What's your favourite season, Catherine?We've already heard from Team Experience on the Emmy omissions that most pained them. Now that we've all had the opportunity to sleep on it, here are three final questions about the nominations for the 71st annual Emmys which will be held on.
1. Which Emmy nomination was your favourite?
2. Which Emmy nomination most confused / annoyed you?
3. What category is so sexy it made you quiver under your bodice?
Enjoy their brief answers and provide your own after the jump, won'cha...
Which Emmy nomination was your favourite?
CHRIS FEIL: Sian Clifford for Fleabag. With most folks predicting the also sensational Olivia Colman, I feared that the show might be more of a critical fave than an Emmy to earn multiple slots in one category. But I'm thrilled that Emmy agrees that Clifford's hilarious crisis is an essential ingredient to the show and an ultimately moving one as well. The way she throws away her monumental, restorative line "The only person I'd run through an airport for is you"? Perfection.
ABE FRIED-TANZER: Kumail Nanjiani for The Twilight Zone. The comedian perfectly encapsulates the tone of this anthology reboot and his nomination serves as the best summary of its balance of creepiness and wonder...
DANCIN' DAN: Marin Hinkle has been largely underappreciated for her precise, hilarious work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, so I'm especially glad her increased prominence in the show's second season landed her a nomination. She's just as good with Amy Sherman-Palldino's rat-a-tat dialogue as Rachel Brosnahan is, and no one on TV does understated befuddlement better.
BEN MILLER: I want to say Kristen Scott Thomas to promote my own writing, but my heart says Marin Hinkle being rewarded for her great work in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She has grown from a stepped-on matriarch to an assertive woman who is willing to change with the changing times. This is also in no small part due to her wonderfully mousey work in the recently-axed Speechless.
SPENCER COILE: It takes a lot for me to be truly excited by an actor’s performance - to feel as though no one else can play their role. Jodie Comer is simply revelatory as Villanelle in Killing Eve and I’m beyond thankful she’s getting everything she deserves for this season. Also, shout-out to Betty Gilpin for being recognized in a stellar (yet forgotten) season of GLOW.
MICHAEL CUSUMANO: Bojack Horseman for Outstanding Animated Program! No contest. For years Bojack has been in the discussion for best show on television, animated or not. It’s stylistically daring, mind-bendingly funny, an elaborate feat of world building, and as psychologically and emotionally rich as the best of Mad Men (seriously). And yet, not only has it never been mentioned in the Best Comedy category, where it absolutely deserves a slot, but it couldn’t even land a place in the animation category, which saw more urgency in nominating say, Season 28 of The Simpsons. Bojack finally broke its streak of snubs with a nomination for the stunning episode "Free Churro," which, in typically audacious fashion, takes place over the course of one real-time eulogy.
J.B.: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Best Writing for a Comedy Series. Season 2 of Fleabag was the single best thing I’ve seen on television since The Americans aired its final episode more than a year ago, and I watch a LOT of television. Sharp, witty, searching and hilarious, it is a profound meditation on love and loss, and an absolute gift of a show, in part because of its terrific cast and the tremendous performances they give, but primarily because the writing is just so good. So while I was beyond thrilled to see the show nominated in so many categories today, the real highlight for me is seeing Phoebe get the credit she deserves for writing something so singular, and so special.
Which Emmy nomination most annoyed or confused you?
CHRIS FEIL: Jessica Lange for American Horror Story: Apocalypse - Guest Actress in a Drama Series. We're still doing this, huh?
ABE FRIED-TANZER: Michael Kelly for House of Cards. Even he seemed bored with his performance and character arc in the show’s painful final season. At least Robin Wright got to take charge and command a few scenes, but there was nothing left for Doug to do and no reason for Kelly to take a slot from someone else.
DANCIN' DAN:I liked the final season of Game of Thrones more than most, but.... Alfie Allen? I mean, it was nice that Theon had a "redemptive" arc this season, but... REALLY?
NATHANIEL: A broken record from me, I know, but another nomination for Emilia Clarke for her inexpressive but impressively costumed and coiffed character in Game of Thrones.... and this time in lead so no less!?! When Toni Collette, Caitronia Balfe, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Suranne Jones, and Neicy Nash were all right there in dramas last season doing more within single scenes than Clarke manages in an entire season. ARGH.
BEN MILLER: Does anyone really feel that Kit Harrington gave one of the best performances of the year? He did not have any showy monologues or subtlety. It was all blunt edges and machismo. I wouldn't have had him in a top 10. Plenty of other options (ahem, Richard Madden) would have been better.
MICHAEL CUSUMANO: I’m all for taking every possible opportunity to give the president the finger but nominating Robert De Niro for struggling with his cue cards as Robert Mueller on SNL? What does that prove? Besides that Emmy can squander a guest actor slot that could go to a lower profile but infinitely more deserving candidate?
J.B.: There were, as always, a lot of headscratchers in this batch of nominations, but I’m going with Margaret Qualley for her cloying, uninspired performance as Ann Reinking on Fosse / Verdon, a show I was incredibly excited for and incredibly let down by generally. I’ve got no beef with Qualley—I liked her on The Leftovers and I really liked her in Novitiate, and she strikes me as a thoughtful, gifted actress with a bright future ahead of her (including some very exciting and high-profile projects coming up). But her turn as theater/dance legend Reinking really did not do it. I found it hollow, one-dimensional and contrived, and definitely not an adequate portrayal of a living icon. This spot should have gone to another living icon, Sally Field, for her underrated work in Maniac, or Eliza Scanlen for her far more interesting performance in Sharp Objects.
Which Emmy category made you thirstiest?
CHRIS FEIL: Guest Actor in A Drama Series simply because of Kumail's presence. His mad, passionate, fiery presence.
J.B.: Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. I get chills just LOOKING at this lineup. Six badass, immensely talented women who each gave powerful, dynamic and memorable performances on their respective shows this year, and any of whom would be a worthy winner. The Television Academy doesn’t usually get things this right, but damn, it’s nice when they do.
BEN MILLER: Give me the ladies of Lead Actress in a Comedy Series all day long. I have all shades of the spectrum. The young beauty (Brosnahan), the sexy art kid (Waller-Bridge), the quirky girl who is a monster in the sack while also smoking three packs a day (Lyonne), the repressed housewife (Applegate), the uptight hottie (Dreyfus), and the older boozing lady who is aging really well (O'Hara). Whatever your taste, this category has it for you.
SPENCER COILE: We’ve already seen a barrage of tweets about how Lead Actress in a Comedy Series is going to divide the gays and begin a new Gay Civil War. And for good reason! Not only are some of them overdue for their respective series (O’Hara and Waller-Bridge), even the perennial favorites (Brosnahan or Louis-Dreyfus) are undeniably fantastic. Choose your fighter, everyone, because they’re all winners.
NATHANIEL R: The sexiest category is DEFINITELY Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (even though I wish Sutton Foster or Rachel Bloom had finally made it in) but since that's been name-checked twice let's give one to the men. Thirst is thwarted in just about every male category by at least one or two people so in the end the winner can only obviously be Lead Actor in a Drama Series. You get inarguable eye candy (Kit Harrington in Game of Thrones... but why is he nominated for acting, again? Please to explain), two sensitive gorgeous family men who are feeling extra enough to also have perfect bodies (Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K Brown, both reliably wonderful in This is Us), one proud fellow gay who will keep you smiling, crying, and laughing...sometimes all at once (Billy Porter in Pose ❤️), and some acceptable Odenkirk and Bateman (Better Call Saul, Ozark) on the side, if you're feeling vanilla.
Your turn, readers -- What'cha got?