In the decade that I've classified
as Peak Limited Series there are always an amazing number of great contenders
for the prize going into the Emmy nominations and one overwhelming frontrunner.
In this cycle that's true in the former but in the latter its absolutely not.
Because every end of year awards show was dominated by Adolescence across the
board we have no real frontrunner not only in this category but any of the
categories that will follow.
The five nominees that I've
selected are the most likely to have contenders in nearly every major category
in a few weeks' time. The usual providers are offering big contenders with a
very strong possible that one new face may break through in a big way. Here are
my choices
All
Her Fault (Peacock)
Those of you who read my column
last year know what a big fan I was of this show. I basically binged it just in
time to put in on my ten best list of 2025. I spent much of the end of year
cycle pushing for it and Sarah Snook throughout the end of year races. And now
it looks poised to put Peacock, which has quietly been putting together some of
the best shows of any streamer in the last few years, in the Emmy race in a
major category for the first time in its run.
All Her Fault was by far one of
the most brilliantly literary adaptations I've seen in the past decade and I've
seen some masterpieces. In a rare move for this past cycle it’s the only
literary adaptations that's going to contend. And by transplanting Andrea Mara
Irish set saga into Chicago the writers did such a brilliant job you can't
imagine it working in any other setting. Indeed there's an argument, good as
the novel, this adaptation is far better.
Much of its power comes from the
performances of the two women at its center, played by those forces of nature
that are Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning. Snook is among the frontrunner for her
second Emmy for her work as Marissa Irvine, the working mother who goes to pick
up her son at a playdate and becomes the
center of a nightmare. Fanning is just as brilliant as Jenny, the mother who
finds out her nanny essentially set herself up in a position to abduct
Marissa's child and who finds out just how shaky her own marriage is.
Both women are backed up by an
incredible supporting cast including some of the darkest work Jake Lacy has
ever done and Michael Pena as a force of integrity who has to compromise for
tough choices. The story ends up playing with chronology and one is forced to
realize the catchphrase "All these nice people killing each other"
has a darker subtext.
I don't know how much of a chance
this show has at the grand prize: this is an incredible field of talent and as
I said there are no clear frontrunners. But this is clearly one of the best
limited series in a field of incredibly strong ones.
The
Beast In Me (Netflix)
This season was an unprecedented
year for purely original limited series, something that is rare when so many of
the best pieces are adaptations. The Beast in Me very quickly became a
sensation at the end of year awards, earning multiple nominations for Best
Limited Series and acting nominations for Matthew Rhys and Claire Danes in one
of the most unsettling pieces that isn't from a best selling novel in a long
time.
Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, the heir
to a billionaire housing legacy whose wife disappeared leaving no body and a
suicide note. He's just moved to Oyster Bay with a security entourage, barking
dogs and a new wife. Danes plays his new neighbor Aggie Wiggs, a non-fiction
author whose spent the last four years trying to write a follow-up to her first
work. Her life has fallen apart ever since the death of her son four years ago
and a mental breakdown that followed.
The two of them begin a
frightening dance as Aggie tries to find out the truth behind her neighbor as
well as the horrible things he might still be capable of doing. Both leads are
cast against type; Rhys is playing someone loathsome and potentially monstrous;
Danes someone who can barely function. It’s a fascinating dance. And it's led
by an incredible supporting cast as well including Brittany Snow and Jonathan
Banks in roles you can't quite believe they can do.
Like All Her Fault The Beast in Me
has been a major contender in end of year nominations and despite all of the
great shows in the interim I still see no reason why it won't be among the
final five.
Beef
Season 2 (Netflix)
After the first season of Beef
swept the Emmys in 2023 Lee Jung-Jae chose a different path for Season 2.
Rather than follow the saga of Korean-Americans he chose to look at two
different couples: Joshua and Lindsay, the two managers of a country club and
Ashley and Austin, two twenty-somethings who are struggling for poverty. The younger couple seems more devoted then
the older one, they don't fight and they are stunned to see Joshua and Lindsay
in a knockdown brawl. In an effort to attain upward mobility Lindsay blackmails
the couple for a job she's not remotely qualified for. Joshua and Lindsay, who
are dealing with financial strains, find a way to manipulate her for her own
gain.
In keeping with the past season
things quickly spiral out of control, showing both the lack of stability in
both relationships. Jung-Jae chooses to take Season 2 to take a different look
at the class divides we have particularly with the one percent and how it
protects old money rather than new. He heads his cast with two of the greatest
actors of the 21st century Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as Joshua
and Lindsay and two young talents Charles Melton and Callie Spaeny as his
younger couple as well as an incredible group of supporting actors from William
Fichtner on down.
