My Predictions (And Hopes) For This Years Emmy Nominations, Week 2, Day 1: Outstanding Comedy Series

 

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.)