Fun (or Frightening?) Fact: this year’s Emmy ballot includes nearly 3000 performers. We’ve all known for several years now just how overwhelming television has become, but somehow it still had room to launch into another level. So for my personal wish list, I decided not to think too hard. I’ll just include however many or however few selections per category I’d like to. I’ve probably forgotten some worthy contenders, but I won’t stress about that too much. We’ll find out what the TV Academy has to say when the nominations are announced on July 12!
My favorite Comedy of the season was Kyle Mooney’s singular Netflix show, Saturday Morning All Star Hits, but I can’t find it anywhere on the ballot! Not in Comedy, nor in Animation. Oh, well.
Anyway, there are a few other newbies that I’d really love to see all over the ballot, like Abbott Elementary, Girls5eva, Only Murders in the Building, and The Sex Lives of College Girls.
And one important note: Kevin Can F*** Himself is in the Drama field on the ballot, correctly. But I’ve got Eric Petersen (as the titular stereotypical thoughtless sitcom husband) down for Comedy, as the scenes with him function best as parody.
KEY: Bold=My winner *=I have placed this nominee in a different category than the Emmy ballot.
**=Not on the Emmy ballot
Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
The Afterparty
Barry
Dickinson
Girls5eva
Only Murders in the Building
Resident Alien Saturday Morning All Star Hits**
Search Party
The Sex Lives of College Girls
What We Do in the Shadows
Young Sheldon
TV
–Westworld Season 4 Premiere (June 26 on HBO)
–Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Premiere (June 28 on Hulu) – It seems like just yesterday we had our first murder…
Music
-Soccer Mommy, Sometimes, Forever
-Tim Heidecker, High School
Sports
-Wimbledon (June 27-July 10 on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC)
I probably watched somewhere between 1000 and 2000 episodes of TV in the past year. I don’t keep track of this information too specifically, so it’s hard to say for sure, but going by an estimate of at least 3 episodes per day, it must be somewhere within that range (if not higher). Anyway, these are the episodes out of that bunch that made enough of an impression on me to make me go, “Yeah, they nailed it.”
CREDIT (Clockwise from Top Left): Screenshot, Netflix, Screenshot, Screenshot
For the Year of Our Screens 2021, my list includes all the shows that I would recommend to my fellow viewers as “worth watching.” So that’s 77 shows! There’s a lot of TV nowadays, and a lot of it’s also pretty good.
I utilized a self-imposed rule in which I had to watch at least 50% of a show’s 2021 output for it to be eligible. However, there were some noteworthy shows that I watched less than 50% of, so I’ve spotlighted those in an honorable mention section:
CREDIT: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/Screenshot
Jeff and Aunt Beth are joined by Dom and Andre (of Dom and Andre in the Morning fame) to discuss Steve, Marty, Selena, and all those murders on the podcast.
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Candyman (Theaters)
–He’s All That (August 27 on Netflix) – I’ve actually never seen She’s All That! (Do I have to have my 90s Kid Citizenship revoked?)
TV
–PEN15 Animated Special (August 27 on Hulu)
–Only Murders in the Building (August 31 on Hulu) – Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez together at last!
–Dug Days (September 1 on Disney+) – Shorts with Dug the Dog.
–A.P. Bio Season 4 (September 2 on Peacock) – With Bruce Campbell as Jack’s dad!
–What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Premiere (September 2 on FX)
Music
-Chvrches, Screen Violence
Sports
-Little League World Series Championship (August 29 on ABC)
-2021 US Open (August 30-September 12 on ESPN and ESPN2) – Tennis in New York, baby!
Jmunney's Blog 