Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Unlike other categories, Lead Actor in a Comedy Series has been a foregone conclusion even before nominations were announced. With Ted Lasso skyrocketing to the frontrunner status with 20 nominations, Jason Sudeikis is poised to take this as one of the easiest calls come Emmy night. Two of the nominees also came from Comedy Series nominees, but both are nowhere near Ted Lasso’s winning chances. Meanwhile, two of the nominees are sole representations of their shows - one in its first season, one in its last. 

Without further ado, here are the nominees...

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Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major Emmy races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks. Today, we’re looking at Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

 

By Abe Friedtanzer

I was going into this category thinking that it might actually boast the highest percentage of possible returning nominees – a full 50% of last year’s slate, which in this crazy time is actually a lot. But Black Monday and its star Don Cheadle don’t appear to be eligible since they counted the four final episodes of season two, which aired last summer, last year, and even though the show returned a few weeks ago, there just aren’t enough installments for Showtime to bother to submit it (apparently). If it does somehow end up on the ballot, count Cheadle in again. The two surefire returning nominees are Anthony Anderson (Black-ish), vying for his seventh bid, and Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method), set to earn his third and final nomination for this role. Let’s take a look at the rest of the field…

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One Score and Five Years Ago: Revisiting "The American President" at 25

by Josh Bierman

As we are only 62 days away from a new, brighter era in the White House, now is the perfect time to revisit the Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin classic, The American President which is celebrating its 25th birthday this week. Back when it was released, Joe Biden was still a senator from Delaware and Tronald Dump had declared a loss of $915.7 million on his tax returns. I don’t want to make this piece a reflection on the Dump years through the lens of The American President, but as we’ve found in the years since Dump took that fateful ride down a golden escalator, it’s hard to avoid him when watching something overtly political. Or is that just me?

Let’s take it back a little bit. If you haven’t seen The American President since Hillary was just a First Lady, allow me to give a refresher. President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) is in his first term with high approval ratings, poised to cruise to a reelection victory. Enter Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), an environmental lobbyist, who catches the widowed president’s eye. But the president’s popularity and reelection chances begin to wane due to their courtship...

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Emmy Review: Lead Actor in a Comedy

By Abe Friedtanzer

Of the major categories, this one is the most unchanged from last year. Two-time winner Bill Hader is out because season three of Barry has yet to premiere, and Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef is in his place. Larry David didn’t make the cut. Both Ted Danson and Eugene Levy have won Emmys in the past, but this is their last shot to win a trophy for their current shows. 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you’d like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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The New Classics: Wonder Boys

By Michael Cusumano 

Scene: The Suicide List
Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys understand that writers are often their own most carefully crafted creations. You can often catch the writers in the film pausing to appreciate when they hit upon just the right turn of phrase. Life doesn’t allow for second drafts. So very satisfying to nail it on the first. 

By understanding the way writers reveal themselves through narrative shapes into which they attempt to force their lives, Wonder Boys solves the age-old problem of making writing cinematic. We never hear a word of Grady Tripp’s prose that gets blown away at the film’s end, but after we spend two hours stumbling through the shambolic mess of his life, it feels superfluous. His life is already one long, run-on sentence crying out for an editor’s red pen...

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