Emmy Wishlists: Drama Categories

Previously, I posted my wishlists for the Comedy categories for tomorrow's Emmy nominations. Time to somehow do this with Drama for which there seems to be a lot more shows and performances to pick from at least in my case.

Drama. Drama. Drama. And yet I tend to like shows and performances that are a bit more genre-flexible. Shall we take a look down the rabbit hole? Like the comedy categories, I'm picking 10 per category because I DAMN WELL CAN:

BEST DRAMA
The Americans
Better Call Saul
Game of Thrones
The Leftovers
Marvel's Jessica Jones
Mr. Robot
Orange is the New Black
Sense8
Underground
UnREAL

This list alone has a fantasy epic from HBO, a biting look of reality TV from Lifetime, a trio of brilliantly awesome genre shows from Netflix, a radical breakout from USA Network and a brave slavery tale from WGN. And I was forced to leave out the very solid final seasons of Downton Abbey, Hannibal and The Good Wife as well as the enjoyable freshman seasons of Limitless, Into the Badlands, and Supergirl. It's so good to have so many choices, isn't it?

BEST LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA
Aldis Hodge, Underground
Damian Lewis, Billions
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
Jake McDorman, Limitless
Mads Mikkelsen, Hannibal
Cillian Murphy, Peaky Blinders
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Justin Theroux, The Leftovers
Daniel Wu, Into the Badlands

BEST LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA
Shiri Appleby, UnREAL
Laura Carmichael, Downton Abbey
Carrie Coon, The Leftovers
Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Krysten Ritter, Jessica Jones
Keri Russell, The Americans
Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Underground
Robin Wright, House of Cards

My drama picks for Lead Acting seem to be slightly more Emmy-friendly than my comedy picks. I can definitely see Malek, Odenkirk, Davis, and Margulies all make it in. But there's also a lot of names here that I wish they would take seriously like the powerhouse duos of Rhys/Russell, Theroux-Coon, Hodge/Smollett-Bell.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul
James D'Arcy, Agent Carter
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Joshua Jackson, The Affair
Alano Miller, Underground
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Good Wife
Conrad Ricamora, How to Get Away with Murder
Miguel Angel Silvestre, Sense8
Jussie Smollett, Empire
David Tennant, Jessica Jones
Martin Wallstrom, Mr. Robot

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
Jamie Clayton, Sense8
Ann Dowd, The Leftovers
Calista Flockhart, Supergirl
Lena Headey, Game of Thrones
Taryn Manning, Orange is the New Black
Lana Parilla, Once Upon a Time
Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul
Maggie Siff, Billions
Liv Tyler, The Leftovers
Alison Wright, The Americans
Constance Zimmer, UnREAL

I've allowed myself 11 picks for both of these categories, because my "short" list came out to 69 for both categories. Narrowing it down to just 10 was pretty impossible actually. I pretty much wanted to cite the entire cast of Sense8 and Orange is the New Black. Ask me to come up with 30 more names per category and I can easily give them to you. Chance to see most of these names called out tomorrow? A few perhaps, but mostly the forecast is weak.

BEST GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Sebastian Arcelus, House of Cards
Richard Armitage, Hannibal
Dominic Cooper, Agent Carter
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife
Tom Hardy, Peaky Blinders
Christopher McDonald, The Good Wife
Ron Rifkin, Limitless
Paul Sparks, House of Cards
BD Wong, Mr. Robot
Zach Woods, The Good Wife

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Ellen Burstyn, House of Cards
Natasha Lyonne, Orange is the New Black
Annet Mahendru, The Americans
Cynthia Nixon, The Affair
Carrie Preston, The Good Wife
Bridget Regan, Agent Carter
Sarah Steele, The Good Wife
Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away with Murder
Mare Winningham, The Affair

I'm a little disappointed that more people from Sense8 didn't submit themselves for consideration in this category especially Freema Agyeman, Alfonso Herrera and Eréndira Ibarra, but maybe they couldn't since they were in a lot of episodes? Anyways, this list didn't feel as random to put together compared to the comedy one. Almost all are in shows I really like and in roles that are recurring rather than one-off. I'd be shock if the TV Academy picks any of these, but maybe they'll surprise me. One can always hope, right?

So surprise me tomorrow, TV Academy. Though it's more likely they'll stick to the status quo or surprise me in ways I will probably hate. And the beat goes on.