The Snubs And Surprises Of The 2023 Emmy Nominations

Thanks for following our Emmy nominations coverage today! I will now go ponder my future while somberly staring at New York Harbor.

Considering the fact that “A Black Lady Sketch Show” won’t be renewed for a fifth season, I’m really hoping Robin Thede & co. get to go out with a bang. They should be incredibly proud. Long live ABLSS!

Lana Wilson directed the hell out of this docuseries, which premiered as a three-part documentary (with only pauses in between) at Sundance. I’ve raved enough about it and, while I am happy for Wilson, it also deserved to be alongside “Dear Mama” in the Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series category.

I was worried about how the controversy surrounding David Choe would figure into whether “Beef” would get any nomination. But, as we’ve seen before, nominations are often political and you never know which issue Hollywood voters will overlook or take into serious consideration. Either way, very happy to see a great show get a staggering 13 nominations. And I just wanted to shout out the fact that star and producer Ali Wong was also nominated for her voice-over performance on “Tuca & Bertie.” — Candice

Harriet Walter plays icy British mothers on both “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” — and got nominated for both, which I think is kind of genius. That said, obviously I prefer one show over the other. I’ll admit when she popped up in the “Ted Lasso” finale, just days after the “Succession” finale, I immediately said: “Peter doesn’t like the knobbies!” in my head.

Walter is among several double acting nominees, which are always fun to spot each year. The consistently great Melanie Lynskey is also a double nominee for “Yellowjackets” and “The Last of Us.” And Pedro Pascal is nominated for both “The Last of Us” and for his hilarious turn as “Saturday Night Live” host. “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson is also a double acting nominee for both “Abbott” and her time hosting “SNL.” — Marina

Love this for her. — Candice

Obviously, “Succession” dominated many of the acting categories, and deserved to do so. And it’s hard to single out anyone because it’s such a terrific ensemble. That said, I was especially delighted to see Hiam Abbass, who plays fan favorite Marcia, nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Team Marcia! She’s one of those characters who whenever she pops up on an episode, I immediately sit up straighter and pay attention. (And that also goes for Abbass, who you may also recognize from Hulu’s “Ramy” among her many, many film and TV credits over the years.) Marcia’s single-line evisceration of Kerry lives rent-free in my mind, as I’m sure it does for any “Succession” fan.

Speaking of the guest acting in a drama series categories, the two are composed completely of “Succession” and “The Last of Us” guest actors, part of HBO’s overall dominance at Wednesday’s nominations. I really cannot argue with this, since both shows are chock-full of incredible performers doing some of their career-best work.

Among the male actors, we have James Cromwell, whose eulogy as Uncle Ewan at Logan’s funeral was instantly legendary on "Succession." And there’s Arian Moayed, who is always *chef’s kiss* as the show's Stewy. And there’s Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard, who anchored their “The Last of Us” episodes with devastating performances.

For the guest female actors, there are the “Succession” women: Abbass, Harriet Walter (more on her in a minute) and Cherry Jones as Nan Pierce. They’re up against Anna Torv, Storm Reid and Melanie Lynskey from “The Last of Us.” It’s honestly hard to pick a winner here because these are all fantastic performances on fantastic shows. — Marina

I often think about the queer legacy of the first season of “The Last of Us.” Apocalyptic series (and movies) don’t often get a lot of recognition from voting committees in general. And too few of these shows explore the nuances of being queer in this landscape. “The Last of Us” did that in such an extraordinary and unflinching way, and the performances by Reid, Bartlett and Offerman were a major reason for that. — Candice

It would be remiss for me to not acknowledge the talent behind the scenes. Despite how much we loved to hate Shiv’s attire, “Succession” costume designer Michelle Matland earned a nomination for her work on the series. Lest we forget “The White Lotus” earning a costuming nod for its delicious Italian flare and all of the incredibly stylish bags that costume designer Alex Bovaird managed to secure for the series’ second season.

As for hairstyling, the teams behind “Abbott Elementary” and “P-Valley” earned nominations, and rightfully so. Janine Teagues’ wig has come so far since Season 1, and Uncle Clifford’s lace is never out of place in a single “P-Valley” episode I’ve watched. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed that J. Alphonse, Nicco Annan and Brandee Evans didn’t receive a nomination from the Television Academy.

