11 Nominations That Would Make the Emmys Awesome

Since the staff of The Contending has been covering television for a number of years, we know what it feels like when one of our favorites surprises on Emmy nomination morning. We all love different shows, and we have to keep in mind that television is still a huge, vast landscape. Every year, there are shows that don’t come close to landing one nomination let alone serious contention in the top categories. The Contending staff contributed to long shot contenders–no ‘I hope The Studio makes the cut!’ here. If we woke up on Tuesday morning to any of these being called, we’d be over the moon.

Nominating Pachinko for Outstanding Drama Series

Apple TV’s Pachinko has all the hallmarks of prestige TV. From its historical backdrop, its remarkable performances (especially Minha Kim and Jin Ha), and its top-shelf production values. Still, despite those attributes, a Peabody Award, and critical raves, Season One of Pachinko received just one lonely nomination from the Television Academy (for its counterintuitive and thrilling opening credits sequence). There was nothing for the show, the direction, the writing, the performances, the production design, or anything else. I suppose the show can feel like homework with its shifting time frames, creative use of subtitles, and complicated narrative, but it’s one of the best shows on television and deserves to be recognized as such. (David Phillips)

Nominating Walton Goggins for The Righteous Gemstones

I’m actually predicting Walton Goggins to receive a surprise nomination in Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for The Righteous Gemstones. This is, of course, far from a guarantee. In fact, it’s kind of a wild shot nomination. He will be mentioned for his reserved, subdued work in The White Lotus, but his The Righteous Gemstones final season performance shows everything Goggins can do as a comedic actor. He’s been a long-standing favorite on the series, but he’s never been nominated. Now is the time. Across the fourth and final season, he chased his dream of creating a teen-focused drama about the life of Jesus or “Teejus,” as he titles it. After casting the series with CW-level actors, Goggins’s Baby Billy eventually takes the part over himself despite his age. Yet, Baby Billy discovers over the course of the season that his dreams aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be. Instead, he finds his way back to the family through a compelling and frequently very funny transformation. He’s always been great in the series, but this season serves as a great juxtaposition to his dramatic work in Lotus. Nominating him would be incredibly cool and a great way to send off the series. (Clarence Moye)

Nominating Lou de Laâge for Étoile

After watching the first few episodes of Étoile months ago, I posted on social media, ”Lou de Laâge as Cheyenne in Prime’s Étoile is possibly my favorite character of the TV season!” When I finished binging the series, about two days later, I was certain. There is no one like the sublime dancer Cheyenne in any medium. She challenges traditional notions of what and who an artist is and can be. Just as the brilliant de Laâge challenges set ideas about how many complexities female characters are allowed to have. Her Cheyenne can be stubborn, caring, rude, rough, delightful, driven, frustrated, incorrigible, seductive and uncompromising—all in the same scene. She may not be everyone’s glass of Côtes du Rhône but she behaves the way humans actually behave. It’s a towering performance. And, yet, Amazon Prime—despite a two-season order—canceled the series without allowing the show to find its footing as well as an audience eager for something original and exciting. 

Étoile was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino who gave us Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I cannot urge Amazon Prime enough to reconsider their decision. If the TV Academy miraculously nominates de Laâge it will prove they’ve looked beyond that small list of comedies that prognosticators at awards outlets continue to copy and paste.

In the last scene of the season one finale (and I pray not the very final episode), Cheyenne has a super intense encounter with Luke Kirby’s Jack. “You fill my head with thoughts and dreams,” she furiously bellows at him, as if these were bad things. “I have no room for (feelings), I am empty, I feel nothing.” Jack responds, “You feel everything, that’s why you’re such an asshole.” “That’s right, I’m an asshole!’ she concurs. And to paraphrase Dolores Claiborne, “Sometimes being an asshole is all a woman’s got to hold on to.” (Frank J. Avella)

Nominating Ghosts for Outstanding Comedy Series
The spiritiual residents have waited long enough to be recognized by the Television Academy, and the CBS hit soars to even higher heights in season four. Who knew that a sitcom about ghosts being contained inside a bed and breakfast would get better and better every year as it proved that living didn’t end once you take your last breath. Rose McIver stepped behind the camera for the first time this season to direct one of the best episodes, “Ghostfellas,” ghost powers were expanded upon, and the entire house got their first truly unpredictable adversary in Mary Holland’s Puritanical Patience. While some cast members have received nominations at Critics Choice, this series has somehow failed to garner Emmy love. Season four has too many highlights to mention (don’t make me act out the entire season): Hetty’s Ghost Power! Isaac’s RUFFLE! Sass loses his virginity! Ghosts is the best comedic ensemble on television. Honor it, Television Academy! (Joey Moser)

Nominating Interview with a Vampire for Outstanding Drama Series and several other drama categories.

If I can binge two seasons of Interview with Vampire in two weeks then the Academy should be able to as well!  As someone who knows this story from reading the book and seeing the film, the show still found ways to surprise me.  The changes they made never undermined the core concepts of the story about what is life like for an immortal killer. With more time due to the TV format, Louis’s story of toxic relationships, deceit both external and internal, and how grief stays with you matter how long time has passed unfolds.  The racial changes of several characters and making the gay subtext straight-up text created new ways to tell this story that always felt authentic to the world that was shown on screen.  Jacob Anderson embodies the many contradictions of Louie being a killer who values life, wanting connection and meaning but can never find it even with several vampires desiring him. The prejudices he experiences as a creole gay man as well as the acceptance he finds makes him a deserving Emmy nominee. While I am at it, Bailey Bass as the child vampire Claudia should get in for supporting actress with all her anger at being trapped as a child looking for someone to put her first.  As well as Ben Daniels for supporting actor for his theatrical over-the-top Santiago with an inner sadness and ambition. Finally the design of the Théâtre des Vampires alone should get the show a set design Emmy. Creating a theater that feels like a place these vampires live in but also work in is like a world of its own within the show.  Be a long time Anne Rice fan or a first time viewer exploring her world, this is just a great drama that deserves to be acknowledged. (Ben Morris)

