another win. This time, it was for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her unforgettable portrayal of the formidable and complex Margaret Thatcher (Anderson's co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Emerald Fennell were also nominated for their roles as Princess Margaret and Camilla Parker Bowles, respectively).
Of course, "The Crown" and its stand-out performances didn't stop there. Tobias Menzies — also of "Outlander" and "Game of Thrones" — won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his layered depiction of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, while Josh O'Connor's somewhat sympathetic Prince Charles earned him the award (and his first Emmy) for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
The Crown made Emmys history
Finally, and to the surprise of very few, Oscar winner Olivia Colman beat out some seriously intense competition (including co-star Emma Corrin, "Pose's" MJ Rodriguez, and "Lovecraft Country's" Jurnee Smollett) to take home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Perhaps unsurprisingly considering all the performance wins "The Crown" racked up, casting director Robert Sterne ("Game of Thrones") took home the award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series.
Although the show now had ten awards under its belt, there was still one more Emmy awaiting Netflix's favorite royals, and it was a big one.
Thanks to "The Crown," for the first time in Emmy history, a Netflix production went home with the award for Outstanding Drama Series (As Deadline reports, the only other streaming channel to win in the category was Hulu, for "The Handmaid's Tale" in 2017). But before fans of the history-making historical narrative could even properly begin to celebrate, series creator Peter Morgan let slip in his acceptance speech that the show would begin filming season five the following morning. It seems that even after its mega-sweep of the drama series categories, "The Crown" has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.