Darren Criss and Ryan Murphy Win Emmys for ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’

After losing the Supporting Actor and Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie categories at the 70th annual Emmy Awards — a rather embarrassing display for the Television Academy, considering Judith Light, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez, Ricky Martin, and Finn Wittrock were all nominated — The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story finally got to winning.

Both creator Ryan Murphy and star Darren Criss took home prizes, with the former winning for directing an episode of the series, and the latter for Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie.And it kept winning, taking home the Best Limited Series Emmy near the end of the show.

It was refreshing recognition for one of the year’s absolute best TV series, and helped stymie this writer’s heart attack when he thought the show was being totally shut out.

Though the second American Crime Story season proved divisive, the complaints seemed to be more a fundamental misunderstanding of the limited series than anything else. What seemed like it was going to be a fabulous, frothy series about the Versace clan, including brother and sister Gianni and Donatella (as played by Ramirez and Cruz) turned out to be an internal, challenging meditation on internalized and externalized homophobia. Criss worked wonders as Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace’s killer, and his Emmy was well-earned.

Mostly, it’s just a relief to see the series recognized at all. Like I said, I was ready for my heart to give out if it got shut out. To see it win the big prize was heartening in a way I couldn’t have expected.

Image via Getty

This post has been updated.