Let's talk about the 2022 Emmy nominations
When it comes to true crime recognition, "Dopesick" rules and "The Tinder Swindler" perplexes
the true crime that's worth your time
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 2022 Emmy Awards Tuesday. These are awards that skew toward fictional content, but true crime still made a solid showing, as did the actors who played a number of boldfaced true-crime names.
A lot of the nominations were to be expected — is Toni Collette allowed to do anything without some sort of award — and others were a little bit head-scratchy. There were some pleasant surprises, like a nod for When Claude Got Shot, a remarkable installment in the Independent Lens series that has long deserved more attention than it got when released last year. There were some unpleasant surprises, too, like how most of the best true-crime documentaries and series were confoundingly overlooked, save one.
I’ve put all the true crime nominees below (I left out Pam and Tommy, because it’s barrrrely crime, and Only Murders in the Building, as it is not true), and you can see the full list at Variety. — EB
So, some initial takes:
The Staircase sure got snubbed. Best actor and actress noms, but the show didn’t make the best limited series cut? — EB
The best roles for women are real people. Of the six nominations in the “Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie” category, two were real-life perps (Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes), two were arguable victims (Kathleen Peterson, Pamela Anderson), and one was a rat/whistleblower depending on your POV (Linda Tripp). Only one nominee played a fictional character (Margaret Qualley, for whoever she plays in Maid). Compare that to the limited series men, where only two of them played a real people (Tommy Lee and Michael Peterson); Michael Keaton in Dopesick and Andrew Garfield in Under the Banner of Heaven played folks made up for the story. — EB
Dopesick is poised to take it all. You don’t get that many nominations and go home empty-handed. Is the series deserving? Sure, it’s good…but, also, if you have a voting ballot and you don’t tick off some of the boxes for this show, you probably feel like an asshole. There’s a performative element to its nominations, in my opinion. — EB
Emmy voters are cool with fat suits. It’s hard not to read Sarah Paulson’s nomination (ACS: Impeachment’s only acting nod) AND nominations for prosthetic and non-prosthetic makeup as a stick in the eye for everyone who was irritated at her casting over an actor
The Tinder Swindler? Really? Are you seriously telling me that the only true-crime property from the last year that is worthy of nomination in the category of “Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special” is The Tinder Swindler? This one leaves me dumbfounded. Your theories on how that went down are deeply desired. — EB
Here’s the full list of 2022 Emmy Awards true crime nominees, divided by show and in alphabetical order. We eagerly await your thoughts.
Candy
Main title design
Dopesick
Best limited series
Casting limited series
Cinematography limited series
Directing limited series “The People vs. Purdue Pharma”
Writing limited series “The People vs. Purdue Pharma”
Editing “Black Box Warning,” “First Bottle”
Sound mixing limited series “Pseudo-Addiction”
Lead actor limited series: Michael Keaton
Supporting actor limited series: Will Poulter
Supporting actor limited series: Peter Sarsgaard
Supporting actor limited series: Michael Stuhlbarg
Supporting actress limited series: Kaitlyn Dever
Supporting actress limited series: Mare Winningham
The Dropout
Best Limited Series
Casting limited series
Directing limited series “Green Juice,” “Iron Sisters”
Writing limited series “I’m In A Hurry”
Lead actress limited series: Amanda Seyfried
Gaslit
Cinematography limited series
Prosthetic makeup
Sound editing limited series “Year Of The Rat”
Sound mixing limited series “Final Days”
Impeachment: American Crime Story
Writing limited series “Man Handled”
Contemporary hairstyling
Contemporary makeup (non-prosthetic)
Prosthetic makeup
Lead actress limited series: Sarah Paulson
Inventing Anna
Best limited series
Casting limited series
Lead actress limited series: Julia Garner
The Staircase
Lead actor limited series: Colin Firth
Lead actress limited series: Toni Collette
The Tinder Swindler
Best documentary special
Editing, nonfiction
Writing, nonfiction
Sound editing, nonfiction
Music composition, documentary
Under the Banner of Heaven
Lead actor limited series: Andrew Garfield
We Need To Talk About Cosby
Best documentary series
Editing, nonfiction
Narrator
When Claude Got Shot
Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking [this is apparently different than best doc — EB]
Thursday on Best Evidence: Sirico, !
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