Before we get
started I’ve mentioned repeatedly over the last year that the Emmys when it
comes to drama is in a period of transition. Because two of the greatest series
in history – Better Call Saul and Succession – concluded last
year, because of the work stoppage and because of the gaps that increasingly
come between seasons of television, it’s not clear how many of the nominees in
this category will return to it in the future. The Crown is the only
nominee for Best Drama that was nominated in this category before and it has
come to an end this season. The Morning Show, while it has been
nominated for numerous acting awards, only this year was nominated for Best
Drama. And while many, if not most of the six remaining nominees either had
strong freshman seasons or have flown under the radar for their run, one
wonders how many of them would have been nominated were it not for the strike.
The glut of previous
nominees in this category started in June when House of the Dragon came
back for its second season. Other previous nominees such as The Diplomat and
Squid Game will debut by the end of 2024 and it is a near certainty that
shows that dominated this category over the past two years such as The White
Lotus, Severance, Yellowjackets and The
Last of Us will have aired their new seasons by the time we are considering
nominations for next year. Whether any of these nominees will be here when they
get around to airing new seasons will be a question for the future. Speaking
strictly for myself, however, having seen several of them over the last few
months they are worthy contenders for nominations this year and I hope to see
many of them back in years to come. So let’s start in this category.
OUTSTANDING
DRAMA SERIES
3 Body Problem (Netflix) Odds:10-1.
Pro: I’ll
say this for David Benioff and D.B. Weiss they don’t do things by halves. Their
next major project after leaving Game of Thrones behind was another
sci-fi trilogy that many had thought was unfilmable: Liu Caixin’s Remembrance
of Earth’s Past. And they went from the far past to the often distant
future to deal with the possibility of an extra terrestrial invasion that will
come within half a century and deals with multiple timelines. It would be so
much easier just to do Thrones spin-offs. But they took it on and they
managed to adapt it to Netflix. They didn’t walk away from the ambitious
contours of the novel and they picked and chose the sections that they thought
would resonate. And they’ve started work on what will likely be a long term ambitious
goal. Con: A lot of people think that this nominee is the donkey of the
category; it is the only nominated series with no corresponding acting, writing
or directing nominations. And I’m pretty sure no one’s forgiven them for the
series finale of Game of Thrones yet and may not until 2450.
The Crown (Netflix) Odds:
6-1. Pro: One
of Netflix’s most outstanding and consistently brilliant series came to a conclusion
this year not with Elizabeth’s death but with a coming of the new era. The
series spent its final season with the monarchy finally accepting the relationship
of Charles and Camilla, the repercussions of Diana’s death and the inevitable losses that come with
age, particularly the demise of the most consistently tragic character
Margaret. But even as the monarchy moved to the new millennium, it showed that it
– and Britain itself – was as much a prisoner of its past as all the players in
the royal family themselves to be. Peter Morgan has brilliantly used the saga
of the monarchy to show the broken nature of England the same way that David
Simon used how the drug war has destroyed Baltimore and by extension, the American
dream. And he has done so in a way that features some of the most consistently
brilliant writing, directing and acting that has been seen on any platform in
the last decade. The Crown has been a triumph and a win would be worthy
achievement. Con: The closer that Morgan has approached the present day,
the harsher the criticism for his masterwork has become both in his native
England and her in America. While I don’t think that’s fair, in the final
season he made some very questionable choices in his writing style that went
against much of the realism that we had seen in the previous five seasons. Combined
with the general feeling that the show has already taken its fair share of
awards, the Emmys may well feel it doesn’t need one more grand prize.
Fallout (Amazon) Odds:
9-1. Pro: Until
Borderlands bombed last month, it seemed like Hollywood had finally
started to get video game adaptations right, first with its incredible retelling
of The Last of Us, now with its brilliant satirical reimaging of this
classic game. Telling an alternate store of the past to reflect the world of
the videogame, this was by far the most visually arresting nominee in this
category and it was filled with some incredible performances by some of our
greatest actors from Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins on down. The future in Fallout’s
world may not be brilliant, the future for the series, particularly with awards,
looks golden. Con: It’s not yet clear if the Emmys is yet in a place to
give awards for video game adaptations. Other awards show are more willing:
Pedro Pascal won more than his share of awards last year and The Last of Us did
win many acting Emmys. But whether the Emmys is willing to do so for this is a
harder sell.
The Gilded Age (HBO) Odds: 9-1.
Pro: As
someone who has been one of this series biggest cheerleaders since it debuted
back in January of 2022 few people were more overjoyed than I too see this brilliant
period piece of 1880s New York enter the pantheon of Emmy nominees this year. Looking
at the battle between the old and new guard of New York society through a
battle of the Metropolitan Opera house was another of the masterstrokes of this
season. Watching the battle over unions in the railroad as well as the problems
African-Americans faced in the post-Reconstruction South showed parallels to
battles we are still fighting today – and may never truly win. And perhaps most
brilliantly Gilded Age represents a major transition from the era of the
White Male Antihero by making almost every major character in this story
fighting for power a scheming, brilliant female trying to maneuver behind the
scenes. Considering that this series has some of the greatest actresses all
doing some of the best work in long and storied careers in television and mixed
with exceptional newcomers this is a glorious addition to the HBO pantheon as
well as Peak TV. Con: Despite everything I’ve said, I can’t help but
think the only reason The Gilded Age is here is because none of the three
of last year HBO nominated dramas were eligible. The Gilded Age in my
opinion is superior to several of them (definitely Euphoria and possibly
House of the Dragon) but because it doesn’t look or sound like an HBO
drama (it could just as easily be on PBS considering the almost complete
absence of the sex, violence and profanity that we’ve come to expect from this
network) there has been a tendency to undervalue it. Much as I’d like it to
win, I don’t think it has a real chance.
