Tonight's broadcast of the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards had a lot of crazy moments infused, some planned (such as that bizarre Sean Spicer cameo) and some not-so-planned (such as This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown's beyond-excellent acceptance speech). And while some wins could be seen coming a mile away -- we're looking at you, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss -- I'm not sure anyone expected Hulu'shighly acclaimed drama The Handmaid's Tale to sweep all of the major awards it was nominated for. In fact, Handmaid's Tale won for Outstanding Drama Series, making Hulu the first streaming service to take the top prize.
As fantastic as it was for The Handmaid's Tale to win all of the other Emmys that it earned, winning in the Drama category put the dystopian drama in the upper echelon of TV shows. And it allows Hulu to do some major boasting when it comes to streaming services, since no series that Netflix or Amazon has released has managed to take home that top dog prize. Plus, this was the first year that Hulu brought home any Emmys in the first place, but let's not call this beginner's luck, since series like Chance and The Path are also as engrossing as anything else on TV, even without the Emmy recognition.
The past couple of years have seen Game of Thrones take home the Outstanding Drama trophy, but the HBO epic was absent this year, since it didn't kick off its seventh season until after the Emmy window had passed. In the two years before that, Breaking Bad gave AMC its Emmy prestige with wins for the drama's split-in-two fifth season. And before that, there weren't any streaming services that could have taken the Drama award home, since House of Cards only entered the nomination line-up in the 2012-2013 season.
Easily one of the best shows of 2017 so far, The Handmaid's Tale likely won't lose that distinction after the fall season has given viewers its newest offerings. And given how many awards the show took home tonight, that shouldn't be a big surprise. After already having celebrated its dramatic Creative Emmy wins for Outstanding Production Design, Outstanding Cinematography and Outstanding Guest Actress (for Alexis Bledel), The Handmaid's Tale cast and crew were probably optimistic for the Primetime Emmys broadcast, but to win out in all the major categories was a feat that didn't seem so likely from the outset. (In fact, only five of its 13 nominations were losses, and two of those only happened because the show was double-nominated for Supporting Actress and Directing.)
As far as Emmys go for the other big two streaming services, no Amazon series has won any overall awards. Netflix won out tonight for Outstanding Television Movie for the excellent Black Mirror episode "San Junipero," and it had previously won for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for Making A Murderer. But it's worth pointing out that over the past five Emmy specials, Netflix series have been nominated for Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Comedy a whopping 14 times without any wins, and Hulu got one nomination and one win for The Handmaid's Tale. Here's hoping Margaret Atwood is celebrating with all the blessed fruit possible.
Season 1 of The Handmaid's Tale can be streamed in full on Hulu right now. For those that don't have a subscription, you might luck out soon if Hulu decides to celebrate the win with some freebie viewing, as others have done in the past. In the meantime, checkout everything that's heading to the small screen in the near future with out fall premiere schedule.
