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    'Mare of Easttown' Takes Supporting Actor Awards for Limited Series

    “Mare of Easttown” was one of the buzziest limited series of the year, and it received 16 Emmy nominations, including for best limited or anthology series. Thus far Sunday night, the HBO crime drama has already claimed both supporting acting awards for a limited or anthology series or movie.Julianne Nicholson won best supporting actress for her heartbreaking role as Lori, the best friend of the main character, Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet, also nominated, for best actress). Nicholson delivered a heartfelt speech that referenced recent world events, including the Texas abortion ban and the U.S. military’s withdrawal from the 20-year war in Afghanistan.“I owe this to you,” Nicholson said, “and all the ladies out there in Philadelphia, in Kabul, in Texas or anywhere who are struggling sometimes, finding it hard to be happy sometimes, understanding that life can be a lot sometimes, but never stopping, never losing hope never giving up.”Evan Peters also won a supporting actor award, for his performance as Detective Colin Zabel. Both he and Nicholson were first-time nominees.“This is a dream come true for me tonight,” a visibly shocked Peters said.The series, which garnered praise for the way it nailed the look, feel, sound and salty attitude of the people of Delaware County, Pa., became appointment viewing last spring. Although the series was initially billed as a single-season affair, there has been talk of a Season 2 after the overwhelming response to the first.“I think if we could ever crack a story that was as emotional and surprising, then I think maybe there’s a conversation,” the creator, Brad Ingelsby, told Esquire last month. “I mean, listen, I love Mare. If we could ever give her a great season, I would certainly consider it. More

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    ‘Billions’ Recap, Season 5, Episode 10: You Can’t Make an Omelet …

