SO WHO DESERVES AN EMMY?
We take a look at a few of the major categories, predicting who is likely to take home the hardware:
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders — Better Call Saul; The Crown; The Handmaid’s Tale; House of Cards; Stranger Things; This Is Us; Westworld.
Who Should Win — The bloom is off the House of Cards rose; Donald Trump’s real-life shenanigans made the Underwoods look like outsiders. While Stranger Things nailed the nostalgia of growing up in the ‘80s amid interdimensional horror, and Better Call Saul rocked the courtroom with superlative drama, The Handmaid’s Tale deserves the win for searing our screens with a dystopian future of women reduced to breeding chattels.
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders — Atlanta; Black-ish; Master of None; Veep; Modern Family; Silicon Valley; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Who Should Win — Modern Family (five wins) and Veep (two wins) have hogged the Emmys this decade, but the new kids are ready to change that. Black-ish hit a winning stride this third season, but the fresh Atlanta, about three up-and-comers in the rap game, hit the comedy homer.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders — Sterling K Brown (This Is Us); Anthony Hopkins (Westworld); Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul); Matthew Rhys (The Americans); Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan); Kevin Spacey (House of Cards); Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us).
Who Should Win — Rule Spacey out this year; his President Underwood has flown beyond believable. And Hopkins’ phoned it in amid the cowboy robots. Rhys has sadly been overlooked for way too long, but boo-hoo, such is life. The real dramatic juice here was squeezed into the lens by Brown and Odenkirk — with the edge to “Slippin’ Jimmy”.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
The Contenders — Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder); Claire Foy (The Crown); Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale); Keri Russell (The Americans); Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld); Robin Wright (House of Cards).
Who Should Win — Despite their A-game acting chops, Davis, Russell and Wood will be overshadowed by Foy’s engaging turn as young Queen Elizabeth II torn between love and duty. Moss deserves the golden girl, however, for her turn as a soul ensnared by a terrifying society.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders — Anthony Anderson (Black-ish); Aziz Ansari (Master of None); Zach Galifianakis (Baskets); Donald Glover (Atlanta); William H Macy (Shameless); Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent).
Who Should Win — Galifianakis hasn’t dazzled since The Hangover. Meanwhile, Tambor’s feminine wiles see him shooting for his third consecutive win, while Ansari and Macy flex their funnyman muscles with elan. But it’s Glover, who was hired by Tina Fey to write for 30 Rock, who’s the sparkler here.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
The Contenders — Pamela Adlon (Better Things); Jane Fonda (Grace and Frankie); Allison Janney (Mom); Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt); Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep); Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish); Lily Tomlin (Grace and Frankie).
Who Should Win — The unsinkable Tomlin deserves a call to the podium for her third consecutive nod as Frankie — while Fonda just doesn’t radiate enough warmth to kindle votes. Nobody can dent the vicepresidential brass of Dreyfus, with five consecutive Veep wins and a sixth in the offing.
OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
The Contenders — Big Little Lies; Fargo; Feud: Bette and Joan; Genius; The Night Of.
Who Should Win — While Genius did more than any TV show or movie to both humanise and scandalise the memory of Einstein — Feud: Bette and Joan breathed spiteful new life into one of Hollywood’s grandest old tales. Feud all the way.
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE The Contenders — The
Lying Detective; Black Mirror: San Junipero; Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Sherlock: The Wizard of Lies.
Who Should Win — While Wizard unspooled with aplomb how Bernie Madoff decimated his family with the biggest fraud in Wall Street history, Black Mirror should win. It flew well below the big-bucks publicity radar to deliver a Twilight Zone-ish tale par excellence.
OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES
The Contenders — Full Frontal with Samantha Bee; Jimmy Kimmel Live!; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; The Late Late Show with James Corden; Real Time with Bill Maher.
Who Should Win — There is a ton of support Bee, who’s won millions of fans for working a half-hour a week, and Oliver still delivers wit like a viper’s bite. Bee will probably win … but Corden makes his warm, welcoming alchemy look easy.
OUTSTANDING VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
The Contenders — Billy on the Street; Documentary Now!; Drunk History; Portlandia; Saturday Night Live; Tracey Ullman’s Show.
Who Should Win — SNL is a sure thing. Producer Lorne Michaels and his giddy crew caught fire this past season, their strongest in decades, energised by Alec Baldwin’s tart, mocking impersonation of Trump.
OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Contenders — The Amazing Race; American Ninja Warrior; Project Runway; RuPaul’s Drag Race; Top Chef; The Voice.
Who Should Win — Let’s get real. The only two quality offerings here are The Amazing Race — which has twice put UAE in the global spotlight with sprints to Abu Dhabi (2013) and Dubai (2016) — and The Voice, which is most likely to hum the victory tune here.