Emmy Category Analysis: Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 7:58AM by Christopher James
Quinta Brunson faces off against two previous Emmy winners for the first season of "Abbott Elementary."
Variety in nominations is rare this Emmy season. Thus, the Lead Actress in a Comedy Series race stands out. This is the only category amongst drama and comedy acting honors wherein more than half of the nominees come from shows without a Series nomination.
This makes watching the nominated episodes a bit more fun. There are only so many times one can watch every episode of Hacks and Ted Lasso, no matter how good they are! In addition, it makes the race a little easier to call. The last time an actress won this prize for a show not nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series was when Melissa McCarthy surprised with a win for Mike & Molly in 2011, which (not) coincidentally was the same year she was the breakout star of Bridesmaids in movie theaters. Let’s analyze the race after the jump...
THE NOMINEES
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Rachel Brosnahan - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Episode: “How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?” (Season 4, Episode 8)
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Description (IMDB): Midge and Joel debate Greek mythology. Susie finds a second phone line. A blizzard brings unexpected consequences.
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Quinta Brunson - Abbott Elementary - Episode: “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)
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Description (IMDB): While on Abbott's annual zoo field trip, Tariq reveals that he has been offered a job in New York; Janine struggles with a big choice; Barbara starts questioning her future after finding out her favorite tuatara has been retired because of old age.
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Kaley Cuoco - The Flight Attendant - Episode: “Drowning Women” (Season 2, Episode 5)
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Description (IMDB): After finding potentially incriminating photos in Benjamin's office, Cassie seeks assurances from Shane - and continues to avoid Marco - while Megan searches for an all-important lockbox.
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Elle Fanning - The Great - Episode: “Alone At Last” (Season 2, Episode 3)
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Description (IMDB): Catherine's grief over the loss of Leo during the coup finally catches up with her. Peter's part in Leo's death, and the discovery that he just murdered a noble, causes Catherine to lock Peter in his apartment with his mummified mother.
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Issa Rae - Insecure - Episode: “Reunited, Okay?” (Season 5, Episode 1)
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Description (IMDB): At her ten-year college reunion, Issa's self doubt quickly surfaces, while Molly struggles to get out of her own head.
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Jean Smart - Hacks - Episode: “The Click” (Season 2, Episode 6)
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Description (IMDB): A girls' night out finds Ava attempting to connect with her mother--and Deborah embracing some unexpected company.
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ANALYSIS
On paper, this category seems sewn up for Jean Smart. The Hacks star won the prize last year and the show has only grown in popularity. Its nomination count rose from 15 last year to 17 this year. Plus, Smart only continues to get better as comedian Deborah Vance. Season two follows Vance as she leaves her Vegas residency and tries to workshop a new, more personal comedy routine. The show expertly blends pathos and humor, but Smart’s submission leans more heavily on the latter. It’s a fun “girls night out” episode where Deborah picks up a much younger man. Smart had many bigger, more emotional choices, but it’s smart for her to pick an episode where she can “out-funny” the competition.
It’s especially savvy given her main competition. Quinta Brunson has been the biggest breakout of this Emmy season. Her show, Abbott Elementary, has revitalized network television and been a funny, heartwarming look at the struggles and frustrations felt by public school teachers. Brunson headlines the show as Janelle, the Leslie Knope of teachers who fights the system in the pilot so that her students can have a new rug. Since she is also the creator of the show, voters may feel compelled to reward Brunson. However, they can do just that in the Comedy Writing category. Still, she remains formidable competition for Smart.
Brosnahan's Midge Maisel finds her way to Carnegie Hall, thanks to Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), in the season four finale of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."Though she has won in the past, Rachel Brosnahan is probably much further away from the prize for the fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The season finale, which Brosnahan submitted, does a fine job of tying together an uneven season. In particular, Brosnahan shines in her scenes with Luke Kirby’s Lenny Bruce (a role that won him an Emmy in the past). However, the show’s steady decline in nominations (it went from 20 to 12 nominations this year) demonstrates waning enthusiasm.
The other three nominees all occupy “happy to be nominated” slots, though they are no less worthy of the prize. The final season of Insecure was one of my favorite seasons of television this past year, largely due to the way Issa Rae threads the needle on her character’s arc. The first episode of the fifth season, “Reunited, Okay?,” provides Rae with some comic highlights, in particular a conversation between current day Issa and her college freshman self. It also demonstrates her dramatic skill as she and Molly (Yvonne Orji) begin to mend their friendship. In a just world, the show would’ve shown up in Series. As it stands though, Issa Rae is one of just three nominations for Insecure this year.
