77th Emmy Awards 2025: After Owen Cooper’s BIG WIN, his audition tape for Adolescence goes VIRAL
Director Philip Barantini gave fans an insight of Cooper’s pure brilliance by posting a video of his audition on Instagram amid all the accolades. Scroll down!
77th Emmy Awards 2025: The 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards, honouring the finest of American television, were held in Los Angeles on September 15 (IST). This year, ‘The Studio’, ‘The Pitt’, and ‘Adolescence’ won the top awards. Los Angeles was illuminated by the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards’ star-studded action, incredible talent, and red carpet glitz. Indian fans were able to watch all the action live today, September 15, starting at 5:30 AM, at the legendary Peacock Theatre, which hosted the event on September 14 at 8:00 PM PT.
Owen Cooper garners praise
British actor Owen Cooper has become well-known thanks to the popular Netflix series Adolescence. Fans and reviewers from all around the world have been praising Cooper’s strong performance in the show, which was his acting debut.
Owen’s Adolescence audition tape goes viral
Director Philip Barantini gave fans an insight of Cooper’s pure brilliance by posting a video of his audition on Instagram amid all the accolades. He captioned the post as, “Owen’s audition tapes for Jamie in Adolescence.”
Watch the video here
Fans quickly praised Cooper’s acting in the well-liked crime drama in the comment area. One fan wrote, “Incredible. Such an inspiration for all of us,” while another added, “When he swipes the hot chocolate away and loses it, it gives me goosebumps. He is a little star; he really is.”
Adolescence becomes Netflix’s biggest hit
Adolescence, meanwhile, has become a huge Netflix success. Variety reports that in its first four days, the show had 24.3 million views. With an additional 42 million views in its second weekend, it surpassed all previous Netflix titles in terms of viewership, reaching 66.3 million views in just 11 days.
In only two weeks, this makes Adolescence the most-watched Netflix limited series.
Philip Barantini is the director of the British crime drama miniseries Adolescence, which was co-created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.
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The Primetime Emmy Awards are a prestigious event for the small screen, bringing together stars and awarding the best shows of the year. Held at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, this year’s ceremony saw miniseries Adolescence, The Studio, and The Pitt winning big at the event. Without any further ado, here’s a list of the nominations and winners for Emmys 2025.
List of all winners at 2025 Emmys
Best Reality Competition Program
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Survivor
Top Chef
The Traitors — WINNER
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Liza Colón-Zayas — The Bear
Hannah Einbinder — Hacks — WINNER
Kathryn Hahn — The Studio
Janelle James — Abbott Elementary
Catherine O’Hara — The Studio
Sheryl Lee Ralph — Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams — Shrinking
Best Actress in a Drama Series
Kathy Bates — Matlock
Sharon Horgan — Bad Sisters
Britt Lower — Severance — WINNER
Bella Ramsey — The Last of Us
Keri Russell — The Diplomat
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Zach Cherry — Severance
Walton Goggins — The White Lotus
Jason Isaacs — The White Lotus
James Marsden — Paradise
Sam Rockwell — The White Lotus
Tramell Tillman — Severance — WINNER
John Turturro — Severance
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Patricia Arquette — Severance
Carrie Coon — The White Lotus
Katherine LaNasa — The Pitt — WINNER
Julianne Nicholson — Paradise
Parker Posey — The White Lotus
Natasha Rothwell — The White Lotus
Aimee Lou Wood — The White Lotus
Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba — The Residence
Kristen Bell — Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson — Abbott Elementary
Ayo Edebiri — The Bear
Jean Smart — Hacks — WINNER
Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Adam Brody — Nobody Wants This
Seth Rogen — The Studio — WINNER
Jason Segel — Shrinking
Martin Short — Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White — The Bear
Best Drama Series
Andor
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Paradise
The Pitt — WINNER
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus
Best Actor in a Drama Series
Sterling K Brown — Paradise
Gary Oldman — Slow Horses
Pedro Pascal — The Last of Us
Adam Scott — Severance
Noah Wyle — The Pitt — WINNER
Best Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Shrinking
The Studio — WINNER
What We Do in the Shadows
Best Limited or Anthology Series
Adolescence — WINNER
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin
Best Talk Series
The Daily Show
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — WINNER
Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Colin Farrell — The Penguin
Stephen Graham — Adolescence — WINNER
Jake Gyllenhaal — Presumed Innocent
Bryan Tyree Henry — Dope Thief
Cooper Koch — Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Cate Blanchett — Disclaimer
Meghann Fahy — Sirens
Rashida Jones — Black Mirror
Cristin Milioti — The Penguin — WINNER
Michelle Williams — Dying for Sex
Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Erin Doherty — Adolescence — WINNER
Ruth Negga — Presumed Innocent
Deirdre O’Connell — The Penguin
Chloë Sevigny — Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Jenny Slate — Dying for Sex
Christine Tremarco — Adolescence
Best Writing for a Variety Series
The Daily Show
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — WINNER
Saturday Night Live
Best Variety Special (Live)
The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar
Beyoncé Bowl
The Oscars
SNL 50: The Anniversary Special — WINNER
SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert
Best Writing for a Comedy Series
Quinta Brunson — Abbott Elementary
Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky — Hacks
Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton and Eric Notarnicola — The Rehearsal
Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen and Bridget Everett — Somebody Somewhere
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez — The Studio — WINNER
Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis and Paul Simms — What We Do in the Shadows
Best Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham — Adolescence — WINNER
Charlie Brooker and Bisha K Ali — Black Mirror
Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether — Dying for Sex
Lauren LeFranc — The Penguin
Joshua Zetumer — Say Nothing
Best Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Javier Bardem — Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Bill Camp — Presumed Innocent
Owen Cooper — Adolescence — WINNER
Rob Delaney — Dying For Sex
Peter Sarsgaard — Presumed Innocent
Ashley Walters — Adolescence
Best Writing for a Drama Series
Dan Gilroy — Andor — WINNER
Joe Sachs — The Pitt
R Scott Gemmill — The Pitt
Dan Erickson — Severance
Will Smith — Slow Horses
Mike White — The White Lotus
Best Scripted Variety Series
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — WINNER
Saturday Night Live
Best Directing for a Drama Series
Janus Metz — Andor
Amanda Marsalis — The Pitt
John Wells — The Pitt
Jessica Lee — Severance
Ben Stiller — Severance
Adam Randall — Slow Horses — WINNER
Mike White — The White Lotus
Best Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Winning an Emmy ought, under normal circumstances, to be the high point of an actor’s career.
