(Los Angeles) Will it be the first non-English language production to be voted Best Drama Series? The bloody South Korean series Squid Game will face fierce competition Monday at the Emmy Awards where she has a chance to make history.
Posted yesterday at 10:52 p.m.
Dark and violent denunciation of the excesses of capitalism, in which miserable people kill each other during cruel children’s games with the hope of winning millions, the global success of Netflix could become the star of this competition, equivalent to the Oscars of the American television.
A success that would follow in the footsteps of the South Korean film Parasitewhich won the Oscar for best picture in 2020.
But to win in Los Angeles, the series will have to beat a serious competitor: Successionproduction already rewarded two years ago for its chronicle of a powerful family whose members plot and tear each other apart.
“It’s quite difficult to face this behemoth of HBO”, remarks the cinema columnist of Deadline Pete Hammond, recalling that the American series seems to be leading the dance with 25 nominations.
This specialist, however, bets on a best actor award for Lee Jung-jae, the main actor of Squid Game. Enough to make the South Korean the first winner of this prize for a performance in a language other than English.
The series Severance (Apple TV+), a disturbing metaphor on the world of work, and ozark (Netflix), which explores money laundering and the vices of the American middle class, is also aiming for the award for best drama series.
In this kind of series, Zendaya, already rewarded in 2020, has every chance of being voted best actress again for her role as a drug-addicted teenager in Euphoria.
aging comedian
Comedy side, Ted Lasso (Apple TV+), winner last year, seems well on its way to winning again. In the series, Jason Sudeikis plays an American football coach parachuted into an English football team.
Selected in the best actor category of a comedy, he faces Bill Hader, for his role as a hitman who dreams of being a Hollywood star in the series barrywhich resumes after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
Among women, Jean Smart is widely expected to be elected again as best actress, for her performance in hacksa comedy in which she plays the role of an aging comedian from Las Vegas, forced to reinvent herself on stage.
As every year, the miniseries category, which rewards productions limited to a single season, will bring new blood.
Four of the five contenders are inspired by real scandals. dopesick examines America’s deadly addiction to opioids, The Dropout discusses the fraud set up by the medical start-up Theranos, Pam and Tommy retraces the underside of the publication of the pornographic video of Pamela Anderson, and Inventing Anna follows the story of a young Russian who has long deceived the New York elite by posing as a wealthy German heiress.
But in this very close race, tragicomic satire The White Lotuswhich tackles the ambient hypocrisy of a Hawaiian luxury hotel, is given favorite by the experts.
“I think Michael Keaton is almost guaranteed to be voted best actor in a miniseries”, for his role in dopesick, predicts Mr. Hammond. The critic also foresees an award for Amanda Seyfried, who plays the fallen boss of Theranos in The Dropout.
“Smart Security”
The Emmy Awards generally enshrine peer recognition within the microcosm of American television: actors constitute the most important branch of voters.
Organized in a theater in Los Angeles, with a red carpet and a parade of stars, the ceremony marks a return to normal this year, after previous editions marked by the pandemic and the rules of social distancing.
She will be presented by American comedian Kenan Thompson, a well-known figure on the show. Saturday Night Live.
The comedian will officiate without security having been reinforced, a few months after the scandal caused by Will Smith, who reacted to a joke aimed at his wife by slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars in front of a dumbfounded public.
“We have smart security. We have people around who make quick decisions,” Emmys boss Frank Scherma told the webzine. Deadline, refusing to overbid. “I can’t imagine lightning striking twice.”