It’s time to take the Academy’s history books to task, friends.
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In less than two short weeks (which will no doubt feel like three months in 2020 time), I’m sure I’ll have plenty to gripe about once this year’s list of Emmy winners is officially unleashed from the sealed envelopes.
Though the Academy largely got it right with a surprisingly on-point roster of nominees this time around, the odds are about as solid as Kanye taking the White House (lawd help us!) that I’ll look up from my TV after Jimmy Kimmel’s final (hopefully funny) joke and think, “YASSS! NAILED IT, GUYSSSS!,” because that has happened approximately never times.
It’s annual, it’s inevitable, and really, it’s all in good fun: After all, it’s only showbiz, kids. We’ve all got (at least) 99 problems these days, and which privileged celebrities do or do not get a shiny new hunk o’ gold ain’t one of them.
But when pop culture commentating is your hobby and it gives you a boost of joy in otherwise busted-ass times, you not only lean-in—you also have a few extra minutes in semi-lockdown to take a look back. Fueled by a bit of proactive annoyance about what’s to come, it took me the span of a live commercial break to come up with five oft-nominated women who carried the weight of their shows on their formidable shoulders, only to get left empty-handed… even while some of their male counterparts were anointed their own moment of podium glory. (Sound familiar, ladies?)
Clearly, I’m fired up and ready to throw down, so let’s do this: Here are the five lead drama actresses who just missed the win multiple times who I think were robbed by voters.
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Look, Friday Night Lights is one of my all-time favorite shows, and there’s no denying that Kyle Chandler deserved the win for his final season as Coach. But do y’all really think the show would have been what it was without the strength, humor and quiet gravitas of Connie Britton’s performance as Tami Taylor? She wasn’t the woman behind the man; she was the equal powerhouse standing beside him, a sparring partner that boosted every single scene she was in. Britton’s work was so interestingly layered and complex that I would have totally been down for a show just about her. And yet, the Academy couldn’t get past the ten-yard line when it came to handing her a win. They’ve clearly tried to right the wrong with two well-deserved nominations since, and that’s cute. But it doesn’t make me want to change the show’s famous slogan to ‘Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can Lose’ any less. Nope, still not over this one.
Kerry Washington, Scandal
Yet another undeniable talent who the Academy is trying to play catch-up with, Washington is a quadruple queen this year, nominated a whole four times across three programs. So, first let me say: GET IT, GURL! However, this comes after she went 0-for-2 in her historic nominations (only the second Black actress ever nominated in the drama lead category) for her groundbreaking work as the entire MF engine on which Scandal ran. There was not and is not a woman on TV who could nail the now-legendary, perfectly overly dramatic Shonda Rhimes monologue like Washington did, or swing between slaying sh*t like a boss in the Situation Room to lovelorn passion for an extra needy and emotionally greedy president within the span of an hour—and all with a side of red wine and popcorn to boot, because, why not? I fully expect Washington will finally get her due this year, but it doesn’t make her previous losses any less of a—erm—scandal.
Keri Russell, The Americans
Another star who experienced the chill of her on-screen male equal being lauded (albeit, again, deservingly) for the show’s final season while she was left out in the Cold War-style, well, cold, Russell was straight-up robbed for her masterfully understated work on The Americans. I mean, you can put aside all the multiple personas she cycled through as a spy in each episode, and just take her moments in fierce female and mother mode to justify a win. The scene in the mirror where she puts on the necklace that encases her cyanide suicide pill? Her kitchen confrontations with her in-the-know daughter? Her silent, ‘GFY’ reaction to finding out her husband betrayed her trust? The instant she realizes she’ll never see her kids again as her train pulls away from the platform? Don’t even get me started. I could go on (and on), but I won’t, because you know as well as I do that there’s no excuse for her not to have her named engraved on a gold trophy next to her scene and life partner, Matthew Rhys’s, statuette.
Jennifer Garner, Alias
Before she became the glue that held together the mess that was (is?) Ben Affleck’s life on his way to Oscar glory, Garner gave as good as (or better than) she got as the ass-kicking, beating emotional heart of Alias. Like Russell, her weekly wig swapping was so much more than just a standard double agent, spy-in-disguise act; it was about the rollercoaster of an emotional journey that Garner took us on between giving seemingly bad guys a boot to the face. She was the fulcrum on which the show’s entire arc turned, giving Garner complicated action-meets-dysfunctional family dynamics to play as her character’s mother, father and sister crept in on the action. The role shot her to movie stardom, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that she has one less accolade to list on IMDB.
Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Wrote
The real unsolved mystery here isn’t why the sleepy hamlet of Cabot Cove was a hotbed for homicide. On that one, I digress. So let’s focus on the true cold case: How in the name of Mame could the Academy deny this legendary Dame?! Lansbury has the inexplicable distinction of being Emmy’s most-nominated star without a win, having been passed over by Academy voters 17(!) times. 12 of those nods were for her reliably excellent lead performance as former English teacher-turned-mystery writer-turned-actual sleuth Jessica Fletcher, having been recognized for every season of Murder, She Wrote. For a long time, she and daytime soap superstar Susan Lucci were considered sisters in the elusive Emmy loser’s circle, with both sharing the status of a record-setting streak of noms with no wins. Lucci beat that rap by finally hearing her name called in 1999, leaving Lansbury to bear the brunt alone. At nearly 95 years old, here’s hoping voters find another opportunity to check her name on the ballot, because a win is the only thing that will solve this crime and bring the icon the EGOT status she deserved a long time ago.