    Eggs will be broken. The question amid all this conniving, though, is whose?Season 5, Episode 10: ‘Liberty’Chuck Rhoades is cooking eggs.That’s it. That’s the scene.For three uninterrupted minutes — without dialogue, without music, without so much as a single cut — the attorney general for the great state of New York cracks, scrambles, fries, flips and serves an omelet to his daughter, Eva (Alexa Swinton), and their guest, the billionaire Mike Prince. In “Billions” time, those three minutes might as well be an eternity. Suddenly, we’re miles away from the mile-a-minute patter and breakneck plot twists that make “Billions” one of the fastest-moving shows on television. For these three minutes, it is slow cinema, a cousin to the endless floor-sweeping and glacial soup-sipping of its sister Showtime series, “Twin Peaks: The Return.”That this happens in the most momentous episode so far of the season’s long-delayed latter half seems like no coincidence. As the first installment to truly address the Covid-19 pandemic — it appears to be set after the initial quarantine stage, when people started making their way back to workplaces and family gatherings — it is keenly interested in the ways human beings connect. There’s video conferencing and FaceTiming, as well as spirited dinner conversations, an in-office date and an intimate phone call. Viewed in this context, the omelet scene is an attempt to slow things down and capture the vibe of what it’s like to pull an all-nighter with a colleague, share a joint and then fix an early breakfast for your daughter.But before we run the risk of slowing down too much ourselves, let’s jump right into the momentousness. For starters, the pandemic happened — is happening — and the show addresses it head-on; in the opening scene, half of Axe Cap’s staff members delivers their dialogue through masks.But they aren’t Axe Cap’s staff for long. Zooming into the office from his home, where he has been quarantined because of an infected private jet pilot, Axe announces that Axe Cap is no more. Everyone has been let go … and some, but not all, of them will be rehired by night’s end for his new venture, Axe Bank. In the case of Lauren, Mase Carbon’s investor relations guru, she’ll have to choose between joining the bank or staying put. (When she tries to do both, Taylor fires Lauren, and Lauren dumps Taylor.)Chuck has a big night on the docket, too. With the help of video conferencing technology and some in-person guests, he is staging a Jeffersonian Dinner, a highly structured exchange of conversation and ideas. The assembled worthies include Prince; Chuck’s friend and lawyer Ira Schirmer; the Manhattan district attorney, Mary Ann Gramm (Roma Maffia); Governor Bob Sweeney of New York (Matt Servitto); Senator Marcia Vandeveer (Polly Draper); Chucks’ right-hand woman; Kate Sacker; U.S. Solicitor General, Adam DeGiulio (Rob Morrow); and, unexpectedly, his father, Charles Sr., with his sleazy medical adviser, Dr. Swerdlow (Rick Hoffman).Why does Charles Sr. show up? It’s complicated. Essentially, Chuck gives his estranged wife, Wendy, a choice: Cough up a lump-sum divorce settlement, or allow him to snoop around Mase Carb/Axe Cap’s books. When he ignores her FaceTime call, she contacts Ira instead. Ira gives her a view of the room and affords her a few snippets of the conversation everyone is having about bank regulation and liberty or something. She tips off Axe that his enemies have gathered. He sends his newly loyal ally, Charles Sr., and his mole, Swerdlow, to crash the party.Now here’s where it gets extra tricky. The conversation eventually turns to the legalization of cannabis. Prince is all for it; Chuck is against it, but eventually bows before superior arguments in its favor; DeGiulio thinks the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue but likely rule in its favor. And when people like this talk, people like Axe listen.Axe figures that the fight between Prince and Chuck was a ruse, that cannabis is soon to get the federal green light, and that the time has come to corner the market before Prince can do so himself. What he doesn’t know (I think?) is that Taylor, who had earlier told him there was a yellow light for the weed biz, is part of Chuck and Prince’s conspiracy.According to Taylor’s employee Rian, the light, in fact, is bright red. So has Axe fallen for a ruse, one he was meant to be ensnared by from the moment Chuck set his bait for Wendy’s call? Or has he seen through it? On this show, how can you even tell until the ax (no pun intended) inevitably falls on whoever screwed up?Even as all these schemes fly around, there’s room for romance in the air. Some of it even comes from Wags, who has been searching all season for a way to rectify his failure as a father by fathering a whole new child and starting from scratch. He seems to find his woman in Chelsea (Caroline Day), who eats a dinner prepared for them by the celebrity chef Tom Colicchio all by herself while Wags puts out various fires. To Wags’s surprise, she invites herself back to his place because his tyrannical antics turn her on.The biggest bombshell of all comes in the episode’s final scene. Speaking by phone around the same time that (a slightly stoned) Chuck cooks breakfast, Bobby Axelrod (who, by the way, buys Wendy’s share of Mase Carb to give her liquid assets enough to placate Chuck) confesses that he sabotaged Wendy Rhoades’s relationship with the artist Nico Tanner because he has feelings for her himself. They’re feelings she reciprocates.And that’s it. No passionate clinch, no consummation — just two people who know each other inside and out, smiling on opposite ends of a phone call. If Axe weren’t so detestable, it would be a beautiful moment. Maybe even one worth spending three uninterrupted minutes on.Loose change:Back in the fold this episode: Orrin Bach (Glenn Fleshler) Axe’s much-missed lawyer, and Bob Beaufort, a.k.a. Hard Bob (Chelcie Ross), the government official turned compliance officer for Axe Bank. Still missing from the ranks of regularly scheduled guests: Sarah Stiles as Bonnie, the tough-talking trader who has an illicit relationship with her colleague Dollar Bill, and Terry Kinney as Hall, Bobby’s black-ops specialist. Fingers crossed!Wags has mostly stuck to the sidelines so far this half-season, but what a pleasure to watch the actor David Costabile tear the head off an underling, or react with disbelief when his disastrous dinner date turns out to have been a success after all.With Lauren now out of the picture, I wonder if the professional and personal tension between Taylor and Rian — who once again nearly bounces from Mase Carb when she realizes that Taylor is misleading Bobby — will begin to blossom into something more.During an argument over the phone, Wendy roasts Chuck: “I care not a whit, as you might say.” Direct hit, she sank his battleship, et cetera. More

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    2021 Emmy Winners: Complete List

    The list of winners for the 73rd annual Emmy Awards.Streaming services dominated many people’s pandemic lives. Will they dominate at this year’s Emmys, too?The 73rd annual Emmy Awards are happening right now in Los Angeles. The ceremony is primarily in person this year — in contrast to last year’s largely virtual event — and it is being hosted by the comedian Cedric the Entertainer.Netflix’s British royal drama “The Crown” and the Disney+ “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” have the most nominations, with 24 each. HBO led all networks with 130 nominations. Apple TV+ has a good chance of winning its first major Emmy with “Ted Lasso,” which is the favorite in the comedy category.In the acting categories, Mj Rodriguez (FX’s “Pose”) could make history as the first transgender actor to win a Primetime Emmy in a lead acting category. And Michael K. Williams, who was found dead on Sept. 6, could win the best supporting actor in a drama award posthumously, for his work on the HBO series “Lovecraft Country.”Whatever happens, we will be following along live. See the list of winners, which will be updated throughout the night, below.Writing for a Drama SeriesPeter Morgan, “The Crown” (“War”)Supporting Actor, Limited Series or MovieEvan Peters, “Mare of Easttown”Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a MovieJulianne Nicholson, “Mare of Easttown”Supporting Actor, ComedyBrett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”Supporting Actress, ComedyHannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”Directing for a Variety SpecialBo Burnham, “Inside”Directing for a Variety SeriesDon Roy King, “Saturday Night Live”Guest Actress, ComedyMaya Rudolph, “Saturday Night Live”Guest Actor, ComedyDave Chappelle, “Saturday Night Live”Guest Actress, DramaClaire Foy, “The Crown”Guest Actor, DramaCourtney B. Vance, “Lovecraft Country”Television Movie“Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square” (Netflix) More

