Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Saturday, August 21, 2021 at 5:00PM The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for major Emmy categories.
By Nathaniel R
Confession as lede: I chose this specific actor race when the Team divvied up the categories because I genuinely had no idea who I'd vote for when I heard the nominees. That's partially because of Emmy's silly voting rules which end up burying their acting fields with one show but partially because even within Ted Lasso, where I assume my vote will go, I love everyone. So come with me on this real-time (while I'm writing it that is) journey to find out where my imaginary vote lands and who Emmy might choose and why. I've reskimmed each episode or watched again in its entirety, to think this over.
(NOTE: If there is an asterisk by the Emmy nomination it means they have additional Emmy nods in non-acting categories. Only the acting nomination statistics are listed below)
Carl Clemons-Hopkins as "Marcus" on Hacks
1st Emmy nomination | Episode "New Eyes"
Looking over the list of Emmy winners over the years it's rare that the "straight man" -- in the comedy sense, not the sexuality sense -- wins for a comedy. So I have to assume their chances are low but what tremendous work they're doing within this specific comic register. The straight man, in the comedy sense, has to be a steady non-jokey presence for the more outrageous laugh-line characters to bounce off of. Clemonts-Hopkins doesn't just fulfill this duty, as the right-hand man of legendary comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), but elevates it into its own self-effacing artform. Note the laughs they themselves generate with perfectly judged eyerolls, internal sighs, and the kind of blunt line delivery that is always subtley saying "I refuse to join your level of crazy" without ever raising the temperature of the room or Marcus's voice. This tricky assignment is especially evident in two scenes within the episode, one in which Marcus walks in on his mother and her very funny friend who are throwing a party in his house (that he never uses). Just the simple way Clemon-Hopkins delivers the line about not owning a dog makes the scene's punchline when Marcus has already exited the room ("why he don't like dogs?") much funnier than it naturally would have been -- even though the actress herself is hilarious.
Clemons-Hopkins is even better in his first scene on the phone with Vance's other main employee (and phone acting isn't easy because you have noone to act with, really) wherein she's feigning a friendship with Marcus (they don't have one!) because she needs something desperately. Given how tightly controlled this performance/character is, this is a perfect episode choice because we also get to see Marcus in atypical mode, loosening up and even laughing at himself, when he gets drunk and is called out for a rather obvious hook-up ploy.
“Brett Goldstein as "Roy Kent" on Ted Lasso
1st Emmy nomination | Episode "All Apologies"
Goldstein chose the penultimate season one episode, the perfect choice, as its the culmination of his season arc. Roy Kent is the oldest player on the team and though he's a legend of the sport, his best days are behind him. He's about to be benched and doesn't want the humiliation. The gruff intimidating exterior and pride are beautifully paired with a big heart, making scenes with his niece and new girlfriend and even his coach vibrate with feeling and laughs. Sometimes the way he punctures and derails a scene into something that you're not quite expecting is just magic as when he finds his own funny proud guy's guy way to tell the team he's benched rather than have it told to them in a sober way in the last scene. Yes, the show has great writing but it takes terrific actors to really make these kinds of delicate characterizations sing.
For all of these reasons and one more crucial one -- it's a very large role on the show so any episode would probably work -- Emmy might well go for him. Still, vote splitting leaves a lot of room for this Emmy race to go a number of ways.
Brendan Hunt as "Coach Beard" on Ted Lasso
1st Emmy nomination* | Episode: "Two Aces"
Would chatterbox Ted be as perfect and endearing a lead, if we didn't always have his quiet no-nonsense right hand man as ballast. Hunt gives a beautiful truly "supporting" performance in this sense, always in frame, always amping up the scene with reactive finesse. All of which makes it hard to have an ideal submission episode since it's never really about him. But it's a joy to watch him read Ted's mood before anyone else in the room understands what's going on, and to sometimes translate for us what is actually going on, in the most direct way possible. Some of the comedy is very dry, like when he helps Ted demonstrate a temper tantrum by filling in a silly name calling "pee pee fingers" and then sometimes it's very personable like when he says "Noooooo" with a laugh when Nate asks if Ted is actually okay. Because he's so often in frame with Ted, voters might think of the two coaches as a package deal. What's more his work in writing the show could win him some bonus points for waivering Emmy voters. Not only did he act it to perfection but this is his fourth nomination since he's been up for writing three times as well (twice this year for the same show, albeit different episodes)
Nick Mohammed as "Nathan Shelley" on Ted Lasso
1st Emmy nomination | Episode: "Make Rebecca Great Again"
The thing about this episode, arguably the best of the first season, is that it makes a great showcase for the entire ensemble. But this one does open with Nate who gets stuck in the luggage area of a bus for the team's away game as the episode's first gag. He's very good with a line delivery to as when Ted presses him to actually speak, as in one long breathless sentence details way more than you're expecting about why he's not speaking. And that ends up being his side story when he gets the job of the pre-game speech. It's a superb showcase scene as he goes from total nervousness to actually commanding the room with the truth. The best part is that you can see both sides -- the nerves and eventual command --intermingling throughout and how he's warming up to the latter. It's an amazing scene.
