Benjamonster's TV

I hope you enjoyed my month of awards! Check back here regularly starting September 6 for the return of my daily posts.  Mondays: Schedules of the Past Tuesdays: Top 10 Tuesdays Wednesdays: One Season Wonders Thursdays: Episode Guides Friday: The Friday Five - Top 5 TV news stories of the week! Here's a recap of all the awards, check below this post for each individual award post! Outstanding Drama Series:  The Crown (Netflix) Outstanding Comedy Series: Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series: The Queen's Gambit (Netflix) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Emma Corrin, The Crown (Netflix) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Billy Porter, Pose (FX) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant (HBO Max) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series: Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown (HBO) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited/An...

We've reached the final award - Outstanding Drama Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: BRIDGERTON (Netflix) THE CROWN (Netflix) FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV+) THE HANDMAID'S TALE (Hulu) P-VALLEY (Starz) POSE (FX) THIS IS US (NBC) And the Winner Is... THE CROWN Netflix I was a fan of the first season of The Crown but I found it slow at times. I ended up not watching the second season but picked back up with it during the pandemic. I thought the third season was good (it was nominated for six awards last year from me) but not great (no wins). The fourth season is when it put it all together and a lot of that is thanks to British history. The 1980s is when the British had the saga of Charles and Diana and the rule of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. Those events gave The Crown plenty of material and the series made the most of it with pitch perfect casting and compelling stories. Whereas other seasons of The Crown dragged sometimes,...

Here we are with Outstanding Comedy Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: DICKINSON (Apple TV+) THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO Max) GIRLS5EVA (Peacock) HACKS (HBO Max) PEN15 (Hulu) SHRILL (Hulu) SUPERSTORE (NBC) TED LASSO (Apple TV+) And the Winner Is... TED LASSO Apple TV+ Ted Lasso arrived on the scene in the Summer of 2020 but it was really in the fall that it started to become part of the zeitgeist. At the time, we were in the throws of a tumultuous election and bracing for another pandemic surge. It's no surprise that this was the perfect antidote for a rough time. With a relentlessly cheery outlook, Ted Lasso was the perfect antidote for 2020. As everything seemed to crumble around us, the show was both a reminder of what we had and also hope of what we could get back to. It was the most sunny show on TV since Parks and Recreation because even though some characters were cynical, the show itself didn't have a cynical bone in its b...

We've reached the big awards. Today's award is Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 This year's nominees are... THE GOOD LORD BIRD (Showtime) THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (Netflix) MARE OF EASTTOWN (HBO) THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT (Netflix) THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (Amazon) WANDAVISION (Disney+) And the Winner Is... THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT Netflix The Limited/Anthology Series category is a really strong one in 2021, probably stronger than comedy or drama overall. There was tough competition but the winner is the Netflix phenom The Queen's Gambit . When I first heard about Gambit  and its premise, I would never have imagined it would become the sensation that it did. I assumed I would like it because it was a period drama but what made it transcendent was the performances and the way the stakes felt so high without being melodramatic. It was a unique and different story that was so well written and well directed. It also had a very s...

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: OLIVIA COLMAN as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown (Netflix) EMMA CORRIN as Princess Diana in The Crown (Netflix) BRANDEE EVANS as Mercedes in P-Valley (Starz) ELARICA JOHNSON as Autumn Night in P-Valley (Starz) ELISABETH MOSS as June Osborne in The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu) MJ RODRIGUEZ as Blanca Rodriguez in Pose (FX) JORDAN KRISTINE SEAMON as Caitlin Poythress in We Are Who We Are (HBO) And the Winner Is... EMMA CORRIN The Crown (Netflix) We all knew The Crown would be buzzy for season four because it got to the Charles and Diana years. But the show knocked it out of the park with the casting of Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. She had her mannerisms and demeanor down perfectly while taking Diana on a journey through the 1980s. Corrin understood all the understated appeal of Diana and the genuine kindness mixed with a deep sense of insecurity. When...