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    Michael K. Williams Could Win an Acting Award Posthumously

    Michael K. Williams, the beloved star of “The Wire” who was found dead on Sept. 6, is nominated for best supporting actor in a drama for the recently canceled HBO series “Lovecraft Country.” If he does win — and he is a slight favorite over Tobias Menzies from “The Crown” — it will not be because Emmys voters wanted to give him the award posthumously. The Emmy voting period ended before Williams’s death. More

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    Here's How to Livestream the Emmys Tonight

    There’s sure to be both drama and comedy at the 73rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be mostly an in-person edition of the show. Hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, the comedian and star of CBS’s “The Neighborhood,” the awards will be handed out Sunday night in Los Angeles before a limited audience, and will honor the pandemic-era television programs that got us through lockdown.What time do the festivities start?The ceremony begins at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. On television, CBS is the official broadcaster. If you have a cable login, you can watch online via cbs.com, or if you’re a CBS subscriber, via the CBS app.The show will also air live and on demand on the streaming service Paramount+, which is one of the cheapest options for streaming the Emmys. Paramount+ offers a one-week free trial or is available starting at $5 per month. Other livestreaming services that also offer access to the channel include Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV or FuboTV. All require subscriptions that start at $65 per month, though many are offering free trials.Is there a red carpet?This year’s attendees will still have the chance to sashay down a red carpet, albeit a limited one with only about a dozen media outlets. The cable channel E! will have preshow entertainment and then red carpet coverage beginning at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Livestreams from the red carpet will be available on the websites of People and Entertainment Weekly starting at 7 p.m.Who will be presenting?Among the approximately 50 stars scheduled to hand out statuettes are Annaleigh Ashford, Awkwafina, Stephen Colbert, Misty Copeland, Michael Douglas, Ava DuVernay, and Taraji P. Henson, Gayle King, Daniel Levy, Eugene Levy, LL Cool J, Annie Murphy, Catherine O’Hara, Dolly Parton, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Patrick Stewart and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Reggie Watts, the band leader on “The Late Late Show With James Corden,” will serve as D.J. for the evening, and the R&B artist Leon Bridges and Jon Batiste of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” will perform a special “In Memoriam” song written by Bridges. More

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    Emmy Awards 2021: Watch to Watch For

