Jeopardy Masters 2026 Quarterfinals Recap: August 26th

 

Match 1

Long Nguyen vs Andrew He vs Juveria Zaheer

Long was up against two players with multiple Jeopardy wins behind them.

For the second consecutive game Long started the Jeopardy round in the red. Indeed at one point he was actually at -2400. But he began to dig himself out of the very deep hole when he found the Daily Double in WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

Foie gras can be used to make pate, a meat spread ; pate served in an earthenware dish is called this, from a word meaning 'earth'.

Somehow he figured it out: "What is tureen?" And went from -1600 points to -600 points.

This time Long managed to finish the Jeopardy round on the positive side with 400 points. He was 3000 behind Andrew at 3400 points while Juveria led with 4400.

Juveria struck first in Double Jeopardy in YOU STUDIED YOUR CAPITALS, RIGHT? And while she wasn't sure she'd studied as much as Long she bet the 6000 points she had:

The relationship with the Netherlands in the name of Aruba's capital. She mumbled before guessing: "What is Oranjestad?" And with that she doubled her score to 12,000.

She was on cruise control for a while and found the other Daily Double in THIS AIN'T SHAKESPEARE. (The category had to do with other Elizabethan plays and playwrights.) Already with a commanding lead with 20,800 she was modest this time and bet just 5000 points. It was the right call:

Thomas Kyd set the stage for 'Hamlet' and other Elizabethan tales of revenge with this bloody play set in Iberia.

Juveria was thinking of David Mamet: "What is The Spanish Prisoner?" So close it was The Spanish Tragedy.

She dropped to 15,800 points but despite that neither Andrew nor Long could catch her.  She ran away with 20,200, Andrew next with 7200 points, while Long trailed with 4000 points. However with those match points very important for both Andrew and Long second place was going to matter a lot.

The Final Jeopardy category was LEADERS. In a eulogy his successor Ingvar Carlsson said: "We stand united in anger & grief" and "he made the world aware of us all."

Long's response was revealed first. He said: "Who was Gustavus Adolphus?" That was incorrect. It cost him 3001 points, putting him at 999.

Next came Andrew. He wrote down: "Who is Dag Hammarskjold?" (That was my guess, for the record.) It was a good guess; it was the right part of the world but it was also wrong. He lost 1001 points finishing with 5999.

Juveria also wrote down Hammarskjold. The clue referred to Olof Palme, the prime minister of Sweden who was assassinated in 1986.  Juveria got the win and 3 match points. Andrew got his first match point, putting him into a tie with Long with 1 apiece.

 

Interview: Juveria revealed that when she first took the test she hadn't watched the show in 20 years. So the first she watched was the 2022 Tournament of Champions. She made it clear the player she watched and considered her idol – and who she'd gotten a picture with – was 'terrorizing her right now.' Andrew told us that the more he returns to Jeopardy he gets recognized – but not actually know who he is so they come up to him and just say "Jeopardy!"  Keeping himself humble he added "If they Google 'Jeopardy Asian Guy' they will come up with Jamie Ding." Long Nguyen told us he has a huge database of knowledge – a literal database on a computer. Then he told us "Mormons love Jello!" Ken naturally said: "I can't deny it."

 

 

 

Match 2

 Victoria Groce vs. Paolo Pasco vs. Yogesh Raut

Victoria came out swinging in the Jeopardy round starting off strong. She had 3600 points when she found the Daily Double in HELLO, GORGES. (Ken doesn't say "Oh the writers are having fun.") Victoria chose to bet everything yet again. (It took her awhile to say true Daily Double.)

Fossil Bed II at this site that lives up to part of its name dates somewhere between 1.15 and 1.7 million years old, y'know give or take.

She figured it out: "What is Olduvai Gorge?" She went up to 7200 points. She finished the round with an impressive 10,000 points to Yogesh's 3400 and Paolo's 2800.

There were struggles for all three players early in Double Jeopardy but Yogesh managed to turn it around when he found his groove in BRITISH WAR HISTORY and found the Daily Double there. Trailing with 7000 to Victoria's 12,000 he bet 100 percent of his money:

This war between Britain and Spain began in 1739 following the capture of a British ship and an assault on its captain. He figured it out: "What is Jenkins' ear?" He doubled his score to 14,000 and took the lead.

Two clues later Victoria found the other Daily Double in FESTIVALS & HOLIDAYS. She was tied with Yogesh for the lead and she bet everything. And then came one of those moments on Jeopardy that breaks your heart sometimes.

The Fete National De Quebec is also known as the day of this Biblical purifying guy; respond en Francais, s'il vous plait.

It was the Francais that got her. She said: "Who is Jean De Baptiste?" It was just Jean Baptiste; they didn't need the 'de'. It dropped her to zero and Victoria never recovered. Yogesh would finish with 19,600 points to Paolo's 4800 and Victoria's 2000.

How the match points would be awarded was preordained but Final Jeopardy went forward. The Final Jeopardy category was 19^th CENTURY BRITISH POETRY.

The famous opening of this long poem continues "But still will keep a bower quiet for us and a sleep full of sweet dreams.

It was a killer. Victoria wrote down: "What is a Prelude?" Apparently she was thinking of Wordsworth. It was wrong. She lost 222 points, dropping her to 1778.

Paolo just wrote a lot of dots. (Better than I did.) He lost nothing.

Yogesh seemed to have written. "What is Crossing the Bar?" The poem was actually was from Keat's Endymion and followed the famous lines "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Yogesh bet 9999 points but he still won, receiving 3 Match points. Paolo got 1. Victoria 0.

(For the record I didn't even have the right century. My guess was Paradise Lost.)

 

Interviews: Yogesh told us he has spent time in zoom rooms watch cozy detective shows from 20 years and they pause halfway through to figure out who did it. He mentioned they're talking about the Ellery Queen show with Jim Hutton in the 1970s. Paolo went into detail about his job as a crossword puzzle writer. He told us about being raised on puzzle magazines and that one of his first tantrums because he couldn't get a second word search book at Walgreen's. Victoria then told us she had a chance to watch Paolo at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament last year. She compared his dominance at crossword puzzles to seeing Simone Biles at the U.S Gymnastic tournament. (Jeopardy champions always prop each other up.)

LEADERBOARD AFTER AUGUST 26^TH

Paolo Pasco – 4 Match Points

Yogesh Raut – 4 Match Points

Victoria Groce – 3 Match Points

Juveria Zaheer – 3 Match Points

Andrew He – 1 Match Points

Long Nguyen – 1 Match Point

 

All six Masters officially have points on the board and for the first time in a long time no one has a clear advantage after the first two nights of Jeopardy Masters. Furthermore after two matches the only players to have responded correctly to Final Jeopardy in either game were Victoria and Yogesh in Game 1. (They're  all still doing better than me; at this point in the Masters I'm 0 for 4, which is pretty close to where I usually am at this point.)