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: KALEY CUOCO as Cassie Bowden in The Flight Attendant (HBO Max) HANNAH EINBINDER as Ava in Hacks (HBO Max) RENEE ELISE GOLDSBERRY as Wickie Roy in Girls5Eva (Peacock) ANNA KONKLE as Anna Kone in PEN15 (Hulu) JANE LEVY as Zoey in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (NBC) NASIM PEDRAD as Chad in Chad (TBS) JEAN SMART as Deborah Vance in Hacks (HBO Max) HAILEE STEINFELD as Emily Dickinson in Dickinson (Apple TV+) And the Winner Is... KALEY CUOCO The Flight Attendant (HBO Max) This was a real tough choice but I went with Kaley Cuoco because of how much the success of The Flight Attendant hinged on her performance. The Flight Attendant is an ambitious show that got a lot of things right but was a little bit up and down with execution at time. It tonally jumped between being a comedy and drama, sometimes very quickly. The reason it worked as well as it d...

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited/Anthology Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are... MICHAELA COEL as Arabella on I May Destroy You (HBO) ANNA KENDRICK as Darby on Love Life (HBO Max) KATE MARA as Claire Wilson on A Teacher (FX on Hulu) ELIZABETH OLSEN as Wanda Maximoff on WandaVision (Disney+) ANYA TAYLOR-JOY as Beth Harmon on The Queen's Gambit (Netflix) KATE WINSLET as Mare Sheehan on Mare of Easttown (HBO) And the Winner Is... KATE WINSLET Mare of Easttown (HBO) The Lead Actress category is stacked and this was a very tough decision but the honors go to Kate Winslet for elevating the murder mystery genre that has been so common on TV in the last few years. Winslet's portrayal as a grieving Detective made the show so much more of a character drama than it would have been with a less capable actress leading the way. Sometimes her character was determined, sometimes she was apathetic. Sometimes she was angry,...

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: NICCO ANNAN as Uncle Clifford in P-Valley (Starz) STERLING K. BROWN as Randall Pearson in This is Us (NBC) JUSTIN HARTLEY as Kevin Pearson in This is Us (NBC) JOSH O'CONNOR as Prince Charles in The Crown (Netflix) REGE-JEAN PAGE as Simon Basset in Bridgerton (Netflix) BILLY PORTER as Pray Tell in Pose (FX) MATTHEW RHYS as Perry Mason in Perry Mason (HBO) And the Winner Is... BILLY PORTER Pose (FX) Billy Porter had the most prominent role in the third and final season of Pose as his character went on quite the journey (SPOILER ALERT) that ended with his death. Whereas Porter was a larger than life figure in the first two seasons, he was much more humanized in the third season. He was strong as Pray Tell was battling alcoholism and as he was dying from AIDS. But the crowning achievement was in the fourth episode where he returned to his small hom...

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series! Check out the nominees and winner from  2020 ! This year's nominees are: ANTHONY ANDERSON as Andre Johnson in Black-ish (ABC) IAIN ARMITAGE as Sheldon Cooper in Young Sheldon (CBS) TED DANSON as Neil Bremer in Mr. Mayor (NBC) MICHAEL DOUGLAS as Sandy Kominsky in The Kominsky Method (Netflix) ED HELMS as Nathan Rutherford in Rutherford Falls (Peacock) LAMORNE MORRIS as Keef Knight in Woke (Hulu) JASON SUDEIKIS as Ted Lasso in Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) JOSH THOMAS as Nicholas in Everything's Gonna Be Okay (Freeform) And the Winner Is... JASON SUDEIKIS Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) All hail Ted Lasso, TV's most refreshingly optimistic character since Leslie Knope. Jason Sudeikis played the title character of the feel good comedy expertly. With a less solid performance, he could have been an irritating version of the white guy who fails upward and creates some resentment. But there was absolutely none of that in this character...