A little precursor. I feel no
guilt in excluding the final season of Euphoria because it was such a
huge disappointment to critics that the odds of it being nominated for Best
Drama are next to non-existent. Some thing it will contend for acting awards
but I can leave it out with a clear conscience. Besides as you'll see it's not
like I'm excluding HBO from this year.
For my eight nominees for Best
Drama I look through streaming, cable, and network television. With two of the
major contenders from last year (Severance and The White Lotus)
ineligible a lot of room will be available in the supporting acting categories
and some new faces will almost certainly be seen across the board as well as
some familiar ones. Here are my picks
The Diplomat (Netflix)
How do you deal with the fact the
Vice President might have committed treason? Well if you're the writers of The
Diplomat, you kill the acting President off and then make her President
before Kate Wyler can tell him. Then you make that fact at the center of the
third season. And as you'd expect you then basically blow up the Wyler
marriage.
Keri Russell has been the
consummate professional as she has learned of an international conspiracy
involving the UK prime minister and the Vice President across two seasons. Now
in the third season under the new administration (headed by the incredible Alison
Janney) the show decides to blow up the premise guiding the first two seasons.
Kate was supposedly being groomed to become the new vice president; now its Hal
(Rufus Sewell, as inscrutable as ever) who ends up getting the job without
having to try. That Kate never wanted the job in the first place is something
she only admits to herself, that she has no intention of following her husband
back to the states sets up another, darker scenario.
With Kate still in London, even
more nefarious schemes are afoot. It quickly becomes clear her husband is just
as capable of espionage as anyone else and rather then trying to deal with the
rot, he's more than willing to get his hands dirty on the inside. By the end of
the third season its just as clear that Kate may not just have to turn against
her country, but her husband – and one wonders which will be the harder blow.
For a series that deals with dark
matters The Diplomat can be surprisingly entertaining. It has always put
itself closer as an heir to The West Wing and it keeps doubling down on
this with each new addition. (The First Gentleman is Bradley Whitford, for
one.) And it moves at a flowing pace, led by its incomparable star. Russell was
as surprised as anyone when she won the prize for Best Female Actor in a Drama.
Like the character she's played she's long overdue recognition as is the show
she's a part of.
The Gilded Age (HBO)
I was understandably over the moon
when the second season of The Gilded Age was nominated for eight Emmys
back in 2024. And by the time we reached the third season last summer the rest
of the critical community and America at large seems to have realized, yes,
this is one of the best shows on television.
We spent most of the third season
watching the marriage between Bertha and George completely unravel as not just
her husband but the entire Russell family realized how ruthless and determined
the matriarch was to earn her place in New York society. By the end of the
third season Bertha had managed this but had more or less lost her entire
family; her daughter overseas, her husband leaving her, her son unwilling to
accept just how monstrous his mother was.
Across the street a minor power
play went off as Ada became the mistress of the Van Rijn household while Agnes
spent the season struggling to find a place for her in New York. By the end of
the season Agnes had accepted her role in it and a new accord had been struck.
And as Marian and Larry spent the third season slowly dancing around each other
before finding there own happiness the two households will soon be together
more frequently – and one wonders to see who will come out on top.
The Gilded Age is one of the best series on any
service because of the extraordinary writing and the way it looks at the past
to find evidence of a better future. Increasingly we saw contemporary issues
involving women's suffrage, the place of divorced women in society, accord
between the races, the struggles between class and the poor and the way that
violence can interject now matter how wealthy one's family is. But it is also
one of the most delightful shows with some of the best dialogue I've heard with
nary a four letter word issued.
There are quite a few other HBO
series who I will mention here and some that I've not who might overcome it.
But The Gilded Age remains divine, a demonstration of how HBO is still
the gold standard for TV
Matlock (CBS)
I advocated for this series for
Best Drama last year and was disappointed that the Emmys chose to give it just
a single nomination. But in its second
season it was just as worthy of nominations as any of the dramas on this list
and more than represents what network television is capable of.
