I don't get why The Leftovers got snubbed, just like the Wire it was a brilliant show with amazing writing and phenomenal acting yet largely got no recognition from the awards.
When I first started watching the show during it's first season I was like "meh, this is a bit dumb" but by the end of season 1 I was hooked.
Then season 2 came and completely and utterly blew me away, one of the most amazing seasons of a show I ever watched with what I consider some of the best acting ever for a tv show, not only from the leads but even some side-characters (like Regina King).
I wager anyone here who hasn't seen the show to watch season 2 and tell me the acting isn't simply phenomenal or the writing.
International Assassin is easily one of my top all time episodes for any tv show.
Season 3 deserved to finally get the show some awards, but nope, they had to pull a wire on it and largely ignore it aside from giving a nom to a secondary character who, though a great actress, was not anywhere near as good as the two leads who deserved it more.
I'm only cringing at 20% of these nominations, so that's something! There's some really nice nominations in there. If Millie Brown doesn't win for Stranger Things... The nominations in the Best Actress category are fantastic, too. Congrats to Black Mirror, nice surprise! I'm completely urrrgggghhh @ seeing John Lithgow nominated for The Crown, the scenes he had with Stephen Dillane and Harriet Walter in particular really highlighted what a caricature of a performance it was, in an otherwise really fantastic cast. I just wanted to reach into the television, cover Churchill's mouth, and whisper, sssshhhhhh, no more. I know it had to take the HBO and Netflix money trains to do it, but like with Game of Thrones for fantasy all those years ago, it's great to see some good sci-fic shows getting their due, via Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Westworld.
I'm continually bewildered what a terrible job Starz did promoting Black Sails over the years, this beautiful, complicated, morally gray character driven show with a production scale like nothing on television (even over GoT) that's just gone completely by the way side. It's funny, because time and time again I see people asking online, why aren't there more shows with complex woc and queer leads, nuanced writing, or more good action-adventure series? Yo, here's a show for you, it's called Black Sails! It's also frustrating that they thought 'Executive Producer Michael Bay' was a good advertising point for a show that has a prominent queer cast and amazingly written women, with its bread and butter is tossing out literary/philosophical/biblical parallels and quotes like its nothing.
I'm okay with Black Sails not being nominated for best drama, but Toby Stephens never getting any kind of award for his Captain Flint just seems fundamentally wrong. It's one of those dream combinations, when you get a superb actor who's mostly done theatre (with a lot of Shakespeare) and then giving him these magnetic monologues, alongside such a rich and compelling character to play. Flint is genuinely fucking terrifying and extraordinarily vulnerable in equal measure. Flint's had tons of amazing moments across the seasons, but with S4 alone, man. His face in perpetual spasm after Silver
brings up Thomas in 4x04
, Flint's 'yoke' monologue and the tale of Henry Avery and Skeleton Island in 4x08, Skeleton Island in 4x09, everything with Flint
reacting to Silver
in 4x10, Flint's 'darkness' speech, Flint
hysterically breaking down upon reuniting with Thomas...
Along with Stephens' superb performance, Captain Flint as a character not getting his due is really unfortunate. Everything his character represents, and his character arc, there has never been another male lead like it in film or television like him. For something so exceptional to exist, and for it all to be nothing more than a tiny blip on the radar - man, that sucks. The character development for John Silver was stupidly good, too, and though he's not monumental in the same way Flint is, the role Silver plays within Black Sails is something I've never quite seen before, all spoilery. I don't think I've ever really seen a character on television go through such a strong and complicated character arc. Where he starts on Black Sails to where he ends... man.
Obligatory Black Sails recommendation, 'cause it needs the love. Black Sails finished its final season a few months ago, and thankfully, the show was ended on the creators' terms when they felt they'd arrived at their end point. The characters of Black Sails exist in this beautiful and rare complicated world where everyone is morally gray, but the show takes an incredible amount of time to give you an understanding of these characters and their histories and motivations. The complexity to the female leads and supporting cast are refreshing, and I've truly seen few shows allow their female characters to just exist, in all their angry, flawed, clever forms. Queer leads drive the entire narrative of the series, gay/bi/poly relationships are explored and respected, and the series turns what we thought we knew of the legacy of Captain Flint, Long John Silver, and the events leading up to Treasure Island on its head. Again, Toby Stephens' Captain Flint is easily one of the most important - alongside superbly written and acted - male leads in media. There are also so many incredible, nuanced and fantastically written women, very much including women of color. When it comes to dialogue, Black Sails has such an unprecedented density and vibrancy, and the narrative is teeming with literary/character parallels and foreshadowing. (So much of the ending of the show and the character's fates are foreshadowed in the first season, the amount of rewatching bonus with Black Sails is extremely impressive.)
The amount of respect that the creators had for its viewership in that regard was a pleasant surprise (unlike other shows that have to point out HEY LOOK AT THIS CLEVER THING WE DID LOOK AT IT DID YOU GET IT HUH DID YOU LOOK AT OUR CLEVER FORESHADOWING LOOK AT ITTT), let alone for blockbuster action adventure drama with such a budget and scale. Like. How. The series has an important legacy, too, with a complete deconstruction of how women, men and women of color, and queer people are treated and remembered by history. Considering the respectful treatment and depth of all of the queer leads on Black Sails, other period dramas don't have an excuse for not telling these stories, let alone modern day dramas. Like, holy. fucking. shit. For all the above to be played out on such a scale, with such fantastic cinematography, fight scenes, and Bear McCreary's score ...
I got into Black Sails due to fantastic word of mouth, so it looks like I'll be doing the same with The Leftovers! I keep seeing it pop up, again and again. (Then I can have two shows where I'm depressed about the lack of nominations!) The similarities between the two shows are hilarious - badly advertised by the network, weaker Season 1 with god-tier Seasons 2/3, underappreciated superb actors...