If you zoom out to the perspective of, say, a bird with bad eyesight flying a mile up in the sky, the most surprising thing about the Emmy Awards, back for a second time in 2024 thanks to the quirks of post-strike scheduling, might be that, in aggregate, they kind of got it right. The best show on television of the last season, Shōgun, got the most nominations (25), and the TV Academy also found the space to recognize a wide range of quality work: Ripley, Reservation Dogs, even Girls5eva. But zoom in any closer, and the outline devolves into chaos: The Emmys went hard on prestige-ish streaming shows, skipped over movie stars and broadcast hits, and seemed generally indifferent to a lot of work that had us most excited about the current state of television. (Plus, they liked Unfrosted? Which is a TV movie?) Given how many categories the Emmys try to cover and the generally fractured industry, all this is to be expected, but it doesn’t make it any less baffling. Here, Vulture’s TV critics did our best to make sense of the scatterplot, identifying where the Academy went right, where they whiffed it, and where their taste just got weird. —Jackson McHenry
GOOD: Matt Berry gets his first Emmy nom.
Vulture has, on occasion, expressed the opinion that Matt Berry can, and should, be in most things. The fact that it’s taken the Emmys this long to agree is shameful. At least they’ve finally come around! —Kathryn VanArendonk
BAD: Devery Jacobs blanked.
It’s great that Reservation Dogs finally got some of the Emmys nominations it should have been collecting all through its three-season run. The cinematography of “Deer Lady” was beautiful, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai snagging a Best Actor nomination is a very nice surprise, that Best Comedy nod is long overdue. But why must the Emmys be so negligent of Devery Jacobs? For years, she’s led the young cast, and as the series continued wrote some of its most emotionally devastating episodes, “Mabel” and “Elora’s Dad,” and directed “Wahoo!” She’s one of the most significant creative forces to come out of this show, and for her to be so ignored is perhaps a sign that the Emmys haven’t changed that much after all. —Roxana Hadadi
GOOD: Year’s best show receives most nominations.
Shōgun is the most nominated series of the year with 25 nods. Given that it is one of the most ambitious, meticulously realized series of 2024 so far, it deserves every one. Sometimes the Emmy voters do get it exactly right. —Jen Chaney
BAD: What is going on in the Drama categories?
The end of Succession left a noticeable crater in the landscape of TV drama, and it was unlikely any one show would step into its place. But at the point when Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 3 Body Problem, and The Morning Show are filling three slots in Best Drama, you have to ask … are these really what we have for Best Drama? Each series has its good points, sure, but all are notably flawed shows. If it were just that, though, the Emmys might be forgiven for at least wanting to recognize a few brand-new series and for its long-standing and somewhat endearing blind spot regarding The Morning Show. But the truly egregious choice here is the nomination for The Crown’s final season. Emmys voters seem to have eaten it up with a spoon (nomination for finale direction!) despite it being, without question, the worst the show has been, and also some of the most infuriating TV writing and directing of the last year. What is Peter Morgan paying them? What hold does Netflix have? Someone get Elsbeth involved. —KVA
BAD: Elsbeth wore funny outfits and solved crimes and championed the broadcast procedural, yet you all ignored her.
We often bemoan the fact that broadcast networks aren’t producing popular, well-made television anymore, but this Elsbeth Tascioni came to the rescue! The spinoff of The Good Wife spotlighting Carrie Preston’s kooky lawyer did well enough to secure a 20-episode season two, but got ignored by a TV Academy more focused on mediocre streaming fare. For shame! —JM
WEIRD: Nothing at all for The Curse.
It’s not all that shocking that The Curse failed to break through. No one seemed to watch it, there was not all that much buzz, and its general vibe falls somewhere between “woof, that was hard to watch” and “I know it was being funny, but ouch,” with a healthy side dose of “wait, what happens at the end?” Still, Showtime was really, really pushing this one. Christopher Nolan moderated a screening! And some of the below-the-line categories seem like potential Curse gimmes, especially cinematography or sound design. I’m not mad, but I am confused? —KVA
BUT ALSO BAD: Emma Stone deserved an Emmy more than an Oscar.
Stone’s performance as a self-immolating liberal white woman who convinces only herself that she’s “well meaning” was darker and funnier than pretty much every other nominated performance — and, I’d argue, much richer than her Oscar-winning work in Poor Things. But of course the Emmys simply ignored it. The Emmys also ignored Stone’s performance in Maniac. Maybe television just doesn’t like Emma Stone? —JM
BAD: Girls5eva and The Other Two omitted from Outstanding Comedy Series.
I have this weird requirement when it comes to comedies: They should make audiences consistently laugh. Few shows were as reliably good at that as the third seasons of Girls5eva and The Other Two. Both were nominated for Outstanding Writing — Girls5eva for “Orlando” and The Other Two for “Brooke Hosts a Night of Undeniable Good” — which is a testament to their quality. But if they’re so well written, shouldn’t at least one of them have been nominated for Outstanding Comedy instead of, I don’t know, Palm Royale? —JC
BAD: Fellow Travelers wasn’t great, but I do think nominating Lessons in Chemistry over it is kind of homophobic.
Fellow Travelers could be preachy and heavy-handed, but at least it was trying to be something. Lessons in Chemistry was mind-bogglingly inert, a show that had the idea of “casting Brie Larson in a popular book” and stopped there. —JM
AND ALSO WEIRD: Wait, Lessons in Chemistry has ten nominations?
The adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’s novel is a classic example of mid TV: It looks nice, the performances are commendable, its production values are high. But it never rises above the level of fine, which is why ten nominations feels like, I don’t know, at least five too many. —JC
GOOD: The animated lineup!
All my favorite little weird guys of Scavengers Reign are worthy! All in all, this is a solid lineup of established favorites (Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons) and really exciting, risky, visually beautiful newbies (Blue Eye Samurai, the bravely anti-Avengers X-Men ’97). To Outstanding Animated Program voters, thank you for actually watching the shows. —RH
WEIRD: Where is John Mulaney’s Everybody’s in L.A.?
The variety and talk spaces are, to put it frankly, some of the most stale and unexciting parts of the TV landscape. Even the ones that do it well are operating from a playbook that’s existed for decades. You know what’s fun, what’s exciting, what’s innovative and new? Everybody’s in L.A.! Plus, it’s just insider-Hollywood enough that Emmys voters could’ve easily been persuaded to go for it despite its small scale. What happened?! How did we let this one slip through? —KVA
BAD: Tokyo Vice ignored.
It was always going to be a long shot, especially because Emmys voters probably saw Shōgun as their big Japan show this year. But Tokyo Vice was an exceptional, immersive look at how all of Shōgun’s themes of honor, sacrifice, and loyalty become twisted and manipulated under the yakuza over time. I’m not surprised that Tokyo Vice’s sprawling look at systemic corruption didn’t rate when the Emmys are also the institution that blanked The Wire, but I’m still disappointed. Ken Watanabe gave us one of the best performances of his career over two seasons, dammit! — RH
GOOD: Telemarketers coming through for Rough House Pictures.
Danny McBride and Rough House Pictures, the production company he co-founded with David Gordon Green and Jody Hill, remain two of the most unrecognized forces in modern television. It’s nice to see Telemarketers, one of the most surprising and uncompromising documentaries of the year, grab a nomination (make sure Pat gets an invite to the ceremony!), even as Righteous Gemstones still can’t break through the technical categories. Yes, their costumes and stuntwork are great, but are we ready to have the conversation about how Kristen Wiig’s Lead Actress in a Comedy spot should have gone to Edi Patterson? —RH
WEIRD: Quiet on Set nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
The docuseries that shone a light on the dark side of Nickelodeon generated a lot of conversation and gave some of the people who worked there the opportunity to discuss the abuse they endured. But this was very much a typical Investigation Discovery offering and leaned more exploitative than journalistic, a tendency echoed by the objections some of its participants raised after the series came out. —JC
WEIRD: When will it be Antiques Roadshow’s year?
This is now the 22nd nomination for Antiques Roadshow in the Outstanding Structured Reality program. Is it going to win against Love Is Blind or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? Probably not? But then when will it ever get the recognition it so overwhelmingly deserves?! —KVA
GOOD: Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis!
Two of the industry’s most talented Native actresses sharing space in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category is cool. Can a casting director get inspired, please? — RH
GOOD: Carrie Coon nominated for The Gilded Age.
This is only Carrie Coon’s second Emmy nomination, which is insane. It is for The Gilded Age, a show that is also completely bonkers and should only ever be watched as an expression of campiness so perfect and unblinking that Susan Sontag would weep. And this nomination is specifically for Carrie Coon’s role in The Gilded Age, which should be studied in master classes and engraved in marble and possibly put on flags. It probably won’t win, but we’ll take the recognition. —KVA
GOOD: Idris Elba nominated for Hijack.
