First things first. I
acknowledge that Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Ted Lasso, both in
their final seasons, will be preeminent among the nominated series. However, I am not including either one among
the nominated shows. For the former, it is simply because I never truly got
caught up on it and am unlikely too until long after this Emmy season is over.
The latter, I will get caught up on, but I view of a more critical lens: based
on much of what I have heard from my fellow critics, it sounds like it does not
deserve to be nominated for Best Comey considering how horrid the third season
seems to have been. For those purposes, I shall exclude it here (but not
entirely when it comes to acting awards)
I intend to concentrate on
five series that I have seen so far that will certainly be among the nominees:
three of them have dominated the award season so far; the fourth is a certainty
given how well it exited the stage and the fifth is certainly rising quickly.
One I have every intention of getting two in the weeks to come, and the last
two are long shots to say the least, but since I ranked them as among the best
series of 2022, I feel they more than
deserve to be among the nominees. Here we go.
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Is there anything left to
say about the comedy series that has completely and utterly revived the
broadcast comedy which only last year was considered a dying art form? It is
everything that a great television show should be – incredibly written,
directed, acted, with some of the most memorable characters that have been
introduced on TV this decade. We have the potential for the greatest slow-burn
love story in history, one that we know will pay off when the characters get
there. We have some of the funniest
guest actors and actresses in years, who will very likely dominate the
nominations. It is timely because in an
era when public schools are under attack like never before, this shows looks at
teachers in an underfunded world and makes them people we root for. It has the
greatest cast of comedy performers since Parks & Rec left the air
nearly a decade ago – only almost all of them are minorities who lacked the
representation we saw in Pawnee. Every awards show to this point – the Golden
Globes, the SAGs, the Critics’ Choice – have already given it Best Comedy
series. It dominated the Image Awards, has already won a Peabody, got
nominations from the MTV awards and GALECA. At this point, the question is not will
Abbott Elementary win the Emmy for Best Comedy, but how many other awards
it will end up winning?
Atlanta (FX)
I can not comprehend why Atlanta,
which the awards circuit basically worshipped the first two seasons it was
on the air, basically ignored it during Season 3 and may very well do so again
this year. Perhaps after the pandemic and everything that happened in the last
few years, we already feel in a sense that the world that Donald Glover and his
team of writers have created is basically to normal for us to live in. But it’s going to take some real maneuvering
to justify shutting it out this year. As we went into the final season with
Earn, things just kept crazy. Earn went on a path of vengeance against a woman
who cut him off. Van found her daughter nearly abducted by Mr. Chocolate.
Alfred finally achieved superstardom and was nearly killed by a goat. And in
the final episode Darius admitted that everything in this world was just to
weird to be real. And that’s without getting trapped in the mall for eternity
or the standalone that told the story of the only African-American to run
Disney. There have been few shows that defied the nature of reality as well as Atlanta
did over four incredible seasons. The Emmys need to recognize it.
Barry (HBO)
One such series that
defied the nature of reality as well as Atlanta did was Bill Hader’s Barry
which also completely stuck the landing in a way that few great comedies –
or dramas – ever do. In the final season, all of the evil that surrounds Barry
hit everybody he came into contact with. Noho Hank, the mobster we all loved,
became fundamentally evil and to save himself, ended up letting the man he love
die. Sally lost everything and ran off with a man who she knew was a monster
and had a child she didn’t love. Gene ended up destroying himself on his own
ego, came to his senses, and took punishment he didn’t deserve. And Barry
himself basically ended up getting away with everything he did. I mean, in a
sense he paid for his crimes, but this is Hollywood and we all know what that
does the truth. Hader and his incredible
cast created one of the most incredible final season, one that transcended the
nature of a comedy and has put him on the map as one of the great creative
forces of Peak TV – and maybe anything else he wants to do. He’s already been
compared to the Coen Brothers and Jordan Peele, and if you saw the final
season, it’s dead on. There will be many nominations for Hader as actor, writer
and director. Many of his fellow cast member will get nominations as well. Will
any of them win? Who knows? But they’ve done their job well enough to know that
awards don’t mean anything.
The Bear (FX on Hulu)
One of the great
discoveries of 2022-2023 season was this dark series about one of the greatest
sous chefs country taking on the Sisyphean task of trying to get his late
brother’s bankrupt sandwich shop out of an impossible debt. That Carm’s way of
doing business was utterly out of step with what people wanted was one of the
great struggles of this rookie show. Jeremy Allan White, who for more than a
decade was the secret weapon of Shameless, has finally received the
recognition he deserves from the Emmys for his incredibly comic and traumatic
work as Carm. But he is more than backed up by an incredibly gifted cast of
performers, some of whom I hope to see nominated as well (I’ll get to them
below) as well as some of the most memorable episodes of the year, including
the penultimate one which seemed to be done in a single take, and the season
finale when in a five minute monologue Carm finally revealed why he had come
back to Chicago and just how much the guilt has driven his actions. This series
will likely dominate the nominations and awards circuit for years to come, and
few are more deserving.
