Off To The Races!

Matt Roush critiques the 2017 Emmy nominations

THIS IS MORE like it—an Emmy nominations list teeming with new shows and actors, reflecting a year of breakthroughs on multiple platforms, including (miracle of miracles) where it all began: on network broadcast TV, which often feels like an Emmy afterthought.

DRAMA

Let’s start where so much of the new action is, with five first-timers among the seven nominees for best drama. NBC’s crowd-pleasing tearjerker This Is Us (11 nominations) is the first network drama to make the cut since The Good Wife in 2011. (Its spinoff, The Good Fight on CBS All Access, was thoroughly snubbed.)

It was quite a year for Netflix, second only to HBO in total nominations (91 to 111). The streaming giant’s cult hit Stranger Things (with 18, including for breakout star Millie Bobby Brown) and the glorious The Crown (13) joined longtime industry fave House of Cards (6). Rival Hulu made a strong showing with its gripping adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale (13). And since two-time winner Game of Thrones is sitting this year out, HBO’s provocative Westworld became the most-nominated drama, with 22 (tying Saturday Night Live). AMC’s Better Call Saul, with nine, is also a contender.

In the acting categories, This Is Us pits father against son, with Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown nominated as lead actor, and supporting nods for Chrissy Metz and Ron Cephas Jones. The lead actress race is a showdown between The Crown’s luminous Claire Foy and Handmaid’s riveting Elisabeth Moss. A shoo-in for supporting is The Crown’s John Lithgow as a mighty Winston Churchill.

Biggest surprise: a guest-actress nomination for Stranger Things newbie Shannon Purser, as the ill-fated Barb.