The second season of Beef didn't
land as powerfully as the first and as a result what was supposed to be a race
that it would dominate has now seemed less likely. But that doesn't mean the
second season is any less memorable, bizarre, hysterical or weird then the
first one or just as brilliantly painful to watch. Jung-Jae chose to right
approach when he decided to turn Beef into an anthology. It's not like he's
going to have a shortage of material when it comes to how rage effects for the
foreseeable future.
Hard
Man (HBO)
After his Baby Reindeer became a
cultural phenomena and swept the 2024 Emmys Richard Gadd, who won for acting,
writing and producing had everybody anticipating his follow-up project. Gadd
chose to go even darker, bulking up and creating a project that deals with much
of the same subject matter as Reindeer but takes a far, darker and more
unrelenting look at it.
The series follows Niall and
Reuben from their teenage years until their confrontation on Niall's wedding
day. It shows the young Reuben as an alpha male from day one with the threat of
violence in everything he does and Niall both fascinated and repelled. Niall is
terrified of his sexuality and can't seem to face his attraction to men, even
as the world becomes more accepting he becomes less so. Reuben spends his youth
being repulsive and at one point engaging in a horrific beating of a young man.
When he asks Niall to lie about it in order to save him from prison Niall can't
do it, which leads to things getting worse.
What Gadd makes clear, both as
writer and as Rueben as an adult is that he and Niall are both two sides of the
same coin when it comes to how toxic masculinity can reverberate. Reuben takes
his vision of being a provider and his own failures out on the world in
horrific form while Niall takes it out on himself. They are the only two people
who can understand each other and yet they only seem alive when they are
destroying each other and it progresses to a horrifying – but inevitable –
conclusion.
In only his second series Gadd has
made it clear he is one of the greatest creative forces in TV working today.
Half Man shows what Adolescence only implied about the nature of toxic
masculinity and how destructive it can be around those who suffer it. I don't
know if this series will receive the awards Adolescence did but in my opinion
it’s the better work by far and just as deserving of the prizes.
Love
Story: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bissette (FX)
I have astonished by how Ryan
Murphy and his writers have done a brilliant job in so many limited series in
the last decade showing the most monstrous parts of human nature in our
society. So I was delightfully surprised that for his latest work with FX Murphy
decided to focus on something that almost seems saccharine in the 21st
century: a love story.
The title is basically all that
the writers are interested in. To be sure there are stories about the
difficulties of being in the spotlight and being part of a political family but
that's a secondary part. The writers want to tell how JFK Jr and Carolyn
Bessette fell in love, got married and how it was tragically cut short. It's
surprising how this being just as riveting as so many mysteries and darker
stories.
They are helped by two total
unknowns in the title roles: Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pigeon who manage to
show the life beneath the tabloid. We see how JFK Jr is drawn to a woman who
isn't awed by his last name or what he represents and how it fascinates him, a
woman who doesn't want to be in the spotlight. We see how Carolyn was very much
her own force in Calvin Klein and could have been prominent in the world of
fashion. We see how the Kennedys, first Caroline (Grace Gummer) and so many of
the rest resisted Junior's romance, even though its clear no woman would have
been good enough. And we watch after their glorious wedding, how the paparazzi
do much to break Carolyn down and destabilize their marriage. The dual tragedy
is not just their tragic death but how both lost their lives before they could
realize their happiness as a couple.
I don't know what the writers will
do to follow up this story (it took seven years for them to come up with a
second season of Feud). But I appreciate the magic and gentle touch of this one
– even if it means that the 1990s are now considered 'a period piece'
For Your Consideration
DTF
St. Louis (HBO)
The only reason I'm submitting
this series FYC is because there are only five nominees in this category.
There's also an excellent chance that it will be nominated in this category
regardless: it already has been nominated by the Astras and its actually won in
this category at the Gotham TV awards.
And it deserves to be nominated.
It's brilliantly original, hysterically funny and is so well done that I
actually think that it’s a satire of so many of the great dramas that have been
on networks like HBO in the past. I honestly think giving the rhythm in which
the characters speak, the flashing back and forth with the chronology, the way
the big mystery isn't actually a mystery, that there's no real crime at the
center of everything that DTF St. Louis would work as a satire of True
Detective. That's actually the reason I'm not certain it will be nominated:
it's too clever by five-eighths and historically the Emmys like their limited
series to be genuine and gritty to the point of lunacy. And their track record of nominations in this
category for shows that are not dramatic is shaky at best.
But don't kid yourself. DTF St.
Louis is a wonderful show that deserves all the nominations it can get. It's
going to contend in quite a few categories as you'll see below. And if you
think it’s a little too weird for the Emmys, no limited series is normal. It
just looks that way from across the street.
Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Limited Series. Nominees are pretty clear but I don't have a
frontrunner yet.
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