Nominating Steven Graham and Erin Doherty for… A Thousand Blows

Pardon the ellipsis, but I’m sure you were thinking I was going to say Graham and Doherty for Adolescence, didn’t you? Graham and Doherty are virtual shoo-ins for their remarkable Netflix limited series on the origin of an incel, but both are equally good in the less buzzed-about Disney series A Thousand Blows, which covers nothing less than the beginnings of boxing, Caribbean immigration in London, and the desperate struggles of lower-class Brits. As the destructive bare-knuckle boxer Henry “Sugar” Goodson, Graham once again demonstrates his ability to viscerally portray a person who gets in his own way. Just as good is Doherty as a leader of a female gang of thieves, who must navigate survival and being a woman in 19th-century England. As good as Graham and Doherty are in Adolescence, they are equally strong in Disney’s A Thousand Blows. (DP)

Nominating Kelly Reilly for Yellowstone

Okay, Television Academy, you have one last chance to recognize a truly singular and daring performance. Kelly Reilly continues to shatter the small screen as the no-nonsense, kick-ass Beth Dutton, devoted daughter of John (Kevin Costner) on Taylor Sheridan’s final (?) season of Yellowstone, a show that’s had wildly chaotic moments, but one that has certainly been deserving of more Emmy love than it’s ever received—its sole nomination was for Outstanding Production Design in 2021! That’s five seasons and six potential times (season five was broken into two parts) to nominate Reilly or Costner, for that matter. He did win a surprise Golden Globe in 2023. But bupkis for Reilly. Part of the problem is that the show is sometimes wrongly seen as some kind of right-wing manifesto that promotes conservative values. It’s about a powerful family that must resort to ruthless ways to remain vital–basically a modern day Dallas and Dynasty—and those shows were often showered with Emmy love. But no matter what you may think of the show, Reilly’s ferocious, outstanding work deserves attention and respect. (FJA)

Nominating Andor actresses for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

People are talking about filling supporting actresses with the cast of The Pitt or The White Lotus. But it should be the cast of  Andor–Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Elizabeth Dulau, and Genevieve O’Reilly–that  takes up this category.  All of them are creating distinct characters within this story of fascism, with each having their own personal demons and values that push them forward.  They all are given a chance to shine within the season in sometimes very surprising ways. Elizabeth Dulau’s Kleya goes from just Luthen’s assistant to a character with her own backstory and motivations with a whole episode where her facial expressions carry her pain and dedication. Adria Arjona’s Bix went from love interest to a woman whose own trauma of the Empire creates her own motivations to fight back.  Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma, who had the most to do in season one, continues to have to deal with living a double life and how it continues to affect her family but still she fights on. Denise Gough (who I would give the Emmy to!) as Imperial officer Dedra was never a one-note villain, but seeing her personal life with Syril and how she rationalizes her work in the Empire and what it leads to was heartbreaking while never letting us forget that she was still a monster.  And because I need to say it, Kyle Soller needs a supporting actor nomination for playing Syril based on the episode “Who are You?” alone. (BM)

Nominating Sirens for Production Design

Everyone watching Sirens probably assumed that Julianne Moore’s palatial estate on the unnamed New England island was an actual location. Not so. Production designer John Paino did find the core of the mansion in real life, but he and his visual effects team extended it to make it even more massive than it existed in real life. But that was just the beginning. Pulling influence from nothing other than Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Paino created a visually stunning but deeply unsettling environment over which Moore’s character rules. The main foyer feels impossibly large and barely contained within the exterior walls. The second floor hallways are laid out to underscore Meghann Fahy’s sense of discombobulation. There’s the giant anchor in the front yard. There’s Moore’s bird sanctuary. There’s Kevin Bacon’s cupola / man cave as designed by Moore’s character. And there are subtle influences to the Greek mythology of the sirens. Every detail feels exactly right and accentuates the series’s sense of foreboding. Other series have higher visibility, but John Paino’s work on Sirens deserves to be acknowledged. (CM)

Nominating Nathan Lee Graham for Mid-Century Modern

I would argue that this fantastic comedy needs to be represented everywhere, but Graham’s work is something that is quite near and dear to me. Yes, to Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and the late, great Linda Lavin all deserving nominations. The production design is gorgeous and aspirational. You have that impeccable direction from the legendary James Burrows. Nathan Lee Graham’s performance always stuck out to me for how it’s a perfect blend of performer and material–he understands the rhythms and cadences of sitcom comedy and he makes it looks so effortless. Aging in the gay community has always been a punchline–I remember when I turned 30 and people said I was “gay dead” or “gay invisible” (holy shit, why do we say these things to each other?). Graham’s Arthur worries about finding a job that would live up to his reputation, but this actor takes it deeper. He never sacrifices his character’s dignity for a joke, and listen to how he uses his voice and body language to punctuate a conversation. This is a big moment for Graham, and the Television Academy should congratulate him. (JM)

Nominating Lady in the Lake…anywhere

This Apple limited series came out almost a full year ago, but it received notice for Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram’s performances. The Alma Har’el mystery, adapted from the novel by Laura Lippman, is a heady and potent exploration of privilege and in 1960s Baltimore. It’s gorgeously designed from top to bottom with costumes by Shiona Turini, production design by Jc Molina, score by Dr. Marcus Norris, and cinematography by Lachlan Milne. The main title design is one of the best of the entire season. Give it something–anything–just so more people will discover it. (JM)