The real surprise of 2023 will be whether the Emmys actually take place in September as scheduled, but until we cross that rubicon, Hollywood is doing its best to whistle past the strike lines while announcing this year’s Emmy nominees. The obvious suspects showed up exactly where everyone expected them to: Succession, The Bear, The White Lotus, and ever-present Ted Lasso all pulled in double-digit nominations, while the TV Academy continues its ignominious history of ignoring Sarah Goldberg’s work in Barry. But some of the Emmy decisions were a little out of left field. Sometimes they were pleasant surprises! Sometimes, though, they were decisions like nominating Obi-Wan for Limited Series. Speaking of which —
BAD: Obi-Wan Kenobi nominated for Limited Series.
We’ve all been there: You turn on the streaming service, you’re not sure what to watch, you click on whatever big franchise program is prominently displayed on the top of your user interface, and that’s how you find yourself watching Obi-Wan. But if the Emmys want to continue to have any kind of legitimacy as an awards-granting body, they should consider not nominating half a movie that’s been split into several parts and consists primarily of an adult man failing to catch a small child running through an outer-space marketplace. — KVA
GOOD: A nomination for our generation’s greatest Russian novel, Vanderpump Rules.
Emmy voters can have a little Scandoval, as a treat. — KVA
BAD: No Outstanding Comedy Series for The Other Two.
Yes, it received a writing nomination for “Cary & Brooke Go to an AIDS Play.†But how was this series, which packs in more cleverly conceived jokes per minute than any other show on television, not nominated for best comedy? The only conclusions I can draw are that: (a) some people in Hollywood don’t appreciate the show’s spot-on mockery of their ridiculousness; (b) some voters didn’t get around to watching the show; (c) the TV Academy doesn’t understand comedy and does not like laughter. — JC
WEIRD: Love for Jury Duty.
Sorry to Amazon proper’s half-billion-dollar investment in Lord of the Rings IP, but Amazon Freevee’s little mockumentary investment actually went the distance. The show got an Outstanding Comedy nomination and nabbed a Supporting Actor nod for James Marsden (who played James Marsden But Asshole), as well as writing and, crucially, casting, a roundabout way of congratulating them for finding Ronald, even if the unwitting subject wasn’t nominated himself. (They tried to make that happen, on the argument that acting is really just reacting, I guess.) — JM
MAYBE NOT GOOD BUT DEFINITELY AMUSING: Realizing how happy Amazon would’ve been if Rings of Power got big, exciting nominations.
How many alarm bells are going off inside Bezos HQ because its megabudget franchise got some below-the-line noms but nothing for cast, writing, or direction? Maybe no alarms are going off because they’re too distracted by Prime Day. — KVA
BAD: Emmy voters, supposed fans of television as an art form, seem incapable of watching Reservation Dogs.
It got one nomination for sound editing. How many top-ten lists do we need to put this show on, Emmy voters?? Did you lose your Hulu password??? — KVA
WEIRD: All those nominations for Welcome to Chippendales.
I enjoyed Welcome to Chippendales but did not expect it to earn five nominations. Congrats to the show for its Limited Series nod, and to Kumail Nanjiani, Annaleigh Ashford, Murray Bartlett, and Juliette Lewis, who was nominated for this and not Yellowjackets. Hope you rip off a pair of tearaway pants in celebration! — JC
BAD: A single nomination for Mrs Davis.
We know you subscribe to Peacock, Emmy voters, because you nominated Natasha Lyonne for Poker Face. This makes it particularly baffling that there were almost zero nominations for Mrs. Davis aside from sound editing. Yes, it was weird, and yes, it was not very buzzy. But it was gutsy and glorious, with an incredible lead performance from Betty Gilpin and an astonishingly timely AI-centric premise. And given that one of its competitors in this category was flippin’ OBI-WAN, a lump of mass-market paperback spine chewed to a pulp and then spit out into the rough shape of a TV series, it does feel like Mrs. Davis should’ve gotten more love! — KVA
BAD: Somebody, Somewhere ignored in all relevant categories.
One of the richest explorations of humanity currently on television got zero nominations today. None. Not one for Outstanding Comedy Series. Not one for its star, the terrific Bridget Everett. Not one for her co-star, the sweet, openhearted Jeff Hiller. I’m going to need something stronger than a tiny-tini to get over this bullshit. — JC
WEIRD: Daisy Jones and the Six for Limited Series, huh?
It’s not quite on the level of Obi-Wan, a TV series that was pulled from the franchise grave by a half-taught necromancer and then set loose on an unsuspecting public, but a nomination for Daisy Jones really speaks to the surprising softness of the Limited category this year. Limited Series has been such a powerhouse over the last several seasons that it feels like studios have finally backed away from the strategy of trying to shoehorn their buzziest titles into that slot. — KVA
WEIRD: Taylor Sheridan, a lonesome Emmy-less cowboy.
