Categories Billions Emmy Nomination

What the Emmy Nominations Got Right and Wrong – July 13, 2018

Consistently Great Show That Somehow Remains Off the Emmy Radar

by Mark Dawidziak | Cleveland.com | July 13, 2018

Said it before but this bears repeating, particularly on top of Thursday’s nominations for the 70th annual Emmys: There isn’t an awards system yet conceived on this planet that is not in some ways deeply flawed. I’ve done my time marching in this particular procession. That edict on awards also includes the Television Critics Association Awards, which I’ve been voting for each year since their inception in 1985. Do those awards have their admirable strengths and annoying weaknesses? Indeed, they do.

The same goes for the Emmys, which, year after year, get some things wonderfully right and some things terribly wrong. And nowhere do things go more right and wrong than with the nominations. No question, these nominations embrace some of the highest-quality programming TV had to offer during the 2017-18 season. But did Thursday’s announcement by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences also yield the usual outrageous number of snubs, oversights and omissions? Oh, yeah.

Here we go.

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Categories Billions Emmy Nomination Print Media

When Will Billions Get the Emmy It Deserves? – July 12, 2018

The Showtime series is one of the best dramas on television. So where the fuck is its Emmy?

by Eve Peyser | Vice | July 12, 2018

On Thursday morning, the nominees for the 2018 Emmy Awards were announced, and sadly for anyone who cares about honoring the art of television, Billions was once again snubbed. The Showtime drama, which just wrapped up its third season, stars the legendary Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who is hellbent on bringing down Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), a billionaire hedge fund manager who unapologetically plays dirty. The twist? Rhoades’s wife, Wendy, works for Axelrod as a performance coach, a therapist who works at his firm whose job is to help the employees earn as much as they can through psychoanalysis.

Billions is the story of two ruthless geniuses and their intricate scheming as they bend the law in order to settle personal feuds. Full of poetic and scholarly dialogue, the show ascends above the average TV drama because the writing is as smart as the characters. Giamatti’s performance is ferocious, and his character often speaks in grandiose allegories. His dialogue is iconic, overwrought in the way only the best, highest-shelf prestige TV dialogue is overwrought: “A good matador doesn’t try to kill a fresh bull. You wait until he’s been stuck a few times,” Rhoades explains in the pilot. “Calculation is not something to be scoffed at. It’s a tool. A tactic. And I use it proudly and often,” he says in season three.

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Emmys 2018: 10 Biggest Snubs – July 12, 2018

From Billions to an ‘Atlanta’ MVP – The Most WTF Snubs in this Year’s Emmys Nominations

by Brian Tallerico | Rolling Stone | July 12, 2018

The annual Emmy square dance is here – per usual, it’s a routine of three steps forward, two steps back.

This year even allowed more room than usual for the unexpected as several major players from last year – Veep, Master of None, Better Call Saul, House of Cards – took this awards season off.

And to be sure, the Television Academy has undeniably improved in their taste as a voting body over the years. Still, they still had us scratching our heads a few times. Where the hell is Will and Grace? And Bojack Horseman? And Brendan Fraser in Trust? And … and…

So with all 122 (!!) categories announced, let’s pick out the most notable snubs of the year. From Billions to Alison Brie, these were the M.I.A. nominees that shoulda been contenders.

Billions
Showtime had a rough morning. Sure, Shameless star William H. Macy got in again, but regular nominees like Homeland‘s Claire Danes and Ray Donovan‘s Liev Schreiber will have to save their sound bites. (See also: our Twin Peaks entry) But the real crime was completely ignoring the chance to finally invite Billions to the party. With shows like Better Call Saulmissing from the ballot, why not turn to a show that’s only gotten better each year, turning in its best season to date earlier in 2018? Even just a single nod or two for great performers like Damian Lewis and Asia Kate Dillon could have opened a few doors for more nominations in the future. Get this one right, next year, Emmys. It’s starting to get embarrassing.

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