The Film Experience

by Juan Carlos

We now reach this hotly contested category, consisting of Emmy favorites, Oscar winners, and a breakout performer. Aside from Regina King and Cate Blanchett, pundits were trying out several combinations of who would fill the remaining slots, especially with the decrease from six to five nominees. Unbelievable is competing for Limited Series, but neither of its widely predicted leads Merritt Wever or Kaitlyn Dever made it. Previous Emmy winners and nominees that were also in the running but didn't make it included Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Dockery, Helen Mirren, Ellie Kemper, and Aunjanue Ellis.

Without further ado, let's consider the lucky five who were nominated...

Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly in Mrs. America (FX)
With two Oscar wins and seven nominations under her belt, Cate Blanchett returns to television as she plays the infamous anti-feminist who did everything to stop the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. While the series selects different characters as the central focus of each episode, Blanchett’s character is the unifying element to all of them and positions her as the clear lead of the show. Throughout the show, we see Blanchett trace Schlafly’s rise as the face of anti-feminism to her inevitable fall as America’s ingrained misogyny eventually catches up with her. Ultimately, the question was not if Blanchett could pull this off but how she would pull this off. With all the biopic trappings that could easily give her reason to showboat, Blanchett chooses to attack the character with considerable restraint while still being technically on-point, making her iteration of this person terrifyingly humane. She is not even making us feel sorry for this gender traitor, but she makes us see her pathetic desire to regain agency by fighting for a cause that actually strips her of it. It is a tricky task, triggering empathy in one moment only to be downright repugnant in the next, but Blanchett nails this character.

Shira Haas as Esther Shapiro in Unorthodox (Netflix)
At the center of this captivating Yiddish drama is the wonderful Shira Haas as the woman who escapes her stringent religious community to gain freedom. Haas is a force to be reckoned with, a performer that captures the whirlwind intensity of the story while still understanding the incredible nuance that her character demands. She explores the rebirth of Esther with gripping sincerity and a haunting rawness. With her energy and body language, she manages to depicts the turmoil of actively seeking self-assertion and the internalized constraints that her faith and community has placed on her with beautiful clarity. It is thrilling to see her slowly come out of her shell. Ultimately Haas makes this journey an incredibly cathartic one, while still acing the distinctive specificity of the character’s experience.

Regina King as Angela Abar/Sister Night in Watchmen (HBO)
Emmy favorite Regina King returns to the race as the center of Watchmen’s humongous narrative, a police detective who goes on a path to discover her roots and the deep-seated communal trauma that her history entails. While the show boasts sprawling ambition and scope, King is tasked to ground the narrative in Angela's more subtle internal journey. The last two episodes of this series give her the chance to highlight more details in the character that were not present in the preceding episodes. This means that for the majority of her performance King is reserved and reactive, but nevertheless, she doesn't get lost in the show’s overwhelming vision. The show amps up its more fantastical elements as it goes along, but King does such accomplished work that she's a reassuring presence throughout.

Octavia Spencer as Madam C.J. Walker in Self Made (Netflix)
This Oscar winner gets her first Emmy nomination in this depiction of Madam C.J. Walker, a pioneering Black woman in the world of commerce and entrepreneurship. In this series, we see her rise from a disregarded hard worker to her path to success and all the business and personal problems in between. The series is guilty of being less of a biopic and more of a hagiography, but fortunately, Spencer finds the more visceral, even brutal, moments of emotions in the story. She makes Walker’s delicate navigation of familial drama, business competition, and the systemic problems of sexism and racism felt. We root for Walker because of Spencer's palpable earnestness. We know that Spencer can easily muster charm onscreen, but this character is so much more than that. He portrayal delicate shades this woman despite the show’s broader strokes in its storytelling. This is another reminder that Octavia Spencer deserves to have more leading roles and meatier material to work with.

Kerry Washington as Mia Warren in Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)
Still on the hunt for her first Emmy after eight nominations (this is her fourth within the acting categories), Washington plays an artist and single mother who remains an unreadable mystery to her landlady Elena (Reese Witherspoon). Throughout the majority of the show, Mia’s indiscernible exterior keeps Elena on edge. Washington's deliciously uncomfortable chemistry with Witherspoon is the highlight of the series and keeps us on edge as well with the blurry nature of their relationship. It is interesting to see them swing from relaxed friendship to passive-aggressive antagonism within one scene. However, the bigger dramatic moments do not always click, either because of the lack of differentiation in the dramatic notes that she plays or simply because of small acting choices that do not always feel natural. The show’s uneven handling of its intersecting themes give her a lot to work with, but the performance is inconsistently effective. Washington was stronger in her other bid for this category with American Son.

Personal Ranking:

Shira Haas - Unorthodox
Cate Blanchett - Mrs. America
Octavia Spencer - Self-Made
Regina King - Watchmen
Kerry Washington - Little Fires Everywhere

Predicted Winner: Regina King - Watchmen

Predicted Spoiler: Shira Haas - Unorthodox

If Regina King could manage to snag three surprise Emmy wins within four years, she will likely win a fourth for this suspected Emmy juggernaut. Cate Blanchett appears to be the viable spoiler given that she's also an Oscar winner and playing a real-life character at that. But I think Haas is the one to watch out for in case of a King loss. The fact that the low profile Unorthodox got an impressive nominations haul signals support for the show.