Daredevil's amazing single-shot prison riot can't win a stunts Emmy because it's too damn long
Consider this your reminder to be impressive, but not too impressive, as you make your operatically violent way through life. Fans of Netflix’s now-canceled Daredevil were disappointed this week to learn that the series wasn’t on the ballot for an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Stunt Coordination this year, despite the fact that the series’ latest season boasted one of the most impressive pieces of camerawork, combat, pyro, acting, and more to grace TV screens in recent memory: An 11-minute, single-shot prison riot sequence that takes up a major chunk of its third-season episode “Blindsided.” Despite the obvious skill displayed on the part of pretty much everybody involved—from the perfectly timed extras and claustrophobic camera operators, all the way up to series star Charlie Cox himself, who receives an absolutely brutal amount of punishment without ever breaking character—the sequence wasn’t eligible for a nomination for a simple reason. It was too damn long.
This is per showrunner Erik Oleson, who broke the news on Twitter this week: Apparently the Television Academy allows only a three-minute clip to be considered for the Stunt Coordination award, and while you could probably put together three pretty kick-ass minutes from the sequence in question, it would, admittedly, lose a bit of its kick. All of which is a bummer—if you’ve lapsed on Daredevil and haven’t watched this thing, it really is worth checking out—but hey: At least the show is on the ballot for nominations in a number of other categories (including Best Actor In A Drama for poor, beat-up Cox) in honor of its final season on the air.