This week, the Cooler Gang cover their 2018 Limited Series Emmy predictions. Plus, it’s Oscar season, which means it’s time for our latest Fantasy Oscar Pool.

With the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards happening this weekend, we’re starting out final countdown into the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. On today’s podcast, we’re covering our 2018 Limited Series Emmy predictions. Will The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – Ryan Murphy’s Gianni Versace/Andrew Cunanan limited series – dominate? Or will its relatively muted reaction (in comparison to the O.J. Simpson season) make room for some surprise wins? Who will win, who would we personally choose, and who are the spoilers?

But first, as you may have noticed, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper opened the podcast with their theme for the upcoming A Star Is Born, which premiered last week at the Venice Film Festival. Oscar season has kicked off in full force, so it’s time for the 2nd Annual Water Cooler Podcast Fantasy Oscar pool. Joey, Megan, and Clarence each pick Oscar teams as last year. This year, we’re tossing in the films themselves. In addition to five actors and five actresses, we’re selecting three films for our Oscar teams. We’ll tally scores based on festival awards, opening weekend reviews, and magazine covers until critics awards start rolling out. Then, a new change to the rules kicks in, we cover that in our Fantasy Oscar segment.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

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The Cooler Gang flashes back to 1970s Washington, D.C., as Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams help bring down the Nixon Administration in Dick. Plus, Sharp Objects and Hereditary!

Voting for the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards wrapped Monday. It’s literally all over but the counting. This week, we’re stepping away from the Emmys for the latest entry in the Our Favorite Movies series. Joey’s Volume 5 entry is Andrew Fleming’s 1999 political comedy Dick. Starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams, Dick offers a revisionist slant on the Watergate era. Dunst and Williams play two teenage girls who become unwittingly embroiled in the scandal that ended Richard Milhouse Nixon’s (Dan Hedaya) presidency. Joey dives into what makes this one of his favorite movies. We also talk about why the film was such a box office disaster upon release in the summer of 1999.

But first, in TV Tidbits, we talk John Goodman’s recent revelation that Roseanne would die in The Conners spin-off series. Next, we cover the series finale of HBO’s great Sharp Objects. Actually, will this be the series finale? Finally, Clarence finally caught up with the early summer indie horror sensation Hereditary. We talk about the film itself and Toni Collette’s Oscar chances as A24 plans to launch a campaign for Best Actress.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

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Mindhunter‘s Cameron Britton talks to Awards Daily about how he became serial killer Ed Kemper, how the role impacted his life, and what his Emmy nomination means to him.

Cameron Britton is having a very, very good year.

When Netflix’s Mindhunter premiered last fall, critics and audiences alike approached the dramatic series with respect and awe, thanks to the influence of the great director David Fincher. But everyone, literally everyone, was talking about Cameron Britton. His take on infamous serial killer Edmund Kemper captivated audiences. If you were talking about Mindhunter, then you were talking about Cameron Britton’s brilliant performance.

The Television Academy also seemed to be talking about Cameron Britton too. This year, he received his first Emmy nomination in the Guest Actor in a Drama Series category for the role.

Here, Cameron talks to Awards Daily about how he wrestled with Edmund Kemper. He dove so deeply into Kemper that it took time to exorcise the role from his system. He also talks about what the role meant for his career and how he prepped for it by running lines with his close friends. It’s a fascinating conversation with an actor clearly on the rise in Hollywood.

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This week, the Cooler Gang looks at the 2018 Emmy-nominated Guest performance races. Who’s ahead going into the second week of Emmy voting? Who’s a potential spoiler? Plus, Consider… our Emmy favs.

Last Monday marked the start of the Television Academy’s second and final round of voting for the 2018 Primetime Emmy Awards. So, this week, we’re continuing our exploration of the below-the-line categories. Guest performance in a comedy and drama series isn’t your typical craft-based below-the-line category. However, they’re presented with the Creative Arts ceremony a week before the official primetime telecast. So this podcast looks at each performance in the comedy and drama Guest performance races. We predict who will take home the Emmy and who could be a potential spoiler.

