Nominees: , , , , , , , Prediction: Unlike Logan Roy, whose reign may be coming to an end, the furor over Succession has only just begun. Jesse Armstrong’s darkly comedic drama nabbed two Emmys (for writing and its main titles) in its 2019 debut, but became one of the dominant pop culture forces with its second season, earning recognition from the Television Academy in virtually all of the major categories. With exceptional performances, writing, and directing across the board, Succession is the one to beat. Of course, Ozark, which has also picked up steam since its premiere, poses a threat, but for all of Netflix’s nominations—including 160 this year alone—the streamer has yet to bring home the big drama prize. We also can’t discount The Mandalorian: The inaugural Disney+ series beat out , , and to compete for outstanding drama against returning nominee Better Call Saul. But this Star Wars spin-off doesn’t quite look ready to fill in the “preeminent genre show” void left by the conclusion of . Returning nominees Stranger Things, The Crown, and Killing Eve all had more subdued third-season outings, so expect to hear Nicholas Britell’s insta-classic theme song at the end of the virtual ceremony.Preference: Season two of Succession was assured, consummate, and occasionally, . But AMC’s Better Call Saul reached a new high in its fifth season, with standout episodes on the latest chapter in Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) odyssey and Kim Wexler’s (Rhea “She Was Robbed, Dammit!” Seehorn) more internalized spiral. I don’t begrudge Armstrong & co. their likely win, but if any season of Better Call Saul should catapult the series past perennial outstanding drama nominee to reigning champ, it’s this one.
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Some of these nominations just seem so random and out of place. Mandalorian, Stranger Things, Rick and Morty, El Camino:Breaking Bad, none of these have a shot in hell in winning. Not that I think any of them are bad, I’ve actually seen them all and think they’re all pretty decent for the most part (I never finished the 3rd season of Stranger Things), but none are particularly great. You may inwardly or outwardly cringe if a person you were talking to said Rick and Morty was the best animated tv show out there, though. It’s probably just all political. Thanks, Obama.Anyway.I expect Watchmen and Succession are gonna dominate their categories for the most part. Better Call Saul may take the big one, though. For comedy, I’m gonna say it’ll be between The Good Place and Schitt’s Creek. I’m rooting for Bob’s Burgers to take animated. I’m not gonna pick what I think will actually win, that’ll jinx myself.I don’t watch any talk shows, so I have no clue there. And of the two tv movies I’ve actually seen, Bad Education is the better movie, but I have no clue what’ll win. Maybe El Camino will win and prove me wrong. I welcome the challenge.
Legacy season nominations are pretty common. Modern Family was, at a stretch, an award-worthy comedy for maybe 2 years and got regularly nominated for 8 or so. Everything in your first paragraph except the Mandolorian is arguably basking in a halo of better material’s glory. Hell, maybe even including the Mandolorian just for being the first live action Star Wars thing in forever that’s not divisive or outright terrible.
That makes sense.
Speaking of out of place, what about Curb?! I mean, come on. I love Larry David. I dutifully watched every episode of Season 10. There were certainly laughs. But an Emmy nomination? This season was all over the place. Some things worked, sure, but lots of storylines were so flat and unfunny. It feels like this is a legacy nomination for sure.
You may inwardly or outwardly cringe if a person you were talking to said Rick and Morty was the best animated tv show out there, though. ::grumbles inwardly about Venture Bros. never getting a nom::
I don’t know, while Rick and Morty’s fanbase is horrendous, I don’t think it’s absurd to put it in the top 5 of animated shows on TV.
Eh, maybe. I actually thought Solar Opposites was better than the last season of Rick and Morty, but I’m sure I’m in the minority on that opinion. The whole “outstanding animated series” category just feels rigged to me, or at least half-assed. Like it’s two Fox Sunday shows, two Netflix shows, and Rick and Morty. So 4 out of the top 5 shows are on 2 networks? Just doesn’t seem possible.Ultimately, I’m not gonna get in an uproar or complain that so and so wasn’t nominated or this or that show should’ve won. I just like to pick a show I think will win out of the nominees, or one I just hope will win, and just wait and see what happens. Good ole fun 🙂
Lodge 49 should sweep, with Alethea Jones getting best director for “Circles.”
