In Shrill, Saturday Night Live‘s Aidy Bryant has created an unassuming, yet surprisingly adept comedy about a millennial woman struggling to grow beyond the limited picture others have of her. And in the same way Bryant’s Annie refuses to let herself be defined as the fat girl who writes about body positivity for the lame weekly newspaper where she works, Shrill refuses to limit itself to her story as an overweight woman, morphing in its third and final season into a perceptive, touching comedy about preparing for adulting.
Made for Love is an odd, sci-fi-laced dark comedy featuring Cristin Milioti as a woman whose effort to leave her suffocating marriage to a tech billionaire is hampered by a chip he planted in her brain allowing him to track her movements and see what she sees. Of course, it’s an allegory for the suffocating nature of modern misogyny. But thanks to the comedic chops of Milioti and ace backups like Ray Romano as her sex doll-loving dad, it’s also a madcap treatise on the pitfalls of family, technology and personal relationships-as marketing.
Outstanding Lead Actor, Comedy: William Zabka, Cobra Kai, Netflix
For some reason, Netflix’s Karate Kid update series is classified as a comedy for Emmy purposes (they probably figure the category offers less competition). Regardless, Zabka’s compelling, sympathetic take on grown-up-bad-guy Johnny Lawrence—a loser in his 50s still fighting to contain his anger and get past abusive father figures—is the series’ secret sauce. Lawrence’s struggles are the most realistic element of Cobra Kai and close to the only performance worth repeated watching, once you peel away the nostalgia and what-do-they-look-like-now curiosity.
Outstanding Limited Series: Small Axe, Amazon and The Underground Railroad, Amazon
With only five nomination slots and high-profile series like The Queen’s Gambit, Mare of Easttown, WandaVision and The Undoing in contention, this may be the most competitive category in the entire contest. So it will be tempting for Emmy voters to pick just one of two high-profile, big-budget projects centered on Black culture and characters.
But Small Axe and The Underground Railroad are very different. Small Axe is Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen’s effort to tell the untold story of Black immigrants in England with five evocative films. The Underground Railroad is Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins’ beautifully punishing, 10-episode take on Colson Whitehead’s novel leveraging magical realism in the story of an escaped slave’s journey to independence. Both deserve the honor of a nomination, no matter how crowded the field.
Outstanding Supporting Actress, Drama: Wunmi Mosaku, Lovecraft Country, HBO
Perhaps the most subversive character in HBO’s series on a Black family trapped in a story of horror, afrofuturism and magic, Mosaku’s Ruby Baptiste is a Black woman who gains the ability through magic to become a white woman in 1950s America. It’s a painful transformation, which involves shedding skin in bloody ribbons. But what makes the transition truly chilling is Mosaku’s portrayal of a Black woman who suspects that being able to become white may solve all her problems, until it actually happens.
Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: The Amber Ruffin Show, Peacock