For all the artists who won at this year’s Emmy ceremony, it was a moment they’ll remember for having been policed in the most sanctimonious and irritating manner possible.
Nate Bargatze, the ceremony’s disastrous host, set forth that he had set up a $100,000 pool of money to donate to the unimpeachable nonprofit the Boys & Girls Club. Money would be deducted from this pool, moment-by-moment, if a winner went over 45 seconds — and money would be added if they came in under time. (Bargatze brought real children, announced as beneficiaries of the Boys & Girls Club, to the ceremony, and they were super cute! They came to feel, though, more and more like props in the proceedings — supremely unfair.)
The whole concept was a nice idea for a single monologue joke — raising awareness for a group that does a lot of good while making sure that the ceremony doesn’t drift toward the four-hour mark. And yet it just felt badly underthought.
To wit: Hannah Einbinder won the supporting actress Emmy for “Hacks” — finally! In the show’s fourth season! After multiple ceremonies where she seemed so close but didn’t quite get there! For anyone who follows either the Emmys or one of the signature shows of our current streaming era, this would seem like a big deal. But Einbinder’s emotional speech wasn’t merely foreshortened, and thickened with a strange and ugly tension, by her own knowledge that her inability to sum her whole experience of “Hacks” up in 45 seconds would be impossible. It was, by the end, marked by a ticking clock marking how much money Einbinder was losing for the Boys & Girls Club by continuing to thank her collaborators and say what was on her mind after the time limit passed. “I’ll pay the difference, sorry,” she was forced to say, as she wrapped up.
As regards how time was spent on the Emmys ceremony, Einbinder’s speech, and its presentation, is already up on YouTube. Fully three minutes are spent on the presenters, who include Reba McEntire, being introduced by Bargatze and then paying tribute to the TV series “The Golden Girls,” for some reason. Einbinder speaks for a little more than a minute. This pattern continued throughout: Canned, rehearsed presenter dialogue — to say nothing of the lugubrious In Memoriam segment, during which singer Lainey Wilson slowly strode across the stage to join Vince Gill for long seconds before the reel started playing — unspooled for as long as it needed to. That, random awards-show detritus, was, of course, the cost of doing business, as were Bargatze’s inane intrusions. The real and raw emotions of people experiencing surprise, delight, and the sense of having something that needed to be said? Well, that was on a clock.
Not that Bargatze cared about how he came across to core viewers. He came across, throughout the ceremony, as perpetual hall monitor, seemingly interested exclusively in which stars met his standard and which fell short. If you were relieved, briefly, that the onscreen clock didn’t show during 15-year-old “Adolescence” actor Owen Cooper’s heartfelt acceptance speech — don’t worry! Bargatze was right there, right after, to note that it went over time. One wonders how he’d have reacted, in the moment, to Nicole Kidman’s powerhouse “Big Little Lies” Emmy speech, in which she spoke frankly about domestic violence even as the clock moved toward midnight. Would he have scolded her, too?
Probably! But what, if not for moments like Kidman’s speech, then, or Einbinder’s or Cooper’s speeches, now, do we even watch these things for? The standard Bargatze set was that of someone who is fundamentally uninterested in awards shows at all — which, while a fine way to go through life, raises the question of why he put himself forward to host one, or why he was hired. Bargatze’s seeming singleminded focus on a monetary figure that everyone must have known he’d end up replenishing at the end of the show (as, indeed, he did) seemed so thoroughly to lose the audience that the perpetual Emmys problem of people filing in and out of the theater as the host speaks looked pointed. To whom, even, was he speaking? Around him was an empty room.
Well, Bargatze was addressing an audience who hates awards shows, I guess, and those who get irritated when actors run on too long. It’s hard to imagine how many viewers of an Emmys telecast in 2025, with infinite streaming options available, secretly hate awards shows, but whoever they are, they likely found an ally in Bargatze. The rest of us were left to wonder what exactly he was doing.
Yes, the speeches can run long. And at the Emmys — which, unlike the Oscars, which honor only four actors per ceremony — there are a lot of egos to manage. But past hosts have addressed the need to come in on time with some grace. Conan O’Brien’s 2006 threat to kill Bob Newhart if the show went over time speaks to his particular comic imagination, which is certainly one-of-a-kind. But Bargatze’s bullyragging and berating actors coming off of the peak moment of their career suggests just how limited his comic imagination seems to be.
