Drama
Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. A record-setting year, despite the backlash for the finale. 10 of the 12 submitted actors made cut, including fan favorites Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen (yay for both!). Despite a whopping 8 nominees for Drama Series, it looks like Game of Thrones is unstoppable. That should not detract from the successes of Ozark, This is Us, Killing Eve, all of which did extremely well across the board. There were plenty of surprises. In Actor, Richard Madden missed the cut despite the show getting a Drama Series nomination. In Lead Actress, the exclusions of Julia Roberts and Christine Baranski show that Emmy voters just did not watch or really rally behind The Good Fight and Homecoming, despite the quality of both. Instead, voters fell back on tried and true favorites Robin Wright and Viola Davis, both well-liked veterans who elevate their shows. Despite Sucession's Drama Series nod, Kiernan Culkin and Matthew McFayden missed the cut, and the Homecoming curse cause Emmy favorite Bobby Cannavale to miss as well. Also the power of Ozark was not enough to bring Peter Mullan into the mix. Instead, they went with Game of Thrones, old favorites Giancarlo Esposito and Michael Kelly, and made room for This is Us star Chris Sullivan. Most experts had their money on Justin Hartley, if a This is Us actor was going to breakthrough. It looks like Sullivan's depression story line was a hit with Emmy voters instead. In the guest categories, surprise nominees like Glynn Turman and Kumail Nanjiani beat out favorites, Tituss Burgess, James Cromwell (again the Succession love was not enough), and Christopher Meloni. In Guest Actress, there weren't any real shockers, although I'm surprised voters did not make room for their favorite, Connie Britton. The biggest thread running through the guest categories, and writing and directing is that The Handmaid's Tale used the hanging episodes rule, and managed to get in all four categories, and a whopping 13 overall, without a full season. I expect other series to follow suite in coming years (which will probably cause a change in rules, again).
Comedy
Wow, did these races take a turn. Veep only got nine nominations (and missed directing). The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel led with 20 nominations, but missed out of writing. But the real story is Barry and Fleabag, with a dose of Russian Doll. Those shows came screaming through with tons of nominations, knocking favorites and long-time nominees out of their slots, and providing voters three alternatives to the two many thought were the front runners. I was also thrilled to see the inclusions of Schitt's Creek and The Good Place, proving that fan narratives and buzz can get voters to watch these underappreciated shows, and fall in love with them. Of course, the exclusions of The Kominsky Method, GLOW, and black-ish were eye-openers. In the actor race, the inclusion of Eugene Levy, was a huge part of the surprise Schitt's Creek love. The actress race, of course, had lots of surprises, with the inclusions of Christina Applegate, Natasha Lyonne, and Catherine O'Hara, that meant folks like Pamela Adlon, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, and in a shocker, Allison Janney, were left out. Supporting Actor saw the inclusions of both Barry actors, which some folks predicted, leaving out Tituss Burgess, Kenan Thompson, and the other guys from Veep. Once again, Supporting Actress needed eight slots for six nominees, because it is too damn competitive. Yet there were still surprises like Sarah Goldberg and particularly shocking, Sian Clifford, who no one was talking about. That meant though that so many nominees from last year (Bryant, Mulally, Metcalf, and Jones) were excluded, despite eligibility. In the writing and directing awards, the biggest surprise was the including of PEN15 in writing. The writing branch always throws in a curveball (at the expense of a favorite). Guest acting can be boiled down to Fleabag, SNL, and Maisel, as they racked up multiple nods (including some unexpected ones).
TV Movie/Limited Series
For the first time in a long time, the five television movie nominations got no acting, writing or directing nominations. It is really a crapshoot to see which of those films rises above. In the rest of the race, When They See Us is the big winner, getting so many acting nominations. But Escape at Dannemora, Chernobyl, and Fosse/Verdon also did extremely well. In the end though, it is When They See Us's game to lose.
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