Deborah Copaken, a writer on Netflix’s hit series Emily In Paris, has said the success of her show in the Golden Globe nominations was tarnished by the fact that Michaela Coel's show, I May Destroy You, was overlooked.
Emily In Paris gained two nominations at Wednesday’s Globes after the show was nominated for best TV series, musical or comedy, with its leading lady, Lily Collins, also up for best actress in a television musical or comedy.
However, Copaken and many of Coel's fans vented at the shock omission of her original BBC/HBO limited-series, I May Destroy You, despite it winning widespread critical acclaim for its dramatised re-telling of a sexual assault she suffered.
In an op-ed for The Guardian, Copaken, who had tweeted the omission was “just wrong" said it speaks to something rotten in the industry.
“Am I excited that Emily in Paris was nominated? Yes. Of course. I’ve never been remotely close to seeing a Golden Globe statue up close, let alone being nominated for one,” Copaken wrote.
“But that excitement is now unfortunately tempered by my rage over Coel’s snub. That I May Destroy You did not get one Golden Globe nod is not only wrong, it’s what is wrong with everything,” she continued.
Urging: “we need art that reflects all of our colors, not just some," the writer pressed: "But we also need to give awards to shows (and music and films and plays and musicals) that deserve them, no matter the color of the skin of their creators."
She queried: “Is Hamilton great because Lin-Manuel Miranda is Puerto Rican? No. It’s great because it bangs. By that same token, how anyone can watch I May Destroy You and not call it a brilliant work of art or Michaela Coel a genius is beyond my capacity to understand how these decisions are made.”
Copaken added that I May Destroy You is her favourite show ever.
“It takes the complicated issue of a rape – I’m a sexual assault survivor myself – and infuses it with heart, humor, pathos and a story constructed so well, I had to watch it twice, just to understand how Coel did it,” she shared.