And it all seemed to come to naught. Bargatze added a bunch of money — bolstered, he said, by CBS — to bring the pot up to $350,000. But, thanks to his ministrations, the presenters of both the drama and comedy trophies had legitimate time to vamp. I’d rather have heard 10 more seconds from six winners at the Emmys than a minute of Brad Garrett and Ray Romano trying to fill time they didn’t expect to have before their best comedy presentation. That Bargatze doesn’t agree is regrettable. It also should mark an end both to his hosting career and to this particular angle on awards shows, that they’re ultimately intended for an audience that hates them and wants to see their winners cut off at the knees. The interesting part is when the winners speak — and Bargatze, tonight’s relentless spoilsport, wouldn’t know anything about winning at the Emmys.
Hollywood stars have long used award ceremonies to make powerful political statements. The 2025 Emmy Awards were no exception. This year, several actors made a strong statement by wearing a red pin in support of Artists4Ceasefire, a campaign urging an immediate end to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Among the celebrities who displayed solidarity with Palestine were Megan Stalter, Javier Bardem, Hannah Einbinder, Aimee Lou Wood, Ruth Negga, Chris Perfetti and Lucia Aniello. Besides wearing the red pin, Stalter also carried a sign that read, “Ceasefire!” on her bag.
The No Country For Old Men actor told the media on the red carpet, “How many hundreds of thousands of dead children need to suffer for people to wake up/ Film Workers for Palestine do not target any individuals based on identity. Film Workers for Palestine target those complicit film companies and institutions that are whitewashing or justifying Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Talking to Variety, he further stated, “Here I am today, denouncing the genocide in Gaza. I am talking about the IAGS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who study genocide thoroughly and has declared it is a genocide. That’s why we ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade and also sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide. Free Palestine.”
Megan Stalter shared, “It’s important with a platform to speak out. It’s the most important thing in the world to have peace. I can’t not say something, and I feel like it’s more important than anything about my look, whether I’m in a big gown or jeans. It’s really important to speak out about those things that are really horrifying.”
Meanwhile, Hacks actress Hannah Einbinder mentioned Gaza in her award acceptance speech. She won the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Hacks. The actress noted, “Finally, I just want to say: Go Birds, f**k ICE, and free Palestine.” (The Birds mention was a nod to the Eagles, who defeated the Kansas City Chiefs recently) However, the ‘f**ck ICE’ portion from her speech was censored during the telecast.
According to Nate Bargatze, nobody watched Succession “in the grand scheme of things.” But those who did had to watch him tonight, as the famously milquetoast comedian hosted the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, where the crème de la crème of post-prestige television duked it out for a couple shelves’ worth of trophies. The Studio beat The Bear for the most wins for a comedy series in a single year, while The Pitt reigned supreme in its rivalry with Severance and Britt Lower pulled an upset in Lead Actress in a Drama over Kathy Bates. Catch up with all of Vulture’s real-time reactions to the evening below, then peruse the full list of winners here. —Nicholas Quah
“The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy as the AppleTV+ movie-business romp became the winningest comedy series ever in a season.“Studio” co-creator Seth Rogen won for acting, directing and writing. Along with nine wins claimed at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, it broke a record set last year by “The Bear” with 11.“I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after winning best comedy actor at the beginning of the CBS telecast. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”Rogen shared the directing Emmy with longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, shared the writing Emmy with Goldberg and others. He’ll get his fourth if “The Studio” wins best comedy. The show rode blockbuster buzz into the Emmys for its breakout first season.Netflix’s acclaimed “Adolescence,” the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, won four Emmys in the limited series categories. Owen Cooper, who played the teen, became the youngest Emmy winner in more than 40 years with a win for best supporting actor.Cooper said in his acceptance that he was “nothing three years ago.”“It’s just so surreal,” Cooper said. “Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here. So I think tonight proves that if you, if you listen and you focus and you step out your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life.”Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four “Adolescence” episodes was filmed in a single shot.Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for “The Penguin.” It was the first win of the night for the HBO series from the Batman universe after it won eight at the Creative Arts ceremony.Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman each won their first Emmy for “Severance,” the Apple TV+ Orwellian workplace satire that is considered the favorite for best drama. Lower won best actress in a drama and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama.“My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.Every acting winner other than Smart was a first timer.A night of surprise winnersSmart’s castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.“I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.How the 2025 Emmys openedStephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.In an unusual show order, host Nate Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
“The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy, becoming the winningest comedy series ever in a season.
With victories for comedy acting, directing and writing Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ movie-business romp eclipses the record of 11 set last year by “The Bear.”
“The Studio” came into the night with nine Emmys from last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony, making it a virtual lock to break the record. And it could keep adding to its total before the evening’s done.
It was the third straight year the record was broken. Last year, “The Bear” – whose dramatic presence in the comedy category irked some competitors – broke its own record of 10 set the year before.
“I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after his win for best comedy actor, the first award of the night. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”
Rogen shared the directing Emmy with his longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, and he can still win two more before the night’s done.
Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman took trophies for “Severance.” Lower won best actress in a drama for “Severance” and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama. It was the first career Emmy for each.
“My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”
He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”
His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”
A night of surprise winners
Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.
Her castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.
She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”
“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”
Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.
“I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.
In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.
How the 2025 Emmys opened
Stephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.
“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.
The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.
Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
Apple TV+ is poised to have a breakout Emmy year with the two most nominated shows, “Severance” and “The Studio,” which are the favorites to win the two biggest awards.
What to expect from the 2025 Emmy Awards
“The Studio,” with co-creator Rogen starring as the new head of a movie studio, came into the evening the top comedy nominee with 23 and blockbuster buzz for its breakout first season.
“Severance,” the Orwellian office drama about people who surgically split their psyches into workplace “innies” and home “outies,” was the top overall nominee with 27 nominations for its second season. It won six at the Creative Arts ceremony and now stands at eight.
