Included among those entrants are two substantial Emmy contenders that made their bow this week. The two series couldn’t be more different if they tried, but both seem primed to make a mark on Emmy races that heretofore seemed all but locked up.
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And for good reason. Let’s begin with “The Underground Railroad.”
Before I get too far into this discussion, let me be clear: Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” is transcendent. An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the limited series weaves a complex tapestry of human emotions as it follows the journey of escaped slaves riding a real life underground railroad in the pursuit of a better, freer life.
And for as many horrors as the series asks the audience to bear witness to, Jenkins has a delicate touch, blending beauty and brutality, forever forged by fire, branding the viewers’ psyche with wounds that will heal, but never disappear.
That’s for the TV Academy to determine and I don’t envy them the challenge.
Also gracing streaming screens is Jean Smart’s return to television (since last appearing in “Mare of Easttown” on Sunday night.) Smart stars as a Las Vegas headliner whose stand-up career has lost a little of its luster who then finds herself saddled with an up-and-coming comic in crisis, Ava (Hannah Einbinder).
Smart dazzles as Debra Vance, leaving one to wonder why she wasn’t the biggest star in the world, in both her fictional universe and our own, and she seems primed for her 10th (and perhaps 11th depending on the success of “Mare”) Emmy nomination for her work. And while the series is so gifted at exploring the ever-lucrative sensibility divide between Baby Boomers and Millennials, it’s just as deft at pulling apart what women have to do and sacrifice to succeed, the little indignities that pile up after years and years, and the resentment that can fester on either side of success. Of course, comedy series still appears to be Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso’s” to lose. After all, it was the relentless positivity and kindness of “Ted Lasso” that buoyed the spirits of many TV viewers throughout the pandemic and Emmy success is a natural way to express gratitude, not unlike the success that “Schitt’s Creek” saw at the 2020 Emmy Awards. But if the world keeps turning and life continues to recalibrate the equilibrium in such a way that allows viewers to return to that delicious combination of cynicism and dark humor and, dare I say it, hope, then “Hacks” might be the series to relegate “Ted Lasso” at the Emmys. Next week: We’ll look at a final batch of high-profile Emmy contender releases, including Netflix’s “Master of None” and HBO’s “In Treatment.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
