Again we're dealing with only
five nominees and this is where I have to make some of the unkindest cuts. Even by deciding to set aside Ayo Edebiri
voluntarily I have to decide to ignore Lisa Kudrow for the final season of The
Comeback (she might very well make it anyway) Kristen Bell for Season 2 of Nobody
Wants This or Kristin Wiig for the second and (sob!) final season of Palm
Royale. And those are just the actresses who've been nominated in the last two
years for their excellent work.
But let's not kid ourselves. When
it came to this year these are the queens.
Quinta
Brunson, Abbott Elementary
No one owes Quinta Brunson
anything by this point. She got an Emmy for the Pilot the first year Abbott debuted,
she won for Best Actress its second year on the air and every year like
clockwork she gets two nominations for acting and producing minimum. Everything that's happened to her since 2022 has
to be gravy.
It would be so easy for her to
rest on her laurels and yet every year she goes out of her way to make Janine
just as much of a joy to watch. Here we see Janine and Gregory in a good
romantic place yet again, wearing ridiculous Halloween costumes on a campfire,
trying to communicate when both have been silenced by a student exercise,
trying to find a way to power through when they have to teach in a mall, Janine
trying to find a way to secretly give homework when its banned…you know, usual
stuff.
But Brunson's finest hour came
near the final stretch, first when she and Gregory broke up when they couldn't
agree on the goals of vacations, then when she ended up getting horribly drunk
and went from silly to mean in a way we've never seen (getting banned from her favorite
club), then being fake manipulated by Jacob in talking with Greg and failing,
then listening to Barbara and really dealing with her issues. Then they ended
up at a Miami meeting at district when it seemed like Abbott would get closed
down and she tried to come up with a plan – and nearly ended up doing something
on Mostly Fans. (Hey, that's Margo's way to provide for her loved ones. See
below.) Of course Abbott muddled through and it looks like wedding bells will
be in the future as well as countless jokes by Ava about finding a dress small
enough to fit Janine.
Brunson doesn't need another shiny
award for her trophy shelf: if anything she may need to have a case built
before Abbott comes to an end. But I need to put Brunson first because
as we all know, neither she nor Janine would.
Elle
Fanning, Margo's Got Money Troubles
I've made it clear I couldn't get
into The Great, Elle Fanning's previous streaming comedy where she got at
least two undeserved Emmy nominations (in my opinion). I much prefer her work
as Margo where she is naked just as often but just as funny and takes even less
shit.
Elle's Margo makes every
kind of mistake imaginable by the time the Pilot is over and by the end of the
second episode it seems likes she's hit rock bottom. And as is often the case
when you hit rock bottom, that's when you start posing on OnlyFans rating dicks
by comparing them to Pokémon and then meeting up with other OnlyFans workers to
create a wrestling persona that's a space alien. You know, the average life for
a David E. Kelley heroine.
Having just completing the entire
first season I found Fanning's work a joy from beginning to end. It wasn't just
that he was hysterically funny all the way through, it was that no matter how
absurd her life got (and I've barely touched on it) Fanning always made Margo
relatable. She's the least glamorous of all the heroines of David E. Kelley's
TV in the 21st century but she's also the most relatable and the
most unfiltered. As with all Kelley series this eventually ended up in a legal
battle involving custody of her child but for once it has less to due with long
summations but simple humanity and in those moments Fanning was seen at her
most genuine and pure. There was something relatable every step of the way –
and yes this is a series where Season 1 ended with her dressed as a space alien
about to sell pictures of her genitalia for the first time.
It's a pity that Fanning's debut
happened to come out against the final season of Hacks where almost
every great performance in this category is going to fall horribly (and let's
face it, deservedly) short in the final nominee. But I'm glad a second season has been
greenlit. Even if it is a step down anything that gives Fanning's another shot
as the Hungry Ghost is fine by me. As it is, she more than deserves the nod for
her work here.
Selena
Gomez, Only Murders in the Building
It's only because of the ludicrous
amount of talent in this category that Gomez to this point in her tenure on Only
Murders has gotten just two nominations in this category. Last year she was
snubbed for the second time when for reasons best known to the Emmys Uzo Aduba
was chosen over her for The Residence. Considering Aduba already has three Emmys and
Gomez has none, that was too much for me – though I've no doubt Mabel would have
taken it in stride and just seethed.
As we found out during the fifth
season Mabel has always struggled under an inferiority complex along with all
the darkness that surrounds her. As she told Charles and Oliver (while they
were autopsying a murder victim on a kitchen table, of course) she'd managed to
find her place in the building and was being happy – and then her former
childhood friend 'THE' rented the penthouse at the Arconia, stealing her
thunder. Mabel and Althea had been childhood friends and there was a
misunderstanding and now Mabel's miserable. Add to this the fact that a robot's
now the new doorman, some of her friends may be moving out, their podcast's
ownership is now part of three members of the one percent and the Arconia is
getting a horrible reputation in large part because of all the murders that are
increasingly happening because of the podcast's existence, well, you can
understand why Mabel might be gloomy.
Gomez has always been the biggest
surprise of the comic spirit of Only Murders as well as its beating
heart. She really is willing to ride or die with these senior citizens and the
true bond that they've formed has been one of the great shows of TV during the
last decade as well as the product of some of the greatest humor. I'm not
saying Gomez should win this year but come on: give Bloody Mabel a
nomination.