In the Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Television Movie categories? Love to see it. — Candice

My only quibble is that the movie should have gotten a theatrical release, where it might have gotten a bigger spotlight. It feels weird to classify it as a television movie, even though I guess technically, that’s what it is. But happy to see it recognized here. — Marina

I can agree with that. — Candice

I know folks are going to come for me on this one because it got SO MUCH love, especially out of its Sundance premiere. But it’s not good. And I’ll always have a thorn in my side for biopic and biography-adjacent offerings like this one that refuse to critically examine their subjects, even in a funny way like this one could have done. Outstanding Television Movie, my ass.

“Being Mary Tyler Moore,” “Pamela, A Love Story” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” are three of the most boring, unchallenging documentaries this year. The first one is a really thorough Wikipedia article. The second one is a long diary entry. And the third one is entirely uncurious. The one exception in the Outstanding Documentary category — outside of “My Transparent Life,” which I haven’t seen — is “Judy Blume Forever.” Partly because it includes critical examination of its subject.

Another outlier from my overarching criticism here is the David Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream,” which isn’t in the same category as the others (it is nominated in several other categories, including directing and editing). It’s an appropriately strange, pensive and flamboyant documentary that is so out there that I can barely describe it here. But it is worth a watch.

So, it’s pretty astounding that both her performance and the writing are nominated. It’s just not good at doing any of what it tries to do. And that’s a shame, because standom does deserve to be examined and depicted on screen. But in a way that makes sense and is interesting. — Candice

I hate that we found out through interviews that she really wasn’t set up to succeed here and kind of had to rely on herself to make this character make sense. I hated this show, but I love Dominique Fishback so this especially is perplexing for me. — Erin

I want better material for her so that her work can actually shine! — Candice

I mean, like, is it nominated because it garners a lot of tweets? The first season already tested our patience, but the second season is just exasperating. I need to understand how it earned its Outstanding Drama Series nod. — Candice

Me too, Candice. The second season really had me questioning if the first season was really good (I still stand by it.) But they need to be eating more people or killing off more characters if I’m going to hang in there with this show. Sorry, not sorry. — Erin

I might actually have to stop watching. I feel like maybe the joke is on me at this point. — Candice

Season 2 opened up far too many plotlines that went a bit off the rails, and after a while, it lost me. My hope is that they rein things in a bit in Season 3, which might make me interested again — in addition to the performances, which I do think remain really great in spite of the unwieldiness of the storylines. — Marina

I have ... mixed feelings about the special “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage," which I actually thought brought up some insightful and necessary points about the double standards in pop culture dialogue. But it was also peppered with some not-great moments (colorist remarks come to mind). Social media exploded with highly critical (some valid) comments about this live special. For that reason, and because so many folks seem to have such ire for Chris Rock right now, I’m shocked to see it get four nominations, including for Outstanding Variety Special. — Candice

I’m surprised too, because I actually tuned in live and didn’t laugh within the 10 minutes I watched so I turned it off and moved on with my night. Which honestly is not like me. I watch so many not-good things. — Erin

LOL, Erin. — Candice

I just remember feeling that when Padma Lakshmi announced that she was leaving “Top Chef” and folks wondered WTF else she would do with all her time, maybe they don’t know that she hosts, stars in and executive produces this whole other show, which is really good? I am not the only one who knows this — it was nominated for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series Or Special. Cool!

I’m not kidding when I say this is Zoe Saldaña’s best performance so far. “From Scratch” had me crying my eyes out for half the season. Drama indeed. I wish it got a nom or two.

This series was by far the TV show that I told everyone to watch in 2022. It made the top of my best TV for last year and it’s a shame that the Television Academy didn’t recognize it. A TV remake of the 1992 film, “A League of Their Own” follows Max (Chanté Adams), a closeted pitcher, as she pursues her dream of joining a professional baseball team; simultaneously, Carson (Abbi Jacobson), the catcher of the Rockford Peaches, is helping her team come together while exploring her own sexual desires while her husband’s away at war. Fans of the show are awaiting the final few episodes of the series — it’ll only get four episodes in the second season. So it would have been a nice send-off to receive some nods. Adams’ performance as Max was stellar, and the storytelling was so engaging. The series straddled on the drama-comedy line — Gbemisola Ikumelo was especially hilarious — so it could have been a toss-up for where it appeared in the nominations. Unfortunately, it’s so rare to see nuanced and authentic representations of queer people on screen so it’s an extra bummer that this stellar series didn’t get Emmy recognition. — Erin

Yeah, this one is infuriating. And again, I’m tired of seeing good queer shows snubbed and/or canceled. — Candice