BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2026: Outstanding Writing of a Drama Series

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 Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey, seemed to be on a collision course only for them to meet sooner than expected and then only cross paths for a short time in the series. Then the big action sequence that would usually come at the middle to end of the final episode came at the beginning of the penultimate episode. These choices kept proving that Task wasn't about what I thought it was about and that was really exciting as a viewer.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:
There were a couple shows represented twice here. "This Land?" from The Lowdown was one of the best episodes of 2025 while "Dinosaur Memories" was the episode that got me on board with the tone of the show after I wasn't sold at first. The Bear's Sydney-focused episode "Worms" was one of the best in an uneven fourth season while the season finale had a very strongly written scene between the three main characters. The finale of Pluribus really tied the season together and had an iconic final line. Finally, it's always hard to single out episodes of The Pitt but the 1:00 hour was where the second season really started to kick into a new gear for me.

Tomorrow: Outstanding Writing of a Comedy Series!

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