Our Emmy ballot series continues with Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. I've provided my five personal choices for each. To limit myself, I only voted on one show per category -- in other words, even if I think two episodes of The Knick are among the five best-directed of the year, I'll only single one out to spread the wealth a bit. On to the ballot...
DIRECTING
Carl Franklin for “Part 12,” Bloodline: Every director on Bloodline more than manages to bring the Netflix series’ evocative Keys setting to life. But in “Part 12” comes the epic shoreline showdown between brothers Danny and John Rayburn, a substantial task for any director. Fortunately, Carl Franklin’s envisioning of the climactic event is sublime, from his effortlessly theatrical staging to the precise calibration of tension that simmers throughout this fatal brawl. Plus, his imagery is perfectly in the spirit of Bloodline's beachy noir.
Vince Gilligan for “Uno,” Better Call Saul: Fresh off of the breathtakingly visual Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan had a strong sense of style going into Better Call Saul. But while arresting in composition and fascinating in its frequent use of the long-shot, the spinoff's pilot “Uno” is rendered totally unique by the unusual tonal template that's established. In this hour, Gilligan works out an entirely new directorial style for the medium from scratch: in Better Call Saul, it’s Milquetoast TV.
Sanaa Hamri for “Weird As You,” Rectify: As effective as a mood piece as it is a compelling narrative, Rectify’s success hinges greatly on its direction. So while any episode of the Southern Gothic’s stellar second season would be worthy, the range Sanaa Hamri demonstrates in “Weird As You” is exceptional. Not only does she mine the levels of beauty standard for the show, but she stages an uncomfortably disorienting and spellbindingly emotional confrontation between Daniel Holden and childhood buddy (and fellow murder suspect) Trey Willis. It’s powerful stuff.
Thomas Schlamme for “You Always Hurt the One You Love,” Manhattan: What were we to think of Manhattan, a show with a solid pedigree and an intriguing concept that landed in the programming no man’s land of WGN? Its pilot was certainly well-written and -acted, but from its stunning, dust-cloud opening shot, Thomas Schlamme’s direction was what held our attention. The West Wing vet also did fantastic work on The Americans this year, but his strengths as a pioneer in TV directing were no more evident than in Manhattan.
The winner:
Steven Soderbergh for “Get the Rope,” The Knick: Regardless of the episode, Soderbergh would be my choice here. As I wrote about Jill Soloway, my preference in the equivalent comedy category, judging TV directing on an episodic basis has become increasingly unreliable. Steven Soderbergh’s achievement over the entirety of The Knick’s first season is simply unprecedented. Fortunately, the episode “Get the Rope” is the best-directed of this year’s crop, anyway.
“Get the Rope” is The Knick’s break-format episode, which virtually every new drama now experiments with at some point. Various story arcs collide as the show, for an unbearably intense hour, narrows its focus on the exploding race riots happening in New York City circa 1900. Soderbergh’s visualization of physical abuse and collective action is beyond powerful; it near-literally takes your breath away. As I wrote in my review of The Knick, Soderbergh’s direction here is alive, bristling with kinetic energy and unwavering perceptiveness. It’s brilliant, harrowing and beautiful work.
WRITING
Damon Lindelof & Jacqueline Hoyt for “Two Boats and a Helicopter,” The Leftovers: The Leftovers’ first season features a few episodes that are among the very best-written of the TV season. “Two Boats and a Helicopter” may be better than anything else it did in season 1, and at the very least was the first to indicate the remarkable heights that The Leftovers could reach. In focusing on a priest’s increasingly desperate attempts to restore faith in a hopeless community, Damon Lindelof and Jacqueline Hoyt simultaneously fashioned a fascinating morality play and a devastating character study.
Amy Lippman for “Fight,” Masters of Sex: Like Mad Men’s “The Suitcase” or Breaking Bad’s “Fly,” “Fight” placed its two protagonists in a room for 60 minutes, confronting massive issues of identity, sexuality and love. Amy Lippman’s peerless script was as dense as it was cathartic, bringing to an explosive head the ongoing elusion that had characterized Bill and Virginia’s relationship over the 15 previous episodes. The hour works as a scintillating study in masculinity and femininity, but its power derives from the series’ meticulous character work, rooted in Lippman’s perfectly-measured dialogue.
Stephen Schiff for “Salang Pass,” The Americans: Each episode of The Americans this year felt so thematically full and emotionally grueling that to pick on any specific installment seems a little beside-the-point. No matter, if I had to whittle my choice to one, I’d go with the unconventional in “Salang Pass.” It exemplifies everything so bold and so true about the show. From Philip’s forced seduction of young Kimmie to Elizabeth’s masked conversations with Northup employee Lisa, “Salang Pass” delicately exposes its characters showing different sides of themselves before hiding them from others. And it ends with an emotional whopper: Elizabeth asking Philip if he “fakes it” with her before a solemn nod. It’s a moment of deep, deep truth -- as in, what The Americans does better than anybody.
Chris Provenzano & Ingrid Escajeda for “The Trash and the Snake,” Justified: Ordinarily, I’d go with Justified’s finale, which I felt was a perfect encapsulation of the show’s immense strengths. But “The Trash and the Snake” ranks among my favorite episodes of Justified, mainly because of its deft balance of generous humor and sharp character work. Everything in the episode is as entertaining as it is illuminating, from Ava’s discomfiting day-out with crime boss Katherine Hale to the always-brilliant banter between Boyd Crowder and Wynn Duffy. Justified had a tendency to be unassumingly great, and there’s no better example than this installment.
The winner:
Matthew Weiner for “Person to Person,” Mad Men: It was a controversial finale. It had to be. Mad Men was by nature indefinite and abstract, ambiguous and uncertain.
How people react to “Person to Person” depends, in large part, on how they responded to the series as a whole. Equal streaks of optimism and cynicism ran through the landmark period drama’s entirety, and Matthew Weiner justly gave us an ending that kept that opportunity for dual readings intact. I wrote a healthy amount on “Person to Person” when it aired, so I’ll merely link to that piece without explaining myself much further. But I will say that this felt like the perfect finale for Mad Men, as it was sweetly affectionate and twinged with a bit of fan service before ultimately coming down to a revelatory, brilliant final bout of ambiguity.
Read all past entries HERE.