Along with best drama — which would be a first for Apple — star Adam Scott could win his first Emmy, for best actor.
Its top competition for best drama could be “The Pitt,” HBO’s acclaimed drama about one shift in the life of an emergency room.
Its star Noah Wyle could be both the sentimental favorite and the actual favorite for best actor. He was nominated five times without a win for playing a young doctor on “ER” in the 1990s, and now could finally take his trophy for what is in many ways a reprise of the role.
Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.
How to watch and stream the Emmys and its red carpet
The Emmys are airing live on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers may stream the show live. Standard Paramount+ subscribers can stream it Monday through Sept. 21.
Stars are walking the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Comedian Nate Bargatze will host television’s biggest awards Sunday night from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Splashes of red, blue and green punctuated a carpet heavy on black. Then there was Justine Lupe. She nabbed a low-cut, silvery sparkler off a Carolina Herrera runway for a classic awards show look.
“It’s so fun. I’m so glad they let me wear it,” Lupe told E!
Molly Gordon from “The Bear” did what few dare: She wore horizontal stripes, and the gown was a stunner. Her strapless look alternated wide black stripes with white ones, a Giorgio Armani from his fall-winter 1996 collection. The legendary designer died Sept. 4 at 91.
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” is nominated in the reality competition program, and Season 17’s stars dressed to impress with eye-catching attire ranging from the Labubu-inspired to Michael Jackson and Miss Piggy.
Megan Stalter of “Hacks” showed off a black handbag with a message: “Cease fire.” She was dressed in loose jeans and a white T-shirt as she made sure photographers didn’t miss the bag.
Nominee Walton Goggins stole a couple of smooches from wife Nadia Conners as arrivals got under way. Both wore white. Goggins went that extra mile on the unbuttoning for a bare chest moment.
Even Apple CEO Tim Cook walked the red carpet, saying he was there to support the night’s two top nominees, “Severance” and “The Studio,” both of which are created by Apple TV+. Cook said it’s remarkable the fanbase and theories that have developed around “Severance,” a sci-fi workplace drama. Asked if Apple is influenced by the show, Cook said: “It influences culture, so obviously it influences Apple as well.”
Here are photos of the best and worst fashion on the 2025 Emmy Awards red carpet:
Ben Stiller attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)Lisa attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)(L-R) Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall attend the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)Jennifer Coolidge attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)US actress Lukita Maxwell arrives for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)Britt Lower attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)US actress Molly Gordon arrives for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)US actor Jason Segel (R) and Kayla Radomski arrive for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)Megan Stalter attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)(L-R) Brett Goldstein and Jessica Radloff attend the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)(L-R) Walton Goggins and Nadia Conners attend the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)US actor Walton Goggins (L) and wife director Nadia Conners kiss as they arrive for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)US actress Sarah Bock arrives for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)Dichen Lachman attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)Justine Lupe attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)US actress Zuri Hall arrives for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Nate Bargatze plans to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America — but there’s a catch
Have you watched all the shows? I’ve seen *** lot of commercials of the show. If you’re like Emmy host Nate Bargetzy and haven’t seen all the nominated shows, well, you might still watch the Emmy Awards for this. You’re making *** $100,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is amazing that you’re doing that, but there’s *** catch. Bargetzi says for every Emmy winner’s acceptance speech that exceeds the allotted 45 seconds. And Perfect choice of music. The donation shrinks by $1000 per second. Ouch, deposit too. If they go under, we will put money on top of it. So I would prefer them not all go that under because that can get pretty expensive and the amount of money I give the Boys and Girls Club is totally up to all of Hollywood. Either way, Bargetsi can afford it. He’s currently Billboard’s number one selling stand-up comic in America. His tour grossed more than $80 million last year alone. For his first Hollywood hosting gig. He’s getting advice from veterans like Nicki Glazer, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O’Brien. They’re all just kind of like, you just got to be you and trust that you know what you’re doing. Fortunate to learn that in other settings and so I don’t have to hopefully not learn it, you know, in front of Harrison Ford, right? Bargetsi says, sure, he’ll joke. About Hollywood, but in his trademark polite style like the cancellation of nominee Stephen Colbert’s late night show. Is that off limits, or are you going to address it? I think we’ll say something, but it’ll be done in *** fun, playful way. That family friendly comedic style has helped the Tennessee native gain wide appeal in an era where comedy often divides audiences. Barhetsi met his wife while working at Applebee’s. Welcome. And his daughter introduces him in many of his shows. His father was *** magician and *** clown. I have to ask, did you have *** fear of clowns growing up, because *** lot of kids do. I had *** joke about like I would say, have you ever been yelled at by *** clown because I have. And it’s pretty confusing to get yelled at by *** guy that’s got *** smile painted on his face. Bargetsi doesn’t fear the Emmy stage. In fact, this star can’t wait to be starstruck. Who are you excited to see? Ben Stiller? I’m excited to see. Well, Severance has the most nominations, so you will definitely meet Ben Stiller. We should cross paths, yes.
Emmys host shares his plan to keep speeches short
Nate Bargatze plans to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America — but there’s a catch
Comedian Nate Bargatze is hosting the Emmys this weekend — and he thinks he finally figured out how to keep acceptance speeches brief. He plans to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America.But he’ll dock $1,000 for every second a winner’s speech runs over the 45-second limit. CNN’S Elizabeth Wagmeister sat down with Bargatze to see what else the first-time host has in store for the awards show. The Emmys start at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 14.
Comedian Nate Bargatze is hosting the Emmys this weekend — and he thinks he finally figured out how to keep acceptance speeches brief.
He plans to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America.
