Emmy FYC: Marielle Heller in "The Queen's Gambit"

by Cláudio Alves

As we all found out this past October Marielle Heller is a woman of many, perchance infinite, talents. Since 2015, Heller has been dazzling cinephiles everywhere with her work as a writer/director. The Diary of a Teenage Girl was one of the best American debuts of the decade. If possible, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood were even better, analyzing complicated real-life personalities with as much humanistic gentility as razor-sharp precision. All that, and we now know that Heller is also an amazing actress. Returning to her first vocation in splendorous fashion, Marielle Heller delivers the best performance in the popular Netflix awards juggernaut The Queen's Gambit…

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Happy Pride: Queer cartoon characters abound! (sort of)

by Nathaniel R

The website Insider has compiled a list of 259 LGBTQ characters in recent American cartoon series. Despite all the research it's still highly debatable since the database includes dozens of characters that are only queer via creator statements and not in-show confirmation (and as we know from the JK Rowling's Dumbledore debacle, that is weak-sauce as representation goes; creators shouldn't get credit for pushing boundaries if what they're doing is much much closer to virtue signalling than true activism). Of course these things are more complicated with children's shows since, naturally, sexuality is less explicit than in adult television (apart from the prevalence of mom & dad units of course).  While we watch a lot of animated movies we aren't that familiar with animated TV shows so many of these characters are unfamiliar to us...

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BAFTA TV Award Winners: I May Destroy You, Welcome to Chechnya

The BAFTA TV Awards were announced yesterday with Michaela Coel's critically acclaimed I May Destroy You winning Best Actress and Best Mini-Series (it had previously taken Writing, Directing, and Editing at the "Bafta Craft awards). The Crown did not fare well (hits too close to home?) and Steve MQueen's Small Axe picked up just one major prize (Supporting Actor for Malachi Kirby). In better news, Paul Mescal won Best Actor for his exquisite work on Normal People and the superb queer documentary Welcome to Chechnya, which Oscar so unwisely snubbed last season, picked up another award. The winners are listed after the jump...

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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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Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks.

 

By Abe Friedtanzer 

This category is an interesting one because it includes only three past nominees who were all eligible last year, but only one of them was nominated. In a much more open field than ever before, it’s the right time for those who have missed out in crowded years to return again and for a few new faces to break through, especially since past winners like Claire Danes and Viola Davis can’t stage surprise returns because their shows are now over. We all know that last year’s nominee Olivia Colman (The Crown) will be back, and she’ll be joined by her season four costar Emma Corrin (Princess Diana). Beyond that, little is certain. Let’s take a look…

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