6 Emmy predictions ahead of Thursday’s nominations announcement

Westworld

Westworld‘s got everything you could want in a prestige television drama: mystery, sex, violence, western shoot-outs, robots, Sir Anthony Freaking Hopkins. One thing it doesn’t have? The hardware to show for it. Despite its Golden Globe nominations for Best Drama Series, Best Actress in a Drama (Evan Rachel Wood), and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Thandie Newton), the show went home empty-handed in January.

We’re hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself when it comes to the Emmys for several reasons. First and foremost, Thandie Newton on Westworld is an actual queen among humans (humans, robots, whatever). Her fierceness playing host Maeve is unmatched, in my opinion, by any performance that could potentially compete against it.

Then there’s the fact that sinking into the show’s eye-popping alternative reality is just so easy. And riveting. In a time when movie and TV tropes are recycled over and over and over again, the concept and complicated backstory of the show feels so unique (okay, yes, technically it is also a recycled movie, but the way it’s approached by HBO is wholly original). We can’t wait to return to the park, and if the park has a few more trophies to display in its saloon next season, that would be even better.