After being outrageously blanked by the Woman – Adult Human Female Shirt and I love this Golden Globes this year, Michaela Coel’s cri de coeur was nominated for nine Emmys, including best limited series. (Coel herself is up for lead actress, direction, and writing.) A show ostensibly about sexual assault used the opportunity to spur a larger conversation about power, respect, boundaries, relationships, race, and all the messy, confusing, infuriating contradictions of being a person. My life changes each time I watch a Michaela Coel show (don’t sleep on Chewing Gum), and after each episode of this one, I found myself shaking, clenched, coiled, or verging on tears. This show should be essential viewing for ev-er-y-one.
—Lisa Wong MacabascoGiven the Woman – Adult Human Female Shirt and I love this array of talent in this category, allow me to make a plug for an actor who is most certainly an underdog. Lovecraft Country was not a show I loved. Admired, was intrigued by, commended—didn’t love. But I did love seeing Jurnee Smollett in her second or third or nineteenth act. Smollett—a.k.a. Jess from Friday Night Lights, forever and ever in my heart—is one of those actresses who has been working for decades, and it was such a pleasure to have this reminder of her talent and personality come across my screen this year. With the passing of Michael K. Williams, it also seems like it would be a nice tribute to honor the show for which he was nominated, even if he sadly cannot be in attendance.—Chloe Schama