Tomorrow Yogesh and Juveria will face off yet again in the second game and I have no idea yet who will be leading off in the first match of Thursday. Still it's a thrill and a half. See you tomorrow, same Jeopardy time, same Jeopardy channel.

My Predictions for the 2026 Emmys, Week 2, Part 3: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama

 

Since 2015 there has only been one performer who has managed to win in this category twice – Zendaya for Euphoria. She is eligible to win her third Emmy this year but as you'll see the odds are much against.

More interestingly three of the greatest actress in 21^st century television are competing against each other and all of them have compelling narratives to win this year besides the incredible performances they gave. I don't envy the voters this year.

Here we go.

 

Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age. For Playing: Bertha Russell, permanently establishing her role at the head of New York Society at the cost of her own family.  Pro: There was once a time when Coon couldn't get nominated no matter how great her work as in so many classic TV shows. Now she's been nominated for the third consecutive year by the Emmys. It's a reach to call her work as Bertha her greatest performance but its certainly becoming one of the most fascinating in 21^st Century TV. We see a woman who is willing to do anything to get a place in society and in Season 3 the bill comes do as she forces her daughter to marry a man she doesn't love and permanently severs a wedge between her son and her husband that may never be repaired. By the end of the season she has reached the top of the food chain but she is also completely alone and has no one to share the victory with. You would feel sympathy for her had you not spent the last three seasons watching her willing to climb over anyone who got in her way. Coon has yet to win an Emmy in four attempts and considering that many were certain she was going to win last year for her very different work in The White Lotus this would be a good attempt to make it right. Con: Look if they decide to give the Emmy to Coon I'm absolutely not going to complain. She's been owed one since The Leftovers. But somehow I just don't think its time yet and we all know she's going to be back next year with Season 4 just around the corner.

 

Chase Infiniti, The Testaments. For Playing: Agnes McKenzie, a teen in a prep school in Gilead where obedience is brutally enforced. Pro: Chase Infiniti, as they say, is having a moment. She was the unlikely heroine of last year Academy Award winner One Battle After Another playing one different leader of a resistance and now she's in the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale playing a very different leader. One could argue that she's been typecast but she's taking the mantle of Elisabeth Moss another great former child actress who had her moment of greatness in the original series and passes the gauntlet to Infiniti in this show. It's a different world then the one we're used to from Handmaid's but Agnes manages to lead us through in what amounts to a more effective YA drama then the one we got from Handmaid's Tale. Infiniti is going places and it shows here. Con: Infiniti was the only nominee for The Testaments and as Kathy Bates found out last year that rarely leads to a win. More to the point she's the only new face in a category full of actresses who've already been nominated multiple times. Throw in the fact that the moment of the world of Gilead in our culture has passed and its safe to case there's no real chance of her winning this year.

 

Keri Russell, The Diplomat. (DARK HORSE) For Playing: Kate Wyler, staying behind in London while her husband takes on the job as Vice President. Pro: There are multiple reasons why Russell is the most deserving nominee in the bunch besides the incredible performance she's given. First there's the fact she's managed to win both the SAG-AFTRA award in this category and the Astra just a few weeks ago. Second her track record with the Emmys is far worse than anyone else. The Diplomat is now the third classic television show she's been associated with and yet after five Emmy nominations (none of them for Felicity which she won a Golden Globe for) she's the sentimental favorite as well as the critical one. And third there's the fact of her husband. Matthew Rhys is certain to win an Emmy for his work in Widow's Bay and I'd love it if the two leads of The Americans could both win Emmys on the same night. Considering that show never got the appropriate love from the Emmys over its run, I now think Matthew Rhy and Keri Russell need to get a lot of love from the Emmys for this point forward. An Emmy for the third iconic performance Russell has given in her career wouldn't make me unhappy. Con: As with Carrie Coon I have zero problem if she ends up winning on Emmy night. But I also think that the Emmys is just starting to catch up with how great The Diplomat is. Furthermore with Season 4 just around the corner Russell will yet again be a frontrunner in this category next year. I think it's going to happen but not yet. In large part because…

 

Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus. (EXPERTS PICK, MY PICK) For Playing: Carol Sturka, one of only thirteen humans left on Earth when a hive mind takes control of the planet. Pro: I really wonder if Seehorn channeled her anger during Pluribus because she lost Best Supporting Actress in a Drama to Jennifer Coolidge for The White Lotus. That's certainly a grudge that would make me angry towards the world. But seriously ever since Pluribus debuted Seehorn has pretty much been winning every award in sight. She took the Golden Globe and Critics Choice for Drama beating Russell and Coon in both categories. This past month she won the TCA award for Best Dramatic Performance, full stop. And the fact is Seehorn's Carol is pretty much the only center of gravity we can focus on throughout Pluribus entire first season. There are entire episodes where she's the only actress onscreen for most if not all of them. And much of her work is built not on dialogue but on long stretches of silence or monologues where she has to express her frustrations to herself. I don't think any show in a very long time has centered on a single character to this extent and I've never seen anyone rise to the challenge so excellently as Seehorn has as Carol. She may not be the heroine we want, but she is the heroine Earth needs. Throw in the fact she somehow never won for Better Call Saul – which I'm still angry about – and I think its her time. Con: One can't rule out the possibility that Russell could manage an upset given that she's beaten her twice this cycle.

 

Zendaya, Euphoria. For Playing: Rue, stuck in the middle of a drug war after graduating high school. Pro: It was the end of a long journey for Rue and even though it was almost inevitable where it was going to finish you spent most of the season hoping that there was a way back on the path she'd chosen. Most of Rue's journey was framed as a spiritual one and while most of the rest of the show struggled watching her battle her way back against the forces against her, hoping against hope she could find a way out was still a battle. Zendaya has already gone two for two over the first two seasons; there have always been a chance she could make it a three-peat. Con: My readers know my bias towards Euphoria has never gone away. So let's look at the facts. Even before the third season debuted there was a backlash building against it. The moment it debuted almost every critic who'd ever had something positive to say about Euphoria had nothing good to say about it. By the series finale TV Guide was jeering the series finale which goes to show just how far it had fallen. No one thought it deserved to be nominated for Best Drama and it only received five nominations. Zendaya's nomination no doubt has more to do with the way the Emmys usually operates: nominating the same actor for each season regardless how good the show is. Her nomination is in no doubt recognition because of the great actress and box office star Zendaya has become. Gold Derby measured this. Before Season Three debuted Zendaya was the favorite to win again in this category: by the time it ended she's now at four percent behind Russell and Seehorn. It was a hell of a run but it's over and not just because Euphoria is.

 

PREDICTION: Seehorn finally gets a chance to be happy on the Emmy stage.

