It is now a confrontation in the form of a clasico which opposes, year after year, the cable channel HBO to the video on demand service Netflix in the race for the Emmy Awards, equivalent for television of the American Oscars.
Slight advantage to HBO this year, which just with season 3 of Succession, a cult series about the heartbreak of a powerful family, garnered no less than 25 nominations in various categories. A record. In the best drama series category, considered the most prestigious, Jesse Armstrong’s series will face a South Korean troublemaker, Netflix’s global success, Squid Game. A series with a pop and colorful universe but with a very dark theme – Koreans in financial difficulty are enlisted in spite of themselves in a game whose outcome is either victorious or fatal – this production is the first in a foreign language to compete in this category.
Category which is also very competitive, but in which Netflix is rather well placed: between Stranger Things and ozark, which benefit from a large audience and above all excellent reviews, the platform ensures a certain visibility. Not sure that’s enough to make the teenage drama forget Euphoria (HBO), whose highly anticipated second season thrilled viewers and the media.
Leaving bonus
On the comedy side, the success of Apple TV+ Ted Lassowhich features an American football coach propelled to the head of a team of soccer English, starts in pole position with twenty nominations. Winner last year in the best comedy and best comedy actor categories, the series will notably face repeat offenders of the nomination such as The Fabulous Mme Maisel (Prime Video), barry (HBO), or Larry and his navel (HBO) and What We Do in the Shadows (FX).
In the increasingly popular category of mini-series, Hulu (part of the Disney empire) dominates with three – excellent – programs: The Dropouton the Theranos scandal, Pam & Tommyon the case of the “sex tape” that ruined the careers of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and dopesick, a documentary series on the opiate scandal. But it’s Mike White’s satire, The White Lotus, which wins the most nominations (twenty) in the categories related to miniseries and gives HBO a head start. A rarity for a miniseries, this gritty comedy set in a resort Luxury Hawaii has been renewed for a second season.
As for the actors, the categories grant, as every year, a bonus to the leavers. Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) and John Smart (hacks), winners last year, are nominated again – for the same roles. Laura Linney, several times nominated for her role as a twisted bourgeois in ozark, gets a last chance to walk away with a statuette. Ditto for his partner Jason Bateman, or for Sandra Oh, many times nominated for her role as a cop with ambivalent sexuality in Killing Eve, but never rewarded.
The Emmy Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on September 12.