Emmys 2016: Should ‘Mr. Robot,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ or ‘The Americans’ win Drama Series?
The Primetime Emmy Awards are going to be held in a ceremony broadcast on September 18, and leading up to the start of that show, we want to do our part to analyze what is set up to be a rather-interesting race this year. There is a certain degree of competition in every category, and we think specifically there is a really interesting old guard vs. new guard battle happening. Will voters support their longtime favorites, or go the unconventional route and vote for a show that is either new to the awards or not necessarily popular in the ratings?
There’s no better place to start than the Drama Series category, especially given that it will probably be the final category announced the night of the awards and the one TV critics are currently huddling up to discuss. Let’s take a closer look…
The nominees
The Americans (FX)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Downton Abbey (PBS)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
Homeland (Showtime)
House of Cards (Netflix)
Mr. Robot (USA)
Analyzing the field – Of this group, you can probably eliminate “Downton Abbey” right away — it had a tremendous run and we give it a ton of credit for popularizing British television, but this is a legacy nod if there ever was one. “Homeland,” while still very good, is relatively close to that territory. We also just don’t see “House of Cards” getting all that much in the way of buzz this year. The same goes for “Better Call Saul,” which remains very good but stuck in the shadow of “Breaking Bad.”
This leaves us ultimately with three clear contenders: “Game of Thrones,” “The Americans,” and “Mr. Robot.”
What should win – Of these three shows, we definitely understand making a case for each of them. If we were to give the award just to the last two episodes of a given season, then “Game of Thrones” has this in the bag given how outstanding “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter” were on just about every little. Yet, in looking at the season as a whole, we do think “Mr. Robot” did more to push the medium of television, challenging conventions and questioning everything we know about narration and a hacking world that has been consistently misrepresented on TV.
Let’s make it clear: We are talking about season 1 of “Mr. Robot” here, which to us is an important distinction since “Mr. Robot” season 2, while brilliant at times, has been flawed at others and took too long to unveil its biggest secret.
What will win – To us, “Game of Thrones” is getting a repeat and it’s hard to be upset about. While beloved by some, we don’t think “The Americans” has a big enough audience among Emmy voters. Our logic here is that if the Academy was to give the Drama Series prize to season 5, in our mind the weakest “Game of Thrones” season since the very beginning, they are sure to give it to the superior-on-all-levels season 6.
Who do you think should win? Vote below, and we’ll announce the reader picks the morning of the awards! Also, head over here to read our other Emmy coverage, or sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Emmys.)