Does anyone need to be reminded that Idris Elba is a great actor? Probably not. But did we all need some validation for how much fun it is to watch Apple TV+’s goofy plane thriller Hijack? Yes, we did. —KVA
GOOD: Double nominee Jon Hamm.
He’s back, baby! Wearing none of the stink of Unfrosted, which somehow got an Outstanding Television Movie nomination! Now that he’s been recognized for Fargo and The Morning Show, can we interest you in the superior Hamm vehicle, Confess, Fletch? —RH
WEIRD: Both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon nominated for The Morning Show, really?
If you watch The Morning Show (an amazing journey into a mirror realm, both like ours and not), you know that one actor is giving an incredible, potentially unintentionally meta performance about a star who hates her own image as a beloved American icon and that the other actor is playing Bradley Jackson. However, we do have to respect the Emmys for rolling a clip where both actresses were onscreen at the same time last season. That’s hard to find! —JM
WEIRD: Robert Downey Jr. for The Sympathizer.
There’s something so funny about Robert Downey Jr. playing an array of white characters on The Sympathizer in a visual representation of whiteness as a colonizing and dehumanizing force in a series that is otherwise about a Northern Vietnamese man struggling to live revolutionary ideals, and then Downey being the only thing about the show that is recognized in any way. Legendary director Park Chan-wook getting passed over for Feud: Capote vs. the Swans and Lessons in Chemistry? Hilarious. Bleak. —RH
BAD: Supporting Actress in a Drama only recognizes three series.
Drama is admittedly a weaker genre than usual this year. Even so, it’s striking that the performances featured come from just three series — The Crown, The Gilded Age, and The Morning Show, which accounts for four out of the seven nominees. Four! Where’s Moeka Hoshi from Shōgun or Kristin Scott Thomas from Slow Horses, both of whom were on many Emmy-pundit prediction lists? What is going on here? —JC
GOOD: Liza Colón-Zayas nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for The Bear.
The Comedy Supporting Actress category did a much better job of spreading the nominations wealth, meaning Liza Colón-Zayas’s excellent, lived-in performance as the tough but vulnerable Tina was rightly recognized. Yes, Jeff! —JC
GOOD: Some great nominees in Comedy Special Writing.
Traditionally, the Emmys is absolute garbage when it comes to the truly good comedy specials out there, and some of that underwhelm is still reflected in the directing categories of this year’s nominations. (Say what you will about Chappelle, or Trevor Noah, or even Tig Notaro, but those specials are not notably exciting direction choices.) In writing, though, Jacqueline Novak, John Early, Alex Edelman and Mike Birbiglia all got nominations! Those are all great picks, and it’s a little mystifying how the Emmys suddenly got great taste in writing but couldn’t translate that same taste into picks for direction or overall best? Nevertheless, whoever is influencing writing did a great job. —KVA
WEIRD: No prosthetics nod for Guillermo’s clones in What We Do in the Shadows.
Look, I don’t want to complain too much. What We Do in the Shadows getting eight nominations is shocking and wonderful; I delight in imagining what Matt Berry will wear to the ceremony. But it’s weird that it couldn’t break into Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for the very adorable, very frightening Guillermo clones/animal children in “Hybrid Creatures.” The episode is a perfect distillation of co-writers’ Jeremy Levick and Rajat Suresh’s incomparable oddness, and the Guillermo-dog, Guillermo-sheep, Guillermo-frog, and other creatures manage to be both unsettling and cute in a way that is perfect for the series’s world. Okay, wait, new idea: Bring them as your guests to the ceremony, Matt! It’s what Laszlo would do, once he realized they weren’t actually murdered at his command. —RH
GOOD: John Hawkes nominated for his song from True Detective: Night Country.
I hadn’t thought about how nice it would be for Hawkes to receive a nod for “No Use,” the song he wrote and performed for the HBO series, until I saw it on the Emmy nominations list. And you know what? It is nice. —JC
BAD: Y’all nominated the Pop-Tart movie?
Unfrosted, Jerry Seinfeld’s ode to toaster strudel, the early ’60s, and jokes that don’t land at all was a total misfire despite the involvement of many very talented people. But somehow, here it is with a nomination for Outstanding TV Movie. I am begging voters: Please, let’s not give an Emmy to a project that thought it would be hilarious if Tony the Tiger stormed the Capitol. I don’t think our nation can take it. —JC
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