"Yes, awards shows can be monotonous, hypocritical, gauche affairs. Yes, the awards themselves don't actually "matter" in the grand scheme of things. But they also kind of do. And I'm here to tell you why," writes Ilan Preskovsky.
Being smack-bang in the middle of 2024's awards season – and, in the case of the delayed Emmys, 2023 – we are, like clockwork, inundated with think pieces and social media commentary about how little awards matter. They moan about how out-of-touch these awards ceremonies are, how they're little more than super-rich celebs with already plenty of large egos giving gold statues to one another for what seems like months on end.
Or, as Stephen Colbert - in-character as the Colbert Report's "Stephen Colbert" - put it once during a particularly memorable bit at an Emmys of many moons past: "We're here to honour achievement in that category by giving you a golden statue to worship. Kneel before your god, Babylon!"