The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories.
Unlike the Drama and Comedy writing categories at the Emmys, the Limited Series or TV Movie one can find entire seasons competing against solo episodes or single films. In the recent past, individual chapters of Sherlock and Black Mirror, classified as TV movies, won out against juggernaut series such as Fargo and Big Little Lies. This year, there are no such "movies" nominees. Indeed, despite six slots, only four series are recognized across the board. Wandavision is the nomination leader as well as the only show competing with single episodes instead of seasons. Indeed, with three nods, it thus becomes only the second limited series to score triple writing nods in the same year. The first one was American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson. That Ryan Murphy show won in 2016, despite the threat of vote splitting, and maybe the Disney+ program can do the same. Let's take a look at the nominees…
I May Destroy You
Written by Michaela Coel
Description (from the ballot): A look at the modern dating landscape and where, in the age of instant gratification, the distinction between sexual liberation and exploitation lies. When she's spiked with a date-rape drug, Arabella (Michaela Coel) reassesses every aspect of her life: her career, her friends, and even her family.
This year, despite writing multiple FYCs, only one of my Emmy wishes came true. That was Michael Coel's nomination for the screenplay of I May Destroy You, one of the most acclaimed TV programs of the last year. From structural gambits to visceral confrontations, the show comprises a fascinating character study that makes full use of its heroine's artistry. You see, I May Destroy You is the story of a writer and later chapters use the labor of unspooling fiction from life as a driving force. Such efforts result in the most astounding episode of television I've watched in a long time. It's a final chapter of fractured hypothetical narratives crashing into each other in a miasma of survivor's trauma and self-actualization. In other words, it's very meta and certainly not for all audiences.
That being said, it's very noticeably written, which may help it in the Emmy race. The text is showy to the point it's the star of I May Destroy You, and the show's reflective qualities never let us forget how the act of writing can hold immense power. Because of that, I'm tentatively predicting that Coel might win here even if her show otherwise underperforms. Her possible success here could be reminiscent of how the TV Academy embraced Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Fleabag's second season.
Mare of Easttown
Written by Brad Igelsby
Description (from the ballot): As her life crumbles around her, a small-town Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) investigates a local murder. The series explores the dark side of a close community and provides an examination of how family and past tragedies can define our present.
It's time for a confession. Despite respecting, even admiring, all of these shows, the only limited series writing contender I genuinely love is I May Destroy You. Still, there's much to appreciate in such efforts as Mare of Easttown, whose character construction and thematic consistency transcend the classic murder mystery/police procedural genre trappings. Igelsby has created a formidable heroine in Mare, a grief-stricken detective trying to live through haunting loss. Indeed, the scars left behind by immeasurable tragedy are one of the best elements of the miniseries, something that affects nearly every character, no matter how minor or innocuous they might seem at first. Nevertheless, the structure could do with some tightening, and one can't help but feel like a couple of the red herrings are so flagrantly mechanical they detract from the show's general humanism.
Luckily, Mare of Easttown ends with its best episode, a staggering culmination of its major themes that still manages to surprise through sheer emotional rawness. Ending well might do the trick for this show, though similar genre exercises have failed to win this category in recent years. Fargo, Luther, Top of the Lake, Unbelievable, and many others have lost to less traditional projects or narratives enshrined in the prestige of real history. Of course, the massive popularity of Mare of Easttown might prevail, even when Emmy trends are working against it.
The Queen's Gambit
Written by Scott Frank
Description (from the ballot): In a 1950s orphanage, a young girl reveals an astonishing talent for chess and begins an unlikely journey to stardom while grappling with addiction.
Adapted from Walter Tevis' homonymous novel, The Queen's Gambit became Netflix's most-watched miniseries back in October 2020. After dominating the guild awards, it seemed poised to take the Emmys by storm and continue its winning streak. Still, the ascension of Mare of Easttown, not to mention Wandavision's impressive nomination haul, put a wrench on those plans. It still might sweep, but the race is highly competitive. Honestly, it wouldn't be a tragedy if The Queen's Gambit went home empty-handed. Delineating the lead character's struggle with addiction and obsession, the text feels somewhat underdeveloped when one looks beyond the central figure. Characters like Jolene feel as if they exist solely to facilitate Beth Harmon's narrative, living more as plot devices and auxiliary archetypes than people. Furthermore, for a show set explicitly in the 1950s and 60s, The Queen's Gambit comes off as unwilling to engage with the historical schisms of the period, past the Cold War politics that directly impact its main heroine.
One should note that, apart from Scott Frank, every Emmy contender in this category is a first-time nominee. The creator of The Queen's Gambit was previously recognized for his work on Godless. Maybe that precedent, coupled with literary pedigree and the show's incredible popularity, will take him to a victory. If it wins, The Queen's Gambit will become the second Netflix production to nab this prize after Black Mirror, which has won the award twice, both in 2017 and 2018.