 

Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama. This one I'm going to have a lot of trouble with.

 

Here We Go: Jeopardy Masters 2026 Recap, Part 1: August 25th

 

Well Jeopardy fans here's the way to wrap up the summer. The 2026 Jeopardy Masters is about to take place.

In a sense the producers have moved backwards. After experimenting with a new format involving knockout rounds and 9 Masters which produced a fair amount of backlash among fans, the producers have gone back to the previous method. This year there are only six Jeopardy masters and nine games. Six days of quarterfinals with twelve games being played, then two nights of semi-finals with four games and a two day total point affair with the winner receiving $500,000.

In a different one they've moved forward. They've scheduled this year's Masters in August while the flagship show is in reruns, in large part repeating the paths that led this year's newcomers to the Masters. And all nine games will be played on as close to consecutive nights as possible. Starting tonight the first four games will be played Tuesday to Friday, next week they will wrap up the quarterfinals and semifinals on and on Tuesday September 8^th the finale will be played.

In a sense this can only help boost the ratings for the Masters, which flagged quite a bit last year. There's less competition for ratings in August then in May and by airing all the episodes pretty close to back to back sustained viewership will be easier for the fanbase.

As a reminder here's the lineup:

Yogesh Raut, winner of the 2025 Jeopardy Masters

Victoria Groce, second runner up in the 2025 Masters, winner of the 2024 Jeopardy Masters.

Juveria Zaheer, first runner-up in the 2025 Jeopardy Masters.

 

And the newcomers:

Paolo Pasco, winner of the 2026 Tournament of Champions

Andrew He, winner of the 2026 Jeopardy Invitational Tournament.

Long Nguyen, runner-up in the 2026 Jeopardy Invitational Tournament and the official producers choice.

 

I suspect there is going to be less controversy about Long Nguyen being the producer's choice then Amy Schneider in 2024. That year it seemed the producers were rigging the game to get a former Jeopardy Master and Tournament of Champions winner into the Masters. Considering that Long's biggest accomplishment was winning one of the 2024 Jeopardy Second Chance Tournaments prior to being invited back to this year's Invitational it's a lot easier to believe he's there for fan recognition. Besides there were four other previous Masters participants in this year's Invitational that would have been a much bigger draw then Long.

Paolo made history this year when he became the first player in the new format of the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions to win in three consecutive games. Furthermore in every single one of his TOC appearances he managed a runaway victory which puts him on the shortlist for one of the great Jeopardy TOC players already. Andrew He is no stranger to the Jeopardy Masters having appeared in the inaugural one and finished in a tie for third place with Mattea Roach, losing on a tiebreaker. He was part of the inaugural JIT and made it all the way to the finals where he was beaten by Victoria Groce and then Amy  Schneider was chosen ahead of him. (We'll soon find out if he holds a grudge.) Andrew's already faced off against the best of the best, finishing second only to James Holzhauer in the first round of  the 2023 Masters. But he has yet to face off against any of the current group.

Long has already beaten two Jeopardy Masters, defeating Adriana Harmeyer in the quarterfinals of this year's Invitational and beating Roger Craig in the finals. He has experience against Andrew already.  And as Juveria can attest, Second Chance Winners can do quite well in the Masters.

So here is my day by day breakdown of the 2026 Jeopardy Masters. After each game like with the show itself I will show you the leaderboard. And because I want to keep myself humble I will also tell you what I wrote down for Final Jeopardy after every game.

 

Tuesday August 25, 2026

Game 1

Andrew vs. Paolo vs Long

Game 1 had the newcomers face off and it was a slow start for all three. Paolo got to the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round early with 800 points and wagered the 1000 he could in TRANSPARENT. It did not go well:

In 1928 German firm Rohm & Haas produced acrylic glass and in 1933 they trademarked this transparent wonder.

Paolo paused before guessing: "What is Pyrex?" It was actually Plexiglass. At that point he was at -200 points. So the fact that he managed to recover from this and move all the way up to 5400 point at the end proved how on fire he was.

All three newcomers were in the red at one point in the Jeopardy round. Long finished it with -400 points. Andrew was in second with 1400.

In Double Jeopardy Paolo was helped immensely by the category FOUND IN MISTRANSLATION. The category was made up of words found entirely in 'mistranslation' and Paolo, who designs crossword puzzles for a living, has always done well with clues involving wordplay. As soon as he got control of the board for the first time he went to it, got the 1200 and 1600 point clues correct and found the first Daily Double in the 2000 point clue. He was relatively conservative and bet 4500 points of the 9800 he already had:

In part from Arabic, it's an engraved stone or object meant to protect against disease.

He figured it out: "What is talisman?" He went up to 14,300 points. (He would run the entire category.

Not long after that Long got the next two clues correct and got out of the red. He then found the other Daily Double in PLACES TO VISIT. Though he had but 400 points he wagered 2000 and it was clear he was nervous about going back into the red.

This national park located between Alamogordo and Las Cruces is filled with dunes of gypsum.

Long took a considerable time before clearly guessing: "What is White Sands?" That was correct and he went up to 2400 points.

Everyone made their share of mistakes in Double Jeopardy, including Paolo. But at the end of Double Jeopardy Paolo was still in the lead with 18,300, Long was next with $6800 and Andrew was in third with 2200 points. Because of the scores it was predetermined who would finish where but all three tried their best with Final Jeopardy. It was however an incredibly difficult clue.

The category was MEDICINE. Arne Larsson received the first of these October 8^th 1958 and eventually about 25 more as he outlived his physicians."

Andrew couldn't come up with anything but lost nothing. Long tried to write something down but nothing. He lost 2000 points leaving him with 4800.

Paolo had a runaway but took it seriously. He wrote down: "What is a heart transplant?" It was actually the first pacemaker as Ken told us "They had to be replaced much more often before the invention of lithium batteries."

(He was closer then me. I guessed the measles vaccine.)

He wagered just 625 and clinched his first Jeopardy Masters victory and his sixth consecutive runaway game. An impressive Jeopardy Masters debut by any standard.

 

Interview Segment: Long said ever since he got the call for Masters earlier this year he'd been doing nothing but prepping playing over 500 games in the Jeopardy simulator. Paolo told us what a thrill ride it was considering he'd made his Jeopardy debut just this past season. (His first appearance was in the first week of Season 42 which is remarkable.) Andrew discussed how when he'd recorded the first Masters they'd actually paused taping for the birth of his son who's now 3 and a half.

 

 

Game 2

Yogesh vs. Juveria vs. Victoria

This rematch of the finals of last year's Jeopardy Masters was more thrilling from start to finish. Victoria managed to strike first in the Jeopardy round when she found the Daily Double in one of the old standards for Jeopardy Tournaments 'INITIALS TO ROMAN NUMERALS TO NUMBERS'.

