This year’s Emmy Awards, airing Sept. 14 on CBS, are set to shine a spotlight on 25 different categories in the main broadcast. This undertaking could take over three hours. But it would take much, much longer to honor every great scene, performance and quirky coincidence to appear on TV in the last year. There are so many shows and so many ways to be compelled (and sometimes repelled) by their content.
And so, cue the trumpets! Here, The Envelope presents its own, deeply subjective awards honoring the greatest moments in television during the 2024-25 season — at least those that won’t get their proper recognition at the big show. Welcome to the 2025 Envy Awards!
Most Cracking Use of an Easter Egg: ‘The Gorge’
A hidden in-joke in a movie or TV series is one thing; burying two slickly executed Easter eggs from your stars’ previous hits takes things to another level. In the Emmy-nominated “The Gorge” (Apple TV+), Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller play assassins slowly getting to know each other remotely, and spend time sharing their hobbies in a montage that might spark some déjà vu in fans of the actors. First, they’re shown playing chess across an abyss — a clear shoutout to Taylor-Joy’s Emmy-winning 2020 limited series “The Queen’s Gambit.” Seconds later they’re banging makeshift drums at each other — an equally clear nod to Teller’s Oscar-winning 2014 film, “Whiplash.” Coincidence? We think not — this one was executed as smoothly as a hit man’s bullet fired into a mutant monster.
Most Thrilling Use of a Weapon in an Elevator: ‘Squid Game’
Who knew guns with hair triggers could be so shockingly lethal in elevators? OK, maybe everyone. But there was tough competition this year in this category. In Apple TV+’s Emmy-nominated “Severance,” Mark (Adam Scott) holds a gun on Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) — and then whoops! it discharges when he shifts between outie and innie, killing the menacing supervisor. But in “Squid Game” (Netflix), No-eul (Park Gyu-young) draws out the tension while crawling toward an overlooked firearm left in an executive elevator — and her final shots save her life. That extended moment of suspense gives her the killing edge in this category.
Outstanding Use of Misdirection in a New Series: ‘Dept. Q’
It can be hard to surprise TV audiences these days, but the Emmy-nominated “Dept. Q” (Netflix) shocked audiences twice in its pilot through clever editing. In the opening moments, a shooter springs upon authorities surveying a crime scene with almost supernatural speed, catching not just the police but also the audience off guard. But the real surprise involves Merritt (Chloe Pirrie), a prickly prosecutor who seems primed to team up with the surly, wounded Det. Morck (Matthew Goode) to solve crimes. But — spoiler alert — Merritt’s scenes are actually flashbacks, and she’s the series’ victim, missing for four years. That’s not just a twist in the tale, that’s a twist in the whole genre.
Best Solution Featuring a Math Savant Spy: ‘Shetland’
Nerdy math types multiplied in this year’s lineup, though no character exactly fit the stereotypical image of a poindexter. Apple TV+’s “Prime Target” features Edward (Leo Woodall), a handsome university student who won’t look you in the eye but discovers that a head for figures can land you in an international conspiracy — and put your life in danger. Meanwhile, the overlooked-but-fantastic BritBox series “Shetland” also combined a math genius and an international spy ring with the murder of Annie Bett (Sarah MacGillivray). Both deserve credit for elevating the geek in us all, but “Shetland” takes the win by showing Bett passing on her numbers know-how to her son, calming him while they’re in the middle of a secret nighttime investigation.
Ickiest Relationship: ‘American Horror Stories’
Blame “Game of Thrones” (HBO), which took the taboo of incest to highbrow, Emmy-winning TV a few years ago and opened the door to many more WTF moments around the dial. This year, not only did “Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” continue the theme with an episode where Daemon (Matthew Smith) dreams of having sex with his mom, but the Emmy-winning “The White Lotus” keeps things in the family as Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) discovers just how much of a people pleaser his younger bro, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), is. FX’s “American Horror Stories” went one icky step further, though, as David (Victor Garber) is turned on by his own clone. The pair round the bases together and bring new meaning to “self-love.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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