Innholdsfortegnelse for Emmy Special Issue 26B August 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

In challenging social times, entertainment can either veer into bubbly escapism or take a darker turn. Four of this year’s nominees for comedy series go as dark as you can, staring death in the face. HBO’s Barry and Amazon’s Fleabag, both brilliant and innovative, have main characters driven by grief and guilty consciences, leading to lives that are comically absurd. Netflix’s Russian Doll and NBC’s The Good Place confront the specter of death by positing an afterlife, creating laughable loops of time in which their characters learn to become better people. These shows are not based on simple gallows humor — rather, death is woven into the fabric of the characters and gives meaning to their ludicrous lives. Barry and Fleabag, series shaped by the distinct voices of their stars,…

The second season of NBC’s multigenerational family drama This Is Us solved the cliffhanger mystery of Pearson family patriarch Jack’s death, which meant season three had much more room to explore the characters in a deeper way. Explains creator Dan Fogelman, “Once you’ve revealed every element of this big plot point, it’s interesting to go into storylines that may have happened before it, may have happened after it, and have a different filter through which you view everything.” Season three, then, was able to explore the time that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) spent serving in Vietnam with a deeper understanding and to reveal more about the surviving characters and how their stories will be told going forward. Fogelman has told THR that he’s reached the “midpoint” of the series, which recently…

For a series many call the greatest ever, The Wire didn’t get much love from the Emmys. The David Simon-created HBO production ran for five seasons, from 2002 to 2008, and didn’t receive so much as one award. And it got only two Emmy nominations, both for writing. In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine a series with Idris Elba as a main character never receiving an acting nom. The show also got nada from the Golden Globes. (Season four did win best dramatic series from the Writers Guild, and in 2009 the show won a Directors Guild award.) “The theory among HBO executives was it was an East Coast show and the Emmy voters were in L.A.,” says David Baldwin, HBO’s executive vp program planning at the time. “It was…

Seventy episodes of television built up to this: the White Walkers unleashing the full force of their undead terror on Westeros in “The Long Night,” the climactic battle episode at the heart of Game of Thrones’ final season. The result of the showdown: a handful of main character deaths and a much bigger surprise in the form of the White Walkers’ crushing defeat, thanks to Arya Stark’s unexpected killing of the Night King. Behind it all: Miguel Sapochnik, the veteran Game of Thrones director responsible for so many of the HBO epic’s biggest moments, such as the ambitious “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards” episodes. He was charged with presiding over a very different kind of war in “The Long Night,” without his typical action hero Kit Harington to lean…

As a kid growing up in the South Bronx, Steven Canals had big dreams — but he never imagined that his Hollywood aspirations would land him back in his native borough, where the production offices and soundstage for his FX hit, Pose, are now located at Silvercup Studios North. “I came from an environment where the expectations for me were as low as they could get,” the 38-year-old co-creator and executive producer (with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) says of his groundbreaking show, which premiered in June 2018 and is up for seven Emmy nominations. “For the work to be recognized, and for it to be work that uplifts LGBTQ people of color, is pretty incredible." Indeed, Pose centers on New York’s queer ballroom scene of the late 1980s and…

The fourth season of AMC’s Better Call Saul was pivotal for this Breaking Bad prequel, as Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill was forced to sever emotional ties with his late brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), as he moved several steps closer to fully becoming Saul Goodman. Series showrunner Peter Gould, who created Better Call Saul with Vince Gilligan, spoke with THR about the key season of the drama, the gratification of seeing veteran McKean finally getting the first Emmy nomination of his storied career (as Odenkirk notched his fourth lead actor nom for his role) and the frustration of co-star Rhea Seehorn’s ongoing Emmy shutout. What’s it going to take to get Rhea Seehorn a nomination? Any nomination is a wonderful gift, and I am thrilled that in a universe with so…

Emerald Fennell says she could talk about Killing Eve “forever — my husband says I could talk a person to death.” Fennell knows a thing or two about death, as the showrunner of the second season of BBC America’s breakout drama. The season saw Eve (Sandra Oh) trying to avoid her own demise but also grappling with her darker side and her feelings for her friend/foe/flame Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Fennell, who took over the showrunner job from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, spoke to THR about the show’s 11 Emmy nominations, why Eve and Villanelle have a unique connection and where the show may go in season three. Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a golden rule that Villanelle would never use her beauty to get what she wanted. Are there other golden rules? In general…

It’s fitting that Jesse Armstrong, the show-runner of a searing satirical drama about media power brokers, has a measured and somewhat skeptical approach to the Emmy Awards. “They’re curious, awards,” the British creator tells THR. “You don’t want to get too tied up in putting all your worth in the hands of the big world of awards, but on the other hand it’s ever so nice to get your work recognized.” His HBO series, Succession, is nominated for five Emmys, including outstanding drama. Armstrong himself is credited on the episode nominated for writing — the season one finale — a nod he learned about from executive producer Frank Rich’s assistant while on set shooting season two in Croatia. That second season (which bowed Aug. 11) follows the show’s Murdoch- and…

JONATHAN BANKS He’s been nominated for playing Better Call Saul’s Mike Ehrmantraut for four years straight. Ehrmantraut spent most of the fourth season overseeing the construction of a meth superlab, but when the loner finds an unexpected friend, he’s forced to make a heartbreaking choice. GIANCARLO ESPOSITO Better Call Saul’s Gus Fring’s empire and menace continue to grow as his quest for purer meth involves an old/future familiar face for Breaking Bad fans. The season’s most potent bit of foreshadowing involved a story about a fruit-eating coatimundi and one very familiar bell. MICHAEL KELLY The House of Cards star earned his fourth nom for playing the troubled fixer Doug Stamper. After Kevin Spacey’s exit for the final season, Stamper played a pivotal role in the wrap-up, battling Claire Underwood until…