2013 Emmy preview: The battle between Claire Danes, Michelle Dockery, Kerry Washington
The Best Actress in a Drama Series Emmy race to us is a hard one to do, mostly because the omission of Tatiana Maslany is unfathomable. In doing this, it almost feels like the voters are prepared to hand Claire Danes another trophy. Did these people not watch “Orphan Black”? As angry as the snub makes us, we do want to go ahead and give the other ladies their due in this article, and at least figure out if any of them have a chance to pull off an upset.
If you’re new to our Emmy rankings (which you can see more of here), know this: Personal preference is playing a part here, mostly because it is inevitable that it would. We are also taking into consideration other predictions and voting history, given that some habits for these people are easy to pick up on.
7. Robin Wright, “House of Cards” – She should just be happy to be at the party this year. Was it a good performance? Yes, but Kevin Spacey is the only actor from the Netflix series with a serious chance, and even his odds are only lukewarm.
6. Connie Britton, “Nashville” – Connie’s an Emmy favorite dating back to “Friday Night Lights,” and understandably so. Her problem is that “Nashville” had a ton of problems in the second half of season 1, and is probably the worst overall show of the six nominated here. This always means that the nominee is going to have a tougher time.
5. Michelle Dockery, “Downton Abbey” – She has going for her that Lady Mary went through some pretty awful things during season 3, but the downside is that nobody has really seen the reaction to Matthew’s death yet. Giving an Emmy to her now feels like a preemptive strike when she could be a better candidate next year.
4. Vera Marmiga, “Bates Motel” – A&E has to be thrilled with getting an Emmy nomination for a drama series, but we doubt that they will be able to celebrate a win. Farmiga did a great job this year as Norma Bates (we still don’t understand why Freddie Highmore was entered as Supporting), but we just think that the suspense / horror genre is a pretty impossible one to win given past voting patterns.
3. Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men” – Elisabeth Moss is a great actress, and has been since the very beginning. The fact that no “Mad Men” actor has ever won an acting Emmy in a major category is mind-boggling, and she may actually have a better shot this year than Jon Hamm. Pencil her in as a possible upset pick thanks to Peggy’s story with Ted this year.
2. Kerry Washington, “Scandal” – A very interesting underdog candidate this year. “Scandal” is ABC’s new golden child: A highly-rated, well-acted political show that has a breakout star in the leading role. Emmys do like to occasionally act like network TV still exists, and while “Scandal” has a small group of haters, a win for Kerry would be deserved and respected by most.
1. Claire Danes, “Homeland” – It’s much harder to repeat this win, but Carrie still has the best shot of any nominee this year. She’s got a super-meaty role in Carrie that lets her play an incredible range, and she may get extra kudos for tackling many of these intense, difficult scenes while also being extremely pregnant at the time. (That deserves an award in itself.) She could lose this year, but we see it more likely that someone like Maslany next year (or maybe Diane Kruger for “The Bridge”) unseats her.
Who would you vote for? Be sure to share in the poll below! As we said earlier, click here if you want to see the rest of our Emmy predictions pieces!
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