Benjamonster's TV

Today's award is Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... LUCIA ANIELLO, Hacks "Hacks" (HBO Max) REBECCA ASHER, Shrinking "The Field" (Apple TV) ANDREW DEYOUNG, Widow's Bay "Your Baggage" (Apple TV) SAM DONOVAN, Widow's Bay "Beach Reads" (Apple TV) JOHN HOFFMAN, Only Murders in the Building "After You" (Hulu) JONATHAN KRISEL, English Teacher "Covid in America" (FX) DEARBHLA WALSH, Margo's Got Money Troubles "The Hungry Ghost" (Apple TV) And the Winner Is... ANDREW DEYOUNG Widow's Bay "Your Baggage" (Apple TV) Widow's Bay was the surprise hit of the spring and it worked best for me when it wasn't dabbling in the overarching lore of the series but instead doing a sort of "monster of the week." "Your Baggage" was a take off of Halloween , a movie I ju...

Today's award is Outstanding Directing of a Drama Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... MACON BLAIR, The Lowdown "This Land?" (FX) BRADLEY BUECKER, 9-1-1 "Hearts and Flowers" (ABC) VINCE GILLIGAN, Pluribus "We Is Us" (Apple TV) STERLIN HARJO, The Lowdown "The Sensitive Kind" (FX) GORDON SMITH, Pluribus "Got Milk" (Apple TV) JOHN WELLS, The Pitt "9:00 P.M." (HBO Max) SALLI RICHARDSON WHITFIELD, Task "Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, There is a River" (HBO) And the Winner Is... VINCE GILLIGAN Pluribus "We Is Us" (Apple TV) The first episode of Pluribus was very different from the rest of the series so that might be a knock against it if it wasn't incredibly compelling. The episode took some hallmarks of the apocalyptic event tropes but made it much eerier and more compelling than something like a zombie or...

Today's award is Outstanding Directing of a Limited/Anthology Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... ALEXANDRA BRODSKI, Half Man "Episode 2" (HBO) ANTHONY HEMINGWAY, Love Story "Search and Recovery" (FX) GILLIAN ROBESPIERRE, Love Story "The Wedding" (FX) MATT ROSS, Death By Lightning JAKE SZYMANSKI, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat (Prime Video) LEE SUNG JIN, Beef "Oh the Comfort, the Inexpressable Comfort" (Netflix) And the Winner Is... JAKE SZYMANSKI Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat (Prime Video) There might not be a show I've been more impressed with in recent memory than Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat . First of all, it's impressive enough that they made it all work again with an equally or more compelling "hero." But to do it in a less-controlled environment where a lot more could go wrong really was something to behold. I credi...

Today's award is Outstanding Writing of a Comedy Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... LUCIA ANIELLO & PAUL W. DOWNS & JEN STATSKY, Hacks "Hacks" (HBO Max) LANG FISHER, The Four Seasons "Maratona" (Netflix) BRETT GOLDSTEIN, Shrinking "Happiness Mission" (Apple TV) STEPHANIE KOENING, English Teacher "Grant's Dinner Party" (FX) CHAD MORTON, Abbott Elementary "Mall" (ABC) BEN SMITH & ELLA ROBINSON BROOKS, Only Murders in the Building "After You" (Hulu) SANAZ TOOSSI, Adults "Roast Chicken" (FX) And the Winner Is... BRETT GOLDSTEIN Shrinking "Happiness Mission" (Apple TV) I debated quite a bit on this award because the Shrinking episode "Happiness Mission" is far from the funniest script for a comedy category. But it did have my favorite scene in the entire TV season when Jessica Williams' Gaby to...

Today's award is Outstanding Writing of a Drama Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... AYO EDEBIRI & LIONEL BOYCE, The Bear "Worms" (FX/Hulu) BRAD INGELSBY, Task (HBO) KRISTEN PIERRE-GEYFMAN & R. SCOTT GEMMELL, The Pitt "1:00 P.M." (HBO Max) OLIVIA PURNELL, The Lowdown "This Land?" (FX) CHRISTOPHER STORER, The Bear "Goodbye" (FX/Hulu) ALISON TATLOCK & GORDON SMITH, Pluribus "La Chica o El Mundo" (Apple TV) SCOTT TEEMS, The Lowdown "Dinosaur Memories" (FX) And the Winner Is... BRAD INGELSBY Task (HBO) It doesn't quite seem fair to pit the writer of an entire season against individual episodes but it's the rule I've gone with so Brad Ingelsby gets the award for his writing throughout the first season of  Task . I really appreciated how Task broke some usual conventions of its type of show. The main characters, played by ...

Today's award is Outstanding Writing of a Limited/Anthology Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2025     2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... STEVEN CONRAD, DTF St. Louis (HBO) ISIS DAVIS & SMITA BHIDE, The Girlfriend "Episode 4" (Prime Video) RICHARD GADD, Half Man (HBO) MIKE MAKOWSKY, Death By Lightning (Netflix) KIM ROSENSTOCK, Love Story "Battery Park" (FX) LEE SUNG JIN AND ANNA OUYANG MOENCH & GREG HONG, Beef "The Increasing Flimsiness of Any Certainties About the Future" (Netflix) And the Winner Is... MIKE MAKOWSKY Death By Lightning (Netflix) One of my biggest gripes with Limited Series since I started doing these awards is how often they feel inflated. Even though I like longer seasons for on-going series like The Pitt , there have been way too many starry limited series that just don't have enough story to tell over eight or ten episodes but also can't detour in the way an ongoing ...