FYC: Underrated Players on Emmy-Noticed Series

Team Experience is sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations (voting closes on June 24th). Here's Abe Fried-Tanzer

There are so many deserving series and performers that never stand a chance at the Emmys simply because voters don’t seem to notice their existence. The best recent example of an extremely talented cast almost entirely missing the Emmy radar is Parenthood, which squeaked out one lone acting bid – for guest actor Jason Ritter – over the course of its six seasons. While it hasn’t received that level of acclaim, Billions is another instance of a show with tremendous awards potential that hasn’t picked up any to date. But then there are shows that do manage to earn accolades, yet the enthusiasm doesn’t extend to all players. John Krasinski never got nominated for The Office despite three costars being nominated, and he’s not the only one to be ignored even though Emmy voters were clearly watching his show.

Here are five underrated players from shows Emmy voters do watch that deserve to break through this year...

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Emmy FYC: Christina Hendricks in "The Romanoffs"

Team Experience is sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations over the next two weeks. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff.

The general consensus, if we even can have one in these divisive times, seems to be that Matthew Weiner’s The Romanoffs is an ignoble failure. As his immediate follow-up to Mad Men, the seminal, peak-TV series that gave him pretty much carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to creatively, The Romanoffs arrived last fall on a wave of buzz and eager anticipation. With a star-studded, international cast and intriguing, globe-trotting storyline (made possible by Amazon’s $70 million investment), what would Weiner & Co. ultimately deliver? The answer: Zzzs. (I sort of checked out mid-way through the second to last episode, as a matter of fact.) 

Nevertheless, within this eight-part limited series (which surely was meant to continue?) are elements that succeed better than they ought to quite frankly. Indeed, the parts are greater than their sum, and one in particular stood out to me immediately/in retrospect: Christina Hendricks... 

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Links: Madame X, King Richard, and Book Club 2?

• IndieWire the problem of too much television for Emmy voters
• Vanity Fair Book Club is getting a sequel with its quartet of stars returning. VF wants Andy Garcia back as well and we concur.
• Variety an ouch ouch pan review of Nicolas Winding Refn's new TV series (which he keeps saying is a movie)
• Variety this seems like a bad-omen move. Amazon is only giving their chief Oscar hopeful The Report (starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening) a two week theatrical window before it streams...

[More after the jump including Madonna's Madame X, Daredevil's longshot fight sequences, news on King Richard, and Catherine O'Hara visiting Broadway...]

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Emmy FYC: Kristin Scott Thomas in "Fleabag"

Team Experience will be sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations over the next two weeks. Here's Ben Miller...

I have an appreciation for a skilled performer’s ability to shut up.  Watch the scene in Doubt between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep.  Once Davis gets going, Streep knows to step aside and let Davis do her thing.  Fleabag creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge does the same thing with Kristin Scott Thomas in her standout scene in the third episode of Fleabag’s (pretty much perfect) second season.

After chasing down Thomas’ Belinda to take back an award, the main character spends some time drinking and flirting at a bar, listening to Belinda speak about the patronization of women in business.  Then comes the speech --sit back and enjoy...

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Emmy FYC: D'Arcy Carden for "The Good Place"

Team Experience will be sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations over the next two weeks. Here's Eurocheese

First thing’s first: If you haven’t been watching The Good Place, you’ve been missing out. The comedy is one of the most creative shows on TV today, where every episode feels like it can head in absolutely any direction. It’s genuinely surprising, fun, inspired, and a complete mind-fork. If you need to binge watch a show that will bring you pure joy, this is it. I say all this because this plea will have *spoilers*, so if you know nothing about the show, please just watch it.

The third season took a little bit of time to get going, but focusing on the “test” put before our heroes opened up a lot of opportunities for character growth...

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