Only Murders in the
Building (Hulu)
This is the series I
mentioned that I still haven’t gotten around to. I think its safe to say given
how well the second season has been doing on the nominations circuit that it’s
going to be back her and it more than deserves to. Our favorite trio is now trying
to prove themselves innocent of a murder they’re accused of, they found out
their building has more secrets and secret passages, and they’re still dealing
with the fallout of their podcast that ended last season. We all that Steve
Martin and Martin Short are going to get Emmy nominations (and may get them
from their wondrous guest hosting of SNL) I can only hope that the Emmys
decide to include Selena Gomez this year (please explain why Elle Fanning got
invited instead) and I have little doubt there will be a lot more guest
performers. I’ll try to get involved in Season 3 quicker this time (Meryl’s
starring! Of course I will) but in the meantime, we all know that when it comes
to this show, the Emmys have no reason to go in a whole new direction.
Poker Face (Peacock)
There are not a lot of
actresses who could justify me subscribing to an entire streaming service, but
that’s the kind of performer Natasha Lyonne is. And Poker Face is one of
those series is both a perfect satire and homage to the mystery procedural it
sends up. The series has barely bothered to hide how much of a satire of Colombo
it is (Lyonne is actually beginning to sound more like Peter Falk
with each new episode) and the reason he achieves its goals is because none of
the murders and criminals can remotely be taken seriously or considered master
criminals. Charlie Cale can always tell when people are lying (which as she
says, isn’t as useful as you’d think) and you can tell she really doesn’t want
to waste her time solving these murders. I mean, she’s running from a mobster
who will kill her eventually. The thing is
these crooks are both so idiotic and incompetent that Colombo wouldn’t need an
hour and a half to trap them but Charlie can figure it out while still staying
in hiding. The series will very likely dominate the Guest Actor and Actresses
among the next month because there are few shows that practically beg for
the guest cast to chew the scenery. Maybe Poker Face isn’t as dark or
deep as some of these comedies, but who cares? It’s just fun.
Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)
Given how things went last
year, if there’s an FX comedy produced by Taiki Waititi that’s going to get
nominated for Best Comedy, it’s going to be What We Do In The Shadows. I’ve
seen the series, and I can’t blame the Emmys; it’s a barrel of laughs and it’s
a work of art. The thing is, Reservation Dogs is, at times, just as much
fun to watch as WWDITS but it can also far more dark and engaging. Such
was the case in Season 2 when the original crew spent much of the season
divided among themselves. Elora made a trip to California that ended in
disaster and she and Bear spent much of the season feuding, Cheese ended up in
a foster home, Willie Jack thought that the group was cursed. There was a passing among the family that
brought them together, there was traumas them apart. But they did make it to
California. There were also Navajos going to a conference to hook up and Zahn
McClarnon actually found out one of his conspiracies was real. This series has
gotten a fair amount of recognition from other awards groups – the Critics
Choice nominated for several awards, it was in the running for Peabody, and
even the Dorian awards named it one of the most unsung shows of the year. Now tell
me that doesn’t deserve an Emmy?
Wednesday (Netflix)
It took me a bit to get
won over by this bizarre spinoff of The Addams Family but it’s hard not
to love every aspect of this wildly weird show that plays on every
eccentricities of the Addamses put in the world that they don’t fit in. And
yes, I know the WGA doesn’t love Jenna Ortega right now, but I still do.
Unabashedly. Not since Aubrey Plaza has an actress managed to turn deadpan into
an art-form (I loved their bit at the SAG awards; I hope to see them do it
again at the Emmys) but I’m genuine awe of most of the young cast, worshipping
at the feet of Riki Lindhome and Christina Ricci (as if I ever needed a reason)
and hoping that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman get some Emmy love too. It’s creepy and its kooky, mysterious and
spooky. It’s altogether ooky, now give it some Emmy nods.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Dead to Me
I had a lot of choices for
this; I was tempted to advocate for Somebody Somewhere or Lucky Hank,
both of which are among my favorite shows of 2023, but I’m going to go with
this one instead. It’s a near certainty that Christina Applegate will get an
Emmy nomination for Best Actress for what she has said will, due to her health,
likely be her final performance. But the thing is, the final season more than
deserves some recognition for Best Comedy. The complicated friendship between
Jen and Judy has been one of the more beautiful stories I have had the
privilege of watching on television and I was heartbroken to see it end in more
ways than one. Linda Cardellini is just as much a force as Applegate is and its
been wonderful watching both of them, alone and together, try to deal with the
incredibly and increasingly messy criminal situation there in, the horrible
relationship that they have with Ben and his family, and the fact that Judy is
facing the end of her life. That they made a show as funny as it was in its
final season is a credit to the entire cast and every aspect of the writing. I’m so sorry that Applegate has to end her
acting career, but there are few series that have been more worthy of her
talent.
Tomorrow, I deal with
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy. This time, I’ll remember how many performers
will be allowed in this category. (Well, sort of.)
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