Five Emmy races worth watching
In most years, Emmy storylines tend to revolve around whether a particular program or performance will finally fall out of favor (I’m looking at you, “Modern Family”) as much as which shows will break through with voters.
That being said, this year’s Emmy races offer a few areas of interest beyond the same old, same old. Here are five I’ll be paying close attention to when the nominations are revealed Thursday morning.
• Which drama series winner will voters reward?
“Game of Thrones,” the most decorated series in Emmy history, won the award for best drama series in 2015 and 2016, but the first half of its seventh and final season debuted too late for it to be eligible last year. It’s possible that it might lose the Emmy to last year’s winner, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” or ratings powerhouse “This Is Us.” But if it leads the field in total nominations? I’m not betting against it.
• Will “The Americans” get a proper sendoff?
Television academy members didn’t fully embrace FX’s stellar spy drama “The Americans” until its fourth season, handing it five nominations that year, including its first series nod and recognition for leads Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. The series should be back in the fold this year, mostly because it delivered a nearperfect final season, an intense, final act clash over ideology, progress and change, laden with recriminations and regret. And that final episode was an instant classic.
• Will Sandra Oh make history?
Television has become gradually more inclusive in its casting in recent years, and Emmy voters have followed suit, bestowing groundbreaking awards that have taken a ridiculously long time to happen. That could continue if Oh becomes the first Asian-American woman nominated for lead actress in a drama. She earned five supporting actress nominations for playing Dr. Christina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy,” but BBC America’s first-year drama “Killing Eve” gave her a career-first lead role. She’s made the most of it, playing a British intelligence agent who becomes obsessed in all kinds of ways with the young female assassin she’s tracking.
• Will voters shun “Roseanne”?
“Roseanne” was always a long shot for a comedy series nomination, and that was before ABC cancelled the program following Roseanne Barr’s racist slur on Twitter. Although Emmy voters consistently ignored “Roseanne” in the series category during its first run, they gave its cast members loads of nominations. Barr is out of the picture this year for sure, but it’s possible that voters might be inclined to reward Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman as they have in the past.
• Which comedy takes over in the absence of “Veep”?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ cancer treatment sidelined “Veep,” which has been nominated for best comedy series for each of its first six seasons, winning for the past two. Amazon Studios’ celebrated first-year comedy, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” figures to slide into that vacancy. Reboots of past Emmy favorites “Will & Grace” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” will likely find support, though hopefully not to the detriment of more deserving new comedies such as HBO’s “Barry” and Netflix’s “GLOW.” The comedy favorite, though, should be “Atlanta” for a second season that was ambitious, intense, superbly written and shot, sad and funny and always unpredictable.