But he’ll dock $1,000 for every second a winner’s speech runs over the 45-second limit.
CNN’S Elizabeth Wagmeister sat down with Bargatze to see what else the first-time host has in store for the awards show.
Photo: Vulture; Photos: Lucasfilm Ltd., FX, Apple TV+, ABC
At their best and most pure, the Emmys ought to be a recommendation engine, where the TV industry presents its picks for the best of the best and encourages the home audience to go back and watch anything good they might’ve missed while they were busy with Love Island earlier this year. The TV Academy nominated 21 total shows across Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Drama Series, and Outstanding Limited Series or Anthology. I don’t think they nominated any outright bad shows, but some are certainly more worthy of their nominations than others. And since the way I show love and appreciation is by making lists, I’ve decided to rank all 21, from worst to best. These rankings are based on the season they were nominated for only. And I have done my best to bridge the apples-to-oranges nature of comparing dramas, comedies, and limited series. Be thankful I didn’t decide to include the talk and reality shows or you’d be in for some real chaos.
Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix
Platform: Netflix 2025 Emmy nominations: 10
Returning for the first time since 2023, Black Mirror delivered what you’d expect: a series of parables and dark prophecies about our technological future. I can’t say for sure how much of my low ranking here is attributable to the fact that the terrifying technological present has made the showless novel or, whether after seven seasons, these stories have simply become less impactful and more predictable.
Photo: Patrick Harbron/Disney
Platform: Hulu 2025 Emmy nominations: 7
I was riding so high on Only Murders in the Building after its musical-themed third season; it was the perfect example of a show taking a big swing to ward off stagnation. I respected the swing the show took in season four, decamping to Los Angeles to deal with a film adaptation of the titular podcast. Unfortunately, rather than stay in L.A., the show became bicoastal, keeping one foot in the Arconia with a new cadre of eccentrics (and yes, Richard Kind in an eye patch was a highlight). But the resulting season had to juggle far too many elements, and only a few of them worked: Molly Shannon as a harried Hollywood producer — yes. Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria as the actors playing Charles, Oliver, and Mabel — no. The longer the season went on, the more tiresome it became, culminating in a massive “who cares” of a killer reveal. If history is any indicator, the odd-numbered seasons of Only Murders are the good ones, so there’s reason to be optimistic for the fifth. But this one was a real dud.
Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Platform: HBO 2025 Emmy nominations: 16
It’s not that I think The Last of Us took some great dip in quality in its second season. The actors were across-the-board great, including some excellent new additions in Kaitlyn Dever, Catherine O’Hara, and Jeffrey Wright. But once the Big Thing happens in the second episode, the season becomes narratively unbalanced and too unsatisfying. That the show brings Joel back for a flashback episode feels like an admission that Ellie on her own doesn’t have enough story to fill up a full season while we wait for the confrontation with Abby that comes much further down the line. Once the entire series is complete, there’s every chance season two will age better in closer proximity to what comes next. We’re not there yet.
Photo: Miles Crist/Netlfix
Platform: Netflix 2025 Emmy nominations: 11
This got tagged as trash by many, and unsurprisingly so, as the Monster(s) series sits at the nexus point of two trends that are morally unfashionable at the moment: true crime and Ryan Murphy. There is certainly a layer of ick that pervades this often gleeful depiction of the 1989 murder of Jose and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Lyle and Erik, and the media circus that followed. But while Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan take liberties with the Menendez case, their decision to tell the story from multiple and often contradictory angles is a satisfying one. Cooper Koch was rightly praised (and Emmy nominated) for his frighteningly malleable turn as Erik Menendez, but I thought it was too bad that Nicholas Alexander Chavez (as coked-up alpha brother Lyle) and Ari Graynor (as attorney Leslie Abramson) were passed over.
Photo: Saeed Adyani/Netflix
Platform: Netflix 2025 Emmy nominations: 3
The title of this rom-com turned out to be a dare that a bunch of viewers — and certainly a critical mass of Emmy voters — took Netflix up on. Nobody Wants This nails the fundamentals: two strong leads in Adam Brody and Kristen Bell and at least a few supporting characters who pop. The premise — handsome young rabbi meets shiksa with a sex podcast — got the show in hot water over whether its POV denigrated Jewish women (creator Erin Foster converted to Judaism to marry her husband, leading to a lot of raised eyebrows about the show’s autobiographical nature), but what the show needs more than refuge from the takes is simply to be funnier. It’s not unfunny. It just should be more funny. Brody and Bell have the “rom” part nailed; they could use some help on the script level when it comes to the “com.”
Photo: Brian Roedel/Disney
Platform: Hulu 2025 Emmy nominations: 4
Full disclosure: At the outset, I thought Paradise looked so dumb. There have been so many postapocalyptic shows (Silo, Fallout, Snowpiercer) in which humanity has to exist in some kind of metaphorical bubble (or a literal bubble, if you’re Under the Dome). The concept of an artificial Perfect American Town built deep inside a mountain to protect selected citizens from a vaguely articulated disaster event was one thing, but to add a murder-mystery element to that, and the murder victim is the president? A hat on a hat on a hat on a hat! Somehow, though, Paradise turns out to be compelling popcorn TV, punctuated by its two Emmy-nominated performances: Sterling K. Brown is all leading-man intensity as the Secret Service agent determined to get to the truth, while Julianne Nicholson’s Machiavellian deep-state operator manages to be delicious in her villainy as she also maintains a shred of her former “good” self.