For those who don't know, they gave you a person's name. You took their initials which were Roman Numerals then you had to give the number.

Victoria had 2800 points and decided it was early enough to bet it all.

For the Italian-born woman who wrote: 'It is necessary that the child teach himself and then the success is great.

It didn't take her a moment. What is 2000? (Maria Montessori, MM.) From that point on Victoria would never relinquish the lead but it was never easy. Victoria finished with 9600 points to Yogesh's 5400 and Juveria's 2800.

In Double Jeopardy Victoria came out swinging but Juveria got to the first Daily Double in UNSILENT 'P' SCIENCE. The MD wagered the 3000 points she had:

It's the 'P' in PET scan, an imaging technique useful for studying structures of the heart and the brain. She knew it was positron and moved into second place.

Then she lost 1600 points and found the other Daily Double in MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS. Once again she bet everything, this time 4400 points.

In Bogota, you'll find the Museo Del this 3 letter palabra (What kings and conquistadors thirsted over).

This took a moment longer. "What is oro?" (the museum of gold). She was back at 8800 points.

Despite her best efforts Juveria couldn't close the gap and at the end of Double Jeopardy Victoria had 24,800 points to Juveria's 12,400, giving her a lock-tie for first place. Yogesh had finished with 8600 points.

It was unlikely Juveria was going to challenge for first this early in Masters so the battle was going to be for second.

The Final Jeopardy category was ANCIENT LANDS. Zarathustra means 'camel owner' and he was 'the Sage of' this ancient land of what's now North Afghanistan and South Tajikistan. (For the record I wasn't even in the right region of the globe. I wrote down Mesopotamia.)

Yogesh's response was revealed first. "What is Bactria?" Which is still associated with camels today. He bet 3801, moving him up to 12,401 points into second place.

Next was Juveria. She wrote down: "What is Tamurid?" That was obviously incorrect. She lost 4801, dropping her down to 7599.

It was irrelevant whether Victoria was correct or not. But she also had Bactria (along with the requisite 'Hi, Nora!). She wagered 1 point and struck first.

Interviews: Victoria said she had done as much preparation this year because she was busy writing her first book which had to do with quiz shows. Juveria told us that prior to being invited to the Jeopardy Masters she had been considering retiring because in two years' she'd been in every Tournament there was and it was becoming exhausting for her children. (She pointed to them in the audience. )And then after doing so well they decided: "This is great. Why would you ever pass this up?" Yogesh told a heartrending story about when he was coming back from winning the Masters he was taking the escalator on LAX and was nearly run over when his suitcase toppled over. Two complete strangers helped him one by rescuing him and the other by picking up his suitcase. He wanted to use the opportunity to thank them on national television. In addition to being grateful he was okay Ken implored Yogesh: "Next time you're out here, please take the elevator."

 

 

 

Leaderboard After August 25^th

 

Victoria Groce – 3 Match Points

Paolo Pasco – 3 Match Points

Yogesh Raut – 1 Match Point

Long Nguyen – 1 Match Point

Andrew He – 0 Match Points

Juveria Zaheer – 0 Match Points

 

We're off to a great start of this year's Masters. Tomorrow in Game 2 Paolo and Victoria will face off for the first time. What else will happen? Stay tuned to this spot for all the details!

My Predictions for the 2026 Emmys, Week 2, Day 2: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama

 

Ever since Bryan Cranston managed his historic three-peat for Breaking Bad every year since 2011 there has been a different winner in this category. That pattern will almost certainly be broken on Emmy night this year. That doesn't change the fact that this remains as always an incredibly strong category.

Furthermore this year's crop demonstrate how much this decade is different from the 2010s or even a few years ago. For the first time in memory the antiheroes are basically outnumbered by hardworking professionals trying to do there best in a complicated world. And even the two leads who might bear the title 'difficult men' are more in the grey area that those of Succession or Better Call Saul. It's a promising trend I hope continues particularly as they are played by some of the greatest actors of this century.

Here are the nominees.

Note: Since the frontrunner is so overwhelming ranked at this point I won't bother with a Dark Horse here.

 

Sterling K. Brown, Paradise. (MY FAVORITE) For Playing: Xavier Collins, trekking through a post-apocalypse America to find his wife. Pro: To be clear I am perfectly fine with the overwhelming favorite in this category. And as you'll see all of these nominees are great. But having seen all of their work I have to give more credit to Brown for his exceptional performance in Season 2. In the season finale Sinatra expresses to Collins: "You may have been the only good person here." And while that's not true the fact that it seems that Xavier may be the one who ends up saving the world (or already has?) absolutely makes sense. Ever since the show began and even more so in Season Xavier is someone who even in the aftermath of an apocalypse still has a moral code. We see when he tries to protect children who are hiding from raiders even though he's brutally injured, we see it when he decides to help Annie despite everything and then takes care of her baby even after her death, we see it in the way he's willing to do anything to first get to Terri and then save his family all over again, the way he seems able to bring people together without trying that hard. There has been a rise of good leads during this decade as opposed to the antihero but Brown was always ahead of the curve as early as his work on People Vs. O.J. Simpson and its just as true now. I know he already has his share of Emmys but I want him to get one more. Con: You get the feeling that Brown will win his Emmy in the final season of Paradise. Besides he's not Noah Wyle.

 

Gary Oldman, Slow Horses. For Playing: Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House once again reluctantly trying to stop a terror threat with a group of agents he refuses to like. Pro: Oldman had nothing left to prove by the time he took the role of Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses and its been clear since it debuted he's absolutely having the time of his life. Every line out of his mouth is almost always one of the most hysterical putdowns imaginable, every sloppy meal he eats, every time he's collapsed hungover, hell, his breaking wind actually seems to be a great punctuation mark. And just as London facing the most horrible terror threat its faced yet in five seasons you can just see Lamb rolling his eyes every time his Slow Horses make it clear they have to do something because he knows he's going to have to pull their asses out of the fire, even though they're always right. His utter chaos and slovenly appearance always hides the fact he is the smartest man in every room he's in and you get the feeling he actually resents it more times then not. Oldman is a delight to watch every season and that's never going to change. Con: Eventually Oldman is going to win in this category. Perhaps by Season 10 or 11. Just not this year and its not just because he's not Noah Wyle.

