Emmy nominations 2018: The most shocking snubs and surprises
IT HAPPENS every year: amid all the celebrations, eyebrows will always raise over some of the Emmy nominations picks.
IT WOULDN’T be the Emmy nominations if it didn’t surprise and infuriate us with its picks.
With Game of Thrones leading the pack with 22 nominations, followed closely Westworld, The Handmaid’s Tale and Atlanta, it’s an exciting race.
MORE: Full list of Emmy nominations
But there are a few eyebrow raisers and some shocking omissions.
SURPRISE: Sandra Oh for Killing Eve
Sandra Oh’s nomination for Killing Eve broke boundaries when the Canadian actor became the first female of Asian descent to be nominated in a Lead category. If you’re wondering why it took so long, just think about how many Asian actors are even cast in lead roles on American TV and there’s your answer.
Oh is an Emmy favourite having picked up five previous nominations in the Supporting Actress category for Grey’s Anatomy. Her dizzyingly excellent performance as Eve Polastri had many hoping for a nomination but was far from a lock. But the envelope pushing still hasn’t extended to Constance Wu, whose brilliant work on Fresh Off The Boat has been snubbed for four years running.
SNUB: Alison Brie for GLOW
GLOW and Supporting Actress Betty Gilpin both picked up nods but Alison Brie’s optimistic Ruth is the glue that holds it all together. She is undoubtedly the centre of the series and the chemistry she has with every character, including with Gilpin’s Debbie, is why GLOW works. Then there’s Ruth’s endlessly entertaining wrestling alter ego Zoya the Destroya. This snub feels particularly egregious.
SURPRISE: Modern Family shut-out
It’s finally happened but it took nine years to get there.
Perennial Emmy favourite Modern Family was dropped from the line-up after eight years of being nominated for Best Comedy, which was about five years after the show stopped being culturally relevant or creatively interesting. Newer and more exciting shows like GLOW, Atlanta and Barry pushed it out. It managed a lone nomination for Sound Mixing.
SNUB: David Fincher for Mindhunter
A quiet achiever for Netflix, this period crime series about pioneering FBI profilers had a languid but stylish look thanks to veteran director David Fincher’s hand directing the first two and last two episodes. Mindhunter only managed one nomination, for Cameron Britton in Guest Actor who played the chilling serial killer Edmund Kemper.
SURPRISE: Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke for Game of Thrones
Despite neither being very strong actors, Harington and Clarke were expected to be swept up on the gargantuan Game of Thrones wave — Harington has once before and Clarke three times previously. Their characters were the core of the most recent season but the decision to bump them up to the competitive Lead categories instead of remaining in the Supporting ones was probably what cost them those nods in the face of better performers.
SNUB: Zahn McClarnon and Rinko Kikuchi for Westworld
HBO’s Westworld picked up 21 nominations but none of those were for Zahn McClarnon or Rinko Kikuchi in Supporting Actor and Guest Actress. McClarnon would’ve been only the second Native American actor to be nominated in any category had he prevailed and his role as Akecheta was the standout performance of the season, anchoring the standout episode of the season. Similarly, Kikuchi imbued her robot character with such soul and humanity in the second best episode of the season.
SURPRISE: Ted Danson for The Good Place
The Good Place in general was inexplicably left out of the Comedy Series race as the Emmys stubbornly refused to recognise it as the most interesting and challenging (in a good way) network comedy. But at least Danson picked up a nomination as the morally conflicted reformed demon Michael having missed out last year while Maya Rudolph popped up in the Guest Actress category. Hopefully next year, the Emmys will give some love to the show itself and the rest of its excellent cast including Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Manny Jacinto, William Jackson Harper and Jameela Jamil.
SNUB: Kyle MacLachlan for Twin Peaks: The Return
Twin Peaks remained stubbornly inaccessible for most TV audiences and that’s probably what kept it out of the high-profile categories such Best Limited Series or the acting ones but damn if Kyle MacLachlan deserved the recognition. He not only resurrected one of the most iconic TV characters of all time but he played two new ones — three hypnotic performances. Unable to completely overlook Twin Peaks’ incredible achievement, it picked up nine nominations though mostly in the craft categories and one in directing for David Lynch and writing for Lynch and Mark Frost.
SURPRISE: Zazie Beetz for Atlanta
Another pleasant surprise with Zazie Beetz picking up a nod in the Supporting Actress race with her performance as the forever exasperated Vanessa in Atlanta. Beetz wasn’t really in the pre-Emmys conversation but her role in the series is crucial, providing a much needed counter to Earn’s often laissez-faire attitude while still emphasising Vanessa’s rich inner life. Atlanta itself picked up 16 nominations including three for star and creator Donald Glover (Glover picked up an additional two for his work on Saturday Night Live), but Lakeith Stanfield was shut-out.
SNUB: Mandy Moore and Chrissy Metz for This Is Us
T his Is Us is the big network success story for the last few years in American TV and with the show itself doing so well, and co-stars Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown being recognised, it seems baffling its female leads weren’t, especially Mandy Moore, whose Rebecca Pearson is the heart of the show.
SURPRISE: Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black
It’s not that Tatiana Maslany doesn’t deserve another shot at Best Actress in a Drama Category — the actor plays 13 different clones, each with such distinct characteristics and won the award in 2016. It’s that Orphan Black finished out its run a year ago with increasingly weak seasons and genre shows have never had momentum with the Emmys. But, hey, you go, girl!
SNUB: Halt and Catch Fire
The outstanding character-driven drama Halt and Catch Fire has never had any Emmy love throughout its four season run so it’s not a surprise to see it overlooked again. The show about tech entrepreneurs became better with every season, especially as its story embraced its female leads, while its performers — Mackenzie Davis, Lee Pace, Kerry Bishe and Scoot McNairy — brought home complex portrayals of flawed people.
SURPRISE: The Americans
It took almost four years for the Emmys to realise The Americans existed and that it was one of the most well-crafted dramas of the last 20 years. But the show was shut-out of the Best Drama category last year even though its stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell were acknowledged. So it’s brilliant to see this deserving show bow out with its extraordinary final season with nominations for Best Drama, Best Actor, Best Actress as well as writing and short-form nonfiction nods for creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg.
SURPRISE: The Big Bang Theory
It wasn’t snubbed and it’s not that hard to see why it’s been nominated, but the big surprise with The Big Bang Theory’s nod was that the TV Academy seemingly forgot to televise the announcement.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sitcom was actually the seventh nominee in the Best Direction of a Comedy Series category, but was inadvertently left off the broadcast.
“Voting in the Emmy category of Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series resulted in seven nominees,” the Academy told THR in a statement. “One of the nominees, The Big Bang Theory’s episode ‘The Bow Tie Symmetry,’ directed by Mark Cendrowski, was inadvertently left off various Television Academy communications platforms during today’s nomination activities.”
OTHER SNUBS: The Good Fight, American Vandal, Rachel Bloom for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Noah Emmerich for The Americans, Billions (especially Maggie Siff and Asia Kate Dillon), Insecure, J.K. Simmons for Counterpart, Elizabeth Marvel for Homeland and Zach Woods for Silicon Valley.
Who or what do you think deserved some love from the Emmys and was ignored? Share your grievances with @wenleima on Twitter.
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