Also, since we’re halfway through the voting window, we each offer up our personal favorite Emmy nominees. This is our annual Consider… voting push. We nominate someone or something that we want the Television Academy to strongly consider in their final round voting.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Be sure to catch up with Andrew Fleming’s Dick in advance of next week when Joey offers this up as his pick for the latest entry in the Our Favorite Movies series.

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American Horror Story: Cult brings co-star Adina Porter her first Emmy nomination after 30 years in television, film, and theater. Here, she talks about Emmy morning, the crazy genius of the AHS series, and what drives Beverly Hope’s murderous rage.

Take a moment, pull up Wikipedia, and review the career of actress Adina Porter. OK, take a few moments. You’ll need it. Her career spans 30 year of work on the stage, in film and in some of the highest profile television series of the last ten years. She first caught my eye as Lettie Mae Thornton, the self-described (by Porter of course) “bad mom” to Tara (Rutina Wesley) in HBO’s True Blood. I’ll never forget the scene in which Lettie Mae, now rehabilitated and seeking amends with her estranged daughter, begs Tara – now a vampire – to let her drink her own blood.

The line went something like “Let me feed you now as I couldn’t when you were a baby.”

But Porter is no stranger to difficult material. Enter Ryan Murphy and the American Horror Story series. 2016’s Roanoke saw Porter’s Lee Harris tied and seasoned, ready to be consumed by a set of horrifying cannibals. The role brought Porter a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress on Television. But then, something even more shocking and (to many) horrifying happened.

In 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States. That moment seemed to cause a cultural rift that many artists and filmmakers continue to grapple with today. Murphy used the seventh season of his American Horror Story series – dubbed Cult – to work through some of these social and political crises.

Enter Adina Porter’s Beverly Hope, a news reporter who channels years of pent-up rage into murder. As one does in the American Horror Story world. The role, which many have proclaimed the performance of Porter’s career, resulted in her first Emmy nomination – Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Here, Porter talks to me about this recognition, about taking on such a politically charged role, and about using personal experiences to generate Beverly Hope’s rage.

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Jessica Biel returns to television in a ferocious and emotional performance that should catapult her to serious Emmy contention.

There is no one more impressed with Jessica Biel’s performance in The Sinner than me. Fellow ADTV contributor Megan McLachlan and I feverishly discussed Biel’s emotional role ever since Biel secured her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series.

Biel’s Cora Tanetti leads a simple life with her husband and their young son — until she randomly commits a vicious, public murder. While having a lazy day at the beach, Cora stabs to death a complete stranger. But is there a connected between Cora and this man? As the season progresses, we realize that this isn’t just your standard, bingeable drama (it is that too–don’t get me wrong!). It’s an exploration about how one person’s past can come back to destroy their present. Biel delivers a haunting, raw, and tragic performance. I was blown away by her presence and her tenacity on The Sinner.

It has been a while since Biel was on television (you know exactly what show she was on), so she comments on how vastly the landscape has changed. She also took the reins of producer for the show, a role she is luxuriating in for The Sinner‘s sophomore season.

With Cora Tanetti under her belt, we should all be looking forward to Biel stepping back on screen. Do not underestimate her.

The first season of The Sinner is streaming now on Netflix. 

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This week, the Water Cooler gang looks at major races within the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy categories. Plus, is it too early to start talking about the 2019 Limited Series race? (Answer: No)

We’re returning to the 2018 Emmy cycle this week. Two weeks ago, we looked at some of our favorite categories – Main Title Theme and Main Title Design. This week, we look at a host of categories within the below-the-line 2018 Creative Arts Emmy categories. We predict Variety Special (Live), Drama, Comedy, and Limited Series Casting, Cinematography, Costumes, Reality Show Hosting, and Production Design. Looking at these categories sometimes gives Emmy watchers a hint at what could dominate in the main categories. Plus, we take a quick look at this weekend’s TCA award winners.

