'Stranger Things', 'The White Lotus' Top Emmy Craft Awards: 6 Things We Learned

Netflix's horror blockbuster "Stranger Things" and HBO's dark/thriller comedy "The White Lotus" led the Creative Arts Emmys this weekend with five awards each. Gritty teen phenom 'Euphoria' followed close behind with four awards, while Netflix's global sensation, Korean survival drama 'Squid Game', picked up three wins, as did popular comedy 'Barry'. HBO (for editing, sound editing, stunt coordination). However, the critically acclaimed and mind-blowing “Severance” (Apple TV+) only had two wins. ("Euphoria" and "Squid Game" also each won a guest Emmy, which we don't include in the chart above.)

On the historical drama front, “The Great” (Hulu) finally broke through in Season 2 with an impressive win for the period costumes, while “Bridgerton” (Netflix) took on the period hairstyle and "The Gilded Age" (HBO Max) won the period/fantasy production design.

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On the other hand, Marvel's incredible "Moon Knight" managed only one victory (sound edit), while "Loki" was ruled out.

On the animation front, "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" (Disney+) became the first-ever animated film to win a TV movie, while Netflix took home animated program honors for the famous "Arcane" as well as for the previous winner. "Love Death + Robots" for short form. Additionally, the winners of the Juried Award for Individual Achievement in Animation went to: Anne-Laure To, “Arcane”; Julien Georgel, “Arcane”; Bruno Couchinho, “Arcane”; Lexy Naut, "The Boys Presents: Diabolical"; Kecy Salangad, “The House”; Alberto Mielgo, "Love, Death + Robots."

Here's what we learned:

1. How Vecna ​​wore "Stranger Things"

For the Duffer Brothers' penultimate Season 4, they took inspiration from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and introduced their most humanoid monster, Vecna ​​(played by Jamie Campbell Bower). The result was the most-watched English-language show on Netflix, which led to a comeback with its 12 Emmy nominations. Yet in its previous three seasons, “Stranger Things” only won a total of seven Emmys (three for sound editing and one for editing, main title design, main title theme music and the cast).

So the big question was whether he could break through for more wins. The answer was yes: scoring first-time Emmys for musical supervision (turning Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill” into a viral monster), prosthetic makeup, sound mixing and stunt coordination. It also won again for sound editing. However, it missed Vecna's special visual effects, losing out to "The Mandalorian" spin-off, "The Book of Boba Fett" (more on that below). It probably didn't help that much of Vecna's work was hands-on, including prosthetic makeup and costume work for actor Bower.