Yes, it’s the end of the
year which means it’s time for the end of year awards, and by extension, my
personal favorite awards show when it comes to television. Yes, the HCA TV
awards have stolen my heart with their first two years of awards, but I will
never consider the Critic’s Choice Awards anything less than my first love. How
can anyone not love and awards show willing to recognize Fringe, Orphan Black,
and Fleabag, and is always willing to give recognition to Walton Goggins,
John Noble and Carrie Coon, something no other awards show has done yet?
Of course, the
nominations in television were far from perfect; in the sense that some old standards
were basically ignored and some unusual shows were recognized. But that’s the
reason I love Critic’s Choice in the first place. They have the glorious habit of recognizing
the shows and actors that every other awards show (until the HCA) have a habit
of ignoring. In recent years, the Emmys have begun to mirror more and more of
their choices. I choose to consider this the fact that the Emmys are getting
smarter more than the Critics are getting more traditional. I have a feeling
looking at this year’s nominations, particularly in comedy and drama, there
will be more fun at this awards show and I hope the Emmys decide to engage with
their choice more often.
So here are my
reactions to the major nominees. I’ll start with Drama
OUTSTANDING DRAMA
SERIES
Call it a hunch, but
given that it’s the most nominated drama, I have a feeling the Critics Choice
will be the first awards show that will call Saul for Best Drama. They’ve
always had a soft spot for it before and considering that they did the same
thing for its parent show Breaking Bad, I think it’s inevitable.
I’m not surprised to
see Severance here or The Crown, though I will convince I’m
slightly surprised that it got no other acting nominations. Then again, Netflix
didn’t do well as a whole. Given its mass success, House of the Dragon was
nearly a sure thing, and though I’m not happy, I’m not surprised to see Euphoria
here. Yellowstone has been a favorite for a while.
I’m very happy to see
the final season of The Good Fight get its due. I’m slightly surprised
to see Andor nominated. The biggest shock among the nominated series is
AppleTV’s Bad Sisters. I honestly thought it more likely Ozark
or This is Us would be here instead. And the fourth season of Stranger
Things was ignored. Oh, well. They went up to nine nods this year. Good sign.
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Bob Odenkirk, is this the next step
to his rise to an Emmy? I can hope. Overjoyed to see Sterling Brown here for
one last pass at the prize. Happy to see Adam Scott here for Severance and
over the moon to see Jeff Bridges here for The Old Man. Now he has two
reasons to be at the show in January.
I’m slightly surprised by Antony
Starr’s presence for The Boys as it received no other nominations. Diego
Luna’s nomination for Andor is equally surprising. It would have been
far more likely that Jason Bateman or Dominic West would have been here. But
these are Critics Choices.
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
All right. It was inevitable that
Zendaya was going to be here. I just hope she doesn’t win again, but that’s my
bias.
On to the next group. Thrilled to
see Mandy Moore here and hope she gets the Best Actress prize the Emmys foolishly
denied here. Overjoyed to see Christine Baranski back for one last shot at a
win for her iconic character of Diane Lockhart. For all my problems with Ozark,
they do not extend to Laura Linney. And I’m generally in favor of Kelly
Reilly’s nomination for Yellowstone.
Sharon Horgan is an odd choice. I
have nothing against her or her performance, but it seems very strange that Horgan
was picked over Imelda Staunton or Elizabeth Debicki for The Crown, especially
considering that this has been a category the series has dominated over the
years. Is this a case of Crown fatigue more than anything? Maybe.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Thrilled to see Giancarlo Esposito
in the fight. Little unhappy that Jonathan Banks isn’t here, but Banks has
already taken home one Supporting Actor prize. Overjoyed to see John Lithgow nominated for
his work on The Old Man. Happy to see that Michael Emerson continues to
be so good at being evil and always happy to see Andre Braugher nominated for
anything, especially The Good Fight. (Clearly, the critics love the
Kings.) I’ll even extend some good will towards Matt Smith because I’ve always
admired him as an actor.
I haven’t seen Amazon’s Lord of
the Rings series, so I can’t speak to the wisdom of Ismael Cruz Cordova’s
nomination. I won’t deny I’d rather have seen Justin Hartley here one last time
or Jonathan Pryce. But overall this is a good group.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A
DRAMA
All right. I’m willing to bet even
Carol Burnett didn’t expect to be nominated for her stint in the final season
of Better Call Saul. Hell, I always thought her showing up was a desire
to cross ‘appearing on a Peak Drama’ off her bucket list. But it was a hell of a performance and you can’t pretend it wasn’t
important to the series. I just hope she doesn’t take away votes from Rhea
Seehorn, who more than anything else deserves this one. Then again, given how the Critics Choice has
handled multiple nominees for series like Handmaid’s Tale, The Crown and
Succession, I find it unlikely.
Anyway, the other nominees. Not
even I would dare say Julia Garner doesn’t deserve one more nomination for her
work on the final season of Ozark. I’m thrilled to see Audra McDonald
back here one last time for her work on The Good Fight. I guess the
critics are considering The White Lotus a Drama and not a limited
series, which is why Jennifer Coolidge is in this category. (Then again, last
year The White Lotus couldn’t break into the Best Limited Series
category either, so maybe the Critics just don’t think highly enough of it.)
I don’t know enough about House
of the Dragon to speak about Milly Alcock’s role in it. But I am grateful
that she got it ahead of any of the performers in Euphoria or The
Handmaid’s Tale. (Though I won’t lie I would have lied to see one of the
glorious ladies from This is Us in here one last time.)
Overall, I’m generally satisfied with
the majority of the drama nominees. I’m a little unhappy that Euphoria got
nominated for Best Drama and This is Us wasn’t. And I’m not thrilled
that The Gilded Age was completely shut out. But then again, so were Stranger
Things which was dominant in last year’s Emmys and Westworld and The
Handmaid’s Tale which have been for a while. I can only hope that this is a
good sign when it comes to the Emmys next year. But that is a long way away.
Tomorrow, I will cover the comedies
which, if anything, are better choices than the dramas this year.
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