This isn’t quite my
favorite category among the major nominees but it’s close. Four of my favorite performers are certain to
get nominations. The early awards shows were basically divided between Quinta
Brunson and Jean Smart for the second season of Hacks. With the third season indefinitely delayed Brunson is the odds
on favorite, though not a certainty.
This is an extremely
strong category. I realize a certain returning
nominee will be Rachel Brosnahan for the final season of Marvelous Mrs.
Maisel. I have absolutely no problem with that and am only excluded her because
I did not watch the final season. Given the makeup of the earlier nominations
most of these nominees are sure things. One is a dark horse that will get here
eventually. Without further ado, here we go.
Christina Applegate, Dead
to Me
If the Emmys ever had a sentimental
bone in their body, Applegate would be a certainty to win this category. After
being diagnosed with MS late last year, Applegate made it clear that this would
likely be her final acting appearance. Applegate has been one of the greatest
comic forces in TV history for more than thirty years since her stint on Married
With Children and underrated work on the superb short-run series Up All
Night and Samantha Who. She has only won a single Emmy in her entire
career and she has already been nominated twice for her work as Jen on this magnificent
show. Even if Applegate wasn’t a
sentimental favorite, her performance has been a master class: from the moment
we met her dealing with the death of her husband very badly and the increasingly
messy life she finds herself in with her unlikely and complicated friendship
with Judy, this has been one of the funniest and most powerful character portrayals
in comedy history and it came to a fitting – if melancholy – conclusion last
year. I don’t know if Applegate will win this fall. But I will stick with my
original statement at the end of my rave of the final season of Dead to Me: I
would really like to see her up there.
Quinta Brunson, Abbott
Elementary
Brunson has been almost
since awards season begun, the almost certain winner for Best Actress in a Comedy
for her incredible work as Janine, one of the most beloved leads of a comedy
series in years. And really, there is
absolutely no reason she shouldn’t win. I was slightly disappointed that, after
dominating so many of the awards prior to last year’s Emmys – particularly the
HCA where she took three prizes, including Best Actress and Best Writing – she lost
to Jean Smart. She did, however, win her first Emmy for writing so it wasn’t a
total loss and Smart’s performance was magnificent. The second season gave us even more reasons
to love Brunson the actress as she tried to adapt to having broken up with her
long term boyfriend, tried to begin her next relationship, dealt with the simmering
tension between her and fellow teacher Gregory, which kept warming and in the
season finale, making our hearts break, and her complicated relationships with
her younger sister and her mother who we met in one of the last episodes of the
season. (I have a feeling we’ll be seeing both Ayo Edebiri and Taraji P. Henson
contended for Guest Actress nominees). Janine is always awkward, sometimes
misguided, but her heart is always in the right place and we love her for
trying so hard. Brunson is enough of a
talent that Abbott
Elementary is
really an ensemble show and so many of the other characters have their own
wonderful arcs. But she has given herself a truly magnificent role and she will
win for Best Actress. Likely this year, certainly down the line
Bridget Everett, Somebody
Somewhere
In the case of Bridget
Everett, I’m clearly ahead of the curve. She will someday get nominated for
Best Actress and it will probably happen soon, but likely not this year. There
are too many other contenders that are far more formidable and prominent. Given
the way things are going, just like for the character she plays, it’s a matter
of time both for her and this wonderful series. Sam is a character so good
hearted but flawed you’re honestly stunned to see that’s she’s the lead on the
same network whose most famous female led comedies in recent years have been Veep
and The Comeback, absolutely brilliant show with utterly shallow and
selfish lead characters. Sam is a good-hearted forty-ish woman from Kansas,
whose most exciting goal in life seems to singing in a secret Kansas nightclub and
hanging out with her gay best friend. That’s not to say she can’t be callous at
times, as we saw more than once this season. But she’s warm and funny and a
good sister in a way that most characters on TV – let alone the network that
just brought us the Roys – aren’t. When
she sang Gloria at her friend’s wedding, it was one of the more quietly joyful
moments of 2023 and purely happy. Somebody Somewhere is quietly building
up an awards following, from the Peabodys, the HCA and most recently GALECA. I
don’t think there’s quite enough momentum to put Everett over the top this
year. But she’ll be there. Someday soon.
