Where to watch this year's Emmy-nominated series

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: AMC+

It took several years, but Emmy-nominee Rhea Seehorn has a nice ring to it, right? The actor was a standout for all six seasons of AMC’s recently wrapped Better Call Saul, bringing to life various shades of Kim Wexler with unflinching nuance (and an immaculate ponytail, of course). Her character goes from an ambitious rookie lawyer in Albuquerque to a strategic public defender to eventually living a dull life and working at a sprinkler company in Florida. [Read Saloni Gajjar’s interview with Rhea Seehorn]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

“The whole show is nuanced, and nothing is just one way. [Even after season one], she still doesn’t know how to navigate sobriety. That adds a whole other layer of complex issues,” Zendaya told The A.V. Club. “We wanted to start the show by giving Rue everything she says she wants. We give her her ideal dream situation and see how it works. She tries to balance two lives. We’ll see how well that goes for her.” [Read Saloni Gajjar’s interview with Zendaya and Hunter Schafer]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: Netflix

For a drama boasting multiple jump-scare executions and the unhinged depths of antagonists like Darlene Snell (rest in peace, queen), serious suspense plays an almost eerie second fiddle to the Byrde family’s season-four swan song. Sure, there’s bloodshed; there’s always bloodshed. But these seven episodes are more about saying goodbye than good riddance–a staggering tonal shift for a show so dark it once threatened to drown a baby ... [Read Alison Foreman’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: Apple TV+

A few minutes into the premiere of Severance, we see Mark Scout (Adam Scott) alone in his car, weeping uncontrollably. He eventually pulls himself together and goes inside the building where he works. He exchanges pleasantries with the security guard on duty and takes the elevator to his basement office. He closes his eyes, and a change immediately takes place as he reaches his floor. He’s now a new man … literally. Mark works at Lumon Industries, in the macrodata refinement division, which is as meaningless as it sounds. A few years ago, he agreed to have his work and non-work memories permanently “severed”... [Read Stephen Robinson’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: Netflix

Nobody in the world of Squid Game, the new Korean Netflix TV thriller from creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk, has ever seen Battle Royale, apparently. If they had—or read Stephen King’s The Long Walk, or any of a dozen other dystopian works where seemingly innocuous activities like school field trips are rendered horrifying by raising their stakes to absurdly lethal levels—they probably wouldn’t be half so surprised when snipers start gunning down the losers of the game of “Red Light, Green Light” they’ve all agreed to play, for a “handsome” cash prize, in the show’s first episode. Certainly viewers won’t be, even if they managed to skip the initial trailer that explicitly laid this familiar premise out ... [Read William Hughes’ review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: Netflix

Stranger Things kicks off its fourth season by going back to the beginning—in more ways than initially anticipated. “What have you done?” Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) ominously asks a young Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in a bloody-good cold open as multiple dead bodies lay around them. The scene takes place in Hawkins Lab before El escaped in the series premiere. What did she do then, accidentally or not, that might’ve set off the events of Stranger Things? The answers trickle in over seven entertaining, terrifying, and overlong episodes about who the heck controls the Upside Down, and how El is connected to it all. [Read Saloni Gajjar’s review]

Winner for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

Once again, it looked like Logan Roy (Brian Cox) was about to finally get his just deserts—only to reveal that he was, as usual, staying one step ahead of everyone else. But this time, it wasn’t just Kendall (Jeremy Strong) getting thrown under the bus, or some competing corporate interest being outplayed. No, the sacrifices this time were all of his children. Shiv (Sarah Snook), Kendall, and Roman (Kieran Culkin) thought they were harpooning the great white whale; instead, the whale smashed their ship to pieces, leaving them helpless to resist. Apparently, when Logan’s getting ready to have more kids, suddenly the existing ones don’t seem quite so necessary. Season three of Succession ended in a crescendo of duplicitous dealings and explosive family drama… But the implications of what took place are going to massively shake up the world of the Roys. [Read Alex McLevy’s reaction]

Nominated for: Outstanding Drama Series

Where to stream it: Showtime/Paramount+

Melanie Lynskey is having an exceptional year, and it’s well deserved. Over the last few months, the actor has starred in the Oscar-nominated film Don’t Look Up and Showtime’s breakout series Yellowjackets, which earned her a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama. Of course, these are just two jewels in a career that spans more than three decades … [Read Saloni Gajjar’s interview with Melanie Lynskey]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

