Those of you who are long time
readers know that I've been covering the Emmy nominations every year at this
time. There has been a pattern. I rant and rave at the idiocy of the academy,
say they are stuck in old habits, then go into great lengths to pick apart
every choice they made, even the good ones.
Last year that pattern changed
when I told my readers that I was by and large mostly okay with the majority of
the 2024 Emmy nominations pretty much across the board. Now after looking at
this year's nominees I find myself wondering if perhaps – just perhaps – that
halfway through the 2020s the Emmys are finally starting to deviate from old
patterns just a little.
Part of it is in large part
because of how much this decade has been a period of struggle for television:
first the pandemic shutting down television during 2020 and the strike delaying
many nominees in 2023. Combined with so many of the classics of the 2010s
coming to a conclusion over the past two years the Emmys have had to evolve to
meet the times.
In some cases they have done so
poorly, particularly when it comes to supporting acting awards in drama. With
few exceptions every year has had one or both acting categories essentially
dominated by one or two shows at the most and far too often, the series were
past their prime. We saw it happen in 2021 with The Handmaid's Tale somehow
getting seven supporting acting nominations; we saw it last year when The
Morning Show managed to get the same number. It's true to an extent this
year as well; The White Lotus appears to becoming this decade's
equivalent of Game of Thrones when it comes to nominating every actor in
the cast – though to be fair having seen Season 3 I can't really argue with the
majority of the nominations.
But the Emmys have become more
willing to let freshmen series enter the fray in drama and comedy in a way they
just weren't willing to do during much of the 2010s. Part of that is the
necessity of the past decade but part of it is a willingness to stop their
oldest habit of once you're nominated, you're nominated forever no matter how
much you start sucking as a series. This has proven true with The Handmaid's
Tale which ever since its embarrassment of riches has essentially been
ignored by the Emmys the last two seasons and flashes in the pan like Bridgerton
and Squid Game have been pushed ahead after inferior seasons. This
is not a small thing for the Emmys to have accomplished.
And this is true in both comedy
and drama this year as we see the Emmys being willing to not only let newcomers
enter the fray prominently in most major categories but also allow some shows
that were nominated in previous years in smaller ones. It's hard not to see
this is progress and I speak as someone who grew up watching Homicide be
ignored by the Emmys, witnessed Scrubs and The Wire being
essentially shutout and has had to spent so much time watching Downton Abbey
and Veep being nominated no matter how much worse they got each
season.
It's not that the nominations
aren't still deeply, deeply flawed. They're still too busy being locked on
streaming and cable and basically ignoring network television and even in those
they've made it very clear that Starz and Peacock are going to be on the
outside looking in no matter how great their programming is. Yet even there we
see room for growth: Amazon is essentially on the outside looking in this year
for the first time since Transparent appeared in 2015. You can't earn
your nomination with an inferior product.
All of this, of course, avoids
the obvious fact that I actually did a better job predicting the majority of
the nominees in most categories and in many of them I failed because I did my
usual on overestimating. But I was pleasantly surprised by some shows as well
as my usual annoyed by exclusion.
So here we go. I'm going to deal
with each of the three major categories of nominees: drama, comedy and limited
series. My reactions to the all of the major nominees in each category and at
the end of each part, some that I thought were unjustly excluded.
As always I begin with drama.
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
I managed to get six of the eight
nominees in this category correct. I'm thrilled to say that I may have been one
of the few people who expected Paradise to be among those considered
rather than the second season of Squid Game – apparently the debut of
the third season did nothing to boost the prospect of a disappointing second
one.
The White Lotus, The Last of Us and The Pitt all deserve
their nominations and I'm far from shocked that Severance is the most
nominated drama series with 27 nominations. That's Shogun territory.
Glad to see that the return to normalcy didn't stop Slow Horse from being
the sole nominee from last year to repeat with another five nominations.
Andor's nomination for its second
season was not a huge shock and I will end up taking a look at it down the road
(I've been waiting for the nominations to be sure.) I must say I am surprised
to see The Diplomat here, even though it was an early nominee among the
majority of the end of year awards in 2024. This summer it's mostly been absent
from award consideration so I thought that Matlock would pass it.
Apparently I was wrong – though it didn't do nearly as well as you'd think.
I'll deal with my reactions to
the major exclusion when I get there.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA
The only thing I predicted wrong
in this category were the number of nominees. I was sure Eddie Redmayne had
enough momentum to carry over for Day of the Jackal. But that was not the
case as both he and the series were shutout. Still few would argue with
Sterling K. Brown, Pedro Pascal, Gary Oldman, Adam Scott and Noah Wyle in what
will be a fight to the finish for this category.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A
DRAMA
Okay I won't lie. I'm irked here.