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who hates Ms. Maisel. The acting is great and all, but I just find most of characters exhausting.
You are not alone. Conceptually it seems great. The actors are, to a person, terrific. But I just can’t get behind it. I actively dislike the show, and exhausting is the right word.
Made it through the first season. Then into the second only got through a couple episodes. Can at least one character not be constantly talking or shouting? Of course, I had unease about the show from the very beginning, where we first meet Ms Maisel buying PORK CHOPS ON YOM KIPPUR.
that’s a yikes from me. I am not observant, and I definitely don’t keep kosher, but even I wouldn’t buy and/or consume treyf on Yom Kippur. That just feels so deliberately provocative by ASP.
I could only make it through half the first season. Agree that it’s well produced and the acting is great, but GAHHH I don’t want to spend time with these people.
I feel this way about Fleabag. I just do not get the love for that show, I found it painfully annoying and unfunny.
PAINFULLY!
i hated the first 3 episodes of fleabag, but it gets better once the jokes are funny and not simply crass for effect.
I’ll never understand the love for that show , “smug posho breaks fourth wall to camera , people declare it greatest thing ever”
I couldn’t take it past the third episode. So contrived and annoying.
I still like the show. But man did season 2 feel like about 40% filler to me. And they didn’t even get creative with it at times. When it wasn’t entire music performances it was just long, drawn out attempts at continuous shots that weren’t that clever or interesting.
You are wrong! Ha ha ha.You are wrong! Ha ha ha.You are wrong! Ha ha ha.You are wrong! Ha ha ha.
You are not. I wouldn’t say I hate it but I just do not see what the fuss is about.
I really love it, it really is meant to be feel almost stage like in its theatrics, and that humour always makes me laugh. The newest season comes to terms with a lot of the characters selfish behaviour too. But I understand if it doesn’t appeal to others.
Hey look, another slideshow I’m not clicking through!
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I’m here to second this. Why, AVClub, why? As a longtime reader/commenter on this site, I can assure you I’ll never click through one of these lame-ass slideshows.
If you resize your browser window to a certain narrowness it auto-converts into a single, scrollable page.
Hooray for responsive design!
Yup! Look, AV Club, I get it. You want to maximize your ad revenue. Slideshows give you all those sweet, sweet ad bucks. But does the slideshow deter enough people to negate that extra ad revenue? I don’t know. I don’t have your traffic numbers. Only you know that.What I do know (and sure, this is speculation) is that an article like this would’ve had more than a hundred comments by now if it wasn’t a slideshow. And pre-Kinja it would’ve had several hundred.Are comments a bad metric? I don’t really know. It’s very possible that the number of comments don’t really reflect the traffic on a particular story and that there are way, way more drive-by views than regular readers who comment on every story they read. I imagine that’s possible. I feel like there was some discussion along those lines from to AVC staff when people were complaining about the Kinja switch.
Hey there,All of your assessments are actually spot on here. We hold our commenters in very high regard, and get really excited when a passionate (but guideline-compliant) debate breaks out among readers. But this story format actually provides for a much cleaner mobile experience that doesn’t have ads breaking up headers from their images and images from the text blocks (we currently don’t have capability to move ad placement to more convenient locations within a story). And—being completely honest, more importantly—the format is very successful, and essential, in helping us counteract the downturn in advertising spending during the pandemic and keeping us all writing the stories we want to be writing for the site. We hope to eventually switch to infinite scroll slideshows so the format is seemless on desktop as well, but unfortunately that evolution is likely a bit of a ways off.I completely appreciate the frustration and hope the responsive design option keeps you reading stories that are posted in this format if you’re not a fan of clicking through. There’s also the list option once you’re on the second slide that can provide you the headers of each slide if you want to click around that way and only read the slides you’re interested in.
Hahaha, an ad for Sandman on Audible popped up over your comment as I was reading about how you don’t want ads breaking things up.
