I extend my condolences to the voters in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category of the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Sure, everyone tends to think that Best Drama is the main race, but this year’s Limited Series is the most competitive, the most interesting, and where I have no idea what will prevail on Sunday night.
I would hate to have been one of the people who chose between “I May Destroy You”, “Mare of Easttown”, “The Queen’s Gambit”, “The Underground Railroad” and “WandaVision”, because how do you start with a selection like that?
By contrast, drama and comedy contests seem straightforward.
I’m not an expert forecaster – my Oscar awards office record speaks for itself – but I think the drama category is “The Crown” to lose.
Frankly, “This Is Us,” the symbolic broadcast network contender, should be happy to be nominated. The black-centric horror series “Lovecraft Country” was an interesting watch and, as with the LGBTQ drama “Pose,” it would take a hit on diversity if it won, which however seems unlikely. The “Star Wars” spin-off “The Mandalorian” was good in its second season, but not necessarily the best. I consider the dark superhero drama “The Boys” to be an acquired taste and while the most recent season of the dystopian series “The Handmaid’s Tale” delivered on its promise to make things happen, what did Happening made me uneasy.
And I enjoyed the period romance “Bridgerton” and the Duke of Hastings as much as the next viewer, but “The Crown” had an absolutely exquisite fourth season, the best since many of us fell in love with the Netflix drama when it debuted in 2016. .
That’s mainly due to Emma Corrin’s performance as Diana Spencer, the future doomed Princess of Wales, followed by Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher’s “The Iron Lady,” though there was continued excellent work from leads Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter. Even actors in one-off roles shined, like Tom Brooke as Michael Fagan, the man who broke into the Queen’s Buckingham Palace bedroom in 1982.
So yeah, this should be the year “The Crown” is enthroned with the grand prize.
In the comedy category, if “Ted Lasso” doesn’t win, it will be a bigger surprise than if the show’s underperforming AFC Richmond soccer team beat up arch rival Manchester City. His only real competition is “Hacks,” starring Jean Smart as a scathing Las Vegas comedian.
Still, resistance seems to be futile in the face of “Ted’s” onslaught of his main character’s amazing humor, penchant for kindness, and non-toxic model of masculinity, and I write that as someone who has come to love the show. .
Will there be a Ted Torrent, the equivalent of Schitt’s Sweep, when “Schitt’s Creek” won all comedy categories during last year’s primetime ceremony? Probably not, as Smart is about to take her first leading actress Emmy in a distinguished career, but I would bet on Jason Sudeikis from “Ted” becoming a lead actor.
Let’s go back to the limited series list. So-called “cooler moments” are hard to come by these days given the fractured way we consume television, but the ones we had last year came mostly from limited series (shows that run only for one season).
Think back to late October when it seemed like the talk about “The Queen’s Gambit,” the Netflix drama starring Anya Taylor-Joy as an unlikely female chess champion in the 1960s, was all over her social media. Netflix, notoriously stingy with viewers, said 62 million households watched the series in its first 28 days.
When “WandaVision” launched on Disney Plus in January, it revolutionized not only the Marvel franchise, but also our idea of what a television show could be, combining the superhero genre with a comedic ode to classic sitcoms and a poignant study of love and pain expertly interpreted. by Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn. It was the kind of show that had viewers eager to know what each new episode would bring.
Ditto for HBO’s “Mare of Easttown,” which exploded in the spirit of the time in April. Oscar winner Kate Winslet was the big draw as a life-worn small-town police detective, but the whole ensemble contributed to a layered and nuanced drama, turning what could have been a standard violent crime story. on dating tv.
And then there are “I May Destroy You” and “The Underground Railroad,” two major shows that focused a black lens on the experiences of blacks: the first, the aftermath of a sexual assault in London, England; in the second, slavery in the United States.
Creator Michaela Coel draws attention in “Destroy” with a raw and magnetic performance as a woman who agrees to be drugged and assaulted in a bar bathroom.
(It’s worth noting that all of the limited series nominees feature women in complex lead roles.)
But if it was up to me, I’d give the Emmy to “The Underground Railroad.”
The series, conceived, co-written and directed by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins, based on the Pulitzer-winning book by Colson Whitehead, is not just a show, but an epic. It combines magical realism (those who escape slavery ride an actual underground railway) with unadorned depictions of the subjugation of blacks by whites in a way that is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.
It is, in a word, disturbing.
For me, the biggest snub from these Emmys is that none of the artists on “The Underground Railroad” got nominations, particularly South Africa’s Thuso Mbedu; He was convinced that she would be the only one to beat after screening the show for the first time.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can judge for yourself by catching up on Amazon Prime Video. You can also watch “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” on Crave, “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix and “WandaVision” on Disney Plus.
Reference-www.thestar.com