Who will win the Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Drama?

By Spencer Coile 

Emmy voting is currently underway (ballots are due on the 27th), so it’s time to start digging into some of the more exciting categories this year has to offer. The Supporting Actress in a Drama field is always tricky to navigate – we hope for inspired wins, but end up with repeat winners, such as Anna Gunn for Breaking Bad or Maggie Smith for Downton Abbey. 

That’s why it is exhilarating when an unexpected name is called on Emmy night, for instance: Archie Panjabi on The Good Wife or Ann Dowd last year for The Handmaid’s Tale. This year, Dowd is back. Will she repeat or will someone else be victorious? 

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Is this the end for "Harlots"?

by Nathaniel R

There wasn't enough interest to continue our lengthy "Harlots" write-ups but dayumn, y'all are missing out if you're still now watching. The show is absolutely a smorgasbord of actressing. Season 2 initially felt like the Lesley Manville show after Season 1's Samantha Morton flavor but everyone in the cast is vying for queen of this deliciously talented pool of fascinating women in season 2. Tomorrow night is the season finale.

I do wonder sometimes if the writers are writing this show into a corner, though. How can it continue for a third season  -- if renewed *bites nails* --  given what's happened to the characters? With hangings, stabbings, whippings, betrayals, and general abundance of emotional scarring it feels like there will soon be no one left intact? Or is the nihilism the end game and this is a series finale tomorrow? Season 2 isn't as much "fun" as Season 1, and given what's transpired the show has probably left "fun" behind for good, but it's still dynamite drama. Watch it. And bless Morton, Manville, Liv Tyler, Jessica Brown Findlay, and the rest of the cast for investigating the psyches of these bruised angry witty sexual women. 

Blueprints: "The Americans"

Jorge continues to look at the pilot episodes for the Best Series contenders of this year’s Emmys. 

The Americans did a lot of things at once. It was a spy show, a family drama, a heavy exploration of the human psyche, a look into a broken marriage, and a workplace series, all neatly tied into one disguise-heavy package. That multi-tasking is what made it one of the greatest shows in the so-called New Golden Age of Television. 

The series premiered in 2013, and ended this spring after six seasons, so the pilot may be a bit removed from our collective memories. But let’s take a look at the very first sequence of the entire show, anyway. It immersed us immediately in the world of these people, no explanations given, and put us on high gear from the get-go...

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Blueprints: "GLOW"

As we steamroll towards Emmy season, Jorge will be diving into the pilot episodes for some of the Best Series nominees from now until the ceremony on September 17. This week, he steps into the ring for some gorgeous lady wrestling…

If a TV show has the Jenji Kohan seal (either as a creator or as an executive producer), there are several things you can expect from it: biting satire that effortlessly moves from dark comedy to emotional drama, a focus on female stories, and large ensembles.

GLOW, Netflix’s second big collaboration with Kohan after Orange Is the New Black (though here only in a producer capacity) is a perfect embodiment of these traits. Let’s take a look at how writer-creator’s for the hit comedy, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, introduce and establish the main characters that we will be following in this journey of self-empowerment and risky physical maneuvers...

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Sharp Objects: Episode 5 "Closer"

Previously: Episode 4 "Ripe"

by Chris Feil

This week’s Sharp Objects installment opened with its morphing opening credits turned into an ominous cooing, as if from the lullaby of a captor. And this week was similarly barbarous with its flailing comforts. “Closer”, its chapter title promises, describing both our discovery of the mystery and the shows encroaching brutal intimacy. This is the most contained episode yet, taking place over the course of a single day and mostly set on Eudora estate with all of the players brought together. It’s been a show built on a backbone of knowing glances, and “Closer” stacks several atop one another at once. Everyone has eyes on them, and no one feels fewer than Amy Adams’ Camille...

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