Don’t Sleep on These 12 Series This Emmys Season: ‘Dead Ringers,’ ‘The Rehearsal’ and More

In its first season, “Abbott” became the increasingly rare broadcast sitcom to resonate with both audiences and critics. In its second, Quinta Brunson’s ABC comedy doubled down on classic tropes like the will-they-won’t-they. But it also told a story unprecedented in network primetime, mounting a damning case against charter schools and the threats they pose to urban public schools like Philadelphia’s fictional Abbott, including its students. Even more remarkably, it never feels pedantic. It’s just making the most of its setting — and the massive audience it’s found against the odds.

It’s doubtful anyone walked out of the theater after seeing “Rogue One” and wanted to know more about rebel fighter Cassian Andor. But “Andor” creator Tony Gilroy uses that fact to his advantage. The Disney+ drama is all about the obscure toilers and mid-level functionaries who make both sides of a revolution work: the freedom-fighting insurgents and the vast imperial state they’re trying to dismantle. As the rest of “Star Wars” runs on fumes, revisiting the same stories and characters ad nauseam, “Andor” finds a new, insightful way into the sprawling space epic.

Bill Hader has rebranded from an “SNL” star to an up-and-coming auteur. The bridge between the two is “Barry,” the HBO half-hour that itself has transformed over four seasons from a dark comedy about a hitman who tries acting to a soul-corroding drama about the damage of self-delusion. Hader directed all eight episodes of the final season, making Los Angeles — and later, Kansas — feel as empty and haunted as the souls of its characters. It was daring when Season 3 went out with Barry brought to justice; it’s downright thrilling for the show to close out with a time jump, taking risks and redefining itself ‘till the very end.

It begins with an anti-meet cute: two strangers encounter each other in a parking lot, where it’s hate at first sight. But Netflix’s “Beef,” created by Lee Sung Jin and produced by A24, knows that the opposite of love is indifference. What Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) have is a real connection, one rooted in their shared alienation and how that feeling interacts with their Asian American backgrounds. The nature of that connection feels unique in the modern TV landscape, and how it plays out is fittingly unpredictable. Wong and Yeun’s dual character study keeps us strapped in for the ride

In a just world, “Los Espookys” would be headed into a third season. In our world, the least the canceled HBO comedy deserves on the way out is an acknowledgment of how distinctive, creative, and above all, hilarious the show could be. Teaming up with Fred Armisen, writers Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega created a world that felt like the insides of their brains. The titular group are horror artists for hire, a perfectly rational profession in this alternate reality. Faced with effortlessly inventive choices like casting Yalitza Aparicio as the literal moon, fans have no choice but to simply go with it — even if HBO wouldn’t.

Rian Johnson bring the flair of a film director and the enthusiasm of a TV nerd to this Peacock project, which stars Natasha Lyonne as a human lie detector. The procedural includes the predictable, comforting rhythm — and creativity within constraints — that genre implies. It’s also filled with major stars and gorgeous, arresting backdrops. “Poker Face” loves to shapeshift even as it’s anchored by Lyonne, a modern Columbo rasping her way through America, one “bullshit!” at a time.

Any prequel to “Bridgerton” would likely be a hit, but like the typical Shonda Rhimes protagonist, “Queen Charlotte” overachieves. The love story of a young German princess and England’s King George III has basis in historical fact, as do the king’s struggles with mental illness. Showrunner Rhimes still feels free to take liberty with the origins of the so-called Great Experiment in opening the aristocracy to people of color, adding to the series’ stakes. This feels as realistic and lived-in a romance as Rhimes has ever crafted, and is all the more affecting for it.

Nathan Fielder knows that he makes you uncomfortable. This was the subtext of “Nathan for You,” which used real people as props; with “The Rehearsal,” Fielder puts the ethical tensions underlining his work in the spotlight’s glare. In theory, it’s about Fielder’s character helping participants “rehearse” meticulously recreated aspects of their lives. In practice, “The Rehearsal” is about dismantling the illusion that Fielder can control the world around him and coerce other people without consequences. After the first season, you can’t say much about Fielder he hasn’t already said about himself.

The FX series is a hangout comedy about kids coming of age on an economically depressed reservation. It’s also an achingly sad study of grief and collective trauma, and the ability to combine the two is what makes the show truly special. The digressive structure, closer to connected vignettes than a fully serialized arc, helps “Reservation Dogs” keep its tone elastic, moving from a healthcare convention to a death vigil to a Santa Monica beach. On the anniversary of a friend’s death, the namesake group finally experiences the catharsis needed to move on. Wherever they go next, it’ll be worth watching

Recommending “Succession” for the Emmys feels a bit like recommending air for your lungs. Inevitable as its victories may be, though, the final season has earned them, having shocked the world by killing off patriarch Logan Roy in an early episode. “Succession” can have a sitcom’s love of repetition, but Logan’s death unlocked new dimensions in its central relationships. Much like Logan, “Succession” is going out on top, but its characters are approaching rock bottom. There are always new depths to a billionaire’s misery.

The first season became a surprise pandemic hit, so much so that HBO urged Mike White to turn his quarantine-friendly concept into a full-blown franchise. In Season 2, it set sail for Sicily, took over another location of the Four Seasons, and staged what the writer-director calls “a bedroom farce with teeth.” “The White Lotus” is partly a murder mystery, an element Season 2 leaned on more heavily for suspense. But it’s mostly a story about the everyday agonies we inflict on ourselves. It’s an unlikely franchise, but one that’s enabled career-best performances from actors including Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza.