The Outstanding Drama award categories at this year’s Emmy Awards went off with no upset or surprises: it was a Shogun sweep, save for Billy Crudup’s much-deserved win for his compellingly bizarre performance as a chaos-agent CEO on The Morning Show. The show came into the broadcast with a record number of wins in the un-televised categories; Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai’s historic wins added to the pot before the FX series walked away with Best Drama Series overall.
This is all good and well-deserved—Shogun is incredible. But lest we forget, Shogun—much like Donald Glover’s Prime series Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which also nabbed its fair share of nominations—should have probably been in the Limited Series race instead. It’s not a category shuffle worthy of endless debate like say, The Bear’s status as an Outstanding Comedy, and there’s precedent for miniseries going maximum, like Big Little Lies. But the simple truth is the two most acclaimed shows in the running for Outstanding Drama awards were envisioned as one-offs, with the conversation for more happening only in the aftermath of overwhelming acclaim. They’re ongoing because it would be bad business not to, not because there’s a real multi-season story unfolding.
Succession, much like the late Logan Roy, has left a major power vacuum in its wake. It looks like The Bear, Hacks and Abbott Elementary are going to hold comedy down for the foreseeable future, but where’s the new blood in drama? The fact that The Morning Show made off with the most drama nominations ever feels more like a byproduct of that show’s undeniable star wattage than its quality or its buzz. The Crown is over. Slow Horses was—forgive me—a dark horse. Fallout? The future of that series is anybody’s guess— it could just as easily fall off. And the less said about 3 Body Problem, the better.
As of right now, the stage is set for Industry to come through and fill that void, as the third season of the HBO series has already lived up to the burden of Making Sunday Night HBO Prestigious Again. But that’s only one slot. We’ll surely see some nods for Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+’s splashy summer show that got a surprise season 2 even faster than Shogun did. But what else? When Logan departed, his successor wasn’t clear, but the choices were. The state of play in the drama landscape is much less assured, which is mildly concerning. But in the midst of chaos and uncertainty is often when flashes of brilliance strike.
