Hugo Short Form Drama Category

Every year when I do the Hugo awards I spend so much time on the written categories that I never have time to get into the dramatic productions, and this year I am at a loss, so I am asking for volunteers.

Here are the nominees:

• The Wheel of Time: The Flame of Tar Valon, written by Justine Juel Gillmer, directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield, based on The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (Amazon Studios)
• For All Mankind: The Grey, written by Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi; directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Tall Ship Productions/Sony Pictures Television)
• Arcane: The Monster You Created, written by Christian Linke and Alex Yee; story by Christian Linke, Alex Yee, Conor Sheehy, and Ash Brannon; directed by Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord (Netflix)
• The Expanse: Nemesis Games, written by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, and Naren Shankar; directed by Breck Eisner (Amazon Studios)
• Loki: The Nexus Event, written by Eric Martin, directed by Kate Herron, created for television by Michael Waldron (Disney+)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: wej Duj, written by Kathryn Lyn, directed by Bob Suarez (CBS Eye Animation Productions)

1. The Wheel of Time: “The Flame of Tar Valon” is episode 6 of the 8-episode first season of Wheel of Time. It is also a junction point where the story shifts from a LOTR like romp from the Shire to Rivendell to a more sophisticated story about how the Aes Sedai deal with “dragons” and how things can go wrong. The Flame of Tar Valon is actually part of The Great Hunt (book 2) overlaid on the Eye of the World. Here is a refresher:

The scale of Wheel of Time is almost impossible to grasp. It is 14 books, 11 by Robert Jordan and one a collaboration of his widow using Jordan’s notes and Brandon Sanderson, who had already written several successful series. It started as a very vanilla, derivative take on Tolkien, but Jordan imagined a world where women could exercise magic and power too. This is very much not Tolkien, whose representation of women (in the books) is poor in LOTR and inexistant in the Hobbit. In Wheel of Time, women form the core of the Aes Sedai, a central tenet of Jordan’s world.

It is also a much bigger story than Tolkien’s, and not just in terms of text. Jordan’s world is our world after we have lost the world twice. This article gives the basic idea: https://theconversation.com/wheel-of-time-is-set-thousands-of-years-from-now-yet-its-still-burdened-with-todays-climate-change-174088

So, yes, I like how women are represented and appreciate the majesty of the story, but after watching the episode again, I wonder whether voters cose the right episode (for what it’s worth, picking a Loki episode is just as fraught.) Episode 4, the Dragon Rebborn, was much better, the last half hour especially riveting. Also, for all that I like about the series, it did not end well. The last episode’s cliffhanger was not a great idea and may have foreshadowed some real problems, even though the cold open of the future in the past was a great hook. There was, apparently, a pandemic-related delay during episode 5, and one character was written out of the last episode:

Instead of complaining about how the series isn’t as good as the book, I am going to use this guy (who isn’t even through the first book):

I don’t actually agree with him about the POV change from Rand to Moirane. It could work fine. He is spot on with the lack of mystery and how stupid it was to play Who is the Dragon? with the audience. His criticism of the color grading and the vfx is also point on. It’s hard to watch.

2. Arcane is an animated series, which appeared in Nov 2021 and Netflix has approved a second season, but it will not happen in 2022. It is also a videogame adaptation (Riot Games), which is another challenge. I watched the first episode and loved the story (so important for Hugos), the characters, and, yes, the art, even though it is such a hell-blown place. There are skulpted textures that evoke a realism, especially in the expressions. It’s a good story about imperialism (Piltover and Zaun are the haves and have-nots respectively), and that is one reason it starts with a heist goes wrong, which is almost always fun. The episode nominated, though, is #9, and I’ve only seen the first one and cannot binge. With respect to the soundtrack… I’m probaby not the target demographic. It sounds poppy to my ears, but that may be the Imagine Dragons hangover.

3. Loki: The Nexus – This is episode 4 of Loki’s series when he is on the run with Sylvie, his time-variant self in her space-time. Gender actually has a folk history of gender bending (like turning into a mare to seduce a horse and then spending all winter in a cave waiting to foal). There is also an atmosphere of weird romance here, and maybe some audience sympathy (at least from me) that Loki would probably only be happy with himself. Mobius memorably says, “You fell for yourself.” Anyway, these two “lokis” are caught and detained by the TVA, Time Variance Authority, and Renslayer:

After falling in love with Sylvie–Loki, a narcissist, falling in love is a tongue-in-cheek Nexus event–our hero survives Sith on autorepeat kicking him in the nuts and revelations of Mobius’s jet ski. We also learn, after Sylvie’s expert frisbee toss cuts off a Timekeeper’s head that they are “just mindless androids” and that the TVA is fake, which poses the question why? And the answer, of course, is possibly Kang the Conqueror.

4. For All Mankind: I have heard amazing things about , which is a near future science fiction series (the episode nominated is season 2, number 10) in an alternate timeline. Here are some video clips:

This is a great scene with a clock in the background ticking, blood, stakes… an ending that tears at you even though you just met the characters. Also, the cinematography is awesome. No time for two seasons though.

Listening to this, though (which I don’t recommend if you’re going to watch it), I don’t really think it’s for me.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated series set in 2380, around the time of The Next Generation series. It does not focus on the main bridge characters but on the ‘pawns’ who have to do the dirty work that keeps the mission working. I only watched the first episode and the one provided in the Hugo packet, and, while impressed, especially with the writing, I was not engaged enough to commit the time to fully consume it now. That’s more about how taxing life is right now rather than an opinion about the story though.

I am a huge fan of the Expanse, but I’m reading the books, so I can’t watch the television series.

That’s all I got. I will update later with the results. 🙂