The Great continues to have a baffling run with the Emmys. Last year, it was only nominated for writing and directing for its lavish first season. This year, Elle Fanning and her co-star Nicholas Hoult earned lead acting nominations, but the show only managed two additional craft nominations. Once the show breaks through in a more major way, Fanning could be a threat to win. As Catherine the Great, Fanning does an excellent job wringing comedy out of Catherine’s drive and seriousness. It’s a tricky tonal line to walk but she does it beautifully.
Speaking of tricky, last year’s breakout hit The Flight Attendant fell off the tonal balance beam in its second season, and the Emmys actually noticed. It went from nine nominations last year, including Comedy Series, to just three this year, with Kaley Cuoco the only above-the-line nominee. Cuoco’s Cassie is sober this season, but struggling to maintain that sobriety. She’s moonlighting as a CIA asset, but becomes witness to a brutal murder that puts more and more stress on her life. In her submitted episode, Cuoco fails to give Cassie any sort of modulation, as she frantically flails for 49 uninterrupted minutes. Sometimes it’s meant for comedy, other times it’s meant for drama. However, all of the fun and character-specificity of the first season has been zapped away.
Jean Smart stands to win a second consecutive Emmy for her role as Deborah Vance in "Hacks."
Will Win: Jean Smart - Hacks
Should Win: Jean Smart - Hacks
Spoiler: Quinta Brunson - Abbott Elementary
Who are you rooting for?
MORE ANALYSIS
- Lead Actor - Comedy Series
- Lead Actress - Drama Series
- Supporting Actress – Comedy Series
- Supporting Actress – Drama Series
- Supporting Actress – Limited Series
- Supporting Actor – Drama Series
- Guest Acting - Comedy Series
- Guest Acting - Drama Series
- Writing/Directing – Comedy Series
- Writing/Directing – Drama Series
- Writing/Directing – Limited Series
- Costume Design – Contemporary
- Costume Design – Fantasy/Sci-Fi
- Costume Design - Period
Reader Comments (21)
Pulling for Jean Smart. She was (once again) great this season.
That's a shame to hear about season 2 of The Flight Attendant, but it fits with everything else I've read about it. I liked season 1, and Cuoco in it, much more than I expected to. But it always seemed like it'd be a challenge to create a second season of that.
I know there's no shot in hell, but it would be the perfect way to reward Issa Rae for 5 incredible seasons of Insecure. Such an undervalued show (at the Emmys at least).
Loveee Jean Smart/Hacks but Abbott Elementary is such a fun, creative breakout show and to spread the wealth I'm hoping Brunson takes this.
The reason I like Hacks but can’t love it: It’s a comedy about comedy writing that’s written rather unimpressively. It’s really hard to tell the “Deborah’s killing it” bits from the “Deborah’s bombing” bits except for how Smart sells it and how the audience is reacting. Any 30 seconds of a Joan Rivers special is funnier, any 15 seconds of Veep is funnier. For a show that’s supposed to be *about* how comedy is sharpened, the writing is so lackluster. Truly a fatal flaw.
That’s why it’s a great Jean Smart vehicle (and thank god for the other performers who elevate the material) but the show itself deserves no credit for writing/directing/producing. It could be so much better than it is. JLD deserved to win for Veep year after year but I won’t mind it Smart isn’t such an awards magnet for this…the show’s already getting overrated and that’d be bad for it.
"The Flight Attendant" had a great first season, and it should have stayed that way. I don't think the story merited a second season. I finally forced myself to watch it, and it didn't live up to season 1 in any capacity.
Issa Rae is incredible and "Insecure" is amazing (and only continued to be amazing, season after season), but it's not the type of show to get any Emmy attention.
Jean Smart is fantastic. She is flawless. She is a goddess.
I don't get the praise for The Great. I've tried to watch it numerous times and it just doesn't hold my attention, and the attempts at humor (huzzah) fall flat. I doubt the show will ever break through any more than it has. That said, I'd take it over Mrs. Maisel any day - that is the most irritating praised show to come along in awhile.
I'm sad that the second season of The Flight Attendant was so disappointing. Season 1 was very good.
I'm rooting for Jean Smart here. She's been fantastic for decades, a second consecutive Emmy seems more than justified.
