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BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2023: Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series

Today's award is Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series!

Past Awards in This Category: 2022   2021   2020

This year's nominees are...

JAMIE BABBIT, Only Murders in the Building "I Know Who Did It" (Hulu)













BILL HADER, Barry (HBO)













RIAN JOHNSON, Poker Face "Dead Man's Hand" (Peacock)













MATT LIPSEY, Ted Lasso "Sunflowers" (Apple TV+)











NATASHA LYONNE, Poker Face "The Orpheus Syndrome" (Peacock)











ALICE MATHIAS, Schmigadoon! "Welcome to Schmicago" (Apple TV+)













DANIEL PALLADINO, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel "The Testi-Roastial" (Prime Video)











AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel "Four Minutes" (Prime Video)











And the Winner Is...

AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel "Four Minutes" (Prime Video)
This was a tough choice but Amy Sherman-Palladino takes it for her brilliant direction of the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The episode included an elaborate taxi scene on the streets of New York that was very impressive technically. But the reason this episode gets the award was the brilliant "four minutes" the episode title takes its name from. As Midge finally gets her stand-up chance on "The Gordon Ford Show," there is such interesting direction going on. The shot of the microphone in the foreground and Midge in the background right before she takes the mic is perhaps my favorite visual moment of the entire 2022-23 TV season. Amy Sherman-Palladino certainly knew how to stick the landing with this show and the episode that she directed and wrote.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:
This was a tough category. The biggest competition came from Rian Johnson, fresh off a huge success with the Knives Out sequel, who had a major hand in setting the tone and vibe for the throwback feel of Poker Face. Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne directed an episode later in the season that had lots of great visuals and moments. Bill Hader is a really interesting director and he directed the entire final season of Barry. He makes really interesting choices but I occasionally felt it was a little over-directed even with the fascinating flourishes. Matt Lipsey directed the most visually interesting episode of Ted Lasso's third season while Jamie Babbit did a great job keeping up suspense in the season finale of Only Murders in the Building. The second season premiere of Schmigadoon! featured great production numbers that were directed well by Alice Mathias. Finally, Amy Sherman-Palladino's husband Daniel Palladino directed the second best episode of the final season of Maisel with a break in form that worked really well.

Tomorrow: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited/Anthology Series!
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