While he's a wonderful actor, the character's self-effacting nature and even his job title might work against him actually winning (subordinate to not just Ted but also Coach Beard). What's more, in a crowded field career momentum helps and he's not well known in the US though he has a dozen plus years of credits in the UK.
Paul Reiser as "Martin" in The Kominsky Method
7th Emmy nomination* | Episode: "Chapter 18: You Only Give Me Your Funny Paper"
Confession: this was my first time watching this show so there's no ability to have anything but the episode itself coloring perceptions of the performance (this is what would sometime happens if there were blue ribbon panels at the Emmys again and you had to watch before voting -- nobody watches everything!). It's a good episode choice in that Reiser has lots of screen time and the story is centered around him. It's too much plot to explain but it centers around the questions of 1) can he be trusted with money -- in this case his soon-to-be wife's money, Kominsky's daughter? and 2) are they even a good match or is the age gap between them (30+ years) too problematic? Reiser gets screentime with three of the show's main actors and fits into the cast and the banter perfectly. He's styled to have a kind of 'delusional loser' vibe with a bald head and long pony tail which doesn't help in loving the character per se. He handles the shifts in the scenes well, when he realizes his girlfriend is mad at him, for what he doesn't know, but he's not particularly funny.
To be fair, though, that appears to be the vibe of the whole show: amusing but no more. And he is having fun with the assignment, especially a bit where he raps to Megan Thee Stallion in an effort to show he's trying to relate to his much younger girlfriend. Solid work but we'll assume the nomination happened because voters watch the show in the first place -- Emmy voters aren't too adventurous -- so he's just filling the Alan Arkin size hole in this category (who was nominated right here for the first two seasons of the show before his character's death).
Jeremy Swift as "Higgins" on Ted Lasso
1st Emmy nomination | Episode: "Biscuits"
Like Mohammed his smaller role won't help him in a crowded field with lots of internal competition. But what might help him, if voters actually rewatch episodes, is to see how far all the characters have actually come. The much-discussed Christmas episode of season 2 recently aired which will almost certainly be his episode submission next year and though that shouldn't matter -- voters should always be addressing what season they're actually supposed to be addressing -- the Higgins we meet here is not yet the loveable Higgins he comes to be. When we first meet him, he's clumsy unctiousness in human form, always trying to agree with his boss Rebecca or cater to her moods, but not nimble enough to keep up especially because Ted's natural charm throws him off. He's very funny but the comedy is very quick and peripheral.
Kenan Thompson as various characters on Saturday Night Live
4th Emmy nomination* | Episode: "Host: Dave Chappelle"
Unlike the other nominees, Kenan isn't nominated for playing a specific role but whatever each skit calls for on the beloved variety show. In his chosen episode he plays "Uncle Ben" in a skit about black fictional characters being fired because they are racial stereotypes, the author of a book on Mario Bros distracted by the story of someone losing his balls (no really), and in his best moment a local townsmen who kissed his co-worker during a hailstorm and fell immediately in love. Comedy is subjective of course but he wrung a laugh from me just once in these three sketches, with his final joke in the latter when you realize he is married and he hasn't even noticed his wife went missing in the storm. Often in these sketches he seems to be on the verge of cracking himself up though and breaking character. If only it were funny onscreen.
Though this episode isn't impressive, Thompson is a four time acting nominee and he's also in lead actor where he will surely lose given the presence of Ted Lasso himself. Both of those facts could theoretically give him a boost here for voters who enjoy his career overall.