Photo: Kenny Laubbacher/Max
Platform: HBO Max 2025 Emmy nominations: 14
Oh, Hacks. I want to defend you against your harshest critics, even if I often agree with them. It doesn’t bother me that what we see of Deborah Vance’s comedy doesn’t scan as comedy-legend caliber, or that her conflicts with Ava are predicated on tired generation-gap premises. At its best, Hacks is a workplace comedy in which the workplace is the entire comedy-industrial complex, and I like watching Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder maneuver within those environs. My frustration comes from how shockingly repetitive the show is formally. Just an endless loop of Deborah and Ava working well together, breaking up because of a betrayal, warily reuniting because of necessity, discovering that they work best together, then breaking up because of another betrayal and starting the cycle all over again. After four seasons of this, it’s hard to just enjoy Deborah and Ava for who they are, and I’m forced to dwell on things like how Megan Stalter’s unbearable Kayla is somehow the fourth lead on this show.
Photo: Gilles Mingasson/Disney
Platform: ABC 2025 Emmy nominations: 6
Four seasons in, Abbott Elementaryis doing exactly what a good network sitcom should: settling into place as a reliable but decreasingly remarkable part of a regular TV diet. And yet: To be able to pull out an episode as creative as that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover is proof that Abbott is still more than worthy of its continued place of Emmy prominence.
Photo: FX Network
Platform: FX 2025 Emmy nominations: 13
It’s thematically appropriate that The Bear has become the hot stove of the TV-awards conversation: Touch it and you’ll get burned. Season three— the one that aired last summer — was where the deeply predictable backlash kicked in. It was a comedy that not only wasn’t funny but wasn’t even attempting to be a comedy. There were some realhighlights, and I want to give creator Christopher Storer and his team extra credit for their ambition. But lots of characters spent the season spinning their wheels, and even good individual episodes like the Tina flashback (featuring Ayo Edebiri’s Emmy-nominated direction) seemed too obviously a tactic to pad out the season.
Photo: Copyright 2024, FX. All Rights Reserved.
Platform: FX 2025 Emmy nominations: 6
In its final run, What We Do in the Shadows proved it could still deliver some of TV’s biggest laughs. Placing Guillermo and Nadja in a corporate setting yielded multiple strong episodes (a tip of the cap to Tim Heidecker as their jackass boss), as did Laszlo’s attempt to play Dr. Frankenstein. The series finale — nominated for a writing Emmy — was a creative way to play the “we all know there’s no ending that will satisfy everyone” card by “hypnotizing” the audience into accepting one of a myriad of final acts. It will remain an enduring shame that this show garnered only one acting nomination (for Matt Berry last year).
Photo: Alex Bailey/Netflix
Platform: Netflix 2025 Emmy nominations: 2
The Diplomat is not a sophisticated political thriller, though it does its best to fake it. Keri Russell’s performance as the new U.S. ambassador to the U.K. — or is she on the fast track to vice-president? — sits right in her sweet spot of capable-yet-irritable operator, and her scenes opposite David Gyasi (as her U.K. counterpart and possible love interest), Celia Imrie (as a master manipulator), and especially Allison Janney (as a hurricane in female form) crackle with an urgent chemistry.
Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO
Platform: HBO 2025 Emmy nominations: 23
After pulling off the high-wire acts of class-conscious character satire and murder mystery in seasons one and two, it was inevitable that Mike White’s show would sooner or later lose its footing, so credit to season three for terminating the suspense. The White Lotus had its moments, of course — Parker Posey’s maintained mood of distress and dismay, all packaged in that ridiculous Durham accent; that Carrie Coon monologue that exists better in isolation than in context — but the seams struggled to hold it all together as satisfyingly as the previous seasons had. The finale-episode shoot-out felt like an act of throwing up one’s hands and admitting defeat at the hands of a runaway plot.
Photo: Apple TV+
Platform: Apple TV+ 2025 Emmy nominations: 7
Shrinking has maintained the psychology practice of Harrison Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhoades as its nominal central base, but increasingly (and to the show’s benefit) it has become TV’s best hangout comedy. This alignment has allowed the supporting cast to shine, with Michael Urie and Jessica Williams joining Jason Segel and Ford as acting nominees, and key players like Christa Miller, Ted McGinley, and Wendie Malick orbiting freely. It hasn’t all worked (adding co-creator Brett Goldstein to the ensemble as the sad-sack drunk driver responsible for Jimmy’s wife’s death was a mistake I hope the show is able to back out of in season three), but as Cougar Town was at its best, Shrinking is a multigenerational story about gathering your network of emotional support and then hanging out with them every minute of the day.
Photo: Macall Polay / HBO
Platform: HBO Max 2025 Emmy nominations: 24
My extreme disinterest in a spinoff series about a character from The Batman that I found to be a superfluous waste of Colin Farrell’s valuable time was only matched by my surprise at how much The Penguin gripped me. Kudos to showrunner Lauren LeFranc for navigating the waters of franchise IP, taking the handoff from Matt Reeves’s film and telling a completely independent story. A story, it should be noted, that for significant stretches isn’t even the titular Penguin’s story. As good as Farrell is at operating under all those prosthetics, Cristin Milioti walks away with the season as a spurned mobster’s daughter, and LeFranc doesn’t wrest the narrative away from her unless she absolutely has to. Mob stories are a dime a dozen these days, and superhero yarns are probably worth even less, but The Penguin told a dark, twisty, operatic tale of at least two sociopaths, and it was riveting.