I got four of the five nominees in this category correct. Kathy Bates for Matlock
is still the out and out frontrunner. Bella Ramsey, Britt Lower and Keri
Russell all deserve to be here – even though Russell is The Diplomat's only other
nomination of any kind.
But Sharon Horgan being nominated
for the second season of Bad Sisters over Melanie Lynskey for Yellowjackets?
Elisabeth Moss for the final season of Handmaid's Tale I could have
understood if not have been thrilled with but Horgan was essentially skunked by
every major awards group leading to the Emmy nominations. Indeed the series did
even poorer this time then its first season; Horgan is the only nominee for the
entire show. I will hold it in because Lynskey will get another chance.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A
DRAMA
Annoyed that Jack Lowden isn't
here. Overjoyed that James Marsden is here for Paradise – I thought he
would be pushed out by the support for The White Lotus and Severance.
They nominated two of the actors
I expected from The White Lotus – the right ones: Walton Goggins and
Jason Isaacs. And I won't lie having seen the entire season I've overjoyed that
Sam Rockwell was nominated. I was right about John Turturro being nominated and
the last group of awards indicated Tramell Tillman would be here for Severance.
Zach Cherry over Christopher Walken? Well, that's a matter of opinion.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN
A DRAMA
Again thrilled to see Julianne
Nicholson here for Paradise (and spoiler, she did double-dip) and I was
right on Carrie Coon and Parker Posey being here for The White Lotus. This
is by far where I was the most off.
Now I did expect The White
Lotus to have quite a few nominees in this category and I am glad to see
Natasha Rothwell back in the hunt for her work as Belinda. And having seen the whole
season I'm actually happier than I would have been in spring that Aimee Lou
Wood is included as well. Katherine LaNasa deserves to be here for The Pitt.
But I'm not entirely sold that
Patricia Arquette should be here for Severance. Skip the fact that she
was chosen over so many nominees from Yellowjackets, she was picked over
two of the more heavily considered favorites: Alison Janney for The Diplomat
and Isabela Merced for The Last of Us. Merced in fact managed an
upset win in this category at the Astras last month so I thought that would be
enough to get her in. Janney was only in two episodes of Season 2 so maybe the
Academy didn't think that was enough but she was nominated for a lot of awards
to this point. As for the rest, well, there's always next season.
GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
I'm mostly irked not to see Beau
Bridges here for Matlock. Otherwise I can't argue with most of them.
Jeffrey Wright and Joe Pantoliano were masterful in The Last of Us. Scott
Glenn was superb in The White Lotus. Forest Whitaker can never get enough
recognition from the Emmys in my book (I'm still annoyed he was ignored for The
Shield twenty years ago) and I look forward to seeing Shawn Hatosy in The
Pitt. As for Giancarlo Esposito and The Boys, they owe him for Better
Call Saul.
GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
I got Catherine O'Hara and
Kaitlyn Dever for The Last of Us and I was right about Gwendoline
Christie being here for Severance. I can never object to Jane Alexander
or Merritt Weyer being nominated for anything. But seriously Cherry Jones over
Hilary Swank for Yellowjackets.
OUTSTANDING WRITING AND DIRECTING
FOR A DRAMA
Glad to see Slow Horses back
here again. Andor is in the hunt along with the pilot and another critical
episode of The Pitt and the season finale for Severance. I'll
confess to being puzzled that 'Full-Moon Party' episode of White Lotus is
nominated in this category and not say 'Amor Fati'. All four of these shows
have corresponding directing nominations with Mike White being nominated for
the entire series. I will confess to being surprised The Last of Us wasn't
nominated in either category, particularly direction.
BIGGEST SNUBS
I will confess I'm somewhat stunned
Yellowjackets was completely ignored this year. I thought at the very
least Melanie Lynskey would be recognize for her work in the series and I'm
kind of offended by this snub.
All the other snubs kinds of pale
in comparison. I didn't expect The Old Man or Dark Winds to be
nominated for anything though it is odd Matlock was basically ignored in
supporting categories. House of the Dragon dropping off the map is
hardly a shock; even it's biggest boosters admit Season 2 was a disappointment.
And for those of you who thought Interview with a Vampire or Industry
might prevail somewhere unfortunately neither series really had a chance
against this lineup.
Tomorrow I will deal with the
nominees in Comedy where I'm much happier than I am in drama – and I was pretty
happy with drama this year.
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