I’ve been saying since practically day one that The Bear is not a comedy and should not be nominated as a comedy at the Emmys. After three seasons of increasingly stressful kitchen meltdowns and family get-togethers, people are pretty much universally wondering why The Bear is categorized as a comedy at the Emmys, to the extent that Eugene Levy made an A+ joke about it in the opening monologue:

 

Kudos to whoever wrote that joke, and to Eugene Levy for delivering it flawlessly. But really, why IS The Bear considered a comedy?

Because that’s where the producers submit it for consideration, though I have heard, beyond complaints from producers and writers on other shows complaining about The Bear competing in the comedy category, some producers from The Bear are also starting to wonder if they need to submit as a drama. Questions about its genre categorization are now being asked of the actors, which is uncomfortable for them, because they have no say in this:

 

Although Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s response is a little cavalier when comedic performers are regularly losing to him, they’re not happy about that, Ebon! The flipside of that coin, though, is that Ayo is very much a comedic performer. She can hit the darker notes, too, but so much of her performance relies on comic timing and delivery. Also, much like Barry, the first season of The Bear was more humorous than the later seasons. The balance of comedy and drama was more even in season one, and the later seasons go down continually darker paths, draining the comedy out of the show. That’s part of why the jokes at The Bear’s expense are getting louder and more numerous, the show is just less funny today than it was two years ago.

 

Maybe the best way to “fix” this is to introduce a “dramedy” category, though the television academy is loathe to create more categories for an already very full roster (it’s why they won’t split limited series from made-for-TV movies). The other way to “fix” it is just to not vote for The Bear, which is kind of what happened last night. They still won several Emmys, including for actors Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jeremy Allen White, Liza Colón-Zayas (who wore an amazing Christian Siriano gown), Jon Bernthal, and Christopher Storer for directing the episode “Fishes”. But they notably lost the writing award to Hacks, Ayo Edibiri lost to Jean Smart for comedy lead actress, and they lost Outstanding Comedy Series to Hacks, too.

It definitely felt a little like pushback against The Bear. That could be because people have finally realized it’s not a comedy,  but it also might be because the less well received season three dropped right in the middle of Emmy voting this summer. The Bear was nominated for its second season, which is terrific, but between cleaning up at the Emmys back in January, and having a more divisive third season running while people were voting, I wonder if a bit of Bear fatigue set in. The category complication is just icing on that cake. 

 

Given that season three isn’t as beloved as the previous two seasons, maybe next year’s Emmys won’t be as Bear heavy as the last two, and it won’t matter as much. If an actual comedy can get some oxygen, people might feel better about nominating The Bear in that category. But I do think there’s been some grumbling among comedy writers, especially, about The Bear and its categorization. But unless and until the television academy decides to change their rules, as long as The Bear runs, this will keep being a conversation.