Emmys Watch Phase One Interlude
PGA, DGA and WGA Nominations
I’ve never really covered in all my awards watch articles guilds that don’t involve acting. The major reason is that there are far too many for even the most die-hard awards fan to even attempt to cover, certainly among technical awards such as editing, cinematography and music. I’ve never been much of a completist and there’s a limit to how much coverage one should do.
Still there is a certain logic to dealing with the three major guilds that are used in connection with both movies and television other than the SAG Awards: producers, directing and writing. While producing is vague, any true critic knows how central the latter two are when it comes to television as much as film. All three guilds do cover television and the latter two can be helpful particularly when it comes to individual episodes and shows that other awards group might miss.
Over the last two weeks those three guilds have given their awards so it might be of some interest to look more at the nominated series and episodes than the actual winners. Perhaps we can get a window into what the Emmys might consider down the road — or what they might have missed in the year just past.
So briefly here is a listing of the nominees for all three groups and I will include the winners among them. I don’t intend to deal with the accuracy of the choices unless an outlier from the norm occurs. I’ll start with the PGA:
The nominees for Best Episodic Drama does have two major contenders from last year: Shogun and Fallout. The remaining three are contenders from the seasons so far the most recent seasons of Slow Horses, The Diplomat and Bad Sisters. The latter two are more likely to contend for Best Drame given their other nominations. (Shogun won)
Best Comedy had pretty much the usual suspects: Abbott Elementary, the most recent seasons of The Bear and Only murders in the Building, the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Hacks which as you might expect won. Only Curb is ineligible next year.
Outstanding Limited Series was mostly focused on the year just past: the nominees were Baby Reindeer, Ripley and True Detective. A surprise for me (a good one) was to see Capote Vs. The Swans included. The Penguin was the fifth nominees, no surprise. Baby Reindeer won. The remainder of the awards are not pertinent.
Now we move on the Directors Guild which deals with episodic television.
In Drama three of the five nominees were for Shogun with Crimson Sky winning. The other two were Issa Lopez for True Detective (specifically the season finale) and Alex Graves for The Diplomat.
In Comedy, The Bear was nominated for three episodes with Christopher Storer being nominated for ‘Tomorrow’ and Ayo Edebiri being nominated for ‘Napkins’. Jeff Schaffer was nominated for directing the series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the winner was Lucia Aniello for the season 3 finale of Hacks. No surprise there as you’ll see.
In Best Limited series, three of the five nominees were for The Penguin, including Helen Shaver for the masterful Cent ’Anni. We also see the presence of a new show: Alfonso Cuaron was nominated for Disclaimer. The winner was, however, the only series from the past season: Steven Zaillian for Ripley. There was nothing for Baby Reindeer which might be a shock but considering Zaillian deservedly won the Emmy in this category I can’t argue with it.
Now in writer’s Guild we have both winners for series overall and individual episodes. It is here we will see some of the most deviation from the norm.
For Best Drama Series, Shogun as you might expect was the winner. Two of the nominees for Drama were Emmy nominees last year: Fallout and a familiar face: Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The Diplomat is here as well and a slight shocker: The Boys.
When we go to individual episodes which has room for six nominees we see some deviations. The Anjin episode of Shogun was nominated (and won) and the pilots for both Fallout and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But here we see the Kings getting recognition for the series finale of Evil and the series premiere of Elsbeth. (They actually wrote the latter). And in a complete deviation from the norm the Olivia episode of Sugar is present too.
Moving to Comedies we see some difference in Series. Hacks is here as are Abbott Elementary, The Bear and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But for the first time we see a newer face What We Do In the Shadows final season. Dropping to individual episodes we see the season finale of Hacks (which won) the Napkins episode of The Bear and an episode of Only Murders in the Building. But we also see three promising new faces: for the final season of Somebody Somewhere, the first season of The English Teacher an Amazon series which apparently has Margo Martindale in the lead role and which I must now immediately watch even though it likely will not contend for Emmys.
Moving to Limited Series, the WGA seems more concentrated on the future which id different from other awards shows. Ripley and True Detective are both present from the last year, but here we see new faces. The Penguin comes as no surprise but the first season of Presumed Innocent does and a complete newcomer to awards shows of any kind FX’s Say Nothing. The WGA doesn’t cover individual episodes.
There is however a category for new series. Shogun, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Fallout represent the dramas and English Teacher and Nobody Wants This (the only series not nominated for any other award) represent the comedies. None of the dramas will be eligible for Emmys next year; both the comedies will.
As to what this foretells for the next phase of Emmy nominations. Well in Drama The Diplomat and Slow Horses were by far the most likely to contend for Emmys considering their nominations from both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards. Bad Sisters was nominated for several awards but not best drama in 2023 and its unclear if it will have the same momentum for 2024. The Boys has been nominated for Best Drama in the past but it’s not yet clear if it can make into the finals this year. Evil has never really contended for Emmys and much as I’d like to see Elsbeth do so, I remain unconvinced.
It seems regardless of fan and critical reception to Season 3 of The Bear it is still likely to contend for Emmys next year. There is little doubt that Abbott Elementary and Only murders in the Building will and when Season 4 of Hacks does it will be in the fight. English Teacher’s controversy may keep it from contending; we’ll have to see and Nobody Wants This is all but assured a spot. What We Do In The Shadows is nearly certain to return for a final season. Somebody Somewhere remains a dark horse.
Limited series remains clear from all the other awards: The Penguin is the out and out frontrunner to win in 2025. Disclaimer will definitely be there as well. As for Presumed Innocent and Say Nothing, the former may be considered an original series and the latter it is hard to tell.
There are no notable absentees from comedy but there are some in drama: Day of the Jackal has no footprint after being nominated by both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice awards, it was essentially shut out. The Penguin basically represented in a few of the Guild Awards as drama but it’s a limited series and none of the major contenders for HBO for this year have yet debuted.
As for limited series it may far too early to tell though again there is no notable presence from two Netflix contenders: Monsters and The Perfect Couple. However considering the mixed reception to both shows that may not be a shock. We’ll have to wait and see what else airs this year.
On Friday I will offer my predictions for the winners of the 2025 SAG awards for television which will more or less complete the end of Phase 1. The next part will include some of the other minor awards shows including the Image award winners and the Indie Spirit winners which I will include in a separate article this March.