During the second season Madeline
Kingston spent the first half battling with Olivia for leverage over the
startling revelation that Julian was responsible for hiding the documents that
she spent all of last season searching for. After half a season the two finally
came to the accommodation that they needed each other and more importantly that
their friendship could survive it. Then Julian learned the truth about Maddy
'Matlock' deception and spend much of that period first in resistance, then
willing to fight to bring the truth to light.
While looking at Jacobson Moore as
it went through a time of transition the writers showed slowly the rot in the
firm was deeper then Senior (Beau Bridges) and eventually reached the point
where the whole firm was so deeply embedded it that there seemed no way out –
until at the last moment Julian was willing to prove his selflessness. This led
to a reset that will shake up the series in a way that I haven't seen done so
well since the days of The Good Wife.
Matlock is superb in every way that
counts: as a legal procedural that is a
case of the week, as a subtle serialized drama, as an exploration of the ties
of family, as a way of showing how addiction gets in deep and leaves trauma
long after those are dead, showing that the bond between married people doesn't
go away after half a century and most endearingly to me, showing that the
obstacles that divide generations is not overcome. In this Matlock is to
drama what Hacks and Only Murders is to comedy.
Kathy Bates is certain to get her
second consecutive Best Actress in a Drama nomination but there should be
nominees for the supporting cast as well as the extensive guest cast. I concede
that there are better shows that I'm excluding but there are few that are more
complete and more entertaining and I'm fine with that.
Paradise (Hulu)
Paradise was one of the sleeper critical
hits of 2025, deservedly nominated for Best Drama and three other acting Emmys.
Set in a bunker after a cataclysmic event nearly wipes out humanity Dan Fogler
used a murder mystery to tell a deep and fascinating saga about humanity after
the apocalypse.
In the second season he expands
the world beyond the bunker by showing us what Xavier (the incomparable
Sterling K. Brown) found after he left in search of his wife who he learned at
the end of the first season is still alive. He spent much of the second season
exploring the world afterwards, checking for survivors in Graceland and finding
a new path forward to return and bring the family together.
Inside the bunker things got
worse. Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) made it clear to the voices in her head
that her plans had never been out of the bunker. Those around her began to
wonder if she'd lost her mind, as the power struggle between her inner circle
became even more deadly. They were confronted when the outside world came
knocking, forcing a greater and harder struggle that led to reunions and in the
season finale a complete destruction of everything that had been build – and a
set up for the third and final season.
In his follow-up series to This
is Us Dan Fogler has created another mind-bending, chronology jumping yet
nevertheless soulful series one that shows him as one of the greatest writers
in the last decade. I don't know what's coming for Season 3 but as always I'm glad to be along for the ride.
The Pitt (HBO MAX)
Last year going into Emmy night
everyone was sure that Severance would be the big winner. Instead the
world was delighted to see The Pitt, which had been a critical and
ratings sensation, walk away with five Emmys including Best Drama.
In its second season, taking place
ten months after the first, we follow Dr. Robby (the incomparable Noah Wyle) on
July 3rd right before he's supposed to go on sabbatical. It's clear
from the moment he shows up that Robby is not the same man he was ten months
ago and that he hasn't dealt with the trauma that led him to the meltdown that
he had in the midst of the mass casualty last year. Following him in real time
in the extraordinary fifteen hour break down we watch what is, for the most
part, another awful, no good, very bad day Robby and the staff at the
Pitt. And slowly the problems begin to
double down, a cyber attack hits the
hospital, there's a collapse at the water slide, old patients begin to die;
some familiar faces show up.
And yet its clear the biggest
crises are going on within everyone. Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) is on his first
shift from rehab and almost no one, least of all Robby, can look him in the
eye. Mel's dealing with a deposition and it has her nervous. Dana's back for
her first shift in months and she's a lot punchier than before. The staffers
are dealing with crises that they consider horrible. And worst of all as the
day progresses its clear Robby has no patience for the hospital or the staffers
and the crap they're dealing with. This reveals itself in the final hours when
one of Robby's riding buddies for the sabbatical shows up, is suffering from
something worse then shortness of breath – and we finally learn where Robby's
going and why the fact he rode into work without a helmet is the least
troubling thing about him.
