Emmy Contenders, in Focus

What does it take to create a memorable shot? Vision, of course, and a skilled director and crew that know how to provide exactly the right tool for the job. But just as often, it requires some serious luck. Take Better Call Saul and its Planet of the Apes homage that also revived a memorable character from Breaking Bad: the inflatable Statue of Liberty outside Saul Goodman’s seedy law office. Series cocreator Vince Gilligan assumed they could find one other than the original inflatable used on Breaking Bad over a decade ago, but “lo and behold, these things are not everywhere.” And then once it was set up in the actual desert, Gilligan told my colleague David Canfield, “If this thing had torn open in the wind, which was a distinct possibility, we would’ve been screwed.” 

I’m Katey Rich, and this week I’ve been marveling at some of the candid, revelatory conversations my colleagues and I have been having with some of television’s most fascinating people, as Emmy voting nears its end. (Attention, voters! Your ballots are due Monday. Plan accordingly.) In this year’s Emmy edition of the Shot List series, David spoke with Gilligan and cocreator Peter Gould about one particularly gripping episode of Better Call Saul, “Carrot and Stick,” and also dove deep on the bravura silent episode of Paramount+'s Evil with cocreator and director Robert King and cinematographer Petr Hlinomaz. Meanwhile I got to discuss the span of the first season of Severance with director Ben Stiller and cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné, who explained everything from the twisty hallway shots to the complicated light pattern that went into “Defiant Jazz.” Today, David wrapped up the series with a conversation with Matt Dufferand Ross Duffer about the latest season of Stranger Things,with the two admitting that even they underestimated how difficult some of the shots in their season finale would be. 

And that’s truly just the beginning of the insights we’ve been getting this week, and throughout all of Emmy season. The fun isn’t ending here, of course—next week, once ballots are in, we’ll take stock of how the streamers and networks performed in this first phase of Emmy campaigning. And then, before you know it, July 12 will be here, and a whole new stage of the race will begin. Keep joining us for that, and much more.

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