The Emmys are on Sunday. I did my predictions when the nominations were announced in July, and I stand by them. But we’re not really talking about the Emmys today. The Emmys do not matter to Dad Shows, where we celebrate shows that the Emmys usually ignore. That’s not a complaint about the Emmys, the Emmys are fine, whatever. I just mean the Emmys are looking for certain things that Dad Shows often don’t provide, and what makes an award-winning Dad Show is different than what makes an Emmys show. This is all to say: I’ve created my own awards, honoring the greatest achievements in Dad Shows from June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024. There are five categories devoted to the most important components of Dad Shows.
Most Dad Show
Reacher
This award is not for the best Dad Show in terms of quality, but rather the show that best exemplifies the Dad Show principles of heightened real-world settings, gray morality, and ass-kicking. (There are other principles, too, such as hyper-competence at one’s job and doing anything to protect one’s family. Perhaps someday I’ll make a complete list of all Dad Shows principles.) And no show in the past year embodies them better than Reacher. Season 2 of Prime Video’s hugely popular show combines a bunch of macho thriller genres — action, crime, detective, military, conspiracy, vigilante, revenge, maybe a few more I’m forgetting — into one righteously entertaining blast of blunt force trauma. It’s brutal, it’s excessive, it’s borderline nonsensical, and it’s totally awesome.
Honorable Mention: Hijack, for giving dads an opportunity to plan what they would do if they were on a plane that got taken over by terrorists.
Best Actor in a Dad Show
Alan Ritchson, Reacher
I thought about giving this award to someone else so as to not concentrate power in Reacher’s hands, but that would be dishonest. Perhaps the biggest reason why Reacher is the Dad Show phenomenon it is is Ritchson’s note-perfect performance. He simply is Reacher. He’s huge, he’s smart, he beats the ever-loving shit out of people. Ritchson takes Reacher very seriously but not overly seriously. He commits super-hard, but still seems like he’s having fun. And on a personal level he seems like an interesting guy. I read his Hollywood Reporter profile and was impressed with how honest and direct he was. He’s the perfect Dad Shows leading man playing the perfect Dad Shows character.
Honorable Mention: David Oyelowo, Lawman: Bass Reeves, for playing a real American hero as a Dad Show character.
Best Actress in a Dad Show
Zoe Saldaña, Lioness
Saldaña stars in what might low-key be Taylor Sheridan’s best show, the CIA thriller formerly known as Special Ops: Lioness, as Joe, the director of a program overseeing female operatives infiltrating terrorist organizations. She’s a perfect fit for Sheridan’s macho soap style, playing a character who’s half hardass operator, half loving but absent wife and mother, and believable as both. Lioness is underrated, and I’d like to see it get more attention when Season 2 premieres next month.
Honorable Mention: Sofia Vergara, Griselda, for shamelessly playing Griselda Blanco, career criminal and noted terrible person, as cool and misunderstood, a very Dad Show choice.
Best Supporting Actor in a Dad Show
John Hawkes, True Detective: Night Country
Best Supporting Actor in a Dad Show generally honors a character actor you say “hell yeah, I love that guy” whenever they show up, like Bill Camp or John Carroll Lynch. This year, it goes to John Hawkes, for his complex performance as tragic asshole cop Hank Prior in True D Season 4 — specifically for the way he stands in silence and looks at the preparations he made for the arrival of his mail-order bride as he realizes he’s been scammed. Very pathetic.
Honorable Mention: Hamish Linklater, Manhunt, for doing a fun take on Abraham Lincoln where he talks in a creaky voice and tells weird stories about watching a girl throw up raisins.
Best Death in a Dad Show
When that guy got boiled alive on Shōgun
When I met Shōgun executive producer Michaela Clavell at a party during the Television Critics Association press tour in February, I commented on how brutal it was when the Dutch sailor got cooked in a big pot in the series premiere. Her response was something like “Really? Oh, just wait, it gets so much worse.” And Shōgun has no shortage of brutal deaths as it goes on. But the series of brief shots showing us characters pretending not to be affected by the sound of the sailor’s screams echoing through the village is when I knew I was watching a really good show. A lesser show wouldn’t think to include subtle emotional undercurrents like that in a larger moment of abject horror.
Honorable Mention: When Reacher threw Robert Patrick out of a helicopter after telling him earlier in the season he wanted to throw him out of a helicopter. Simple, elegant storytelling.
-I interviewed Terence Winter, executive producer and writer for top-shelf Dad Show Tulsa King, ahead of the Paramount+ dramedy’s Season 2 premiere. Winter is a major dude. He was a high-ranking writer on The Sopranos, created Boardwalk Empire, and wrote the screenplay for The Wolf of Wall Street. He’s also a really nice guy and a great interview. He gave generous answers to all my questions about leaving and returning to the show, working with Taylor Sheridan and Sylvester Stallone, and whether Frank Grillo’s Tulsa King character Bill Bevilaqua is related to The Sopranos’ Matthew Bevilaqua. I’m proud of how this one turned out. Check it out on TV Guide.