It’s become a pretty familiar Hollywood narrative that the wildly popular Sheridan-verse of shows are being ignored by Emmy-voting coastal elites. And it’s true that it’s hard to justify a lack of nominations for the occasionally compelling and star-studded 1923 when a show like Obi-Wan, the McDonald’s Happy Meal toy of TV, can get a nomination for Limited Series. But the other possibility is … what if maybe people really just don’t think these shows are very good? — KVA
BAD: Harrison Ford passed over for Shrinking.
Jason Segel and Jessica Williams were both nominated for their work on Shrinking, which is fine. But the members of the Academy did not nominate Harrison Ford, the best part of that Apple TV+ series, for his deeply sarcastic and poignant work on the same bleeding show? (Sorry, I’m so frustrated I turned into a British person for a second.) If I may put this in Star Wars terms that aren’t necessarily relevant here, but whatever: You gave a nomination to Obi-Wan, but not to the OG Han Solo?? — JC
WEIRD: A nomination for Keri Russell in The Diplomat.
The organization formerly known as the Hollywood Foreign Press must be furious that the Emmys got here first. — JM
BAD: Ken Marino snubbed for Party Down.
The nominees in the Comedy Supporting Actor are all wonderful — bless you in particular, Henry Winkler — but did any of them get explosive diarrhea from hot sea urchin and shit into a pot in front of Jennifer Garner? They did not! Marino did absolutely masterful physical comedy work on the third season of Party Down. I never thought I would say this and really mean it, but: Ron Donald deserves more respect. — JC
WEIRD: Sarah Niles for Outstanding Guest Actress for Ted Lasso?
Niles is a lovely actress. What makes this nomination surprising is that she only played the role of Dr. Sharon Fieldstone in season three of Ted Lasso for, like, ten seconds? Like, her character is not really in this season? This choice bolsters my theory that a chunk of Emmy voters did not actually watch Ted Lasso but voted for it wherever possible nonetheless. — JC
BAD: Sarah Goldberg snubbed for Barry’s final season.
There are seven — SEV-EN — slots in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category and not one of them went to Goldberg for her fearless, complicated, tragic, and, yes, funny work on Barry. This is an actual crime. Like, someone needs to make a true-crime series that explores the backstory behind leaving this woman’s name off the Emmy nominees list. — JC
GOOD: Simona Tabasco!
Objectively, too many people from The White Lotus were nominated, but hey, now we can say Emmy nominee Simona Tabasco. That’s fun! — JM
BAD: Sophie Nélisse ignored for Yellowjackets.
It’s always nice to see Melanie Lynskey get nominated, a thing that happened for her twice today. But Sophie Nélisse, who this season had to credibly snack on her dead best friend, give birth to a child, and lose said child as well as her mind, had maybe the hardest job of anyone in the Yellowjackets cast and completely nailed it. The most moving moments in season two belonged to her and deserved recognition. — JC
WEIRD: Imelda Staunton missing out on Lead Actress in a Drama.
The latest season of The Crown got a more tepid response than its earlier efforts (for good reason, it was not as compelling), but playing QEII — or one of the many personages with whom she associated — used to be a surefire way to grab a nomination. Now, only Elizabeth Debicki’s Diana got recognition in the acting categories. The empire is crumbling! — JM
BAD: No love for Reality.
Sydney Sweeney gave an incredibly tense and unsettling performance in Tina Satter’s adaptation of her play about Reality Winner’s arrest. It’s the kind of interesting and challenging work you’d think the Emmys would want to pay attention to, but instead the TV movie went entirely overlooked, for Sweeney’s performance, Satter’s direction, and just in general. Blame the deep state! (For legal purposes, I am joking.) — JM
WEIRD: A very mixed-up TV-movie category.
Speaking of the TV-movie category, nobody knows what a TV movie is anymore anyway, especially not the TV academy itself. The nominees here include the could-have-been-theatrical Prey, the saved-from-Quibi Fire Island, the Roku original Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the shameless Disney brand extension Hocus Pocus 2, and, of course, Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas. This is less apples and oranges than apples, oranges, a few pebbles smoothed over by a river, and a large Emu egg. — JM
WEIRD: Someone watched the second half of The Nevers?
The first half of the first season of The Nevers aired on HBO in 2021 (and got one Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode). The second half of the first season of The Nevers was quietly dumped on Tubi in February 2023. I refuse to believe anyone except Roxana actually watched it, but somehow it also got an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode. — JM