BENJAMONSTER AWARDS: Outstanding Drama Series

This is the final award, Outstanding Drama Series!

The nominees are:

THE CROWN (Netflix)

EUPHORIA (HBO)

THE MORNING SHOW (Apple TV+)

OZARK (Netflix)

POSE (FX)

SUCCESSION (HBO)

THIS IS US (NBC)

And the Winner Is...
THE MORNING SHOW
Apple TV+
This was a tough choice for me and one I spent a lot of time thinking about because I don't think any of these shows were perfect but they were all so good. I ultimately went with the one that kept me most engrossed through the whole season and that was The Morning Show, which also built momentum as the season went along. I know it had its share of critics when it premiered (accompanied by an insane amount of hype) but I had the luxury of watching it months later. Maybe it was lower expectations based on what I had heard, but it far exceeded my expectations. The show could so easily have been all about catfights between Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon's characters or a complete redux of the Matt Lauer scandal on Today. And while the show did have elements of both of those things, it never quite went where I thought it was going to go. With top notch production quality and really, really strong acting performances, I would say that Apple TV+'s first major scripted foray was a rousing success and I'm really looking forward to season two.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:
Each of the other nominees had some really compelling reasons that made them threats. This is Us did some of its best work of the whole series in the middle of the season especially with the three parter centered on the triplets, but I thought the beginning and end of the season were not as strong (to be fair, they have to do more episodes than the other nominees). Ozark made big improvements on season two and kept the action moving much more. The Crown navigated a really tricky transition as its much acclaimed cast from the first two seasons were all replaced by actors to play older versions of the same characters. To pull that off is impressive. Succession took a big step forward in its second season with really great characterization. I thought Pose was maybe not quite as strong as its first season but it built momentum as the season went along and had some real standout moments. Finally, the only other newbie was Euphoria, which was unlike anything else and had some really compelling stories and visuals.

Check back tomorrow for a final recap!