 

Mark Ruffalo, Task. For Playing: Tom Brandis, a former priest turned FBI agent heading a task force while simultaneously dealing with a family tragedy. Pro: When Task finished its first season I went out of my way to praise it for being the first show I'd seen on HBO in a long, long time where the lead was a male character who was basically a good man. It was clear that the horrible tragedy had left Tom broken perhaps beyond repair. Yet being called back to active duty ended up saving him. As he and his battered task force found themselves investigating the series of robberies led against a biker club that led to a young boy being abducted it was striking to see someone who was actually capable of goodness in his soul, even as Tom tracked the man responsible. By the last two episodes it was clear Tom had managed to recover professionally, by the end of the series he had found himself personally yet again. And when you watch the final images of Season 1 you see something I don't remember on an HBO drama in a long time: you've seen a broken man come back to becoming a good one. Its an incredible performance led by one of our greatest actors and a personal best for Ruffalo in a very long time. Con: I mention all of this because, as is with Hannah Einbinder, I'm able to separate myself from Ruffalo's politics which have always been strident and are increasingly overwhelming the man's skills as an actor. His proselytizing throughout the last year has completely overshadowed his work on Task to the point I don't think he has a chance of ever winning another award. It has nothing to do with him not being Noah Wyle.

 

Rufus Sewell, The Diplomat. For Playing: Hal Wyler, the new Vice President of the United States who faces the end of his marriage. Pro: Sewell has been one of the great character actors in film and television for nearly thirty years whether playing the original Alexander Hamilton in John Adams or his work in Parade's End or Lord Melbourne in Victoria or his most prominent TV work as John Smith in the Amazon hit The Man in the High Castle. Then he was cast as Hal Wyler, one of the most prominent figures in foreign service for decades always overshadowing his no-nonsense wife Kate and the world finally caught up with him. I suspect the reason it has taken so long for the Emmys to honor him is that they couldn't decide if he was a Supporting Actor (as the Critics Choice Awards and Astras did in 2024) or a lead (as the Critics Choice Awards did this year.) This year the Emmys finally made up their mind it was the latter and it's about damn time. Hal spent most of the first two seasons trying to put his wife forward for vice president making it clear he wanted her to have power. But when he ended up getting minted by the new President it was actually more fitting for the show both politically and to the character. Hal has never been the kind of man who can just be a good husband and sit in the background, he needs to be pulling the strings. Kate has always known this and when she chose not to follow him to DC after being picked it symbolized a break between the two – but it didn't solve his basic problem. At the end of Season Three we're now aware in a way we haven't been just how dangerous Hal can be near power. And Sewell will be just as riveting to watch. Con: Sewell is the biggest surprise in this category by far, most people expected Walton Goggins to be here for Fallout. His work has always been deserving of a nomination but it wouldn't shock me if he went back to Supporting starting in Season 4. This is already a top heavy category. Besides he's not…

 

Noah Wyle, The Pitt (EXPERTS PICK) For Playing: Dr. Mark 'Robby' Rabinowitch, on his last shift before going on sabbatical and not handling it well. Pro: From the moment you see him riding to work on a motorcycle without a helmet, you know in your heart that Dr. Robby is not okay. And it's almost clear from the moment his shift starts that he has a bone to pick with everybody there for either not meeting his professional or personal standards. He manages to barely hold it together when it comes to every patient he deals with but as each hour passes the contempt he's holding for every staffer, combined with several actions he's taking, you get a feeling something darker is going on until he actually confides in Duke just how badly broken he is and that he actually is thinking of taking his own life. Wyle plays every moment he's onscreen as someone who incredibly traumatized and whose ability to mask it is slipping every minute he's there. When he finally breaks down in the season finale in front of Jack Abbott  - the man he saved last season – you wonder if he's capable of repair. I think we're all grateful to know that when The Pitt was renewed for Season 3 Wyle was still part of the cast: even knowing that he was signed on didn't make you feel any less sure. In just two seasons – hell, in just two days! – Wyle has created one of the most memorable characters in television history. He more then deserves to repeat in this category. The fact that he won the Astra for Best Lead Actor in a Drama – as well as every other Best Actor Award between this Emmys and the last one – makes it pretty clear what's going to happen in a few weeks. Con: Not a damn thing.

 

Prediction: After the season he had, it will be nice to see Noah Wyle smiling for a change.

Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. This one might be closer than you think.

 

 

My Predictions for the 2026 Emmys, Week 2, Part 1: Outstanding Drama Series

 

 

Last year for the first time in my memory we had what amounted to an upset in this category as The Pitt managed to sweep past the heavy favorite Severance and deservedly won Best Drama. Now it is very much a critical and audience favorite and ever since then the odds deservedly are on it repeating in this category.

That said we can't rule out the possibility lightning could strike twice as this is a category full of formidable contenders – especially one where the show begins with a force taking over the world. So with that in mind let's run through the nominees for Best Drama.

 

The Diplomat (Netflix) Pro: Each year The Diplomat keeps getting more and more recognition from the Emmys. Last year it got just two nominations. For Season 3, eight and six were critical ones. As Kate Wyler finds herself in the position that the Vice President she was about to accuse of treason has just become President – and that her husband has now taken the job she spent two seasons being groomed for – the world of The Diplomat keeps getting darker and yet somehow more entertaining. Keri Russell continues to excel in her third classic drama and she is supporting by arguably the most top-heavy class of actors any show has. This series was the 21^st century version of The West Wing even before Alison Janney and Bradley Whitford became the President and First Gentleman and while the idealism of the older series is absent, the realpolitik and sparkling dialogue is present. A slow-building triumph. Con: I can see it winning some awards for acting (see later articles) but not the big prize.

 

The Gilded Age (HBO) Pro: This was the year America stopped hatewatching The Gilded Age and acknowledged what it had always been: one of the best dramas of the decade. Perhaps the seven Emmy nominations it got in 2024 helped it become clear as well. But Season Three upped the already impressive gain by the writers, directors and the extraordinary cast as the status quo became permanently disrupted in both the Russell household and the Van Rijn one. In the former Bertha finally managed to achieve everything she had always wanted in New York society but the result came at the cost of both the family unit and the marriage that she'd increasingly sacrificed for her own ends. In the latter Agnes and Ada spent much of the season trying to figure out who was head of the household while Ada struggled with the loss of her husband. Perhaps joining them together are Marion and Larry each of whom represent the next generation much against the will of their society. Led by a cast of the some of the greatest actresses in TV history from Carrie Coon and Christine Baranski all the way down to an increasing guest cast (Claire Huxtable as an antagonist? Who'd have believed it?) the show cemented its place among the best dramas of the decade. Con: As incredible as The Gilded Age on its network alone it features some of the greatest dramas of its era. The buzz is building but it's not coming this year.

 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO) Pro: I didn't think it was possible to create a Game Of Thrones series for people who hated Game of Thrones. And yet somehow this series, sent a century before the main one, is basically the antithesis of the flagship series. It's episodes are short, all average between half an hour and forty minutes. It has nothing to do with palace intrigues but a humble man trying to become a knight. It's far more a comedy and satire then anything we've gotten from Westeros in fifteen years and two shows. And it never takes itself seriously as all the other version have. That it became a popular sensation is not a surprise; that so many critics and awards show found it entertaining – particular after Season Two of House of The Dragon left them underwhelmed – shows there's still life in this franchise yet. Con: Aside from its nomination for Best Drama, the series received only technical nominations from the Emmys. And considering that it's the mirror image of Task – which was nominated for acting, writing and directing awards but not Best Drama – one wonders if the Emmys got its wires crossed with which HBO series to nominate here.

