2018 EMMYS: The Winners

My predictions for the 70th annual Primetime Emmys didn't work out too well. The actual winners were very different from whom I wanted to win an whom I thought would win, in the Top 6 categories (Drama Series and Leading Actor and Actress and Comedy Series and Leading Actor and Actress). I only correctly picked Brosnahan as the winner and in my hoped-for-wins I got Game of Thrones and Claire Foy correct.

The nominees and the actual winner is in bold below.

Outstanding Comedy Series
Atlanta
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
black-ish
Silicon Valley
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Glow
Barry
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Tracee Ellis Ross (black-ish)

Rachel Brosnahan  (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)

Allison Janney (Mom)

Lily Tomlin (Grace and Frankie)

Pamela Adlon (Better Things)

Issa Rae (Insecure)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Donald Glover (Atlanta)

Bill Hader (Barry)

Anthony Anderson (black-ish)

Ted Danson (The Good Place)

William H. Macy (Shameless)

Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Sterling K. Brown (This is Us)

Jason Bateman (Ozark)

Ed Harris (Westworld)

Matthew Rhys (The Americans)

Jeffrey Wright (Westworld)

Milo Ventimiglia (This is Us)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale)

Keri Russell (The Americans)

Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld)

Sandra Oh (Killing Eve)

Claire Foy (The Crown)

Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black)

Outstanding Drama Series

Game of Thrones

The Handmaid’s Tale

This Is Us

Westworld

The Americans

The Crown

Stranger Things

In addition to these winners, other notable results were in the best supporting actor categories where Thandie Newton and Peter Dinklage won for HBO's Westworld and Game of Thrones, respectively in the drama category and Henry Winkler won for HBO's Barry while Alex Borstein (the voice of the Mom on Family Guy) won for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. Both This Is Us and The Handmaid's Tale would have been shut out except for the wins by Ron Cephas Jones (the dad) and Samira Wiley (the lesbian friend) as Guest Actors on those series. I belive Stranger things was shut out. Again.

2018 EMMYS: My Predictions in Major Categories

Here is my predictions post for the 2018 Primetime Emmy awards for excellence in television. Last year, I predicted that This is Us would win Best Drama Series and Veep would win Best Comedy series. I was wrong about Drama (The Handmaid's Tale won instead) and correct about Comedy (Veep won for the third year in a row). This year, as Issa Rae says, "I'm rooting for everybody Black!"

Outstanding Drama Series
The Americans
The Crown
Game of Thrones
The Handmaid’s Tale
Stranger Things
This Is Us
Westworld

I think Game of Thrones is the best thing on television (it is easily the most popular show in the world) but I think the fact that this was the final season for The Americans will convince Emmy winners to finally reward it, although that has not been a convincing argument for past heavy hitters like Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
WILL WIN: The Americans
SHOULD WIN: Game of Thrones

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Ed Harris, Westworld
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us
Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

Sterling Brown won this category last year and his work on the NBC powerhouse This Is Us has only grown more poignant, not less. But its his co-star (with whom he can never have any scenes with because they are in different time periods on the show) that is the heart of the show.
WILL WIN: Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
SHOULD WIN: Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Foy, The Crown
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
Keri Russell, The Americans
Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

Last year Elizabeth Moss won this award and the year before that it was Tatiana Maslany. It's hard to root against Evan Rachel Wood's work as Dolores on Westworld but I thinkn Claire Foy is the main reason why The Crown works so well. I don't really understand all the love for Killing Eve. I think the show is deeply flawed but grudgingly agree that Sandra Oh is incredible on it. I've never seen a single episode of The Americans but I know LOTS of people love it, and this is Keri Russell's last shot.

WILL WIN: Sandra Oh, Killing Eve or Keri Russell, The Americans
SHOULD WIN: Claire Foy, The Crown

Outstanding Comedy Series
Atlanta
Barry
Black-ish
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Glow
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Silicon Valley

It's pretty amazing there's only one network show in the bunch (Black-ish) while Modern Family is absent after winning continuously for 4 years in a row. The absence of Veep means other shows have a chance to shine and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from Amazon Prime has the biggest buzz. But if Atlanta doesn't win we should riot! (Kidding, sorta.)

