Critics' Conversation: 2025 Emmy Nominations Take a Typically Shallow Dive Into TV's Best

Yahoo

18-07-2025

DANIEL FIENBERG: Say what you will about Emmy voters, but when they like something, they REALLY like it.
My biggest takeaway, as I'm picking my way through the nominations for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, is how top-heavy the list is. Twenty-seven nominations for Severance! Twenty-four nominations for The Penguin! Twenty-three nominations apiece for The Studio and The White Lotus!
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So many of these juggernauts received nominations so completely across the board — the dominance of White Lotus and Severance in the supporting categories is especially impressive — that I found myself more distracted by the standouts from those casts who didn't get nominated than those who did. Where's Rhenzy Feliz for The Penguin? Or Chase Sui Wonders for The Studio? Or Lisa from Blackpink for The White Lotus (or Carrie Coon's vacation buddies, I suppose)?
It's a myopia that leads to the consistent impression that Emmy voters watch a maximum of 10 shows on the drama and comedy sides and the exact same five limited series, especially in a tremendously weak year for that category. That means the usual frustrations for this critic, including the annual ignoring of My Brilliant Friend and Dark Winds. The injustice against Zahn McClarnon will be my eternal bone to pick with these voters. The terrific second season of Pachinko got two nominations — cinematography and production design — which isn't nothing, but it's very little.
But I don't want to start off negative. There are some nominations that make me extremely happy, whether it's the directing and writing nods for the mind-boggling 'Pilot's Code' episode of The Rehearsal or recognition for the bizarrely awesome Common Side Effects for animated series.
Angie, what nominations, be they unexpected or inevitable (yay, Harrison Ford for Shrinking), made you most joyful this morning?
ANGIE HAN: Well, you named three of them. But I was also thrilled to see Somebody Somewhere finally get some love in its final season, for its tremendous writing and Jeff Hiller's wonderful supporting performance. It delights me that Catherine O'Hara is nominated twice for two very different roles, in The Last of Us and The Studio, and Ayo Edebiri for directing and starring in The Bear.
And of all of Severance's many, many, many nominations, the one that amuses me most is for choreography — not because it's not merited, but because it helps to cement 'dance scenes involving Tramell Tillman' as one of the show's signatures.
As ever, though, my 'I'm so glad that's keep getting followed by 'but's. I was pleased to see Andor — particularly its standout installment 'Who Are You?' — garner some recognition, but disappointed its main cast didn't fare better. I smiled to see Hacks scene-stealer Robby Hoffman in the mix, but then frowned when I realized Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs had been left out. I was excited for Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa and Shawn Hatosy getting in there for The Pitt, but bummed the rest of its excellent ensemble got shut out. I'm never not gonna root for Meghann Fahy and Colman Domingo, but remain unconvinced Sirens and The Four Seasons are their strongest work.
I was happy, if unsurprised, that The Studio made such a strong showing, but rolled my eyes at their celebrity cameos eating up 5 of the 6 slots for guest actor in a comedy series. At least the category's female counterparts showed some more variety.
I could go on, but I'm sure I'm not the only one simultaneously celebrating and grumbling this morning. So lay it on me: What are some of your 'Yay, but also …' nominations?
DF: My 'Yay, but also…' picks would be a lot of those shows that you mentioned: Great that The Pitt was as well-recognized as it was, but I'd have found room for Taylor Dearden and Gerran Howell. Huzzah that voters noticed that Shrinking took a big jump forward in its second season, but I'm still going to be sad about Ted McGinley, thoroughly redefining the parameters of his already impressive career. It's a bit strange, given all those nominations for Andor, to then have Forest Whitaker as the only nominated cast member (unless you count the nomination for Alan Tudyk as the voice of K-2SO) when Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough and Diego Luna (also ignored for La Máquina) are right there.
I spent a lot of time pondering how some shows did or didn't benefit from being miscategorized (or questionably categorized) this year.
The Bear dropped from 23 to 13 nominations in its third season — always a challenge to remember which season any round of nominations is for — but with the Severance and White Lotus domination on the drama side, it's doubtful the FX/Hulu favorite would have done better if it had dropped the 'comedy' ruse. And speaking of The White Lotus and misplaced comedies, my favorite satire of vapid affluence continued to benefit from voters pretending it's a drama. I don't think The Rehearsal is miscategorized in the comedy field, just that it's a show that's impossible to properly place, though it got some key nominations. HBO wasn't as successful treating Fantasmas as a variety series, though it did get a hairstyling nomination. And while I wondered if Sam Rockwell and Pedro Pascal would suffer from the extra episodic appearances that bumped them out of the guest field and into supporting and lead actor, respectively, they appear to have done OK.
And I spent some time dwelling on the impact of long delays on some of the Emmy contenders.
Obviously voters had no trouble jumping right back into Severance and Andor after long absences, but former outstanding drama series nominees like The Handmaid's Tale, House of the Dragon and Squid Game found less support this time around (due as much to shifts in quality as decline in momentum, to be sure). It still seems like a better bet to return on a regular schedule. How many Emmy voters could tell you anything specific about whichever season of Slow Horses they were honoring this time around? Once you have Gary Oldman doing Gary Oldman things — snarking and farting, primarily — it doesn't matter.
What else have you been dwelling on?
AH: I always thought it clever of The Bear to drop a new season each year just as voting gets underway on the previous season. Granted, it doesn't seem to have helped that much this time, perhaps because neither the third nor fourth seasons are as beloved as the first two. But I would imagine that steady momentum helps to keep the show front of mind — useful when we're talking about a voting body that has sometimes seemed to stick with certain nominees out of sheer habit. That's not to say returning favorites like Hacks or Severance or The White Lotus are undeserving, just that I doubt anyone was particularly stunned to see them clean up.
On the flip side, the Emmys have never been known for particularly edgy taste, so while I might wish The Rehearsal, Fantasmas and Interview with the Vampire would get more appreciation, I can't say I'm particularly shocked they didn't. I'll take the fact that they received any nominations at all as a minor victory. It's more than shows like Industry or A Man on the Inside got, anyway.
But now I feel like I'm just nitpicking again. So I'll zoom out and say that on the whole, I found this crop of nominees to be … about what I expected. Which is to say it's neither unprecedentedly great nor egregiously terrible, even if there are a few small surprises (good and bad) sprinkled throughout.
And now that we know who's nominated, it's time to turn our attention to who's going to win. Obviously, I have my preferences about whom I'd like to see on that stage come September … but if I had to pick just one, I'm going with Hiller. What about you — who is your one specific contender in one specific category that you plan to root for above all others?
DF: Let's see … one thing to root for?
I'd have gone with Liza Colón-Zayas for The Bear, but Emmy voters already gave her a win last year, for her nearly non-existent work in the second season, rather than waiting a year for the well-deserved victory here.
So I guess I'll turn my rooting interest to Harrison Ford, finally getting some exposure after a career spent on the industry's fringes. Yes, I'm kidding, but this is still Ford's first Emmy nomination. Honorary awards aside, Ford has never won a competitive Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award or Emmy. If it sounds weird to make Harrison Ford the ultimate underdog … the Emmys are weird. It's why we 'love' them.
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