 

Paradise (Hulu) Pro: It was a shock when this show managed to get nominated for Best Drama last year as well as three other acting nominations. This year no one was surprised when it got nine. Usually when most mythology best dramas expand beyond their ordered world it frequently leads to disaster. Paradise avoided the sophomore slump by remembering the reason we all loved this series had nothing to do with the mystery at the center – like all Dan Fogler shows, it was about the people. Starting by expanding the story with the brilliant standalone episode 'Graceland', Paradise showed us all the chaos that took place after the day while mirroring it with all of the chaos that had unfolded after Xavier left the bunker in search of his family. By comparing the real love that is at the center of the Collins family and expertly mirroring it with the trauma Sinatra never got over Season 2 continued to build a new mission even as it destroyed the bunker it had so painstakingly spend Season 1 building and sending us to the third and final season with an argument: "Nothing is irreversible." No show since Lost has equally matched mystery and humanity better and it is a triumph. Con: You get the feel that if Paradise ends up taking the grand prize it will probably be for its final season. Plus if any post-apocalyptic show wins the Emmy this year, there's a far more likely contender a little down the road.

 

The Pitt (HBO MAX) EXPERTS PICK, MY PICK: Pro: Never has a series come around exactly when America needed it then The Pitt did when it debuted last January and Season 2 has just confirmed that its still everything we need. Watching the title emergency room on July 3^rd we watched the same chaos we saw unfold last season with that same level of trauma. An old regular who'd been there for years passed away on their watch. A victim of sexual assault came in and painfully underwent a rape exam. We witnessed a terminally ill patient decide to end her life in real time. A potential cyber attack forced the ER to go analog – something none of its younger staff were used for. And through it all Dr. Robby, the center of calm during Season 1, spend the day before going on sabbatical increasingly showing signs of fraying patience with everyone around him in a way that became increasingly obvious to his co-workers. Yet to an extent every major staffer is dealing with this deeper PTSD from working at this ER whether it is Langdon coming out of rehab, Mel not able to adjust to her sister having more of a life then her or Dana still not over the assault that happened last year. It is a triumph on every level. It's already won at both the Astras and the TCA for Best Drama for Season 2. The coronation seems close at hand. Con: As we all learned last year we can't take anything for granted and there are quite a few formidable contenders. Such as…

 

Pluribus (Apple TV) DARK HORSE. Pro: Vince Gilligan returned to television and gave us one of the greatest masterpieces of 2025. A series that showed us the alien invasion in a way his work on The X-Files never did in a way television has not demonstrated in almost 25 years of Peak TV. When a hive mind takes over Eart leaving only thirteen people unaffected for most of Season 1 we focus on Carol Sturka (played by the incomparable Rhea Seehorn) the angriest woman on Earth before this began and perhaps the only woman left alive who still knows what it means to be a human. Most of the series is done in long segments of 'show, not tell', frequently with Carol one of the few characters on the screen, then in the second half of the series focusing on Manousos in Paraguay, perhaps the only unaffected person who shares Carol's views about the hive. Pluribus is a series with all the touches were used to from the man who brought us Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul with details that any other showrunner would omit becoming small but vital parts to our enjoyment of the show. (The first meeting between the two people who have to save the world takes place over Google translate.) Next to The Pitt, Pluribus is the most nominated drama with an impressive 19 and is likely to go toe to toe with it in almost every major category. Throw in the fact the Emmys really owes Gilligan for completely skunking Better Call Saul and you can see why it might be chosen. Con:  Every time Pluribus has gone head to head with The Pitt, it has lost whether it is the first season (Golden Globes, Critics' Choice)or second season (Astras, TCA) I really can't see that changing on Emmy night.

 

Slow Horses (Apple TV) Pro: Over the last two years Slow Horses has kind of become a sleeper agent at the Emmys, each year taking a critical prize (Writing in 2024, Directing in 2025) from juggernauts that were overly favored to win. Nearly simultaneously the entire world seems to have fallen in love with the motley crew at Slough House who someone manages to keep saving London from terrorist attacks with the reluctance of the Park and their own boss Jackson Lamb. (Gary Oldman's going to get an Emmy someday.) And honestly few series in the 2020s have dealt with such dark subject and have been such fun to enjoy every moment. The current season which deals with terror attacks, political assassinations and the fact that most of the Slow Horses are still suffering PTSD from the fact their headquarters was invaded and one of their own was killed in front of them. And yet every time you watch the show you get the sense that everyone in the cast, from Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas down to Saskia Reeves and Jonathan Pryce, are having the absolute time of their lives. I don't know how many seasons this show has in it but considering that Mick Herron just wrote another novel for the series, I could live with this strange, strange game going on forever – or at least until it won Best Drama. Con: I can see it snatching one, maybe two small prizes from The Pitt or Pluribus but when it comes to the grand prize, well, let's just say there's a better chance of Lady Di giving Jackson Lamb a knighthood.

 

Your Friends & Neighbors (Apple TV) Pro: Jonathan Topper's show about a former hedge fund manager who becomes a cat burglar became a sleeper hit back in 2025 and it has all the makings of one of those shows that works well in Apple TV's staples. It has an impressive cast headed by Jon Hamm, an interesting plot line that looks like a more fun version of Breaking Bad and unlike far too many dramas on both network it has never pretended to be anything other than what it is. Con: The show made history in a bad way when it became the first drama series in over thirty years when its nomination for Best Drama was the sole nominee for the show. We've seen how this plays out for actors over the years, it sure as hell isn't going to work for this series.

 

Prediction: You can't take anything for granted but I'm pretty sure The Pitt will repeat as Best Drama. And despite my preference for some of the other series in this category, I have no problem with that.

 

Tomorrow I deal with Best Actor in a Drama. It's going to be an honor to lose to Noah Wyle…and some of the nominees already have.

 

 

Now That It's Finally Over I Ask One Last Time, What Was Euphoria's Purpose? (2900th Article)

 

I take a certain pleasure that even before the final season aired, many critics were beginning to wonder if they had been wrong about Euphoria during its first two seasons. By the time it was two episodes underway all the critics who had once raved about it were having similar doubts. And by the time it staggered to its final episode last May the entire world had turned on it. No one, as far as I know, was unhappy that Sam Levenson had announced this was the end of the road.

