BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2022: Outstanding Technical Design of a Limited/Anthology Series

The first award is Outstanding Technical Design of a Limited/Anthology Series! This award considers all technical elements of a show including sets, costumes, and cinematography. 

Check out past results from 2020 and 2021!

This year's nominees are...

GASLIT (Starz)

MAID (Netflix)

PAM & TOMMY (Hulu)

THE SHRINK NEXT DOOR (Apple TV+)

STATION ELEVEN (HBO Max)

THE WHITE LOTUS (HBO)

WHY WOMEN KILL (Paramount+)

And the Winner Is...

THE WHITE LOTUS
HBO

You're going to hear a lot of praise for The White Lotus from me over the next month but one of the things I loved most about it was how much it felt like I, as a viewer, was on vacation with the characters. Not that I could ever afford a vacation like that, but the show did such a great job at setting the ambiance of being in paradise while coupling that with a general uneasiness of all the unpleasantness we were going to get from the characters. From the beautiful setting to the impressive scoring of the series (and the theme song!) to the very clear distinction in costuming and amenities of the "haves" vs. the "have-nots" at the hotel. The setting was a character in and of itself and the show did an expert job of immersing viewers into the world it created.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:

It should be no surprise that there are a lot of period pieces on this list because a) period pieces tend to do well with technical design and b) lots of limited series are period pieces. Gaslit was a visually impressive show re-creating the world of power in 1970s Washington DC. Pam & Tommy was experimental in some ways (especially with a very infamous special effect) but it really did a great job of setting the show firmly in the 90s and the dawn of the internet. The second season of Why Women Kill was a candy coated and visually fun series that played up its twisty plot with a fantastical setting. The Shrink Next Door did a nice job of aging up Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd throughout the series. Station Eleven has earned a lot of acclaim but it wasn't my type of show yet I was very impressed by some of the visual elements of the dystopian series. Finally, Maid did not have any flashy elements like all the other nominated series but it was still very technically impressive in the way it immersed us in a much less obvious way.

Tomorrow: Outstanding Technical Design of a Drama Series!