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When Julianna Margulies won her Lead Actress Emmy last year she said, “What a wonderful time for women on television.” She wasn’t wrong then and isn’t wrong now. While there are TV women who make audience roll their eyes and there are TV shows who treat their female characters like props more than people, there is a growing sense that the most competitive category at the upcoming 67th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Lead Actress in a Drama and for good reason. The women of TV are talented, daring and plentiful if you know where to look. Last years nominations were jam packed with talent and the situation has only gotten better. This year there will be more deserving nominees snubbed than will be nominated. And, we’re only halfway through the 2014-2015 TV season.
2014 NomineesJulianna Margulies - The Good Wife
Lizzy Caplan - Masters of Sex
Claire Danes - Homeland
Michelle Dockery - Downton Abbey
Kerry Washington - Scandal
Robin Wright - House of CardsLooking at that list, its hard to see who could be cut. As last year’s winner, Margulies has a pretty good shot of getting another nomination.
The Good Wife is still considered by most critics to be the best drama on network television and Margulies is right at the center of it. Lizzy Caplan put forth an incredible performance in the third episode of the second season,
The Fight. Its about as traditional an Emmy-bait episode anyone has ever seen. Caplan showed the audience why this show is so critically acclaimed and on the strength of that episode alone, she deserves a nomination. Claire Danes was nominated last year for
Homeland in a weak season. Most critics agree that this season was stronger, so its hard to imagine the Emmys will snub her now that things have turned around.
Claire Underwood is part Lady Macbeth, part Ice Queen and always well-dressed. With the new season of
House of Cards still a few months away, its hard to say for sure if Wright will get a nomination again, but that will come down to the writing, not the acting. Since the very first episode, Wright has known exactly who Claire is and is a magnetic force in every single scene. Who else could go toe to toe with Spacey season after season?
Kerry Washington had a weak storyline last year but snagged a slot. A new storyline on
Scandal is giving Washington her showiest material to date and she is such a buzzed about actress, it’s hard to imagine an Emmy awards without her.
Downton Abbey doesn’t get the critical raves it once did, but it did pick up a SAG award, bolstering Dockery’s chances at keeping her spot in the category. Still, she was considered the weakest nomination by many last year and if someone is going to be bumped, it will probably be her.
Critically Acclaimed PerformancesElisabeth Moss - Mad Men
Tatiana Maslany - Orphan Black
Keri Russell - The AmericansLooking at these three women, its easy to imagine any of them picking up a nomination. Elisabeth Moss has the best chance as she has been nominated before.
Mad Men is on its final half-season push and its hard to imagine Emmy voters not recognizing the show and her. Maslany and Russell are in the same boat as two critical darlings who have been frozen out the past two years by Emmy voters. The Emmys look out of touch by ignoring performances that are earning such praise.
The NewcomersViola Davis - How to Get Away With Murder
Taraji P. Henson - Empire
Ruth Wilson - The Affair
Caitroina Balfe - OutlanderBack in September, Davis winning an Emmy felt like a forgone conclusion. Her performance as Annalise Keating was probably the most buzzed about thing of the new 2014-2015 TV season. Davis delivers and drives her show forward each week. She is one of the most talented actors on TV right now and all it takes is for her to take off her makeup to remind you that she works in rarified air.
There is no one on TV like Cookie Lyons and Henson is clearly having the time of her life playing a brash, loud-mouth Queen. She is a magnetic personality and the show gets better when she is on-screen.
After picking up the Golden Globe, I can’t imagine Wilson not getting a nod. Wilson spent the first season of the show not just playing one character but playing two.
The Affair looks closely at memory and many episodes feature the same events from different points of view. Wilson is wholly convincing making it even harder for the viewer to know where the true really is.
Outlander took off in a big way this year. Balfe and her co-star Sam Heughan have incredible chemistry and Balfe carries the Starz show on her shoulders. She faces several challenges to a nomination. To start, genre shows don’t fair well and the show is based on what many consider to be a “romance novel” and for whatever (read, sexist) reasons voters may not take her show or her performance seriously. That is a shame because Balfe is wonderful.
Then there are a whole other group of women who haven’t made their 2015 debut just yet like
Juliette Lewis for Secrets and Lies,
Rachel McAdams in True Detective and
Felicity Huffman in American Crime who could snatch a nod away.
So ONTD, does anyone have it locked down? Did I miss anyone? Can we have a 16 way tie?Source:
1,
2 and my TV obsession.
