It turns out, Emmy voters really like Sally Field — at least, a whole lot more than they like TV movies these days.
Just a decade ago, Field’s Emmy nomination for best actress in a limited series/TV movie for her heart-wrenching turn in Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures would signal business as usual. The category had long been the domain of decorated actresses of a certain age making the most of their juiciest roles in years — names like Julianne Moore (Game Change), Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge), Joan Allen (Georgia O’Keeffe) and Jessica Lange (Grey Gardens). The trend has been so closely associated with the category for so long that it might come as a shock that Field is its first nominee from a TV movie in eight years, going back to Laura Dern for 2018’s The Tale.
This reflects a few key developments in TV writ large. For starters, this was an incredibly thin year for limited series — the rest of the best actress nominees all hailed from the most nominated shows overall, while those that could’ve conceivably taken Field’s slot represented contenders that were totally blanked, like Tessa Thompson’s His & Hers, Kerry Washington’s Imperfect Women and Robin Wright’s The Girlfriend.
