Award season is underway in Los Angeles. The nominees for the 70th Emmy Awards were announced Thursday morning. The ceremony will air Sept. 17 on NBC.
After a near sweep of their nominations last year, “The Handmaid’s Tale” crew looks poised for another appearance in the winners circle. Last year, the Hulu series won best drama series, best actress (Elisabeth Moss), best writing and best supporting actress (Ann Dowd). The show is up for best drama series and best actress in the 2018 Emmy nominations.
Nominations
“Game of Thrones,” leads the pack of nominations with 22 award entries. HBO also has “Westworld” in the running, which could make an awards comeback after leaving last year’s ceremony empty-handed. But there was also space for new shows like “Barry” and “Killing Eve,” for which Sandra Oh won a nomination.
Laura Dern earned a well-deserved nod for “The Tale” in the limited series/movie category. Her haunting performance caught the attention of viewers back at Sundance before it premiered on HBO a few months ago. Claire Foy has emerged an Emmy award nominee for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown.“ The Netflix show is also in the running for best drama series.
Tatiana Maslany is back for another nod for “Orphan Black,” and Keri Russell also earned a nomination for her critically-acclaimed work in “The Americans,” which concluded this year. The race for best lead actress in a drama series will be one of the most competitive ones to watch in the broadcast.
As for funny women, Tracee Ellis Ross is back with another nomination for “Blackish.” After one of the biggest snubs of 2017, Issa Rae snagged an overdue Emmy nomination for her HBO show, “Insecure.”
We’ll see if fourth time’s the charm for Lily Tomlin and her show, “Grace and Frankie,” which has yet to win once despite several nominations.
In the fight for best comedy series, the first season of Netflix’s “GLOW” will have to duke it out with another newcomer, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel“ and returning nominee, “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” which was up for this award for the past three years without success. Over in the variety talk series category, there was only one woman in the running: “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.”
Snubs
Alas, it was not all good news for all shows. “The Good Place,” which enjoyed an incredible second season this year, is left out of best comedy series. Ted Danson is up for the best actor award, but the show is truly an ensemble work, and we would have loved to have seen Jameela Jamil get some recognition.
Another painfully obvious snub is the complete shutout of Netflix’s “One Day at a Time.” In its second season, the show introduced a non-binary character, made an episode about what it’s like to crash from anti-depressants and its finale was perhaps one of the best episodes about forgiveness and grief in a comedy series.
Other notable shutouts include Christine Baranski for “The Good Fight,” “Twin Peaks: The Return,” and no individual nods for Alison Brie or Marc Maron for their performances in “GLOW.”