I surprised myself with my pick -- but I would be voting for Issa Rae here. What she did with and on that show for five years is a revelation and needs to be rewarded somehow. I know more often than not, this does NOT happen, but I can dream.
Obviously Brunson and Smart are great and if they win, it'll be fantastic and wholly deserved. But I feel like Brunson will get a tech award and Smart has won before.
Also just a quick aside... yes, Flight Attendant S2 is a mess and S1 was much better, but don't throw it away altogether. Cuoco gets to really do A LOT more this season to intriguing effects and I like the better integration of Zosia Mamet and Deniz Akdeniz who I wanted more in S1.
Stand up is a tough life. Each night, sometimes more than once a night, you must stand in the spotlight and retell the same story, keeping it fresh.
Hacks shows us that reality. When Deborah is challenged by her stalker Axel to remember she is better when takes people down, we watch her process that while performing. I am always impressed by an actress who can show us the wheels turning.
When Deborah connects with the audience member whose mother died but reveals she thinks losing a late night talk show gig is a greater loss, the moment is thrilling for Deborah and us. We have heard that same joke over and over, but suddenly it has resonance. Jean Smart subtly demonstrates a performer’s joy in killing it.
God, she is so good. I am anticipating her acceptance speech.
I do hope Smart wins another this year. Her career trajectory is so interesting and she's been so good for so long in so many things.
It does seem likely that Brunson will get her due with the writing Emmy. I could see her upsetting in actress though, and this is probably the race where I'm most worried about the outcome.
GO ELLE FANNING!!!!!
GO ELLE FANNING!!!!!
Incredibly boring category in a year with so many good choices out there: Sarah Lancashire, Alia Shawkat, Ophelia Lovibond, Bridget Everett, Vanessa Bayer, Heléne Yorke, Esther Smith...
I would be stunned if Quinta Brunson won in this category. Comedies have succeeded by using the documentary format, but it puts the viewer at a safe arm's length and maybe harms the ability to evaluate the acting. Lead actors in particular have been unable to break through with wins: Steve Carell and Amy Poehler both went 0-for-6. (Modern Family won awards in the supporting and guest categories, but not lead.)
Also just a quick aside... yes, Flight Attendant S2 is a mess and S1 was much better, but don't throw it away altogether. Cuoco gets to really do A LOT more this season to intriguing effects and I like the better integration of Zosia Mamet and Deniz Akdeniz who I wanted more in S1.
@Ryan T: I second this. I watched the two seasons back-to-back, and Season 2 holds up pretty well even if it has less to say. The Emmy voters probably sounded like some of the comments here, a mix of "I saw it and it wasn't as good as Season 1" and "I didn't see it but I believe you".
Yeah, it'll be Smart again. Brunson's her lone threat but can/probably will be rewarded elsewhere.
I keep seeing the argument that Quinta Brunson may not win here because she may be rewarded in the Comedy Writing category. Are we so soon forgetting that Phoebe Waller-Bridge took both Comedy Writing and Comedy Actress for Fleabag? Or that a year after that, Daniel Levy not only took Comedy Writing and Comedy Supporting Actor, but also Comedy Directing? True, both times their shows also won Comedy Series, but that's not outside of the realm of possibilities for Abbott Elementary, given how popular it's gotten. Any awards going Quinta's way, I'm all for.
I love Jean Smart and she's brilliant in Hacks (I also recently finally saw Mare of Easttown, she's also quite brilliant there in a role that could be considered limiting), but the woman has 4 Emmys, including one for Hacks, so I wouldn't be too upset if she didn't win this one.
As for Kaley Cuoco, I'm sorry Chris didn't respond to her, but I think she does an even better job in the second season balancing the high-wire act that is keeping up with the tone of The Flight Attendant, keeping Cassie as grounded as she can and also playing several versions of that character as she struggles with being sober. I actually really enjoyed the second season of The Flight Attendant and thing Zosia Mamet should have been nominated for it (I thought she should have been nominated for Season 1 as well, though I can't fault the members of the Academy for nominating Rosie Perez, who was just as brilliant navigating a role that swung from irritating to endearing).
I keep seeing the argument that Quinta Brunson may not win here because she may be rewarded in the Comedy Writing category. Are we so soon forgetting that Phoebe Waller-Bridge took both Comedy Writing and Comedy Actress for Fleabag? Or that a year after that, Daniel Levy not only took Comedy Writing and Comedy Supporting Actor, but also Comedy Directing? True, both times their shows also won Comedy Series, but that's not outside of the realm of possibilities for Abbott Elementary, given how popular it's gotten. Any awards going Quinta's way, I'm all for.
