Selena Gomez was shocked. For real — not like the astonishment Zoë Kravitz feigned in a Golden Globes-set episode of “The Studio,” faking disbelief at the podium when she knew all along that she was going to win.
When “Only Murders in the Building” won the Screen Actors Guild award for comedy series ensemble in February, Gomez could say only one word: “Whaaaat???” Martin Short and Steve Martin, the show’s other headliners, weren’t in the room (“They don’t really care,” Gomez joked), leaving their co-star to handle the acceptance speech all by her lonesome.
“Wait … we never win,” she began. “This is so weird.”
If a series winning its first major award for its fourth season is weird (and it is), get ready for some strange days ahead this Emmy season. It’s a year devoid of clear front-runners in the comedy and drama categories (aside from Jean Smart, who’s on a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-style run for “Hacks”), a year full of stacked lineups, a year that might afford the opportunity for another jaw-dropping “whaaaat???” or two.
Which, after a long run of ceremonies in which a handful of shows dominated the evening (“Baby Reindeer,” “Shōgun,” “Succession” — it’s a long list), might be … fun? Or at least not as much of a fait accompli as we’ve seen in the recent past.
True, we did have one surprise last year, with “Hacks” winning comedy series over “The Bear,” the show most people (hand raised) thought would win. In hindsight, the result should have been clear as day. “The Bear” was brought down by the “How is this series a comedy?” chatter and its uneven third season, which dropped while voters were considering the merit of its second, which contained two episodes (“Fishes” and “Forks”) that are as good as anything airing on television this decade.
Now it feels like no one is taking “The Bear” seriously, even though it won three of the four comedy acting prizes and the Emmy for directing last year. (“Fishes” was undeniable.) Wouldn’t it be funny if the fourth season of “The Bear,” which drops June 25, is so good that it erases voters’ misgivings about Season 3 and catapults the show back into people’s hearts? (“Whaaaat???”)
Seth Rogen in “The Studio.”
(Apple TV+)
“The Bear” will at the very least stand out in a field heavy on comedies about Hollywood, a perennial favorite subject among creatives. “Hacks” has Smart’s Deborah Vance finally hosting her late-night talk show and battling Ava (Hannah Einbinder) over its tone, among many, many other conflicts. Newcomer “The Studio” sends up the empty-headed self-importance of Hollywood, while making a pretty good case for the value of entertainment, even in its lowest form (“Duhpocalypse!”). And the gang from “Only Murders in the Building” headed west to take a meeting about a movie based on their hit podcast. We should all be so lucky to have Eugene Levy play us someday.
With all that — plus the City of Angels settings of comedies “Nobody Wants This” and “Shrinking” — how does “Abbott Elementary” feel like anything but a blast of fresh air, even if they do put on a school play in the season finale? There’s also Michael Schur’s sweet and poignant charmer, “A Man on the Inside,” in which Ted Danson goes undercover in a San Francisco retirement home and conquers loneliness, a heroic feat rivaling anything you’d find in a Marvel movie.
Meanwhile in drama series, “Shōgun” won last year, parachuting into the category from limited series when FX gave it the go-ahead for another season or two. If “Shōgun” hadn’t moved, would we be talking about the chances of a “Slow Horses” repeat? Or how crazy it was that “The Crown” won again? Thanks to delays caused by the strikes, the 2024 drama slate was the thinnest since “Quincy, M.E.” roamed L.A.’s streets, keeping us safe.
Sarah Bock, left, Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower in “Severance.”
(Apple TV+)
This year, the drama categories are back to full strength with new seasons of “Severance,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us” arriving and former winner “Squid Game” returning as well. The last failed to recapture the mojo of its first season, as the repetition of its stylized carnage turned the series into a victim of the capitalism it bluntly critiqued. Count it out.
In its place, we have “The Pitt,” another series about people pushed to the breaking point, offering a vivid, harrowing depiction of an emergency medical system in crisis. Doctors are a difficult group to please (see that episode of “The Studio” that manages to make them even more insufferable than movie executives), but by and large they have endorsed “The Pitt” for its realism and for the way it captures medical workers’ frustrations with our healthcare system. The despair portrayed on this show feels painfully true.
I loved “The Pitt” so much that I’m tempted to say that it should win all the Emmys. But that would shortchange “Severance,” which takes another run at a corporate world run amok, detailing it in ways that are far more unsettling than anything in the latest season of “Squid Game.” I don’t know if it terrified my “innie” or “outie” more, probably because nowadays, who can tell the difference? Just blend me up one of those special “White Lotus” piña coladas and let me float downstream.
There’s once again much to appreciate, and that’s before including another thrilling season of “Slow Horses” and newcomer “Paradise,” a loopy thriller that wonders if it’d be worth surviving an apocalypse if we’d have to bunker down with Elon Musk. Personally, I’d rather be waylaid in the waiting room of “The Pitt.”
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