Photo: Apple
Platform: Apple TV+ 2025 Emmy nominations: 5
Slow Horses is the most digestible show on television, and I could not mean that more complimentarily. In its fourth season, the format remains in lockstep with the three that preceded it: The discarded MI5 agents at Slough House, led by the somehow-ever-more-slovenly Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) are embroiled in a new unfurling terrorist threat, and one of their own (Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright) is on the run. While the individuals within Slough House — and the handful of higher-ups at the Park, like Kristin Scott Thomas’s coolly capable Diana Taverner — develop their characters over the course of the series, the discrete plots told over a tight six episodes are TV’s best approximation of reading a really satisfying spy novel. This season had several gnarly shoot-outs, the addition of new characters played by Hugo Weaving (as an American!) and Battlestar Galactica’s James Callis (as a sniveling little weasel, if you can believe it), plus, yes, new scenes of Lamb farting to punctuate a scene. Bring on season five!
Photo: Ben Blackall/Netflix
Platform: Netflix 2025 Emmy nominations: 13
Over the course of four episodes, creators Stephen Graham and Jack Thornedeliver a gripping, challenging miniseries. A 13-year-old boy is accused of stabbing a female classmate to death, and over the course of four episodes, the tale becomes thornier and more troublesome, as the culprit is revealed not only to be the child but the pervasive toxic misogyny that seduces boys before their parents even know it’s a threat. The bravado of Adolescence’s visual gimmick, where each episode is presented as a single take, is often more showy than it is effective, but when it does click into place, as it does in the show’s counseling session, it’s really thrilling.
Photo: Apple TV+
Platform: Apple TV+ 2025 Emmy nominations: 27
Taking a 33-month break between the finale of season one and the premiere of season two might have proved fatal for another series, but Severance was able to establish new stakes for its central quartet and then plunge them into far more complicated waters. The love pentagon that developed between Innie Mark S., Helly, Helena Egan, Outie Mark S., and Gemma was so twisty and complex it seemed to discourage social media’s favorite pastime, unhinged shipping. Meanwhile, Tramell Tillman’s Mr. Milchick went on his own journey of self-discovery. As any good second season does, Severance plumbed deeper, explored further, traveled to chilly seaside towns and back in time to reveal the fate of its presumed-dead wife. Not all of it satisfied, but the central conundrum of Innies versus Outies trapped inside a corporate cult remained as compelling as ever.
Photo: Apple TV+
Platform: Apple TV+ 2025 Emmy nominations: 23
The movie business is facing a treacherous and possibly bleak future, and while The Studio is acutely aware of that, its response is to pull back the curtain and reveal utter lunacy. One thing I loved about its first season was that it never leaned on one aspect of Hollywood for too long. Yes, there’s debauchery, sure the studio-tentpole-development process is stupider than you ever imagined, and it turns out Ron Howard is a mean little bastard. But the show lightly bounces between these observations, with only Seth Rogen’s inept but earnest studio head as the constant. Does The Studio eviscerate Hollywood enough for everyone’s tastes? No. Is it a surprise Hollywood is embracing it? Of course not. But it’s the flat-out funniest of the nominated comedies this year, and I support it breaking through the Emmy walls like the Kool-Aid Man (in theaters next summer).
Photo: Sarah Shatz/FX
Platform: FX 2025 Emmy nominations: 9
There’s no way a show about a woman (Michelle Williams) dealing with her terminal-cancer diagnosis could be anything but maudlin. Even knowing that Williams’s character responds to her diagnosis by embarking on a sexual awakening, it still seems like the show is destined for maudlin. And yet Dying for Sex never is, even till the very end, even as the tears are running down your face. Williams and the Emmy-nominated-yet-still-underrated Jenny Slate are the main attraction here, but key supporting turns by Esco Jouléy, Sissy Spacek, Rob Delaney, Jay Duplass, and the deeply slept-on David Rasche, along with some late-inning relief pitching by Paula Pell, are all so incredibly good. If you avoided this show because you were worried it would make you feel like crap, I encourage you to reconsider.
Photo: John Johnson/Max
Platform: HBO Max 2025 Emmy nominations: 13
The longform, procedural, network-style medical drama is back, baby — and this time it’s got that HBO sparkle. The Pitt is so many great things at once: a return vehicle for Noah Wyle (Emmy nominated for the first time since 1999), a showcase for a crackerjack ensemble cast (Katherine LaNasa’s much deserved nomination stands in for a good half-dozen castmates who should have joined her), and a satisfying 15 episodes that never felt like one story stretched out over many hours. Cases flowed through the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room at a steady pace, some dispatched within a single episode, others playing out over three or four, and the stories unfold at their own pace, keeping the audience at a very effective imbalance throughout. And even with the green farm kid getting fluids splashed on him all season or the seemingly stalwart senior resident showing himself to be a heel, you felt like you were watching a group of professionals doing their best in trying circumstances. An inspirational show for our time.
Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Platform: Disney+ 2025 Emmy nominations: 14
Andor is also an inspirational show for our time, albeit in a very different way. Over the course of two seasons, we saw the radicalization of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) from disaffected thief to committed leader of a rebellion. Creator Tony Gilroy was unafraid to expand the field in season two, with Andor himself often taking a back seat to the expansion of characters like Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), not to mention those within the Empire. Gilroy’s talent as a writer helped make Andor TV’s most satisfying multicharacter drama, but his verve as a showrunner is what took Andor to its greatest heights: a show that called out genocide by name and reclaimed the Star Wars legacy as a battle cry against fascists above all.
