Jeremy Allen White won Best Actor in a Comedy Series at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice for The Bear. The nomination of The Bear in the comedy category has ruffled some feathers, fans, journalists and many others have pointed out the inadequacy and lack of diligence on Award shows that wrongly categorize shows/movies/songs. As surprising as the current nomination is, it is unfortunately not the first time that something like this has happened.
Jeremy Allen White’s nomination was well deserved but in the wrong category, fans go crazy on Twitter
Fans take to Twitter discussing and raging over the absurd categorization. The Bear does not have any laughs some point out, many think that they might have missed an episode because they found nothing funny in the show, it is as if they watched a completely different one. The Bear has some moments which might come close to being funny, but that does not turn it into a comedy. The drama to comedy ratio is favorable to Drama, than comedy.
The Bear is critically acclaimed and received positive reviews. The consensus is that The Bear is a pressure cooker which whistles at the right times. It is like a perfectly made dish. Another great thing The Bear does is it strays away from romanticizing the preparation of food, but takes us through the messy, unorganized, dirty and dark side of the kitchen which is always in a rush.
The Bear is not the first show to be wrongly nominated
As bad as it sounds, it is not the first time Golden Globes incorrectly categorized a show or film. In 2016, they put The Martian, a film about a man left behind by his crew on Mars who thought he was dead was nominated for Best Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical. Everyone failed to see the humor or music in the movie because obviously, The Martian is a serious drama about a man trying to survive on an entirely different planet.
A major problem is that shows which have a run time of fewer than 30 minutes are considered for the Comedy category and those which have a runtime of more than 30 minutes are favored for drama. This system of categorizing a piece of entertainment based on its runtime does not only seem dated but also lazy.
To be fair with the evolution of content drama and comedy often collide, however, in that case, a drama-to-comedy ratio should be kept in mind when categorizing shows or movies. Like Severance is funny, not funny in a way that will make you laugh but funny in its perspective towards the work culture and its comment on capitalist tendencies. Yet at its core, it remains a thriller and a drama. Barry, on the other hand, will make you laugh yet has some emotionally devastating scenes. But the overall premise of Barry leans more towards comedy than drama.
A good solution to this is having a new category for shows like this, where drama is used to subtly enhance the comedy. Shows like Barry, Severance, Reservation Dogs, Flight Attendant, Young Sheldon and many more continue to challenge the norms of comedy and drama, for these show a new category like Dramedy or Comedy-Drama, instead of Comedy or Musical.
The Bear is streaming on Disney+.
Source : Twitter