    “The Crown” and Netflix could have a big night and bring the streaming service its first top award for a series. Here’s what else to expect, and a look at the favorites and potential upsets.At long last, it should be the year that a streaming platform is triumphant at the Emmys.The tech companies upended the entertainment industry years ago but they’ve had mixed results breaking through with members of the Television Academy, who vote on the winners.That will likely come to an end on Sunday when the envelopes are unsealed at the 73rd Emmy Awards, which will be broadcast on CBS — and, fittingly, streamed live on Paramount+.“The Crown,” the lush Netflix drama chronicling the British royal family, is the heavy favorite to win one of night’s the biggest awards — best drama — on the strength of its fourth season, which took viewers into the 1980s as it portrayed the relationship of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.Seven of the show’s cast members landed acting nominations, including Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles) for best actor and Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth II) for best actress. Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher) and Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret) are among the nominees for best actress in a supporting role.“The Crown” already picked up four Emmys in the first batch of awards handed out during last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which recognizes achievements in technical categories.Netflix built a considerable lead over its television and streaming rivals at the Creative Arts Emmys, all but guaranteeing that it will win more awards than any other studio, streaming platform or TV network. A best drama win for “The Crown” would also be a significant first for Netflix. The streaming service has never won a top series award, despite a whopping 30 nominations in best drama, comedy and limited series from 2013 to 2020. Only one streaming service, Hulu, has won best drama, an award that went to “The Handmaid’s Tale” four years ago.It would be a fitting win in a ceremony that is recognizing the best shows aired or streamed amid the pandemic. During the stay-at-home months last year and early this year, people increasingly turned away from cable and embraced streaming video entertainment, accelerating a trend that was already underway.While “The Crown” is the favorite, keep an eye out for spoilers in the best drama race. “The Mandalorian,” the Star Wars action adventure show on Disney+, picked up seven technical awards last weekend, and Television Academy voters love themselves some popular, action-packed entertainment, as evinced by “Game of Thrones” winning the best drama category a record-tying four times.A show with an outside shot is “Bridgerton,” the popular Netflix bodice-ripper from the super producer Shonda Rhimes. FX’s “Pose,” nominated for its final, emotional season, has the best chance at an upset of any of the cable or network series nominated.‘Ted Lasso’ and Jason Sudeikis are favorites.It looks like Apple’s streaming service, not quite two years old, is on the verge of getting its first major Emmys win, thanks to an aphorism-spouting, fish-out-of-water soccer coach.The feel-good Apple TV+ comedy, “Ted Lasso,” is the favorite in the comedy category. Nominated for its rookie season, which had its premiere in August 2020, the show already won best cast in a comedy last weekend. The winner of that award has gone on to win best comedy six years in a row. “Ted Lasso” also cleaned up at the Television Critics Association Awards earlier this month, winning best new series, best comedy and best overall show.Jason Sudeikis and his feel-good Apple TV+ comedy, “Ted Lasso,” are expected to take home multiple awards. Apple TV Plus, via Associated PressJason Sudeikis, the former “Saturday Night Live” stalwart, is poised to win multiple Emmys, including for best writing and best actor in a comedy series. Those would represent his first Emmy wins.A long shot competitor for best comedy is the HBO Max series “Hacks,” starring Jean Smart, who is also likely to win her fourth acting Emmy for her role as a Joan Rivers-like stand-up comic.When it comes to comedy this year, the broadcast and cable networks are on the outside looking in: They earned only one nomination in the category, from ABC’s “black-ish,” its lowest combined total in the history of the Emmys.Cedric the Entertainer hosts a potentially boozy ceremony.The Emmys will be an in-person event for the first time in two years, but it won’t be up to the level, in crowd size or spectacle, of the Before Time. Instead of taking place at the 7,100-seat Microsoft Theater, the ceremony will take place in a tent in downtown Los Angeles, with a few hundred people attending.Most nominees will be seated at tables, with food and drink, à la the Golden Globes, a dash of glamour that the show’s producers hope will provide a jolt to sagging ratings, which last year hit a new low. Some casts and production staffs plan to gather remotely. Nominees from “The Crown” will be ready to celebrate at a party in London, similar to the one “Schitt’s Creek” had last year in Toronto.Cedric the Entertainer will preside over the event, which have nominees seated at tables, with food and drink, à la the Golden Globes.G L Askew II for The New York TimesCedric the Entertainer, the stand-up comedian and star of the CBS sitcom “The Neighborhood,” will host. He has suggested that he won’t go for the kind of lacerating political commentary that figured in the onstage comments made by the recent Emmys hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Michael Che and Colin Jost.“I want to bring a familiarity that comes with my brand of stand-up,” he told The New York Times. “I’m somebody you know. I’m your cousin or your uncle, and we’re here to celebrate each other.”The downsized ceremony matches the reduced circumstance of the TV industry over the last year. Because of production delays during the pandemic, the number of shows submitted for the best drama and comedy races was down 30 percent.Michael K. Williams could win.Michael K. Williams, the beloved star of “The Wire” who was found dead on Sept. 6, is nominated for best supporting actor in a drama for the recently canceled HBO series, “Lovecraft Country.” If he does win — and he’s a slight favorite over Tobias Menzies from “The Crown” — it will not be because Emmys voters wanted to give him the award posthumously. The Emmy voting period ended before Williams’s death.Michael K. Williams, who died earlier this month, could win an Emmy for “Lovecraft Country.”HBO, via Associated PressA win for Mj Rodriguez could be one of the night’s biggest moments. Rodriguez’s performance as Blanca Evangelista on FX’s “Pose” earned her a nomination in the best actress in a drama race, the first time a transgender person has been up for the award. To pull it off, Rodriguez would have to beat Corrin, the favorite for her role as a young Princess Diana in “The Crown.”‘The Queen’s Gambit’ vs. ‘Mare of Easttown’As usual, the Emmys tightest race will come down to best limited series.Months ago, Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” seemed like a sure bet, especially after it claimed limited series honors at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards.Anya Taylor-Joy is nominated for her role as a chess prodigy in “The Queen’s Gambit.”Phil Bray/Netflix, via Associated PressKate Winslet could win an Emmy for her role as a detective in “Mare of Easttown.”Michele K. Short/HBOBut there are signs the race has turned into a dead heat. At the Television Critics Association Awards on Sept. 15, HBO’s gritty whodunit “Mare of Easttown” took best limited series honors, and Michaela Coel, the creator and star of another HBO limited series, “I May Destroy You,” won for best performer in any television drama.The best actress in a mini-series will be a showdown, pitting Coel against Kate Winslet, who played the weary detective of “Mare of Easttown,” and Anya Taylor-Joy, who played the chess prodigy in “The Queen’s Gambit.” More

