OUTSTANDING LIMITED
SERIES
Two notes before we begin. As always with the
majority of the acting nominees I will be focusing on limited series rather
than TV movies.
The second is more important for the purpose of
this category. Just as with last year when I acknowledged that Night Country
was going to be one of the nominees for Best Limited Series but because of
my opinions of it I couldn't in good
conscience endorse it, I can't do the same with Adolescence for Best
Limited Series. I will do so in the acting categories below but compared to so
many of the other great limited series I saw in the lead-up to the Emmy
nominations, I don't think it deserves to be considered that way. I acknowledge
I'm in the minority but I can live with that.
So here we go again.
Dying for Sex (Hulu)
So far in 2025 this incredible dark, sexual and
often hysterical true life story is likely going to be on my top ten list of
this year. It's a mix of genres that should not work at all: facing ones death of
cancer, going on a sexual walkabout, dealing with abuse and frequently being
hysterically funny about much of it. And somehow through the work of Liz Merriwether
and her band of writers and an incredible cast, this show is one of the most
delightful series of 2025.
Michelle Williams yet again returns to television
in order to die but this time she's determined to 'come, come against the dying
of the light'. We see her traveling through Tinder, dealing with her messy
family (Sissy Spacek will likely be considered among the contenders for
nominations) an incredibly bizarre group of erotic partners including one she
only knows for much of the series as Elevator Guy (look for Rob Delaney to
contend) an endless stay as things get far worse and a wondrous journey with
her best friend in an incredible performance by Jenny Slate.
This limited series was the most radically
experimental show of all of the five nominees and even more risky. A single
wrong step and all of this could very easily have been unwatchable or bleak
beyond imagination. Instead right up until the very end there was joy to be
found in it (and flying penises!) and the possible of moving forward after the
worst thing that can possibly happen.
Monsters: The Erik & Lyle Menendez Story (Netflix)
Just as with Dahmer it took me a bit of
time to engage with Ryan Murphy's latest Netflix docudrama about two notorious killers.
But it was a lot easier to engage with and find something remarkable about it. In fact, the
comparisons to the frontrunner in this category Adolescence are hard to
escape.
This series deals with an unthinkable crime
happening in a community. 1990s Beverly Hills may be different from the present
of Adolescence but we can see the shock waves Erik and Lyle's murders of
their parents send through not just their country but America. Why would these
two boys of privilege murder their parents? During the second third of the
series we get one side of it: that Erik and Lyle were horribly abused throughout
their childhood and adulthood and may have been the subject of horrible sexual
molestation. Indeed 'The Hurt Man' episode parallels the equally remarkable
Episode 3 of Adolescence as Erik reveals to his attorney the horrific abuse he
underwent in a single take.
But then the series shifts in a way Adolescence
never does. We spend an episode with Jose and Kitty, played exceptionally
by Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny. For the first time we see Erik and Lyle's
story through their eyes and it throws everything we've believed in to
question. This sets us up for the final third of the series when we begin to
see the gaps and holes in their story, the flaws that led to the case being a
mistrial and how it became very clear that so much of what they said might have
been a lie – and the circumstances that led to their sentence to prison. Circumstances
have changed to lead to their parole but I left convinced of their guilt in a
way no trial ever could.
This showed Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk at the
peak of their abilities in the kind of work they did masterfully on the first
two seasons of American Crime Story. It deserves whatever nominations it
gets and more recognition than Adolescence.
The Penguin (HBO)
The majority of the nominees in this category
were contenders for awards at the end of last year. The Penguin was by
far the most frequent contender and won by far the most awards in the leadup to
the Emmy nominations. And no one who saw a minute of it can deny just how
incredible it was.
The series took place in the Gotham City of the
most recent Batman film but for all intents and purposes it could just
have easily been a version of all of the great crime dramas fans loved in the first
decade of this century. This was likely intentional, starting from Colin
Farrell's incredible work as Oz Cobb. He disappeared into this role and I don't
just mean the makeup that is absolutely going to win an Emmy along with Farrell
himself. The series was not so much drawn from the world of DC Comic but The
Sopranos and I suspect in the years to come fans of Peak TV will be pointing
out the Easter eggs to that as well, starting with Oz's complicated
relationship with his mother – and how that played out in the series finale.
Farrell wasn't channeling Burgess Meredith or Danny DeVito but the late James
Gandolfini in every breath of his work and it led to a performance that has already
won every major Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series for the last six months.
Of course the real breakout performance was
Cristin Milioti's incredible work as Sofia Falcone, released from Arkham due to
overcrowded and trying to find a place for herself in the world after a horrific
experience where she was betrayed by everyone she dared to trust. Milioti's performance
was more layered than Farrell's because by the end of it she had enough
self-awareness to walk away from the mess of Gotham but she was betrayed by
those around her for a fate worse than death.
Farrell and Milioti were joined by an incredible
cast of supporting actors all of whom from Rhenzy Feliz and Clancy Brown down
to the incredible Diedre O'Connell will be among the front runners for
nominations in the weeks to come. The majority have already received multiple
nominations by different groups. And artistically and technically this was the
most striking limited series among this incredible group, almost certain to win
so many of the other awards for editing, music and cinematography.