Tramell Tillman’s performance embodies the Apple TV+ show’s guiding metaphor. Photo: Apple TV+
Tucked in the midpoint of its season-two finale, “Cold Harbor,” is a moment that bottles the disorientation that makes Severance such irresistible television. Seth Milchick, played by Tramell Tillman, meets one of his employees, Dylan (Zach Cherry), in a sterile conference room to resolve the lingering issue of the latter’s resignation request. Despite enduring repeated humiliations from his employer, Lumon Industries, and though he’s oversubscribed, Milchick nevertheless handles the exchange with faultless professionalism. “As it may yield an embarrassing, emotional response in you, and as I am duly swamped, I shall leave you to read it in solitude,” Milchick says, his diction measured and verbose as he slides forward a folder with three exacting fingers. When Dylan takes it, the camera cuts back just as Milchick pivots and darts out the door like a bat out of hell, his ramrod posture still discernible even as the odd framing crops him off. It’s a fleeting and strange beat, cartoonish if it weren’t so unsettling, but one that effectively crystallizes Severance’s surreal tone — and at its center, the Magnetic Mr. Milchick.
As Lumon’s middle-manager par excellence, Tillman was the breakout performer of Severance’s first season. Season two gives the character more power and complications that challenge his sense of self, and Tillman capitalizes on the material, repeatedly seizing the spotlight every second he’s on the screen. Tillman earned himself an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and though pundits are placing their bets on The White Lotus’s Walton Goggins, Tillman deserves to take up more space in the conversation. Beyond the historic possibility of becoming the first Black actor to win the category, he doesn’t get enough credit for embodying the strange essence of Severance, a show that broke out in no small part due to the boldness of its peculiarities. In a series defined by unusual, carefully calibrated choices, from its mysterious goats to the elliptical nature of its central corporation to the constant presence of archaic language (“Has it verve?” “The most of its flock”), Tillman delivers the performance that feels the most singular.
The exchange with Dylan doesn’t come close to Milchick’s most dazzling showcase. That comes later, in the finale’s unhinged marching-band sequence, in which his electrifying physicality shifts to genuine menace as he tries to break down the vending-machine barricade Helly (Britt Lower) built to prevent Milchick from stopping her and Mark (Adam Scott) from freeing his wife. It’s a distilled version of the force first glimpsed in season one’s “Defiant Jazz” scene, in which Milchick grooves out with Mark, Helly, and the rest of the MDR crew in a corporate-mandated effort at boosting worker morale (or “merriment”). That moment worked in the opposite direction, injecting brief humanity into a character who had until then been cast as a Sphinx-like authority figure.
What makes both scenes pop is their contrast. As Milchick, Tillman holds his body with a statuelike composure, which makes his bursts of movement land with amplified intensity. He is the vessel through which Severance constantly communicates Lumon’s dominance over its workers, his very stillness humming with the implied threat of corporate violence. That threat is made literal in “Cold Harbor” through another character, Mr. Drummond, a hulking Lumon higher-up played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson who savagely attempts to kill a spying Mark in the series’s most visceral confrontation to date. But Severance keeps Milchick more enigmatic. The danger he represents never fully erupts but instead simmers perpetually beneath the skin. We continue to learn surprisingly little about him, even compared to Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), who gets her own standalone episode this season, but the glimpses of Milchick we do see are tantalizing: the sharp leather jacket and motorcycle, the flickers of unease on his face hinting that he recognizes the system’s wrongness, and his fierce defense of traits central to his identity, especially his ornate, loquacious speech. That verbosity can be read as a battleground of race, class, and corporate respectability, and it speaks to Tillman’s performance that it all comes through without the character having to spell it out. His obliqueness is the quality that makes him so consistently compelling, accentuated by how the show never really lets you settle on how you’re supposed to feel about him: Is he an antagonist, a victim, or something in between?
In this, Milchick embodies a crucial facet of Severance’s workplace metaphor. While the show’s sympathies rest squarely with the macrodata refiners as put-upon workers (including even Helly, though the philosophical ambiguity as to whether she can be considered her own person is part of the show’s conceptual fun), Milchick is the consummate middle manager, suspended between the ruthless authority of capital and the moral clarity of labor. His position grows even more complicated in the second season when he’s nominally promoted after Lumon benches Cobel as manager of the severed floor. The “elevation” means little, as he’s immediately wedged between another subordinate, Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), and Mr. Drummond, who looms over him as a corporate enforcer. The effect is a tightening vise. Drummond belittles him after a poor performance review, specifically targeting his speech; Milchick displaces that humiliation onto Miss Huang, and then, in a remarkable scene, onto himself. Alone before a mirror, laboring to internalize Drummond’s order to he simplify his language, the camera zooms in as he repeats a line he once delivered to Ms. Huang, whittling it down with each iteration from “You must eradicate from your essence childish folly” to “You must abandon childish things” to the blunt, simple “Grow up.” A sequence that could very well dance on the edge of hokeyness becomes, in Tillman’s hands, a scene of a man struggling between dueling impulses. His voice gradually descends into a growl as he vibrates with a mixture of pain, anger, and yearning.
Severance may ground its narrative and moral thrust in the plight of its macrodata refiners, but Milchick is in many ways the essence of the show’s thesis, embodying the ways corporate culture twists, consumes, and corrupts all it touches. Nothing about Milchick works without Tillman’s exacting performance, and I’m rooting for him to have a long, unpredictable career. We’ve already seen flashes of what that might look like. In Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning, where he plays the captain of a nuclear submarine Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is trying to commandeer, he delivered the film’s single best acting performance, radiating more chemistry with Cruise in a single scene than all of Hunt’s love interests combined — “Mister, if you’ve come to poke the bear, you’ve come to the right man” — and so much militant erotic charge it could power the nuclear sub they’re inside. That moment, too, capitalizes on Tillman’s ability to radiate intimidation by way of an otherworldly strangeness, a quality that feels exciting in its sheer potential and, in this moment, award-worthy in its own right.