"All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" (Season 1, Episode 6) from Wandavision
Written by Chuck Hayward and Peter Cameron
Description (from the ballot): Wanda and the twins dress up for Halloween and go out on the town. Meanwhile, Vision investigates the boundary of the hex, but Wanda uses her formidable powers to expand the borders of town, causing unexpected consequences for the army base now caught inside.
A few years ago, the idea that Disney might be on the cusp of dominating the Emmys through superhero serials would have seemed ridiculous. It's not so far-fetched anymore, thanks to Wandavision's superpowered character study by way of a love letter to classic sitcoms. The Malcolm in the Middle-inspired episode doesn't frontload its televisual history geekery as much as other chapters, but it's one of the most unnerving hours in the Disney+ blockbuster show. At this point, it's become clear that Wanda Maximoff is behind the reality-bending oddities at the heart of the story and this hour further explores the human consequences of her actions. Rather than dismantling the madwoman stereotype through a narrative of misunderstandings, Wandavision acknowledges the horrifying possibilities of its anti-heroine's powers. Vision's sojourn through the outer limits of his wife's dominion produces some of the show's best images, working on an atmosphere of essential wrongness that starts on the screenplay level.
It's not the most complex of Wandavision's episodes, but "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" represents an exciting foray into the holiday special, its traditions, and how such televisual conventions allow for brief experiments in genres antithetical to the sitcom. The Emmys have a long history of embracing Halloween specials, so this episode might have a fighting chance even as it is the least memorable of Wandavision's trio of nominated submissions.
"Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" (Season 1, Episode 1) from Wandavision
Written by Jac Schaeffer
Description (from the ballot): We find Wanda and Vision in a 1950's-style black and white sitcom; their current reality a mystery and their new neighbors confounding. Committed to hiding their powers, they host a dinner party as a "normal couple" and struggle to answer questions about their past.
In a pastiche of I Love Lucy and other such midcentury sitcoms, "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" sets the stage for a series inebriated by the tradition of American televisual comedies. Despite acting as a pilot, it's crucial to note how little exposition there is in this opening hour or, more specifically, how vague and fractured the expository dialogue ends up being. Coupled with the extravagant stylization, this invokes a sense of growing unease, dread that flourishes from how inane the whole exercise initially feels. Textually, the most daring gambit is the dark conclusion of a typical procession of dinnertime hijinks. Repetition incurs morbidity, an undercurrent of helpless despair that hints at the show's overall mysteries without revealing too much too soon. That necessary ambiguity makes the episode stand out in a series that will come to revolve around an explanatory impetus of puzzle-solving storytelling.
The fact that this Wandavision episode is so much about television itself might entice nostalgic Emmy voters. While I can't say this introduction grabbed me as much as it did other viewers, one can't deny how countless audiences got hooked on Wandavision due to this particular hour of referential TV. In terms of sheer style, visual and writerly, this is one of the riskier propositions of the MCU. For that alone, it deserves some respect.
"Previously On" (Season 1, Episode 8) from Wandavision
Written by Laura Donney
Description (from the ballot): Agnes, now Agatha, forces Wanda to relive scenes from her life that led up to her creation of Westview. When Wanda discovered she had lost Vision, feelings of loss overwhelmed her and rewrote reality in Westview into a 1950s sitcom world. Agatha, a witch, wants the secret to Wanda's power.
In contrast with Wandavision's first episode, "Previously On" is all about exposition and uncovering the show's central mysteries. While some fans overrate the writing a tad, there's a sophistication to how Laura Donney uses the television narrative model to deconstruct Wanda's fantasies and coping mechanisms. In this hour, the show is revealed to have been a meditation on grief all along, how loss can warp reality and how that universal experience can be expressed in extraordinary ways when contextualized within the superhero genre. It's not subtle writing, to the point of being blunt. However, it's impactful, full of earnest emotion and complex intersections of character allegiances, troubles of mutilating self-image in the aftermath of death, and the parameters by which one can be defined as a hero or villain. In one fell swoop, Wanda Maximoff went from being one of the least defined main characters in the MCU to its most defiantly multidimensional.
If one of Wandavision's episodes is going to triumph, I bet on this one. If nothing else, it's the most analyzed and talked-about episode of the show, the one where the writing has been most intensely put under the microscope. Sure, the critical conclusions haven't always been positive, but all publicity is good publicity.
Predictions
- I May Destroy You
- The Queen's Gambit
- Mare of Easttown
- "Previously On" Wandavision
- "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" Wandavision
- "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" Wandavision
Personal Ranking
- I May Destroy You
- Mare of Easttown
- "Previously On" Wandavision
- "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" Wandavision
- "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" Wandavision
- The Queen's Gambit
Who do you think will win in this highly disputed race? Who would you vote for?