Usually, I write my columns for all you TV fans. But this week, I'm pulling together a letter specifically for a special group of high-profile TV nerds: The folks who are voting on nominations for the Emmy awards.
Hey all – I know you've been drowning in roundtable interviews and endless For Your Consideration cocktail parties from shows trying to earn your support. Voting on nominations ends today at 10 p.m. PDT, so I thought I'd offer a few suggestions for underrated performers and shows that I really hope get a shot at Emmy gold this time around.
Given the fragmented state of TV viewing these days, I know it's tougher than ever to agree on what constitutes the best programming. But that's also an opportunity for you all in the Television Academy to reach beyond usual suspects for new voices, new shows and performances that might otherwise be overlooked.
And for non-Emmy voters, consider this a list of cool shows and performances to catch up on. Nominations are announced on July 15. (And if the Emmy voters get it wrong, I'll correct everything with my DEGGY awards, announced just before the Emmy ceremony Sept. 14.)
Best actress in a comedy: Uzo Aduba from Netflix's The Residence
Yes, Aduba is beloved by Emmy voters, who have nominated her five times with three wins, including two for her signature role as Crazy Eyes on Orange Is the New Black. But I worry, with the industry's eyes focused this year on higher profile comedies like The Studio, Hacks and Dying for Sex, that Netflix's quirky take on a whodunit inside the White House will be missed. Aduba's performance as avid birder and consulting detective Cordelia Cupp, the investigator who unravels it all, is central to that glorious mix, commanding every scene as a sharp-eyed sleuth who is clearly the smartest person in the room – and isn't shy about letting you know it.
Best supporting actor in a drama: Vincent D'Onofrio from Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+
Performers from so-called "genre shows" like science fiction programs and superhero-based series rarely do well in general interest awards like the Emmys, which often seek out more highbrow fare. But D'Onofrio's take on the crime boss-turned-authoritarian New York mayor Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk was chilling, captivating and close enough to real-life events it felt a tiny bit triggering. He dominated the series so much, I told my colleague Glen Weldon we should come up with a new adjective for when an actor completely owns a role: D'Onofrian.
Best actor in a drama: Matthew Goode from Netflix's Dept. Q
Released just before this year's Emmys deadline, this Scotland-set crime drama also deserves its own nomination for a twisty story centered on a damaged detective investigating a horrific, unsolved crime. Cool as the series is, it's Goode's turn as arrogant detective Carl Morck, an English man transplanted to Edinburgh – unable to admit how he's been traumatized by a shooting that paralyzed his former partner – that holds everything together. Goode has been excellent in a lot of things, from playing legendary film producer Robert Evans in The Offer to the villain in Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie. His role as Morck isn't exactly the kind of thing Emmy voters line up to recognize – but they should.
Best talk series: Have I Got News for You on CNN
This is a category historically dominated by newsy satires like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (before Oliver was shunted off to a new category he now dominates). But this Americanized version of a long-running British TV staple has quietly emerged as one of the most fun ways to process our chaotic times, led by Daily Show alum Roy Wood Jr. as host alongside team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black. Whether it's making fun of Steve Bannon's musical about the 1992 Los Angeles Riots – with clips from a table read featuring Rob Corddry, of course — or Ruffin explaining she lost her gig performing at the White House Correspondents' Dinner by "talking s***" about Republicans beforehand, the fake game show they present every week is a telling but heartening way to absorb tough news events.
Another best talk series: Hot Ones on YouTube
I know – I'm pushing it here with a second pick in this category. But even though I think the one new nomination in this category will likely go to Netflix's uneven Everybody's Live with John Mulaney series, I think it's a crime that the most unconventionally innovative interview show in recent years hasn't yet gotten a nomination. Yes, it's a silly setup – celebrities answering questions while eating hot wings. But host Sean Evans makes it count with brilliant touches, including sharp, insightful questions and the decision to eat wings right alongside the guest – a level of entertainment worthy of a little Emmy gold, I say.
Best limited series: Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist on Peacock
It sounds a little odd to contend that a series featuring megastars like Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard and Kevin Hart would be an underdog in anything. But it seems the industry has slept on this excellent, blaxploitation-tinged production, based on a real event in which some of America's most fearsome gangsters were robbed while attending a party after a Muhammad Ali fight in 1970. The story touches on everything from Atlanta's rise as a Mecca for Black people to the integration of the city's police force, with Hart nailing a mostly serious role and Jackson chewing the scenery as only he can, playing the "Black Godfather" Frank Moten.
Best comedy series: Mo on Netflix
Given the intensifying conflicts in the Middle East and ongoing chaos over America's immigration policies, it's tough to imagine a more relevant show than Mo, featuring comic Mohammed Amer as a Palestinian refugee living in Texas trying to obtain asylum. As the show's second season opens, he is actually trapped in Mexico — where he was transported against his will by, yes, tree smugglers — and is trying to navigate a bonkers immigration system to prove he should be let back into America to make his family's long-awaited asylum hearing. This all may sound more like an Oscar-bait dramatic film, but in Amer's hands, it's actually funny – with stories that are also moving and heartbreaking at once. He manages something amazing: humanizing a process that has been distorted by politicians and ideologues to obscure the very real people at the heart of the process.
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