Need an Emmy? Better Not Call Saul - Awards Outlook
Awards analysis is provided by Sean from @MathTeacherMovies.
Need an Emmy? Better not ‘Call Saul’
After six seasons, Better Call Saul has been the series with the consistent narrative of always being the bridesmaid but never the bride. It has been nominated for a staggering 53 Emmys and has not won a single one. With the series concluding this award cycle, it will be its final chance to grab a win and it's not looking great.
Better Call Saul has undeservedly lost many of the high profile Emmys as well as the below the line categories and while this has been a shame it has become a more popular narrative for this series to be the loser not because it deserves it but because the series losing every Emmy will make the series more rebellious that does not need the approval of the awards. The Wire is considered one of the best television shows of all time and never received a nomination until its final season, to which the cast and crew were actually somewhat upset about the nomination as they felt like they had almost an honorable streak where award shows and did not need their approval. Therefore, if Better Call Saul comes up empty again that it can still reign supreme as a great television show with the Emmys simply missing out.
There really is no denying that Succession is going to dominate the dramatic categories this season and so the two writing nominations and the series nomination will not be won by Better Call Saul as they will most likely go to Succession.
Rhea Seehorn was criminally snubbed in nominations for her amazing performance in the first few seasons and thankfully she was able to grab nominations in the past few seasons but has yet to grab a win. While J. Smith Cameron is the only Succession competition in her category this year, the Emmy will probably go to Jennifer Coolidge for her second season performance in The White Lotus and even though she already has an Emmy for this character her performance in the second season was even better and she is getting even more buzz this year.
The best chance this series has in winning an Emmy is still a bit of a long shot, but there is a very solid path for Bob Odenkirk to win the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Obviously Odenkirk’s greatest threat is the Succession gentlemen. Jeremy Strong has won the Emmy before but that does not slow down the Television Academy from giving another. Brian Cox and Kieren Culkin have not yet won an Emmy for their Succession characters and Culkin is probably a slight front runner with the narrative of him being due and while Cox is also due for an Emmy, there will probably be too much category fraud as he really should be in the supporting category.
However, with these three all taking up a lot of oxygen there is a solid chance that they all cancel each other out much like last year when Cox and Strong both canceled the votes out leading to a win for Lee Jung-jae in Squid Game, creating a path for Odenkirk.
There is also the fact that Odenkirk is incredibly due for a win. He may have two Emmys for his early comedy writing career but he has never won for playing the iconic character of Saul Goodman in either Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad. John Hamm and Matthew Rhys both finally won Emmys for their long standing portrayals of their characters in Mad Men and The Americans respectively and there is a world where Odenkirk could join this team especially after all of the personal issues he has been through including his battles with his health during filming.
While Better Call Saul is deserving of a win, it will be interesting to see if they could officially bring one through several different channels with Odenkirk being a long shot but definitely the best chance of all of the nominations for it to win.