In showing just how far Euphoria had fallen it plummeted off the list of contenders for Best Drama and indeed most other awards by the time the show was over. After receiving 18 nominations as well as a nomination for Best Drama for Season 2 it was only nominated for six Emmys and only Zendaya was nominated for Best Actress among the major cast. Colman Domingo received a final nomination for Best Guest Actor but that is far more likely to the immense respect Domingo has earned in TV in the interim between seasons.  Any realistic chance of Zendaya managing a three-peat seems unlikely as Rhea Seehorn and Keri Russell have all the momentum behind them.

So now that Euphoria has sputtered to its conclusion I think it's well past time to ask the question that really should have been asked from day one: just what did so many people see in this show that awed them for so long? Because almost from HBO's decision to greenlight it, it seemed like it was a horribly flawed concept.

Much of the anticipatory buzz for Euphoria was the fact that for the first time in two decades HBO was doing a teen drama. That itself should have raised the Jeff Goldblum meme: everyone was so impressed that they could no one considered if they should.

Because HBO and the teen drama were not things that could never go together. Teen dramas in the 21^st century on network television were increasingly being accused of over sexualizing its teenage actors, having them talk with immense adult dialogue and deal with increasingly unrealistic situations. There'd been a lot of controversy over many of the  WB's shows and Glee and those were network dramas. For a network that was known for having 19^th century Americans use what seemed to anachronistic profanity, had showed ancient Rome with an incredible amount of gore, and who had done every kind of perverse act of sexuality imaginable in Westeros doing a show set in high school was a bad match for a reason.

And that's because Euphoria was the first teen drama ever made that no teenager should have watched.  Now I accept that teenagers watched Game of Thrones all the time it was on the air and that the V-Chip and TV ratings have been basically bandages when it comes to controlling the viewing habits of young people. But if you're going to make a show about teenagers there's an argument that it should not  have the same level of profanity, violence or depravity you got on every other HBO show.  I understand the major plus on working for HBO is that they give you the artistic freedom to do whatever you want with no rules. But there's a difference for doing it for mobsters and dope slingers and teenagers at a high school.  I'm honestly stunned that there was no real backlash from any of the critics at the time about any part of it, not the least of which there were so many sequences that stretched the charges of teenage pornography to its limits – and those were just between the student body.

This brings us to the next issue I have with Euphoria: if you take away the aspects of it being a teen drama there wasn't a single issue that hadn't been explored in nearly every other HBO drama in the first two decades of the network's entry into great drama – and had  been done much better.

Let's just start with the main reason Sam Levenson said he wanted to tell the story of drug addiction. That was a feature of every HBO drama from OZ right up to Boardwalk Empire. The seedy underbelly of drugs and the consequences of it have been at every level, most notably in everything David Simon ever did for HBO, but we also saw Christopher famous deal with an addiction to heroin throughout The Sopranos, Alma Garrett's addiction to opium in Deadwood and the issues Claire Fisher had with drugs throughout the first season of Six Feet Under.  If you want to make 'addiction' a broader term, Brenda famously had an issue with sex addiction in Season 2 of Six Feet Under and we all know that vampires have an addiction to a very specific uncontrolled substance.  And it wasn't as though we hadn't seen the effects of addiction on teenagers done so well in The Wire, both the addicts and those in the trade itself.

And that's just HBO. Showtime dealt with the world of drugs quite a bit in its comedies, in perhaps too lighthearted a vein in Weeds, a more serious one in Nurse Jackie and we saw two members of the Gallagher clan end up going to AA by the time Euphoria debuted.  And there was the cartel in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, hell FX debuted Snowfall which dealt with the crack epidemic in LA during the 1980s.

The difference between all of these shows and what Rue was going through in Euphoria was the difference between the kind of dramas HBO made when it transformed television in the 2000s and the kinds of shows it was making by the time it greenlit Euphoria. If you came of age watching these shows you know that what made HBO extraordinary was how it looked at the darkest and seediest underbelly of the America we lived in, whether it was in Oswald Maximum Security or the camp in Deadwood. It was looking at America at the darkest and more importantly working class level of it, with all its failures.

But by the 2010s HBO had essentially moved away from that kind of TV in both comedy and drama, with the sole exception of David Simon who kept to his standards with Treme and The Deuce.  During that era HBO began to move, for whatever reason, towards upwardly mobile and upper class America and their angsts and misfortune. The comedies were essentially all variations of this from Girls to Veep to Silicon Valley while the dramas took this whether we were in Westeros or Waystar Royco.  There were exceptions – Insecure, the first season of True Detective – but basically those were the kinds of TV HBO was making in the 2010s and Euphoria was greenlit during that period.

It's no secret I found much of this programming overrated but it's only recently I've figured out why. HBO was at its best during the 2000s when it look at the darker side of America and compared the struggles of the criminals and thugs in America as something necessary in the decline of the American dream. But by the middle of the 2010s it had basically turned away from those kinds of shows to looking at those struggles from the perspective of white upper-class America, the Masters of the Universe. It's one thing to argue the characters in The Sopranos or The Wire are not bad people, they're just trapping in a horrible broken system and its easier to believe because it involves the less fortunate, and those left behind. But the shows of Armando Iannucci didn't bother with that distinction, and we were being asked to be entertained by people who had all of the power and the wealth in the world – and yet somehow were still unhappy with their lot in life.

Levinson might want to argue that he was trying to paint a world of just how miserable contemporary teenagers were. But it doesn't change the fact that every single one of the high school students was in a world of privilege that everyone in every teenage character from the previous decade of HBO dramas would find them all spoiled kids who don't know how good they have it.

And it's not like there weren't a lot of well-portrayed teenagers during that first decade. Meadow and AJ Soprano were well illustrated in the first few seasons of The Sopranos; Lauren Ambrose's work as Claire Fisher was a force of nature and The Wire was full of brilliant teenage actors who broke your heart ("Where's Wallace?!") Indeed Big Love, a vastly underrated HBO drama, featured the breakout role of Amanda Seyfried as the eldest daughter of the polygamist Hendrickson clan. Clearly Bill's favorite, as the series progresses she becomes increasingly desperate to escape from the quicksand that is their increasingly toxic world. I've never forgotten her incredible breakdown during the classic 'Come, Ye Saints' episode where she suffers a miscarriage from the pregnancy she was hiding from everyone.

All of them would look at Rue in the series premiere when she's just gotten out of rehab again and forces the head of her NA meeting to sign her card and would be appalled. Bubbles would be horrified at her lack of respect. The system was so broken that the best he could hope for is being able to attend an NA meeting after being sent to jail and going to a halfway house. Rue's mother managed to get her into a rich treatment center and she can't even bother to stay sober for a week! Zendaya might be bi-racial but everyone in Baltimore would be exasperated. "All that white privilege and you ain't even using it!" I could see Kima Greggs saying if she busted her.