WILL WIN: Atlanta.
SHOULD WIN: Atlanta.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Donald Glover, Atlanta
Bill Hader, Barry
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
William H. Macy, Shameless
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Ted Danson is a revelation on The Good Place but Glover won this award last year and there's no good reason why he wouldn't win it again. Hader has a lot of buzz for HBO's Barry but does anyone watch that show?
WILL WIN: Donald Glover, Atlanta
SHOULD WIN: Ted Danson, The Good Place

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Pamelon Adlon, Better Things
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Allison Janney, Mom
Issa Rae, Insecure
Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Pretty sure Allison Janneyw on this award last year (didn't she win all the awards last year?) but it would be amazing if either Tracee Ellis Ross or Issa Rae could win this award becoming just the second Black woman to  do so almost 40 years after Isabel Sandford for Good Times.
WILL WIN: Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
SHOULD WIN: Issa Rae, Insecure or Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

THE EXPANSE: Season 3 Debuts Today on SyFy!

The third season of The Expanse begins airing on SyFy today at 10pm EDT. This season should cover the events in the second and third books in The Expanse series written by James S.A Corey: Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate. These are some of my favorite books of all time. The 8th book in the 9-book series is called Tiamat's Wrath and should be published in December 2018.

Until then, enjoy The Expanse!

#AlteredCarbon is Now Streaming on Netflix!

The screen adaptation of the Richard K. Morgan novel Altered Carbon is now available on Netflix!
The ten episodes of the first season are titled:

1. "Out of the Past" (pilot directed by Miguel Sapochnik)
2. "Fallen Angel"
3. "In a Lonely Place"
4. "Force of Evil"
5. "The Wrong Man"
6. "Man with My Face"
7. "Nora Inu"
8. "Clash by Night"
9. "Rage in Heaven"
10. "The Killers"

I have been waiting a long time for this! Happily, it is getting very good reviews and it is apparently a high-budget, high-quality entry into the televised science fiction and fantasy canon which includes such award-winning shows like Game of Thrones (HBO), The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu) and The Expanse (SyFy).

The book is one of my favorites (see review) and is the first in a trilogy, so perhaps we have two more seasons to go?

Netflix's Altered Carbon IS Arriving 02/02/18 (And Looks Awesome)!

The next great television show based on a science fiction/fantasy books is going to be a reality soon! It was announced in January 2016 that Netflix had ordered a 10-episode season of 1-hour episodes based on Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs trilogy: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies. These books are set in the 24th century where humanity has expanded to about a dozen worlds and the most notable technological change is the development of human conscious transfer and storage. One consequence of this is effective immortality because once a body begins to fail, one can transfer one's consciousness into another body. In fact, for the super-rich there's no reason to wait until death to do this consciousness transfer from an , and so the bodies that store consciousness are known as "sleeves."

Netflix has now announced that the series is called Altered Carbon will be available on the streaming service starting February 2, 2018! In addition to announcing the release date, a number of teaser and trailer videos have been released and they look AMAZING!

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One quibble I have with what I have seen of the show (in the trailers) so far is that in the books Takeshi Kovacs (the primary protagonist) is described as being "of Japanese and Eastern-European descent" but in the Netflix television adaptation he is being played by an actor named Joel Kinnaman who looks pretty fair-skinned (he's a Swedish actor). Kinnaman is quite attractive, but the non-white hue of most of the characters in the books (as far as I remember) was definitely mentioned. I don't think this will become a huge talking point as the series starts getting more prominent public notice, but I do find it somewhat troubling. I believe they will explain it by referring to an original "sleeve" Takeshi had where he is played by a Korean-American actor.

There are other interesting tidbts about the show in this Entertainment Weekly article: the pilot was directed by Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnik (S6E09: The Battle of the Bastards) and the budget is rumored to be the biggest ever for Season 1 of a show (and remember House of Cards had an estimated budget of $100m for its first two seasons, or approximately $4.5m per episode).

I can't wait see this show on February 2, 2018!

With Game of Thrones probably off the air until the end of 2018 at the earliest and Season 3 of The Expanse shot but no airdate released (but expected to be sometime in 2018) we are living in the golden age of television based on speculative fiction classic works (by George R.R. Martin and James S.A. Corey, respectively).