Streaming and Foxtel dominate the Emmy nominations: here’s your guide to the best of them
FROM Game Of Thrones and Killing Eve to The Handmaid’s Tale and GLOW it’s a golden age for TV, but you have to go looking for the very best
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IF YOU want to watch the best that US television has to offer — the Emmy-nominated shows for 2018 — then you won’t find them on channels Seven, Nine and Ten.
Never before have the commercial networks been such a wasteland when it comes to quality award-winning American programs.
This Is Us and Roseanne, both on Ten were the faintest of shining lights.
SBS got big audiences for the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which scored 20 Emmy nominations. SBS Viceland screened Atlanta which scored 16 nominations.
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Former Grey’s Anatomy star Sandra Oh became the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for Best Lead Actress in a drama, for Killing Eve, which screens on the ABC.
But more than ever if you want the great stuff you have to subscribe to Foxtel and the streaming services.
Game Of Thrones, which scored the most Emmy nominations (a whopping 22) screens on Foxtel.
Below is the HIT.TV guide to the biggest and the best of the Emmy-nominated shows you need to watch and why.
THE ALIENIST
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, Dakota Fanning
Available on: Netflix
I knocked off this 10-part historic thriller, based on the best-selling book by Caleb Carr, in less than a week. Talk about hooked. Daniel Bruhl (Rush) plays psychologist Dr Laszlo Kriezler who tries to solve the vicious murders of boy prostitutesin 1890s New York. Newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) and Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), secretary to police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) help out. Faces stiff competition, including Patrick Melrose in the Outstanding Limited Seriescategory but would get my vote.
THE CROWN
Starring: Clare Foy, Matt Smith, Vanessa Kirby
Available on: Netflix
I’m no royal fanatic but I couldn’t get enough of The Crown ripping through two seasons in a fortnight. Claire Foy, a nomineefor Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series is riveting as the young Queen Elizabeth II. Season one concentrated on the Elizabeth — Winston Churchill (Lithgow) dynamic but season two got personal with the fractured relationship with husband Philip (MattSmith — nominated for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) and sister Margaret (Vanessa Kirby — nominated for Supporting Actressin a Drama Series). Expect multiple Emmys.
—COLIN VICKERY
PATRICK MELROSE
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Available on: Foxtel Now
Filthy rich and elegantly wasted, Benedict Cumberbatch’s gut-wrenching turn as heroin addict Patrick Melrose is magnificent. He lurches from one substance to the next, reeling from a privileged but tortured childhood. The series has five Emmy nominations, including Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Cumberbatch’s stiffest competition is the also awesome Darren Criss (The Assassination Of Gianni Versace). Either one would be a worthy winner.
GLOW
Starring: Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Marc Maron
Available on: Netflix
It’s light fare, not groundbreaking, and the misfit stories feel familiar. So why has GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) earned rave reviews and ten Emmy nods? For starters, it’s rare to see such a large femalecast. And contrary to naysayers, women work well together. The quirky, nostalgic comedy helmed by Alison Brie (a quiet but outstanding achiever in comedic dramas) and Betty Gilpin (nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy) has formidable competitionin the Best Comedy category — Donald Glover’s Atlanta, Bill Hader’s Barry — but GLOW has broader appeal and a feel-good, girl-power vibe.
—ANNA BRAIN
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
Starring: Elisabeth Moss and Yvonne Strahovski
Available on: SBS on Demand
Straying from source material provided by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, the writers took Offred’s journey in ever more horrifying directions in season two, as they examined how a pregnant June survives in the hostile world of Gilead. Elizabeth Moss is sensational as Handmaid Offred, but undoubtedly, this series has belonged to Aussie actor Yvonne Strahovski, whoseperformance as Serena Joy (for which she’s nominated) is nothing short of revelatory. Unmissable.
INSECURE
Starring: Issa Rae
Available on: Foxtel
This year marks the first time this excellent series, from writer and creator Issa Rae (who also stars) has been nominated. Fittingly, it’s for Rae’s portrayal of the fictional version of herself that she’s scored the Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series actor nomination. Rae portrays a young African American woman busily navigating work, relationships and life in LA in this series, which is currently screening its third season on Foxtel. Rae is an outside chance for the win, but totally deserving for her very-real, very relatable portrayal of Issa.
CLARE RIGDEN
GAME OF THRONES
Starring: Emelia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey
Available on: Foxtel On Demand
Back with a vengeance after missing the eligibility window last year, the much loved ratings behemoth also heads the nominations, with a mighty 22. The penultimate season, saw characters and story pick up the pace as the disparate plot threads start totie together at last ahead of next year’s finale, and led to some truly staggering moments — not least a zombie dragon bringingdown the Wall. It will face stiff competition from The Handmaid’s Tale for the top honour, but Dinklage is a good shot to take his third Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
WESTWORLD
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris
Available on: Foxtel On Demand
The second season of the cerebral sci-fi drama set in a futuristic theme park was uneven and overly complex in parts as the increasingly violent and self-aware robot hosts rose up against their human masters. But those who stuck until the end with it were well rewarded — episode 8, starring Native American actor Zahn McClarnon with most of the dialogue in Lakota, is one of the astonishingly good hours of TV ever put to air. An Outstanding Lead Actor Drama win for Wright would be well deserved.
— JAMES WIGNEY
THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
Starring: Darren Criss, Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz
Available on: Foxtel
AFTER OJ Simpson, Ryan Murphy turns his sights on Andrew Cunanan, a serial killer of gay men whose crime spree went globaldue to his final victim, designer Gianni Versace. Versace’s life and death (and the A-listers involved) may lure viewers in, but it’s former Glee star Criss is real Emmy-bait — he’s transfixing as the ruthless, remorseless and highly intelligent Cunanan.
KILLING EVE
Starring: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer
Available on: ABC iview
PHOEBE Waller-Bridge moves effortlessly from creating the unfiltered comedy of Fleabag to the comedy-with-a-bodycount of this excellent US/UK production. Jodie Comer is stunning as psychopathic assassin Villannelle, who literally slays her way through Europe, becoming obsessed with the cop who’s obsessed with her, played by Sandra Oh (nominated for Outstanding Lead in a Drama Series). She was snubbed in the nominations, but Liverpudlian Comer deserves an Emmy for her language skills alone.
— CAMERON ADAMS
Originally published as Streaming and Foxtel dominate the Emmy nominations: here’s your guide to the best of them
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