Friday, September 4, 2020

Emmy Predictions 2020 - Who Will and Should Win for Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie?

The nominations have been announced for The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. So now, it's time to speculate on who will and should win in each major category. Next up for analysis is Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.






The Nominees Ranked By Which Should Win:
  1. Regina King for HBO's Watchmen
  2. Cate Blanchett for FX on Hulu's Mrs. America
  3. Shira Haas for Netflix's Unorthodox
  4. Kerry Washington for Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere
  5. Octavia Spencer for Netflix's Self Made

Regina King's character went on a profound journey of self-discovery throughout Watchmen. She started as a woman who believed herself to be powerful. She wielded it in the world and expertly compartmentalized the various facets of her life. Those started to implode as she was forced to confront the ugly history of her family lineage as well as the crimes committed against her. Her trust was misplaced and people sought to strip away her power and agency. She rose up as someone who learned how to be even better and more powerful. Sacrifices were made. She was never a perfect police officer in a world that was conditioned to normalize abuse of authority. However, she fought against people whose corrupt actions risked destroying the entire world. Her filling up space made a life-altering difference. Similarly, Cate Blanchett played a real-life historical figure whose influence over the women's movement of the 1970s made a drastic impact. Her anti-feminist agenda gained significant traction and support. She had to balance the movement's rising prominence with everything she accepted at home. It was a character the show never wanted to sympathize with. That made it challenging for Blanchett to play. However, it made it captivating as well. It allowed the audience to get into the head of a woman who was originally perceived as a roadblock to progress. She was a complicated figure whose actions made an impact. Blanchett sold every single nuance of that.

The Nominees Ranked by Which Will Win:
  1. Regina King for HBO's Watchmen
  2. Cate Blanchett for FX on Hulu's Mrs. America
  3. Shira Haas for Netflix's Unorthodox
  4. Octavia Spencer for Netflix's Self Made
  5. Kerry Washington for Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere

This truly is a race between Regina King and Cate Blanchett. I keep going back and forth on who has the potential lead. At this particular moment, the odds probably favor King. She has won three Emmy Awards in recent years in the limited series categories - two for American Crime and one for Seven Seconds. An Oscar winner starring in a limited series doesn't offer the same guarantee of awards success it used to either. Cate Blanchett falls in line with that familiar narrative. However, King has won an Academy Award too. So has Octavia Spencer. This category is packed with incredible talent. It may truly be judged by the quality of the work. The big hurdle for Shira Haas was actually getting nominated. The fact that the love for Unorthodox was spread around in the nominations may actually make her a formidable upset in this race. That was the nomination people were rooting for. The voters acknowledging even more from the show could signal strong support. If the total number of nominations proves anything though, it's that King is the overwhelming favorite simply because of how many nods Watchmen received. Kerry Washington was personally nominated for several awards this year too. However, she is more likely to win an Emmy for producing Live in Front of a Studio Audience than for acting in Little Fires Everywhere. She was still compelling in the role. It is just being overshadowed by what King and Blanchett did this year. The same applies to Spencer, though her project was much more of a creative mess overall.


What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments below!