The Pitt goes into the fall campaign the
odds-on favorite to repeat for Best Drama as well as to be the biggest winner
on Emmy night in a few months. The only question is how many nominations it
will get and how many awards it will win. I myself couldn't be happier that a
show like The Pitt not only exists but has become the critical and
audience darling of the masses. In a world where so much is uncertain and
America is a mess – and the show has more than a few storylines that are a
reflection of it – there's something wonderful about a drama that is not about
bad people doing bad things but a bunch of professionals doing their best
against overwhelming odds, day in, day out. Where the bad behavior of the characters is
not something we associate with a White Male Antihero but a broken man who
doesn't know how to heal himself and a bunch of professionals and first
responders we can relate to more than any show on television in decades. That
is something to celebrate as much as the incredible caliber of the acting and
writing.
Pluribus (Apple TV)
I've been waiting for Vince
Gilligan to get his hooks into an alien invasion show for a quarter of a
century. Now in his first new series
since the end of Better Call Saul he reunites with that show's breakout
star Rhea Seehorn to create a series that is unlike any other.
Plur1bus almost overnight became one of the
most critically and audience adored hit on TV: one of the best new shows of
2025. It deals with an alien invasion of Earth unlike any we've ever seen in
recorded history: the alien takeover of the world is seen not as some monstrous
horror but a hive mind who only seem here to care and love people – the few
that haven't been taken over. One of the
few people left completely unaffected is Carol Sturka (Seehorn) a romance
writer who even before the invasion happened was arguably the most unpleasant
person on the planet, who only her lesbian companion loved – and who even she
seemed unable to deal with at times. Carol's rage was toxic before; now its so
powerful it can actually kill millions of the hive mind. And what's worse is
that of the precious few survivors she's maybe the only one left who thinks
that what's happening is horrible.
In keeping with all things
Gilligan Pluribus unfolds with all the touches we're used to from him.
Of course it mostly takes place in New Mexico but its also incredibly visual
and less dependent on dialogue than almost any series he's done – and he's
always been great with long sequences of those. Few scenes have carried more
terror as in the Pilot when we see how the aliens first invade and how they
manage their takeover, then see the horror of the apocalypse play out – and of
course, there's an in-joke that only Gilligan could provide.
He is met by Rhea Seehorn, who is
for much of the series eight episodes often the only face of the cast. Seehorn
delivers one of the greatest performances of 2025, if not of the decade so far,
as Carol. Carol is literally the last person on Earth you'd think of as the
savior of humanity, she didn't even like it that much when things were normal. And
even now she's the outlier the only person left who wants to bring the world
back to the way it was – even though as the story makes very clear, it's almost
a paradise. (The idea that you'd have to wipe out humanity to bring about peace
on earth has been in Gilligan's head since he made his directorial debut on The
X-Files a quarter of a century ago.) What's astonishing about Seehorn's
work is that even she admits that she has very few good qualities and that she
seems to be doing something no one alive wants – and yet you're still rooting
for her to succeed.
Seehorn has already won the Golden
Globe and Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama and is the heavy
favorite to win the Emmy this year. (Admittedly there are some pretty good
candidate against her in the show's above.) Plur1bus is as close as any
series is to having the possibility to upset The Pitt for Best Drama and
while I doubt that I don't pretend that this is show is any less a masterpiece
Slow Horses (Apple TV)
For the last two seasons Slow
Horses has, like the agents at Slough House itself, the most underestimated
performers at the Emmys. In 2024 it upset Shogun's record setting pace
to win Best Dramatic Teleplay. Last year it interjected between Severance and
The Pitt to win Best Director in a Drama. Now in its most action packed
season yet Slough House finds itself dealing with an assassin responsible for a
mass shooting, an act of sabotage and the fact that Lady Di has her eye on
becoming First Desk and will gladly step over them to get there. When she
finally achieves her goal, we'd be unsettled if we didn't know them that well.
Gary Oldman has become one of the
great joys to watch as Jackson Lamb, who every year noisily interrupts his busy
schedule of getting drunk and breaking wind to reluctantly save London from the
most horrible terror attacks possible. Every line out of his mouth is an
absolute joy to hear as you know that London's safety is based on a man who
cares if people live or die but really doesn't trust the people who work for
him to save it. This includes River Cartwright (Jack Lowden0 who always acts
before he thinks, Roddy who isn't nearly as clever as he believes and an entire
staff who could be efficient at their jobs if they weren't just complete
wankers at everything else.
