Will the Emmys reward David Simon for The Plot Against America?

The Boston Globe

Simon has only won one Emmy: for the 2000 HBO miniseries The Corner. Simon's The Wire was famously snubbed, only earning two Emmy nominations. So could The Plot Against America change Emmy voters' tune about Simon? As Matthew Gilbert points out, Simon isn't recognized by the TV Academy because "for one thing, Simon is captivated by the kind of real-life socioeconomic themes that are — how should I put this? — unpleasant. They’re often about institutional dysfunction in America and the hard lives of those on the streets, and that kind of subject matter could be a turnoff for voters steeped in the world of entertainment and more inclined toward escape. The shows are so much richer than they sound in summaries, with lots of great characters who put faces on all the statistics, but on paper they may sound too gritty. Social realism is not awards-magnet material. Also, Simon helped usher in an adult form of storytelling that refuses to pander to the viewer. He doesn’t introduce characters in an EZ fashion; he lets us figure out their relationships to one another over time. It can take a little bit of effort. And while his work is sometimes compared to that of Dickens for its social sprawl and concern for the poor, he refuses to provide audiences with Dickensian sentimentality and happy endings. His style may be too complex and cool for voters who’d prefer to be walked step by step through the action."