Bowen Yang as various characters on Saturday Night Live
1st Emmy nomination | Episode: "Host: Carey Mulligan"
Bowen only appears in two skits on this episode one of which has a fun premise (entitled white 20somethings on board a Star Trek like voyage) it doesn't rise to. The other is an already legendary news sketch that went viral in a big way. He appears as the "Iceberg from the Titanic" (which we've written about before). Unlike the vast majority of SNL skits its not one joke stretched thin but, one might say, a flood of them ("no one is talking the wa-ter"), it's stoopid funny and rewatchable in the very best way. While Yang has been the talk of Saturday Night Live this year amongst my social circle, I'm fully aware that my social circles in life and online run very queer, film/theater, and East Coast while the bulk of Emmy voters are straight, TV, and West Coast so that "buzz" might not mean much for the mainstream Emmys. What's more, Yang is -- and this bears repeating because it's so hard to believe given what a hit he's been -- only a "featured" player on SNL so there will be surely be a few voters who feel he hasn't paid his dues when they see him on a ballot up against series and category regular Kenan Thompson.
Predictions
- Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso
- Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live
- Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso
- Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live
what a nail biter. I could see any of those four winning! - Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hacks
- Paul Reiser, The Kominsky Method
- Jeremy Swift, Ted Lasso
- Nick Mohammed, Ted Lasso
Personal Ranking
- Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso
- Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hacks
- Nick Mohammed, Ted Lasso
- Bowen Yang, SNL
- Jeremy Swift, Ted Lasso
- Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso
- Paul Reiser, The Kominsky Method
- Kenan Thompson, SNL
While I love love love Yang (and am also biased having been a guest on Las Culturistas *plug plug*) and feel that that Iceberg from the Titanic bit is *100%* Emmy worthy, SNL performances don't really belong in this category of scripted character work in serialized comedies; it's not comparing apples and oranges which is hard enough and which you have to do all the time with nominated achievements, it's comparing apples to, er, zucchinis? The Television Academy needs to reinstate the "performance in a variety series or special" category quickly so that they can honor brilliant talents like Yang in the right way!
PREVIOUS PREDICTIONS
- Limited - Supporting Actress
- Limited - Supporting Actor
- Limited - Directing
- Limited - Writing
- Comedy - Supporting Actor
- Comedy - Guest Actress
- Comedy - Guest Actor
- Comedy - Directing
- Comedy - Writing
- Drama - Supporting Actress
- Drama - Supporting Actor
- Drama - Guest Actress
- Drama - Guest Actor
- Drama - Directing
- Drama - Writing
- Outstanding Editing
- Outstanding Unstructured Reality
- Outstanding Main Title Design
Reader Comments (11)
Great write up Nathaniel!
I'm glad you are as on board with Goldstein as I am.
My personal ranking:
Goldstein
Clemons-Hopkins
Mohammed
Swift
Hunt
Reiser
(leaving SNL out of this, no matter what I think of the performances)
I predict...nope, I can't.
I still need to see Reiser, but I think my personal pick would be between Yang and Goldstein.
I know the second season shouldn't factor in because the nomination is for season one, but it's hard for me to see how Goldstein doesn't walk away with this one, given how strong he has been in Ted Lasso S2.
Another vote here for Brett Goldstein, even though I haven't seen The Kominsky Method, either, and am at least partly swayed by my crush on Roy Kent. Carl Clemons-Hopkins would be my #2.
I love Bowen Yang as much as you do, but agree this isn't the right category for him or anyone else from SNL.
Agree 100% on SNL being excluded from this category, BUT not really fair to hold it against Yang. They should be allowed to compete somewhere...although yes, it should be its own category.
I'd be happy with a Yang win but my preference is Clemons-Hopkins. While I love the Lasso men it's tough to single out a single performance vs. a truly great ensemble. Goldstein has the most to do and is definitely MVP from this group.
I've thought it was Brett Goldstein from the start and nothing has moved me. He's hilarious and has a few key poignant scenes that take the show to a deeper level.
Paranoid -- the more i think on this the more i think he'll win. I'm not sure why i think it will be close but the internal competition *could* matter.
I am obsessed with Hacks and have screened the entire series three times. Carl Clemons-Hopkins only gets funnier with each viewing. His work is great. Though improbable, I hope he can surprise with a win.
Finbar -- i believe you because just watching this one episode again i was like "wow, he's doing a lot that i didn't notice"
This category is an embarrassment of riches and I thought that BEFORE I recently binged HACKS and now it's even more impressive. THAT SAID I'm all in for Brett Goldstein. Pitch perfect role and characterization (and he's a writer too!).