I love Jean Smart and she's brilliant in Hacks (I also recently finally saw Mare of Easttown, she's also quite brilliant there in a role that could be considered limiting), but the woman has 4 Emmys, including one for Hacks, so I wouldn't be too upset if she didn't win this one.
As for Kaley Cuoco, I'm sorry Chris didn't respond to her, but I think she does an even better job in the second season balancing the high-wire act that is keeping up with the tone of The Flight Attendant, keeping Cassie as grounded as she can and also playing several versions of that character as she struggles with being sober. I actually really enjoyed the second season of The Flight Attendant and thing Zosia Mamet should have been nominated for it (I thought she should have been nominated for Season 1 as well, though I can't fault the members of the Academy for nominating Rosie Perez, who was just as brilliant navigating a role that swung from irritating to endearing).
If Jean Smart prevails, I think it will be a deserved follow-up win. She really is on another level in Hacks, and provides a performance filled with depth that's also really funny. While I don't think episode submissions matter much, I think she submitted a really ace episode. This one works well for a second win because it does something different than her previous submissions, it makes you absolutely root for Deborah. One thing I really love about her performance is how much she gives in snippets, allowing even montages, like the one here, to be effective.
Quinta is good, but I think her best episode of the season is the finale. However, I think that if it's an Abbot night, she could provide real competition.
I'm a little sad Issa has no chance to win. In the old days, she could have maybe been a dark horse with a really strong episodes, but she just doesn't have buzz. She was great in the final season, though, and I'm really happy voters remembered her.
Rachel Brosnahan is wonderful, but the show hasn't moved her character forward for the last 2 seasons. It's just been the same central conflict without any growth. That's fine and real, but her defeats are so crushing (and Brosnahan plays them so expertly) that it continues to surprise that her character doesn't move forward. It will be interesting to see if the show can improve its writing in season 5. Otherwise, I fear she'll be out.
Just finished streaming Abbott Elementary and I really loved it, such a fresh show.
You have the season finale in the text description instead of the pilot.
I think episode #10 "Open House" should have been her nominated episode.
Will Win: Jean Smart - Hacks
Much as I love Jean Smart and this show, anyone familiar with her work from way back will know that she is definitely extremely talented but not necessarily doing anything really exceptional here (no one does snark and poignancy better than her). A win here means that the television academy does not watch enough television, i.e. lazy voting
Should Win: Quinta Brunson - Abbott Elementary tie with Issa Rae - Insecure
Both of these women created and starred in these BRILLIANT shows. I would give an edge to Issa Rae for the last season of Insecure. They are both going to have long careers if these two series are any indication. I already love Rae's Rap Shit on HBO.
Should Have Been Nominated: Sarah Lancashire - Julia
Everyone knows I'm a HUGE Lancashire fan, but what she does here is transformative. Plus, she had the gumption to put in a performance of a real-life person already portrayed beautifully by Meryl Streep, and IMO, topple it!. I'm not worried because I'll bet she'll be nominated next year for this role, plus a BA in Drama for S3 of the incomparable Happy Valley.
Spoiler: Elle Fanning - The Great
Long-shot, but I freaking love her performance in The Great.
I want to chime in on The Flight Attendant... season 2 really did not work like season 1 at all. It felt a bit sloppy, whereas season 1 was hard-hitting with such a well-constructed storyline. Kaley Cuoco was amazing, but I felt her material was so intensely dramatic at times that I wondered where the comedy was.
Haven't seen Abott Elementary, but I could see Quinta winning. I'm not a fan of the same people being rewarded over and over, but Jean Smart really is *that* good on Hacks, that I wouldn't mind another win. I'm not saying she needs an Emmy every year, but based on the lineup now... she deserves it.
Should've been nominated: Selena Gomez. She'll be here next year.
I believe Queen Meryl should be retired from the Oscars. Give her one last statue that says "The Greatest" and call it a day.
Jean Smart is approaching that level on the television side, but until that day, she will keep picking up trophies for her remarkable "late" career surge. She acts circles around all the other nominees in this and any other comedy category.
Thrilled with Brunson as a creator and writer. "Abbott Elementary" is must see network TV. And Rae remains a singular talent. Cuoco and Fanning are happy additions to this party
Can we just give it to Jean Smart and move on to next year? We really need to push for Rose Byrne in Physical.