I get it. You need to strike a balance between getting your stuff to people who want to read it and being able to pay the bills. I’m sure it’s a tough balancing act. I’m definitely one of those readers who sometimes weeps for the AV Club that once was (I still remember reading an interview with the Kids in the Hall in the computer lab in college circa 2000 so I’ve been through several redesigns, each of which was sure to be the one that finally killed the site), but all in all I think you all still do good work and I check the front page just about every day.Your response actually gave me something to think about. How annoying is it really to click through a slideshow? Slightly, but is it not worth that annoyance to support a site I love by letting them show me a few extra ads? And it does actually seem better than the alternative you see on some sites which is an ad between every paragraph. That’s just an unreadable nightmare.
Hey Patrick, really appreciate the transparency here. I honestly think it would be worth putting out a For Our Consideration on the decision to keep slideshows. A lot of us here see it as nothing but cynical corporatism, and I’m sure you can imagine why — but it’s something that probably 99% of your readers are irritated with, and an explanation would do a lot of good.
Maybe too many comments are considered anti-traffic? Because we readers are spending too much of our time reading (and responding to) all this ad-less comments?
Another Herb staple.
And I can only see the top comment.
Give the Emmy to BoJack.
Can’t believe a show that is “urgent,” “meticulous,” and “important” got snubbed for best variety show.
A standing joke of mine is if the voters had their way the series ‘30 Rock’ would still be getting Emmys despite it having been off the air for seven years… and the last couple season sucking. Sometimes it all just seems like a name recognition contest. There a so many series this year behind pay walls that I haven’t paid into I can’t make any assumptions about what is or isn’t the best.. Maybe ‘The Good Fight’ is the best show on television. I’ve never seen it so I can’t say.
That’s because 30 Rock deserves every Emmy.
Right? This doesn’t seem like a problem to me.
I am mostly on board with your predictions and preferences. In my view, you nailed it on the comedies and limited series – The Good Place and Schitt’s Creek were both groundbreaking shows, and the latter included an absolutely legendary comedy performance by Catherine O’Hara. That said, the final seasons of those shows were not their best (and maybe their weakest?). I’d throw Insecure in there as well. This most recent season was not nearly as good as earlier seasons. And Watchmen? I gotta say, I was breathless the entire run. Was incredible.Regarding dramas, I have to go with Succession over BCS. I enjoy both and they are both excellent shows, but I feel like BCS can REALLY drag from time to time, whereas Succession perfectly uses every single minute of every episode in the best possible way.
This is more anecdotal than factual, but there seems to be a long history of Emmys being one year out of step, i.e. awarded based on how voters felt about the season before the one nominated. Also some Emmys end up going to the last season of a good series regardless of that season’s quality, becoming more like a lifetime achievement award.
God damn would I have loved to have seen Venture Bros. get a token nom. “The Saphrax Protocol” wouldn’t be out of place.
Beat me to it.
There are a multitude of great reasons why “This Extraordinary Being” deserves recognition, but one of the reasons that is the most fun is that we could see an episode of tv justifiably rewarded, an episode that very fairly fictionalized the current (fascist) US president’s father as a sneering klansman.
So this isn’t the year that The Wire finally gets its due at the Emmys?
Once again High Maintenance gets fucked.
The Kid’s Choice Awards is more prestigious.
I don’t think any member of the Academy has seen Better Call Saul, because ipso facto they didn’t nominate Rhea Seehorn. So the show won’t win best drama.
Rhea Seehorn should win for Better Call Saul but, ONCE AGAIN, she’s not even nominated, sooo…
The Plot Against America needed to be here but it isn’t. Once more, the Emmy awards are a symbol of trite meaningless bullshit.
I think we have to take into consideration just how sad and tired Emmy voters (and everyone else) are by now. Which I why I think the more hopeful series (Schitt’s Creek, The Good Place, What We Do In the Shadows, and also ultimately Watchmen) will fare better than Succession or Better Call Saul, as great as both of those seasons were.