Abbott Elementary is quickly becoming head of the class of this year’s sitcom slate. ABC’s new comedy quadrupled its premiere ratings since its debut. Created by and starring Quinta Brunson, the show is somewhat of an anomaly in how quickly it achieved its well-deserved success. Abbott Elementary follows eager public school teacher Janine Teagues (Brunson) and her colleagues at Philadelphia’s underfunded Abbott Elementary, as a documentary crew films their day-to-day lives. The show is rightly being hailed as one of the few to help revive primetime comedies … [Read Saloni Gajjar’s interview with Quinta Brunson]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

Not long after “berkman > block” aired on May 19, 2019, co-creator and star Bill Hader took home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series while the show earned four other nominations. Then, Hader and co-creator Alec Berg started in on season three with big plans (and just as much pressure) to answer the question on every fan’s mind: What is Barry going to do now that Henry Winkler’s Gene Couisneau knows who killed Janice? Cut to Hader in 2022, chatting about Barry with The A.V. Club over Zoom ... [Read Alison Foreman’s interview with Bill Hader]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

Please continue to Curb Your Enthusiasm, as HBO’s long-running comedy has been renewed for a monumental 12th season. The series recently picked up yet more Emmy nominations—including for Outstanding Comedy Series—so it’s no surprise that the cable network would want to invest in even more Larry David. [Read Mary Kate Carr’s coverage]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

It’s hard to top the first season of Hacks, HBO Max’s acerbically funny series about two women (one Gen-Z, one boomer) navigating the male-dominated world of standup comedy. With a singular blend of caustic humor, incisive social commentary, and heartbreaking pathos—not to mention a lead, Jean Smart, in the role of her career—it rightfully nabbed three Emmys last year.

But much like Smart’s Deborah Vance, Hacks is upping its game with its second go-round, in which creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky take their show on the road as Deborah and her beleaguered joke writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) embark on a cross-country trip for Deborah to workshop her new act… [Read Jenna Scherer’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: Amazon Prime Video

At first glance, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a show about Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan) ascent to stardom, but so far, the series has actually focused on the threat that Midge might end up giving up on her dreams and revert to what she has always found most comfortable. Though she clearly loves being the center of attention on the stage (and has built quite a fanbase at The Gaslight), Midge’s new life apart from ex-husband Joel (Michael Zegen) has been difficult. Not only does she have to deal with social stigma and the economic realities of her new life as a single woman, but she also has to contend with the fact that she is still captivated by the accoutrements of her previous life, from beloved trips to the Catskills with her parents, to the beautiful apartment that she and Joel once shared. The desire to reclaim the parts of her old life that she loves and fit them into a new, more ambitious identity is at the heart of season four, as Midge begins to slowly embrace being herself, rather than trying to please other people ... [Read Arielle Bernstein’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

No one expected Hulu’s witty whodunit Only Murders In The Building to deliver a gut-punching, riveting silent episode. Yet, that’s exactly what “The Boy From 6B” is. The first season’s standout installment shifts the spotlight from amateur sleuths and rookie true-crime podcast hosts Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Charles Haden-Savage (Martin) to one of their top suspects, Theo Dimas (James Caverly)... That episode’s director, Cherien Dabis, whose past TV credits include Ramy, Ozark, and The Sinner, received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series for it. And if she nabs the award, the Palestinian American will be the first woman of color to win the category. [Read Saloni Gajjar’s interview with director Cherien Dabis]

Winner for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: Apple TV+

Watching Ted Lasso for the first time is meant to be disarming. The Apple TV+ series puts a character in front of us that we instinctively read cynically, because everyone around him—the news media, team ownership, his players, the fans—treat him as a joke. The fact the character originated as a commercial only increases the likelihood we’ll think of Ted as a walking punchline, a football manager Michael Scott for us to cringe at. Our relationship with the show is shaped by at what point we, as a viewer, embrace Ted’s endless positivity; its storytelling, meanwhile, is shaped not by AFC Richmond’s wins and losses, but by how each of the show’s characters accept the “Tao of Ted.” [Read Myles McNutt’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Comedy Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