The Morning
Show (Apple
TV) Odds: 8-1. Pro: After
two years of getting many of its leads nominated but never getting a nomination
for the top prize, this brilliant drama set in a daytime show finally got
recognized for Best Drama. And it’s been waiting for a while: this is a series
that has combined a mixture of some of the greatest performers, almost all of
them the greatest actresses and character actress of our time with a recognition
of the real world that by far most of the dramas today and even in Peak TV
basically choose to ignore. For all its arguments of being compared to lesser
Aaron Sorkin, the show takes a far more realistic look at the world than Studio
60 and The Newsroom did and with a female gaze that he hasn’t been
able to master on TV in a long time. And its not always a pretty picture,
particularly when it comes to the reality of TV news in a world that is being
dominated by the wealthy. The show dominated many of the major nominations from
the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice to even the People’s Choice Awards. It
might well be time. Con: It has to be said most of the Emmy winning
series throughout the last decade in this category don’t take place in present
day America. From Game of Thrones to The Handmaid’s Tale to The
Crown, the Emmys don’t like recognizing the present and if they do it’s
through the very wealthy such as Succession rather than the modern world
like This is Us or Better Call Saul. This isn’t the show that the
Emmys give the grand prize too.
Mr. and Mrs.
Smith (Amazon)
Odds: 7-1. Pro: Of
the series nominated for their freshman season this show is by far the most
best mainly because it has vastly abandoned any real resemblance to its source
material. Donald Glover’s follow-up series to Atlanta is a similar mix
of genres (comedy, drama, thriller, domestic piece) and both he and co-lead
Maya Erskine are incredible as the title married couple who work for ‘a company’
on missions and marriage. The series follows them on a series of increasingly
bizarre missions that quickly become background to the conflicts in their
personalities and eventually their marriage. Using a vast array of some of the
greatest actors of the era in guest roles with the same brilliance that we have
seen on Poker Face the series has built one of the most remarkable
worlds in TV I’ve seen so far this year. It has been renewed for a second
season though it is still unclear if Glover and Erskine will be back for the
next season. Regardless it is one of the best new shows of the year and one of
the best series of 2024. Con: But will that be enough to get it over the
top? Historically the Emmys have a hard time recognizing series that don’t
easily fit in the drama category. One could just as easily see Mr. and Mrs.
Smith in the comedy category (it would certainly fit better than some might
say The Bear does) and it might very well be a ‘fail’ for this show.
Shogun (FX) Odds: 4-1.
Pro: Many
might have questioned the idea to remake one of the landmark miniseries of the
1980s for the modern era. The first episode was enough for any rational person
to discount that idea. By completely changing the context of the show from
looking from the white perspective to entirely the Japanese the writers and
directors completely reinvented what a historical epic could look like for
television. Cast almost entirely with Japanese actors in every role, Shogun gave
us from the top down some of the greatest performances of 2024, from Hiroyuki
Sanada in the title role to Anna Sawai as Mariko, who has quickly become
embraced as one of the great performances this year. Both are deservedly heavy
favorites to win in this category. Just as important, in my opinion, would be
the long overdue recognition of FX in this category. For nearly a quarter of a
century FX has been second only to HBO when it comes to being the most
consistent producer of great dramas, from The Shield to Damages to
Justified to The Americans yet despite winning multiple acting
awards it has never won the top prize. FX was the most nominated network this
year, topping even Netflix and HBO. It is time for the network to be crowned
for its rule. Con: The fact that FX chose to renew Shogun for a
second season and decided to submit it in the drama category instead of Limited
Series this spring didn’t sit well with a lot of people. That may count against
it.
Slow Horses (Apple TV) Odds:
7-1. Pro: Over
the spring and summer I’ve had the great joy to have found this wonderful British
spy drama which, like the island of misfit toys that work at Slough House, has
the great capacity to outperform the expectations set on it. Led by the
incomparable Gary Oldman in a role where he is clearly having more fun that he
has in all his year as an actor as Jackson Lamb, this sly and engaging thriller
looks at the world of modern London and constantly shows that without the people
British Intelligence considers failures, Britain would have succumbed to
terrorists attacks years ago. It took a while for the Emmys to discover the
joys of this series. I hope they never walk away from it. Con: I’m not
entirely sure whether Slow Horses presence here is due to the fact that other
series (Severance is the most obvious one) are absent. This is one of
those great shows that traditionally gets recognized when the other ‘great
shows’ aren’t around. Fitting for the title characters.
Prediction: I still don’t
know how they’ll do a second season but I know Shogun deserves to win
and that it will.
Tomorrow I deal
with Outstanding Actor in a Drama. Some of my all-time favorite performers are
in this category. I’ll have fun.
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