Slow Horses is one of the quiet joys of TV and
streaming, a slow grower that has become a fan favorite as well as one of the
best shows on any service. It's not as flashy as its co-nominees on Apple TV
but it gets the job done, even when its hanging by its fingernails.
Task (HBO)
After four seasons of hemming and
hawing about doing another season of Mare of Easttown Brad Inglesby
decided to do something better. He returned to world of Philadelphia's law
enforcement and criminal enterprises but with a completely different story and
two different protagonists. And in Task he created the kind of series
HBO hasn't had in decades: a show about the working class, cops and criminals
and the despair of a failing city.
The first season centered on two
characters. The first was Tom Brandis, played with haunting precision by Mark
Ruffalo. A former priest turned FBI agent he's spent the last year not dealing
with a family trauma of how his foster son killed his wife. He drinks himself
to sleep each night, he can barely talk with his own foster daughter or his
real one, he's never visited his son in prison. And in the midst of this he's
assigned to lead a task force to investigate a series of robberies of a
motorcycle gang.
On the other side is Robby, played
by Tom Pelphrey. Robby's brother ended up getting murdered by that gang for
reasons I won't go into yet and he's spent the last several months robbing
stash houses. When a robbery goes wrong and a five year old is left alive Robby
chooses to take the child with him instead of doing the easy thing. This sets
forth a chain of events that will lead to the deaths of many on both sides of
the law and eventually Robby himself though his is far from the last.
This is by far a more ambitious
series than Mare was, more invested in things such as nature and
spirituality then Inglesby tried to deal with before. But it's also one of the
most optimistic series to come out of HBO in the nearly thirty years its been
dealing in prestige drama. To be sure there are lots of broken people, bad
criminals and law enforcement officials who are on the take. But its also about
finding a way to break the cycle of trauma and violence in a way that I'm not
used to from HBO dramas or even TV during this century in general. Tom's
journey is one of trying to find a way to heal himself after a trauma as much
as catching the criminals and we're overjoyed that somehow he's found a way
out. When's the last time you felt that way?
Task was renewed for a second season
and it will probably air some time in 2027.
The show itself has already been nominated for multiple best drama
awards along with acting nominations for Ruffalo and Pelphrey. I don't know
what the future is for HBO but as long as their shows like Task as part
of it, I feel better about it.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
The Audacity (AMC)
I
spent a lot of time reflecting on this choice. It was tempting to go with the
fourth seasons of Dark Winds or Will Trent. But in the end I
decided to go with one of the most promising newcomers so far in 2026.
The
Audacity was
maligned almost before it got off the ground. As one of the characters says:
"Silicon Valley changed the world but so did the bubonic plague" and
she could be speaking for the majority of people. But despite that baggage this is one of the
most engaging and original shows AMC has done in a years, a show about a group
of emotionally stunted adults who are Masters of the Universe but can't
socialize in a group setting and a psychiatrist who cares more about making
money off them then she does helping them. It's surprising how entertaining
this can be.
Billy
Magnussen is a revelation as Duncan, a tech sensation who isn't nearly as smart
as he thinks he is and everyone around him knows it, a man who knows he's hated
by everybody but who seems determined to keep trying to prove it. Around him
are a cast of characters, both grownup and teenagers and its both frightening
and encouraging that the dysfunctional student body of a high school are for
more self-aware of the world then their parents are. Every single one of the
parents is more interested in appearances then actually doing things, they will
all say good things but sell out their dreams for an IPO, who think that
because they play as soldiers they know more than actual soldiers. It's a mess,
but it’s a fun mess.
I
could never get into HBO's Silicon Valley which looked at the same
people and moguls with a satiric vibe. The Audacity takes itself just a bit
more seriously and that's more than enough for me to recognize its quality.
There have been signs that some awards show are taking it seriously – the
Astras nominated it for Best Drama – so why shouldn't the Emmys show some
audacity of their own?
Tomorrow
I deal with Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama. Relatively speaking I'm
confident in my choices even with the limitations.
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