(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Having emerged during a time when television was a place careers went to die, Jane Fonda became a star in a period where no self-respecting film actor would be caught dead headlining a TV series unless they were willing to admit their moment in the sun had passed.
Times have changed substantially since then, with Fonda becoming a major beneficiary of the small screen’s second ‘Golden Age’ by adding even more trinkets to a trophy cabinet that had already been filled to bursting point during the peak of her career.
Fonda hasn’t been nominated for an Academy Award since 1986 after notching seven nominations and two wins in a 17-year stretch before that, but taking her talents to episodic storytelling turned out to be the gift that kept on giving.
They may have been completely different shows, but Aaron Sorkin’s HBO political drama The Newsroom and Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie combined for ten seasons and over 100 episodes to ensure Fonda settled as gracefully as possible into her veteran phase, and she knows an egregious awards season oversight when she sees one.
One of the most unflinching, devastating, thought-provoking, touching, and often blackly hilarious creations to emerge in recent years, Michaela Coel’s semi-autobiographical I May Destroy You was the singular work of an artist who belied their status as a first-time TV creator in astonishing style.
Coel originated and developed the show, served as its executive producer, played the lead role, wrote every single one of the 12 episodes and co-directed the lot, but a Primetime Emmy for ‘Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie’ was the summation of her trophy haul in the United States.
I May Destroy You deservedly cleaned up on home shores after taking home five Baftas including ‘Best Miniseries’, ‘Best Actress’, and ‘Best Writer: Drama’, but Fonda didn’t think that was anywhere close to being reflective of Coel’s immediate and undeniable impact.
“She’s a true artist, an observer of life,” she marvelled to Harper’s Bazaar. “I mean, the way that she filmed the last episode where she did so many versions of her with the rapist, I just had to keep watching it because I would be thinking about a scene and, ‘Wait, wait. Did I make a mistake?’. Whoa. Michaela’s got a sense of the truth. It’s somatic.”
I May Destroy You didn’t get a sniff at the Golden Globes, either, and Fonda simply couldn’t wrap her head around it. “I don’t understand it,” she admitted. “They should have recognised her. There’s very little as important as what Michaela’s done.”
Awards may not exist as the be-all and end-all for any project, but it was a massive oversight for I May Destroy You to be overlooked in the way that it did. Fortunately, history will always remember Coel’s breakthrough as a 21st-century TV great.
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