EMMY showdown

Who should win? Who will win? And what must you bring to the red carpet? WHO’S guide to US TV’S biggest night

LIMITED SERIES Big Little Lies

This drama started like a Desperate Housewives reboot but turned into a much more powerful tale about abuse. With (above, from left) Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon—it was a big deal.

SERIES, COMEDY Atlanta

Probably the best-reviewed US comedy of the past year, this Donald Glover (middle) series about a Princeton dropout edging into a rap career was an satiric look at African-american life.

ACTRESS, COMEDY Julia Louis-dreyfus, Veep

Emmy voters (unlike American political voters in 2016) tend not to change horses midstream. The great Louis-dreyfus will score her seventh Veep win.

ACTOR, COMEDY Aziz Ansari, Master of None

In a bittersweet season—he struggled to declare his amore to an Italian beauty while hosting a reality show about cupcakes— Ansari was a genuine rom-com hero.

ACTRESS, DRAMA Claire Foy, The Crown

Did her deeply felt performance as young Elizabeth II, wanting to be kind but trapped by tradition, boost sympathy for the royals in a year obsessed with Diana? We’ll see!

SERIES, DRAMA This Is Us

The multigenerational family narrative (with Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimilia, below), switching between present and past, is sad, hopeful and also true: forgiveness can forge a redemptive reunion of hearts.sob!