After Euphoria came to an end Levenson would argue that at a certain level all of the teenagers and adults were dealing with addiction in some form. But that isn't an original insight either. In one of the first episodes of OZ  Augustus Hill argued that everyone was an addict in a sense: "Some people mainline wealth! Some people snort politics." Indeed it was a theme that Fontana came back to quite a few times on OZ and it had weight because the system was so badly broken.

Levinson would also argue that much of Euphoria was based on his own personal journeys. I hate to say this but that's a truth universal to almost every addict and we've read more than our share of memoirs and biographies on it. Not every recovering addict is as fortunate as Levinson to survive and almost none get to make an HBO TV series about their journeys.

None of this would have bothered me if Levinson had any real insight or something original to say with Euphoria.  What we got, honestly, was the same kind of excess that so many viewers were getting on shows like True Blood and Game of Thrones only it was in a contemporary setting and almost entirely focused on teenagers. During the first twenty years of HBO's existence much of the greatest drama came from writers pushing the boundaries of cable TV to tell stories of great substance. Deadwood and Six Feet Under were among the masters of this.

 Euphoria, by contrast, was nothing but an exercise in style and Levenson seemed to use all of this excess to hide that he had really nothing original to say. Even before Season Three debuted many critics were beginning to question Levinson's continuous leaving plots open for an entire season and even beyond that.  Such excesses could be excuse if they were involving adult dramas but because the show was set in a high school it was clear Levinson had left reality three exits back.

It's clear much of the focus was based on so many of the brilliant young things that came out of Euphoria: not just Zendaya, but Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Hunter Schaffer and Maude Apatow.  But none of this hid the fact that we were seeing the same level of excessive nudity and sex that we were getting in any other HBO show and it absolutely should have been questioned given that it debuted during the so-called 'reckoning' in Hollywood in the post-Trump America. People have been questioning some of the excesses of shows like Game of Thrones by that time: Euphoria was infinitely worse in that regard by the end of Season 2 – and no one in Hollywood said boo.

I think by the time Season 3 debuted and by necessity the characters were all essentially twenty-somethings that the critics were forced to realize something that made so much of their raves about the first two seasons. Once all of the characters were adults and in the adult world, then it became very clear just how absurd the show was. All of the storylines Levinson told in Season 3 were even more ridiculous then in the first two seasons but now what seemed like insight into teenagers now really did seem like a bunch of whining Gen Z young adults.

By this time the bloom was well off Levinson as a writer. His follow up series The Idol had become arguably the biggest disaster in HBO's history of original programming, a show so horrible the network canceled it without ever even running the final episode. Levinson was getting horrible behind the scenes press from people who'd worked for him and there were constant complaints that many of the actors such as Zendaya and Sweeney weren't speaking. There was huge anticipation of the third season, mainly because of how he had chosen to shoot it and the storyline.

It became clear almost immediately just how terrible the final season was: critics turned on it with an incredible hostility even though the ratings remained as high as ever. And its worth noting by the time Season 3 debuted HBO had transformed yet again.

During the 2020s HBO had moved far closer to the working-class dramas of its first Golden era. To be sure The White Lotus and The Gilded Age continued to look at the wealthy but there was more of a humanity to it then we got with Iannucci's work. The Last of Us was a different kind of apocalyptic show, more based on paternal relationships and how love makes us do horrible things than zombies. The previous year Somebody Somewhere, one of the great shows in HBO's history, had come to a conclusion and Hacks a far more charming comedy was one of the network's greatest performers. And The Pitt  had just managed a Best Drama victory because it took place in a real world, not the one of Euphoria.

Even in the leadup to Euphoria's final season HBO was continuing to illustrate how the network had changed. Task had been a huge success, examining the messy world of crime and the FBI and Tom Brandis was a complete contrast to the antiheroes that HBO was known for. Knight of The Seven Kingdoms was a complete different side of Westeros, one that seemed more interested in ordinary men becoming knights then struggles for the Iron Throne. And just before Euphoria debuted America fell in love with DTF St. Louis, a series that also involved bizarre sexual fantasies and the internet but had none of the pretension of the former show and didn't take itself seriously for one moment.

Compared to those series the heavily stylized world of Levenson didn't just seem like it came from a different era, it seemed fake and utterly behind the times compared to what the average viewer was getting. The story of Rue's struggles with owing $150 million dollars to her drug dealer from the start of the show seemed like a parody compared to what we'd seen Tom Pelphrey doing during Task. And compared to how silly and light the struggles the love triangle at the center of DTF St. Louis was Sydney Sweeney's OnlyFans market honestly seemed, well, childish. (The conclusion of that story paled compared to how a similar one played out in the Season 4 finale of Industry a few months earlier.)

And all of the horrible mutilations and deaths that followed throughout Season 3 just really seemed like they were par for the course for any other HBO drama during the last quarter of a century. And the series finale didn't even seem like it had any connection to the show those who had stuck with it to the bitter end had started with. It seemed like it belonged in a different show altogether. Season 2 of True Detective was subtler than the finale of Euphoria.

And it basically destroyed the one good character throughout the entire series. Colman Domingo's sponsor of Rue really did seem like he belonged in a different series then this one.  I never believed that anyone would spent so much time trying to help a girl who relapsed time and again, who betrayed his faith over and over, who made it clear she absolutely didn't want to be saved.  There's no way I can read the series finale as anything but how Rue destroyed yet another life along with all the people she hurt during her struggles with addiction.

That's the biggest problem I have with Euphoria. If Levinson's story was just that of an addict and how perilous the journey  is, he could have told this story far simpler in a film. Instead he took three seasons to basically tell you what anyone could have taken away by the end of the Pilot. Rue was a hopeless addict and she was going to destroy anyone who came into her orbit. If the show had ended with her finally turning around it would have been one thing. Instead Levinson took the longest, ugliest and most exploitive journey possible between two points – and then tried to sell her death as some kind of happy ending. There's only one thing worse then a morality tale and it’s a morality tale that doesn't even have a moral. And that's what Levinson gave us over three seasons.

When I get back to it I'll never understand what so many people saw in Euphoria for so long. All I know is what I saw in it was an exploitive demonstration of excess that bordered on child pornography written by a nepo baby who had nothing to say and who HBO allowed him to keep saying it for three seasons over the better part of seven years. Its clear the cast has a great future in front of them and based on all of their non-Euphoria projects they all clearly deserve the accolades come for them down the road. As with so many actors in projects I dislike its clear to me that for performers such as Sweeney and Domingo the show was holding them back from their true potential and I'm glad to see them realizing it in other works.

As for Sam Levenson, whatever buzz he had from the early seasons starting dying after The Idol and the final season almost certainly crushed it. I hope that HBO is done with him after this. They've already made it clear the kinds of dramas they're airing now and have in their lineup are not the kind of shows Euphoria is and the network will be better off for it.

And for the love of God HBO, never do another teen drama again. Stick to what you're good at. Which at this point is basically everything but teen dramas.