Emmys 2020: Why 'Dead to Me' stars Christina Applegate and Lina Cardellini deserve to win their nominations
Netflix's 'Dead To Me' is one of those rare dark comedies that impress from the get-go. Over the course of a thrilling two seasons, audiences follow Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) — strangers who seemingly meet for the first time during therapy and eventually form a bond — getting entangled in each other's mess.
Created by Liz Feldman and executively produced by Feldman, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Jessica Elbaum, the series makes shocking revelations and connections that link both Jen and Judy to each other in perhaps the most unthinkable of ways.
While Season 1 of the Netflix show was a sleeper hit and won its fair share of accolades. In 2019, Christina Applegate was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.
Applegate's nominations were deserving as her portrayal of Jen, a recently widowed woman who finds out more about her husband after his death, couldn't possibly have been done better by anyone else. At the same time, the show incorporated the actress' own personal struggle with double mastectomy into her character — a performance that had moved women audiences to tears. For Season 1, creator Feldman was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy, which she won.
This time around, following the successful release of Season 2 earlier this year, 'Dead To Me' earned itself several more accolades beginning with a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series — both Applegate and Cardellini are nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and Sherry Thomas, Russell Scott and Sharon Bialy have been nominated for a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series.
Truth be told, 'Dead To Me' deserves all these accolades and more for its shocking, thrilling and sometimes overwhelming story about two women bound by innumerable secrets and well, crimes. Over the course of the two seasons, audiences have come to root for the protagonists despite their flaws and the crimes they commit, even though it may very well be accepted that in real life, Jen and Judy wouldn't have it this easy.
Last year, despite Applegate's performance she didn't bag the award losing it to Phoebe Waller-Bridge for her show 'Fleabag'. But this year, the hope is renewed.
This year, Cardellini and Applegate are pit against Rachel Brosnahan for her work in 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel', Issa Rae for 'Insecure', Tracee Ellis Ross for 'Black-ish' and Catherine O'Hara for her outstanding work in 'Schitt's Creek'. The competition is fierce and each contender is stronger than the previous one. It might be a stretch hoping for both Applegate and Cardellini to win but if 'Dead to Me' is winning any awards this season, it should be recognising the talents of its leads (or at least one of them).