But first on TV Tidbits, we take a look at next year’s Limited Series races with the launch of Netflix’s Maniac trailer. With only American Horror Story: Apocalypse on the radar, no Ryan Murphy production is likely to dominate. So what will? Also, we report out on some recent films we’ve seen including Eighth Grade, Mission Impossible: Fallout, and Christopher Robin.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on iTunes!

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The Our Favorite Movies series continues with Clarence’s Volume 5 entry, a guilty pleasure in 1995’s Showgirls. Awful film? Camp classic? Misunderstood masterpiece? Or all three?

This week kicks off the fifth volume of the Our Favorite Movies series. We’re putting quotes around “Favorite” as Clarence’s entry, 1995’s Showgirls, falls more in the guilty pleasure favorite category. Reviled on its 1995 release, Showgirls took on the NC-17 rating with a wide release and miles of publicity. Yet, the soft-core porn feel to the advertising coupled with savage critical reactions effectively killed the theatrical release. However, 20 years later, Showgirls emerged as one of MGM’s highest grossing catalog titles (it’s grossed well over $100 million since release). It’s also earned a critical reappraisal of sorts as many European filmmakers and critics came to its rescue. We’ll explore the phenomenon that is Showgirls and dive into its merits (there are a few) and demerits (there are lots) here at the Water Cooler.

But first on TV Tidbits, the reboot demon reared its ugly head again this week. This week saw rumors of reboots for Frasier on CBS plus a gaggle of classic TV shows including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude. We’re sure there are others. We’ve been on the record that reboots are bad in general, but sometimes a gem pops through like Netflix’s One Day At a Time re-imagining. Can any of these titles bear the same fruit? Plus, we talk about Phoebe Waller-Bridge, fresh off an Emmy nomination, who just announced deferring writing Killing Eve Season 2 to focus on Fleabag.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on iTunes!

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This week, the Water Cooler gang takes a look at Hulu’s Castle Rock. Plus, we handicap the 2018 Emmy Main Title Design and Main Title Theme categories.

After last week’s Emmy announcements, we’re taking a few podcasts to dig into the lesser known categories. We kick things off with two of our very favorite Emmy categories – Main Title Design and Original Main Title Theme Music. The winners of these categories are notoriously difficult to predict. Take notice from last year’s Main Title Design winner Stranger Things. Still, we take a look at all of the nominees and attempt our best guesses as to what will take home the Emmy. We also consider what the left-field spoiler could be a la Stranger Things.

But first, we take a look at Hulu’s Castle Rock in TV Tidbits. This new limited series premieres Wednesday and stars Andre Holland, Bill Skarsgard, Melanie Lynsky, Scott Glenn, and Sissy Spacek. We review the episodes we’ve seen thus far and talk about what, if any, Emmy chances the series has in the 2019 Emmy season.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Remember that the next entry in the Our Favorite Movies series drops Monday, July 30. That one is our Showgirls extravaganza.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on iTunes!

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All of Team ADTV gathers around the Water Cooler to dish today’s 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards announcement in this very special 2018 Emmy noms podcast.

All five members of TEAM ADTV join the cooler for this special edition of the Water Cooler Podcast. Why? Here’s a clue. Jeff Beal’s Emmy-nominated main title theme to Showtime’s The Putin Interviews opens the podcast. Yup, we’re talking about today’s announcement from the Television Academy of the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy nominees. We’re all gathered around the Water Cooler to dish the 2018 Emmy noms. What were the biggest surprises? What were the shocking omissions? Who’s ahead as we move into August’s final voting round? We’ll discuss all this and more on a special Emmy announcements edition of the Water Cooler Podcast.

We return with a regularly scheduled podcast on Monday, July 23. Also, remember that the next entry in the Our Favorite Movies series drops Monday, July 30. That one is our Showgirls (s)extravaganza.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on iTunes!

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