Selena Gomez, Only
Murders in the Building
The biggest robbery in
last year’s Emmy nominations when it came to comedy was the exclusion of Selena
Gomez in favor of Elle Fanning for The Great. Only Murders in the Building had been by
far the biggest phenomena of the year among comedies: Gomez had already gotten
a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice awards nomination and she ended up winning
Best Actress in a Streaming Comedy from the HCA over not only Fanning but also
Jean Smart. I could not comprehend why Gomez was shut out. Now it’s almost
certain Gomez will be among the nominees this year, mainly because three of the
major presences from last year – Smart, Kaley Cuoco and Issa Rae are ineligible.
Fanning may very well end up being included, but it’s hard to comprehend
shutting out Gomez’s incredible work as Mabel, whose performance was just as
incredible this year as it was last year. She continued to impress in ways we just
seen, both in the secret passages, how she saw the world and her new relationship
with Alice Banks (Cara Delevingne will likely contend for a Guest Actress
nomination) Considering that Gomez had already been a prominent figure among
the early nominations (including quite a few from this year’s MTV Movie and TV awards),
if Gomez doesn’t get a nomination this year, well, it’ll be a mystery I’m not
even sure Mabel could solve.
Natasha Lyonne, Poker
Face
I make no secret of how
enamored I am of Natasha Lyonne in almost everything she has done the last
decade. Her presence on Poker Face basically
made me subscribe to Peacock after three years of holding out. And watching her
play Charlie, the ex-cocktail waitress who can always tell when your lying, has
been one of those joys of the last few months. If in the second season of Russian Doll she
proved herself a worthy heir to Doctor Who, here Lyonne proves that she could
be just as good as Colombo as she finds herself solving murders involving some
of the most bizarre and eccentric situations in America by some of the dumbest
criminals on television. I swear she’s trying to emulate Peter Falk with each new
episode: she’ll probably be saying ‘One more thing’ by the finale. Throw in the
fact that Lyonne was robbed last year for her work on Russian Doll and I
will be thrilled to see her back on the nominees stand this year.
Jenna Ortega, Wednesday
Now I realize that some of
Ortega’s comments online have made things, shall we say, awkward as the writer’s
strike continues to grow. But please don’t let that get in a way of the fact
that she is an absolute delight to watch as the title character on this
wonderful comedy-supernatural mix. Ortega’s deadpan delivery carries on the
tradition going back sixty years (Christina Ricci must be so proud to be there
to see it) and every line that comes out of her is an absolute joy. Her sheer
presence carries the story over some of the clear weaknesses I’ve seen in this
series and considering that she went viral from one of the most memorable dance
sequences in all my years of watching television, Ortega is clearly a superstar
in the making. She has already received nominations from every award group
leading up to the Emmys; there is no doubt she will get there in a month.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Linda Cardellini, Dead
to Me
It has been such a genuine
certainty of Applegate’s presence at the Emmys this year that for understandable
reasons her wonderful co-lead has been forgotten in the awards buzz. Applegate
had been nominated at the three major awards groups I mentioned; Cardellini was
shut out. I get why but it’s unfair. It was heartbreaking to watch Applegate in
part because we knew this was her final role; it was heartbreaking to watch
Cardellini because most of her storyline was so tragic. Diagnosed with pelvic
cancer in the third season premiere, facing
a death sentence she had refused to d0 anything to try and stop,
watching her try to live and try to protect the woman she had come to love
despite everything this year – this is the kind of work that would get
Cardellini a nomination in a field that was not this crowded with so many more
than qualified nominees. Considering she earned an Emmy nomination in the
second season, you’d hope the Emmys reaction of carrying over previous
nominations would hold, but I think it’s unlikely. That said, I still think she deserves as much
recognition as Applegate does for the final brilliant year of this show.
Tomorrow, I consider Best
Supporting Actor in a Comedy. This will be complicated, I know.
Support the WGA!
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