I’m rooting for WWDITS “Collaboration” in the Comedy Writing category. “On the Run” is certainly fun, but I think Collaboration is funnier, smarter, and a better representation of the show.
The whole Jackie Daytona episode was amazing and hilarious, but it’s definitely a one-off bottle episode stylistically. I agree that doesn’t really represent the overall tone of the show. I really enjoy the episodes where all the main characters get to interact. I would be happy to see any of the nominated WWDITS eps win.
Oh, certainly. “Ghosts” was very good too.
I’m hoping for a clean sweep for Schitt’s. Odds are they’ll win at least two acting awards but I know the longest shot is for Annie Murphy, who I actually think is the most deserving.
Ew.
I also want a clean sweep for Schitt’s Creek. It’s a phenomenal show and deserves some bling.
I’ve watched the first five episodes and its ….ok, , its about 85% Catherine O’ Hara overacting and 15% “look at how weird and out of touch these rich people are” . Does it get funnier?
Yes, it gets MUCH funnier. I almost stopped watching in season 1. But it is WORTH sticking it out.
her hands deserve to hold that award just for her hand acting alone.
I think Schitt’s will take most of the comedy awards just because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who saw it as the only warm and fuzzy thing on TV to keep them sane during all this. I also think they’ll take most of the acting awards and I’ll just have to say I’m okay with it. Catherine O’Hara was on a whole other level than everyone else but David and Alexis have achieved that coveted pop cultural achievement of being in every third or fourth meme. They were also pretty great
yeah, my boyfriend watched it with me on my like, 5th watchthrough, and he couldn’t figure out why he kept getting a sense of deja vu until he made the connection that he’d already seen like half the show in GIF form, just existing on the internet
I would have liked to see some nominations (or “should have been nominated” mentions) for Search Party season 3 – the strongest comedy I saw on TV this year, in my humble opinion.
Pro tip: if you minimize your window to about half, the slideshow goes away and you can just scroll down through the entires.
Watchmen should win everything it’s nominated for.And Rhea Seehorn should pull a Kanye at least once and bumrush the stage.
I’m pulling for Watchmen to get a lot of recognition – it was one of the best works of live action superhero fiction I’ve ever seen, a technical masterpiece, and all the more impressive because very other attempt to adapt or build on the original comic book series has been a disaster. On a different note, I know it sounds mean-spirited but I kind of hope Maisel gets shut out. While I still enjoyed it, S3 was by far the weakest season yet and it’s ending in particular made me wonder if the writers are in on the joke that Mrs. Maisel is actually a terrible person – it felt like they were framing her homophobic jokes that outed the guy she was opening for as an innocent, if tragic, mistake rather than a monstrous, indefensible, and deliberate decision by her.
The Mandalorian was only nominated to get kids to watch and so they can do funny baby Yoda stuff. The Handmaid’s Tale is horrible. The Crown just took the place of “Downton Abbey” as the “token Brit show that we nominate to look cultured” spot. Killing Eve is the “your trophy is we nominated you” spot.The race is Succession and Better Call Saul, with Ozark as a dark horse.
Schitt’s Creek is Canadian. Why do some foreign series get the nod for the ‘American’ Emmys while others don’t? Sure sure, ‘Game of Thrones’ was produced by Netflix so it qualified. So was ‘Iaetwon Class’ but that apparently means nothing.
I like John Oliver, he hits news hard enough that he’s a better news show than most news shows. His big pieces would work on 60 Minutes if 60 Minutes were two hours long and allowed copious f-bombs. (Like a raunchy Andy Rooney) I want to say Last Week… feels less like Oliver and more like a team voice these days. Like a support team that all wear John Oliver’s same glasses design around the office. Yo, if there’s a furry-joke, they’ll take it. Anyway, that’s not a knock. He can win future Emmys all he wants, no problem.But I’m warming up to Trevor Noah. His voice feels like it’s all him. Maybe it’s the more intimate setting of the Pandemic. I’d like to see Trevor sneak in and win one – one of these days. And his Trump impersonation k-i-l-l-s.
Mr. Robot poorly under represented.