Carrie
Preston, Elsbeth
Clearly Carrie Preston should have
been competing in this category the whole time. Yes I know she won her previous
Emmy for Best Guest Actress in a Drama but honestly Preston's basically
been playing eccentric to the point of comically crazy characters her entire
career. And let's be honest her performance
definitely is more comedic than anything Ayo Edebiri has ever done in The
Bear. (Sorry but the truth hurts.)
I made that mistake, of course. I
spent two seasons advocating for Elsbeth as a drama (to be fair so did
many awards shows) but every time Elsbeth appears on the screen I smile. I
can't help it. At this point Preston has one of the most expressive faces, combined
with gestures, and various noises that she reduce us to hysterics without
having to say a word. And when most of the time she keeps being unable to
follow her own train of thought during a discussion with a suspect or a fellow
cop or a random bystander or herself you find yourself laughing hysterically. And the outfits! My God, the handbags and the
hats! She's not Columbo, she's Mary Poppins!
And she's lovable! I mean, this is
a hardened attorney whose investigating murders for the NYPD, dealing with some
of the most cold-hearted, cold-blooded members of the one percent who are
always committed the most horrible crimes. And she still seems to like them. I
swear, most of the time she's actually disappointed she has to have them
arrested. I mean, they are criminals and she is sworn to follow the law but by
the time she's done she's usually developed more than a shred of sympathy for
them. She just so empathetic. I often
felt sorry for the attorneys Elsbeth outsmarted on The Good Wife every
time she guest starred; now when she locks up another wealthy criminal I feel
so bad for her. But she just keeps on
with that optimism and you know New York is a better place because of it.
Now I admit Preston has an uphill
battle to get a nomination in this category. I think it'll happen eventually
but not this year. As I said, its pretty stacked and I really should have put
in Kristen Bell or Lisa Kudrow ahead of her. But I couldn't put her in FYC. Preston
is just too good at this and is just so much fun. She's a longshot, but
honestly that's what Elsbeth always is.
Jean
Smart, Hacks
You know when Helen Hunt and
Julia-Louis Dreyfus were setting records for consecutive Emmys for Mad About
You and Veep it always irritated me how they won year after year. So
you'd think seeing Jean Smart go four for four would have that same effect or
at the very least I'd be something of a hypocrite when I push her for Best
Actress every year. And maybe I am. But the thing is Deb Vance is too and she
knows it.
Watching Jean Smart play Deb Vance
has been one of the great viewing experiences in my lifetime as a critic and a
fan and I don't think I'm alone in thinking that. It has been an epic journey
with Deb and everyone in her circle and entourage. Even when she can be
unbearable – and she has had horrible moments – you're still rooting for her in
a way I just couldn't for the Selina Meyers or all the brilliant women on
Showtime dramedies over that same period. The reason is Deb has been through
it in a way that the overwhelming majority of us – and certainly not the
kind of women Ava was when we first met her – can never understand. The Deb Vance's
of the world broke down barriers that today's women take for granted and in
fact judge them for not doing enough. We've seen at every season how much being
Deb Vance has cost Deborah – her relationship with her sister, a relationship
with her daughter she's only now repairing and no real friends in the world
until Ava came into her life. Most women couldn't have made it a day in Deb's
heels.
In the final season we see Deb
trying to figure out her legacy. Having been banned from the airwaves after
taking a stand she makes a plan to sell out Madison Square Garden. We see the
old Deb and the new Deb all at once, we see Deb with her fanbase and Deb trying
to figure out old relationships. We see Deb looking back on her distant past –
we finally see the sitcom she helped created in the 1970s – and we see her
going on The Amazing Race with her daughter. We see her building her
bond with Ava, which is now in gold – and in the series finale we see just how
far the two have come.
A fifth Emmy is all but inevitable
for Smart and it will put her in the pantheon of TV legends, including the late
Mary Tyler Moore and Allison Janney. (I will explain why down the road.) As
someone who has considered Smart one of the greatest actresses on TV during the
21st century no more fitting record could be pure for Smart. And though
Hacks may be finished I don't think Smart is.
FYC:
Malin
Akerman, The Hunting Wives
Ok. First things first. Why
Akerman and not her co-lead Brittany Snow? Well as you'll see I think its
likely Snow is going to be nominated down the road for a different show so I'm
going to focus my energy on the Hunting Wife who has less of a chance of being
nominated.
But more to the point Akerman's
work as Margo Banks was the real joy of watching this fun, sleeper sensation
from last summer. As I wrote in my
original review Akerman was absolutely a joy to watch both in terms of pure
sexual energy, comic fulfillment and some of the most wonderful lines I heard
delivered in 2025. Sexual manipulation, secret lesbianism, gun toting, and public
shaming have rarely been more fun then when Margo did them. (No she didn't
manage all four in the same scene; you have to save something for Season 2.)
Akerman's odds are long but not
impossible. She has been nominated by the Gotham TV Awards for Best Actress
(admittedly in drama) and by the Astras in the Comedy category. It's an uphill climb
to be sure but as we've seen more often then not on The Hunting Wives Akerman
is very good at upward mobility.
Tomorrow I move on to Supporting
Actor in a Comedy. More nominees but its not going to get any easier.
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