Mark Proksch has had a wild year on FX’s What We Do In The Shadows, building off a bizarre set of reveals from the end of the show’s last season: Deeply dull energy vampire Colin Robinson’s sudden and gory death, followed by the discovery of a baby version of the character (with Proksch’s head now green-screened on top of an actual infant’s body). The unsettling visuals continued throughout the vampire comedy’s fourth season, with a series of child actors playing Colin’s body, and Proksch continuing to provide the character’s face and voice. [Read William Hughes’ interview with Mark Proksch]

Nominated for: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

Over the course of 20 years, from 1999 to 2019, approximately 500,000 people in the U.S. died from an opioid overdose. Journalist Beth Macy tracked the beginnings of the epidemic in her 2018 bestseller, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors And The Drug Company That Addicted America. Macy’s book outlines the major players and facilitators; though it’s clear there’s plenty of blame to go around, the Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma pushed past competitors with aggressive marketing and backroom deals. Government agencies like the Food And Drug Administration offered little resistance (and, in some cases, proved a little too helpful). It’s a story so dismaying and infuriating, it’s been dubbed the Crime Of The Century by Alex Gibney. On the heels of that HBO documentary comes Dopesick, a limited series based on Macy’s book that’s intent on continuing her work of shedding light on an ongoing national crisis... [Read Danette Chavez’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

Amanda Seyfried anchors The Dropout as Theranos founder [Elizabeth] Holmes, whose medical testing company doubled as a dangerous fraud… [She] plays Holmes as a hyper-driven sociopath, giving Theranos’ intense business arc the breakneck pacing needed to match her rapid psychological unraveling... [Read Alison Foreman’s feature on Big Tech docudramas]

Nominated for: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

Where to stream it: Netflix

At one point in Netflix’s Inventing Anna, journalist Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) fervently argues with her magazine editor over the importance of her story exposing con artist Anna Delvey, a.k.a. Anna Sorokin (Julia Garner). “It’s about why scam culture is here to stay,” Vivian says about the article she’s spent months reporting and researching. The line inadvertently acts as a reference to the current TV landscape as well ... [Read Saloni Gajjar’s review]

Nominated for: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

Where to stream it: Hulu

Early on, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s relationship was the definition of a whirlwind love story. In 1995, the volatile Mötley Crüe drummer met and married the Baywatch star after one weekend in Cancún. From the moment they landed back in Los Angeles, they were hounded by the paparazzi—or, as Lee would later describe it in the Mötley Crüe autobiography, The Dirt, a “lynch mob.” A year later, they had a son, the first major celebrity sex tape, and a lot of lawyers. But this is not the story Hulu’s new limited series Pam & Tommy chooses to tell.

Based on the 2014 Rolling Stone article by Amanda Chicago Lewis, Pam & Tommy is primarily concerned with carpenter Rand Gauthier, the disgruntled contractor who stole the tape. Played by Seth Rogen, who also produced the series, Rand is depicted as a down-on-his-luck schmuck who stumbled into stealing the sex tape and decided to sell it online to get back at Lee, who fired him without payment. This all goes down in the first episode of the series exactly according to the Rolling Stone article, and the rest of the eight episodes explore the fallout, balancing Rand’s story with that of Pam (Lily James) and Tommy (Sebastian Stan) ... [Read Olivia Truffaut-Wong’s review]

Winner for: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

Where to stream it: HBO Max

Hawaii has long carried with it a certain kind of baggage for the tourists, vacationers, and interlopers who project so much onto the island. Other TV shows and movies like Hawaii Five-0, The Descendants, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have all probed at the disconnect between the (often wealthy) people treating Hawaii as a transitory vacation destination, an island defined by its resorts and its hotels, and the (often working-class) people who actually work at said resorts and hotels—the temporary vs. the permanent. The White Lotus jumps immediately into the deep end of that conversation with premiere episode “Arrivals,” which gives us a glimpse into the bitingly acerbic tone Mike White (of Enlightened) is going to cultivate over the miniseries’ six episodes. [Read Roxana Hadadi’s review]

Series tend to be top dog at the Emmys—they are TV’s premier awards, after all—but don’t count out the Outstanding Television Movie category. If it’s a one-off film you’d rather watch before the big show, check out the nominees: Ray Donovan: The Movie on Showtime’s streaming service; Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon on Paramount+; The Survivor on HBO Max; Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas on The Roku Channel; and, unveiled at the recent Creative Arts ceremonies, category winner Chip ’N Dale: Rescue Rangers on Disney+.