‘The Bear’s continued awards season dominance has officially irked comedy fans, but there may be a solution

Another television awards show, another big night for The Bear. Such was the case at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards last night, where Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Liza Colón-Zayas all took home acting awards, and series creator Christopher Storer nabbed a directing award for the episode “Fishes.”

The treasure trove of awards that have been flung its way since its inception is just one of many examples of everyone loving The Bear, but at this point, just as many people seem to be fed up with it as well. At least, they’re fed up with its insistence on occupying the Comedy category.

Those who are lacerating The Bear for competing in the Comedy category aren’t unfounded in their vexations. The Bear‘s material tends to skew quite heavy, with topics such as grief, estrangement, and professional power dynamics fueling its full-throttle, often corrosive emotional heft. In its intensity, it’s much more likely to leave an impression than other, more light-hearted shows that compete in the Comedy category.

However, it would be equally unfair to suggest that The Bear is taking up space that it doesn’t belong in. The Bear‘s comedic edge is razor-sharp and always on, and it’s in fact precisely because of its relationship with tension that it can have such a successful relationship with levity, and vice versa. The show’s dramatic indignance is symbiotic with its warmer relief, and the spirited ebb and flow that they enable together is a testament to The Bear‘s strength as a piece of art, and a powerful exercise in both dramatic and comedic storytelling.

It’s furthermore worth noting that the majority of programs competing in the Comedy section would, like The Bear, most aptly be characterized as dramedies. Such programs include Only Murders in the Building, Palm Royale, Reservation Dogs, and Hacks, the latter of which was the other big winner of the evening with a win for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Previous awards season darling Ted Lasso is another example.

This is to say that most of the shows competing in the Comedy category approach their comedy by rooting it in the complex, contradictory, often tragic and just as frequently ridiculous ordeal of the human condition; The Bear just happens to be really, really good at that. Just as noteworthy is the fact that much of Succession—the Emmys juggernaut of yesteryear—owes much of its prestige to its humorous stylings despite only ever competing in the Drama category, where the majority of its competitors did not have a similar relationship to comedy.

And yet, no one seemed to mind Succession‘s multi-year dominance, as if the Drama category is more prestigious than the Comedy category, or as if the Comedy category was created for shows that simply wouldn’t catch the eye of the Academy otherwise. This, in spite of the fact that the success of both The Bear and Succession come from the same thing; both shows understand how to tap into the raw power of the human condition, in all its pathos and venom and absurdity, and how to make an impression with it.

Neither is concerned with being especially funny or being especially dramatic, and are instead precisely interested in being the best versions of themselves. That artistic honesty goes as long a way as the deftness with which the material approached, and the very human emotional depth of it all is the key ingredient to making everything—from the drama to the comedy—stick and stand out. Baby Reindeer boasts similar merits.

So what’s the solution? A Dramedy category for all the shows that don’t lean far enough one way or the other? An abolishment of Drama and Comedy as categories altogether for the sake of one, ultimate Outstanding Programming category? A mass cognitive shift wherein we all learn to recognize that the shows are meant to elevate the prestige of the award, rather than the other way around?

Or what about accepting that the notion of serious competition beyond being nominated by the Academy (which is more than enough recognition) is kind of ridiculous and counterproductive to most all honest discourse around this specific artform? Indeed, maybe the solution is to stop making this a problem. The Bear is great, Hacks is great, Shōgun is great, Abbott Elementary is great. The planets are still aligned, and all the egos worth being intact are still intact. Carry on.