20 Underrated Actresses as Emmy Contenders

By Abe Fried-Tanzer

There are over 1,200 actresses on the Emmy ballots across all of the various categories. More contenders mean more deserving potential nominees, and I want to spotlight some of the best female performances I saw this past season. We’ll assume that, though a nomination isn’t by any means guaranteed for any of them, moderately high-profile names like Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show) don’t need the boost even though they should certainly have their work honored. Here are 20 performances you may not have noticed (and where to watch them) that are absolutely worthy of thinking about while filling out those Emmy ballots...

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Loving "Love, Victor"

by Nathaniel R

Is this what good fan-fiction is like? In the first awkward episode of Love, Victor... and, again in the eighth "very special" cringe-worthy episode, and, fiiine, in scattered bits inbetween in virtually all episodes, the new Hulu series perpetually draws attention to the fact that it's inspired by the motion picture Love, Simon (2018). That said it wisely positions itself as a sequel, rather than a remake.

Instead of writing to a mysterious gay schoolmate online as Simon did in the first mainstream wide release gay romcom, Victor writes to Simon himself, inspired by his story and perpetually sliding into his DMs asking for advice...

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Major Emmy Rule Changes

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

It’s been a big week for awards announcements. First the Oscars were postponed to April with an expanded eligibility window, and now the Emmys are making sweeping modifications that will affect every single category.

The deadline for contenders in all categories was June 5th, and while we won’t see ballots until July 2nd, it’s clear that the number of submissions are way up from last year by 15%. What that means is that both Best Drama Series and Best Comedy Series will have eight nominees (up from seven) and all of the series acting categories will be based on the number of contenders on the ballot. It’s a lot to process, but we’ll do our best…

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Queen Latifah's "Bessie"

by Cláudio Alves

Sometimes, when watching a particularly starry TV production, whether it's a movie or a miniseries, one wonders how it might have impacted the Oscar race if had been released on the big screen. Would Mike Nichols' epic Angels in America have made Jeffrey Wright an Oscar nominee back in 2003? Could Drew Barrymore have snagged Sandra Bullock's Oscar if Grey Gardens had gone to movie theaters? With the 2002 Supporting Actress Smackdown nearly upon us, I began to wonder how Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah might have figured in the 2015 Oscar race with her Bessie. After all, that HBO film is one of AMPAS's favorite types of buzzy titles, a famous musician's biopic with a cast full of prestigious names…

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Review: "The Great" on Hulu

by Cláudio Alves

Most dramatizations of history have a difficult, often unbalanced, relationship with facts. Reality is notoriously devoid of narrative structure, which makes taking departures and creative license into an essential crime. The troubles arise when the parameters of adaptation aren't clear, when fiction dresses itself as truth, and confusion blooms from pretension. Hulu's biographical series about the early years of Catherine the Great in Russia is unencumbered by such issues, sidestepping them with irreverence. At the start of each episode, a title card points out that this miniseries is only occasionally based on things that really happened.

The rest of it is hilarious fantasy, a play on history that turns the rise of Russia's empress and reformer into the stuff of romantic comedy. It's a black-hearted farce that's unafraid and unashamed of being silly…

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