ROBERT LLOYD
TELEVISION CRITIC
I want to say first that I find the Emmys nonsensical. Giving out trophies for something as various and impossible to quantify as creative work seems to me not just silly but actually inimical to creativity, which does not need your stinking badges and, indeed, suffers when it strives to win them. Nevertheless, I offer these names, which might as easily be (many) others, in the spirit of spreading the love.
Comedy series: Written and directed by and starring Mackenzie Crook, the beautiful pastoral comedy “Detectorists” (Acorn TV) — set around metal-detecting hobbyists searching for Saxon gold and spiritual connection — makes a song out of the present and past, what changes and what remains.
Drama series: Superbly unaccountable, Showtime’s extremely belated, happily inconclusive third and final season of David Lynch’s Northwest noir supernatural comic melodrama “Twin Peaks: The Return” was a show in which you not only never knew what would happen next, but how it would happen — as farce, horror, in color or black-and-white, a tribute to Georges Méliès, or something made by people who had never worked a camera before.
Limited series: Netflix’s pitchperfect mockuseries — I guess that’s the word — “American Vandal” plays off the current vogue for anthology shows and true crime, with a “Serial”/“Jinx”-style investigation into a high school student accused of vandalizing cars in the teachers’ parking lot. It’s also a teen romance, with teen sleuthing,
and an inquiry into the process of inquiring.
Lead actress in a comedy series: A team player as star of NBC’s “The Good Place,” Kristen Bell would have fit perfectly in the films of Frank Capra or Preston Sturges and anywhere else Jean Arthur and Irene Dunne might have landed. The glue that cements a universally great cast, she balances awfulness and likability in a way that doesn’t cancel out either, as step by back-step by step she becomes a person worthy of something better than eternal punishment.
Lead actor in a comedy series: Some would classify Louie Anderson, who plays the mother of obvious “Baskets” lead Zach Galifianakis (in two roles), as a supporting actor; but it’s his quiet performance that defines the FX series and makes it real, grounding Galifianakis’ more hectic characters with equal parts disappointment and caring.
Lead actress in a drama: Casting a 40-something Korean-Canadian actress best known for a long run on a hospital show as the protagonist in the sexy, international cat-andmouse suspense thriller “Killing Eve” (BBC America) was not the obvious choice. But Sandra Oh makes it feel like the inevitable one, as a dreamy intelligence agent suddenly thrust into the dream.
Lead actor in a drama: One of those actors whose roles are habitually out of the norm, Kyle MacLachlan’s acting is not so much a case of good or bad as right or wrong. “Twin Peaks” — in which he plays three roles but one person, maybe — wouldn’t be “Twin Peaks” without him.
Supporting actress in a comedy: For nine seasons on ABC’s “The Middle,” Eden Sher shepherded the coming of age of Sue Heck, an entirely original character whose abilities never matched her enthusiasm but whose enthusiasm was matchless.
Supporting actor in a comedy: Nobody in “New Girl” (Fox) made me laugh as reliably or as hard as Lamorne Morris’ goofball Winston — police officer, lover, cat fancier and, alongside star Zooey Deschanel, the lovable one. (But I am going to cheat and squeeze Dan Levy in beside him, whose new emotional depth on “Schitt’s Creek” was emblematic of a great season for that show.
Supporting actress in a drama: Three decades after she arrived on the set of “Designing Women” in clouds of sweet innocence, “Legion’s” Jean Smart continues to surprise with her depth and sharp edges. This choice is also a memo to myself to finish the second season of the FX series.
Supporting actor in a drama: Harry Dean Stanton on “Twin Peaks.” This is for singing “Red River Valley,” and all the rest of it.