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    Review: A Choreographer’s of-the-Moment Brand of ‘Not Knowing’

    In Julie Mayo’s “Nerve Show” at Target Margin Theater, thwarted impulses express themselves both through movement and attempts at speech.As the grand reopening of Broadway continued this week, a smaller theatrical enterprise, far across town, was also revving up again. For the first time since March 2020, Target Margin Theater welcomed a live audience into its no-frills warehouse space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, presenting a new work by the choreographer Julie Mayo.Mayo’s “Nerve Show,” as wacky as it is melancholic, straddles the time before the pandemic and the not-quite-after where we find ourselves now, an era of stuttering starts and stops and collectively frayed nerves. The process of creating it began in 2019, with a cast of four dancers (in addition to Mayo) that has since expanded to five: Justin Cabrillos, Ursula Eagly, Doug LeCours, Eleanor Smith and Jessie Young, all of whom are wonderfully idiosyncratic (and credited with contributing movement and sound).Mayo, who has been choreographing for more than 20 years, has described her work as “predicated on ‘not-knowing,’ ambiguity, shifting landscapes.” That describes a lot of dance, but for her, it seems, the pandemic has brought these qualities closer to the surface. At its premiere on Thursday, “Nerve Show” shared a kind of woozy uncertainty with the past year and a half, compressing into one hour the sense of not-knowing we have come to know so well.Mayo.Maria BaranovaLeCours.Maria BaranovaFrom the opening scene, an erratic solo for the alert and sensitive Mayo, thwarted impulses express themselves through both movement and attempts at speech: the body tugged in conflicting directions, or trying to shake something off; words escaping half formed, sometimes as no more than a grunt or a stuck-out tongue. Alone and together, the dancers often exude the flustered energy of trying to rein in a chaotic situation. Yet while they might look agitated to an outside eye, they also appear to know right where they are internally, a shared awareness that keeps the work from spinning out of control.Even in simpler moments, tensions run high: At one point, Smith and Young pace back and forth in unison, the meditative rhythm of their steps undercut by the worry in their darting eyes. A moment of release — everyone laughing in the dark — ends as the lights snap back on, their fluorescent buzz filling the sudden silence. (Ben Demarest designed the lighting.)Tensions running high: Eagly, Smith and Mayo.Maria BaranovaThe work’s jumbled and fragmented speech edges toward coherence. Near the end, the dancers lie on their backs and take turns speaking complete words, seemingly selected at random: “mineral,” “irksome,” “bicentennial,” “pizza.” But “Nerve Show” eludes any clear arc or resolution, and its subtle sadness deepens. As LeCours unleashes a wild, spindly solo to Alice Coltrane’s “Going Home,” the others stride and sit along the risers that function as a backdrop, casually looking on. He is going through something; they just watch it happen.If “Nerve Show” has a piecemeal structure, and moments that churn in place rather than moving forward, that might be a reflection of a creative process punctured by obstacles and interruptions. Intentionally or not, it also echoes how we don’t know where we’re going, or what will happen next — and never really have.Nerve ShowThrough Saturday at Target Margin Theater, targetmargin.org. More

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    What Is Drama? The Bungled Plan at ‘Jeopardy!’ to Choose a New Host

    Michael M. Grynbaum and Tracy Mumford and Phyllis Fletcher and The late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek played himself in a 1992 episode of “The Golden Girls.”Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank via, Getty ImagesWhen Alex Trebek, the beloved host of “Jeopardy!,” died in November from pancreatic cancer, the game show had to face a grim reality: How would it move on without the man who was the heart of the show? Mr. Trebek, with his calm and steadying voice, had been a fixture in American living rooms for 37 years.Sony Pictures Entertainment led a monthslong search for Mr. Trebek’s successor, and more than a dozen guest hosts stepped behind the lectern. On Aug. 11, when the network announced that Mike Richards, the executive producer of “Jeopardy!,” would become the new host, this led to a cascading P.R. disaster that resulted in his resignation about a week later.As “Jeopardy!” returned this week for a new season, we looked at how one of the most pure and unchanging TV institutions became tangled in scandal. Why has the search for Mr. Trebek’s successor gone so terribly wrong?In this podcast episode:Dodai Stewart, a deputy editor for Narrative Projects at The New York Times.Nicole Sperling, a media and entertainment reporter for The Times. “It was the last bastion of purity in our lives and that too has been sullied by drama,” she said about “Jeopardy!” More