This series was number 3 on the top ten list of
2024 and more than deserves to be the winner this year. I don't think it will
but if it does, it will be a great and little thing.
Presumed Innocent (Apple TV)
Perhaps because it was unclear whether Presumed
Innocent would be an original series or a limited series, awards shows have
not been quite sure where to classify it. It has been nominated for many acting
awards and indeed most of its cast is likely to contend but no one was sure
where to put it. Now that it is going to be an anthology series I believe it
has a great chance of contending for nominations.
David E. Kelley took Scott Turow's classic novel
and moved it into the present day without having to change that much. Indeed
given the nations obsession with true crime and the media circus being even
greater today then it was in the 1980s, it translated even better than it did
in the film. Jake Gyllenhaal took the role of Rusty Sabich, the Cook County
prosecutor who quickly becomes the suspect in the murder of a fellow district
attorney – who was also his lover – and takes into the direction of madness,
toxic masculinity and something close to a delusion. It is the kind of
performance deserving of a nomination.
The entire cast was more than up to the challenge
in this version. Such masters as Bill Camp and Ruth Negga were remarkable in
the roles on Rusty's mentor and beleaguered wife but it was the work Peter Sarsgaard
as Tommy Molto, the obnoxious, feral prosecutor who is convinced of
Tommy's guilt that sticks with you.
Everyone underestimating Tommy, including Rusty, but from the moment he stepped
into the courtroom you saw the other side of him and it was magnificent.
There were alterations to the story of course –
including a twist on the twist ending – but I'd argue all of them made this
version far more powerful and riveting to watch. Apple TV has a lot of
formidable contenders in this category, including Alfonso Cuaron's Disclaimer
that would be good choices but this one is my first chair.
Three Women (Starz)
Three Women has had a long journey just getting put on TV in the first place. It
was greenlit by Showtime in 2021 and filmed before it was cancelled along with
a group of other stirring original programs. Like Ripley another force
came into save it, this time a fellow cable network Starz. And those like me
who saw it were quickly immersed in one of the most radical and erotic works of
art of 2024.
Based on Lisa Taddeo's non-fiction best seller
the story follows twenty-something New York writer Gia (an impressive as always
Shailene Woodley) as she travels across country trying to learn the stories of
women in 2010s America. She tells the story of three of them who she meets:
Lina in Indiana, a homemaker who when we meet her hasn't been touched by her
husband in three months; Sloane, an African-American wife in Montauk, who
brings both men and women into her bed along with her husband; and Maggie, a
twentyish waitress who has never been able to get over what her high school
English teacher did to her.
The stories that we see are, to state the
obvious, as relevant as anything you'll find in a show like The Handmaid's
Tale but far more adultly addressed. These are women who as Gia tells us
"want more". These are women who will try to find companionship in the
past and try to regain it; women who think they have it all but still can't
figure out that empty place in them; women who try to use the justice system to
redress wrong and are turned into harridans by their neighbors. And yet in all
three stories we find humor, optimism and some of the most tastefully done
eroticism that television has managed to do in a very long time.
Three Women is the kind of limited series that the Emmys frequently ignore
because it's on either the wrong network or because it's not flashy in the way
other shows are. But it is just as magnificent as so many of the front runners
in this list. I have been down this road before with Gaslit and Homecoming
and have always been dismayed – though not surprised – when they are
rejected by the Emmys. But I will keep advocating for them because in my own
way, I want more for characters and stories like this.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Accused (Fox)
This is the kind of series that network
television doesn't make anymore. Honestly it's the kind of series Peak TV
barely touched on cable or streaming. It is an anthology series but one that
tells a different story with a different set of actors each week. It takes issues
and crimes that we see in the news every day – road rage, steroid abuse, facial
recognition software, AI – and goes from the kind of 'ripped from the headline'
fodder we are used to on Law & Order to look at the human side of
this incredibly real story.
The second season had a better cast and more
fascinating stories than the incredible first one: each with performances that
should have been considered for awards. My personal favorite, a brilliantly
directed piece which featured Taylor Schilling playing a housewife who finds
herself the unlikely victim of road rage – was the kind of tour de force I had
stopped thinking network TV could do these days.
Throughout the season we saw so many of the best
character actors on TV – Felicity Huffman, Michael Chiklis, Mercedes Ruehl, Ken
Leung – playing ordinary people who find themselves in horrible situations
usually beyond their own making that have spiraled. Howard Gordon doesn't so
much see criminals or even bad people but uses the format of a trial to show the
America we live in today.
As of this writing, it is still unclear if Accused
will return for a third season. I hope it does but I understand why Fox
would cancel it. I also understand why the Emmys has a hard time recognizing
it: this is not the kind of show that fits easily in a box. But it is the kind
of show that deserves recognition and I will continue to push for it.
Tomorrow I will deal with Outstanding Lead Actor
in a TV Movie/Limited Series. As always I will lean in to the Limited Series
part.
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