by Nathaniel R
Parker Posey in "The Staircase", Natasha Rothwell in "The White Lotus", Sydney Sweeney in "Euphoria", and Sheryl Lee Ralph in "Abbott Elementary"
Have you ever actually gazed at those gargantuan Emmy ballots? No matter how much TV you're watching you will know, looking at the options, that you won't be able to give every acclaimed performance a fair shake. Some shows you may not have even heard of. This is why Emmys definitely need rounds of voting or juries or some winnowing process to help voters (and by extension the public) to discover great work beyond just listing all the names from the shows they do watch each year, whether or not the actor had a good season. Imagine the Oscars if there weren't all those critics awards all over the place, multiple precursors, and top ten lists and the like pointing people to performances and the result was regulary 3-5 actors from 2-3 films taking up most of the 20 slots.
We know that that happens consistently at the Emmys. For example, just last year The Handmaid's Tale filled literally half the ballot in Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and three years back Game of Thrones made up more than half of the nominated shortlist...
This should be a wake up call to the Emmys that the current system just doesn't work. There's no conceivable way, with hundreds of shows on air, that half (or more) of the best performances all come from the same exact show. As an experiment I looked at all the Supporting Actress ballots to see who I'd consider and throughout I felt terrible about assuming these were all better then the women from the shows I don't watch or hadn't heard of. Even narrowing it down to 8 would be a painful task.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Narrowed that down to 16 (from the shows screened) with apologies to a handful of other women. Still it feels incomplete and fuzzy since I haven't finished some of these seasons so maybe someone else would stand out by the end? Hannah Einbinder is genuinely great in Hacks but given our lifelong crusade against category fraud we just can't with something that egregious. But narrowing it down further would be so difficult. We also left off all sketch show performers as they really should not be competing in this category --it's just a different kind of acting altogether and we wish the Emmys would push them back to the category they used to be in. It would free up so much room from lazy voters checking Saturday Night Live on multiple boxes in FOUR supporting and guest categories.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
For Supporting Actress Drama we were able to squeeze it down to 20 without too much hair-pulling but note how Euphoria and Yellowjackets are all over the place. This is why Emmy needs juries. People just vote for everyone within their favourite shows. But moving on...
20 of these actresses were either dramatically impressive or found the exact right tone and performance register for more stylized shows. But there are a lot of shows we don't watch. Or no longer watch (Outlander is still on?!?). We did watch The Gilded Age but honestly given our deep affection for about half of the cast from previous roles and/or Broadway stages, the acting wasn't exactly stellar on season 1. We blame the writing/direction.
As for the Emmys, the absence of Emmy-giants like The Crown and The Handmaid's Tale should make this category far more interesting. In fact, from the last THREE YEARS of nominations in this category only three women are eligible again for 2022: Sarah Snook in Succession, Julia Garner in Ozark, and Fiona Show in Killing Eve. In short, it's a wide open race for those 8 slots.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
This is the category we wish there were more hours in the day for. We haven't finished Conversations with Friends or WeCrashed and have yet to start The Dropout or Maid (the latter two being quite buzzy for Emmys) so take this with a grain of salt.
Particularly loved these 12 performances though we wouldn't vote for Jenn Colella since we still don't think filmed stage shows should actually be eligible for acting at the Emmys (the Hamilton Emmy year was quite frustrating, blocking out many worthy performances). Colella already received a well deserved Tony nomination for that performance.
As for the Emmys we'd love a Parker Posey surprise nomination though we aren't expecting it. And if Natasha Rothwell is not nominated for her half of that imbalanced indelible tragicomic duet with Jennifer Coolidge in White Lotus, we will be furious; In an ideal world, they'd tie for the win.
YOUR TURN.
Who are you rooting for in these categories and if you've perused the ballots did you notice any shows you've been meaning to watch or actresses you assume are great in shows you don't? And who do you love that's not on these selections list. In other words... RECOMMEND YOUR FAVOURITE SHOWS.