'The Sixth' leads nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards

As I promised twice, it's time for the next installment in my coverage of the News & Doc Emmy Awards by examining The Sixth and the rest of the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. The Sixth on the sixth!*

Since it is the only nominee in this category with another nomination and that is for Best Documentary, I begin with THE SIXTH | Trailer from Change Content.

THE SIXTH (www.thesixthmovie.com) is a feature documentary produced in collaboration with A24. From Academy Award® winning filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine & Sean Fine, THE SIXTH takes you inside the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol through six personal accounts, including Rep. Jamie Raskin and MPD Chief Robert Contee. This harrowing yet hopeful film, is a powerful reminder that the fate of democracy is in all our hands.

This isn't the first time the News & Doc Emmy Awards recognized coverage of January 6th; for starters, CNN's 'Live from the Capitol: January 6th, One Year Later' won two News & Doc Emmy Awards in 2023. It is the first time I've covered a nominated documentary about the event, although it probably won't be the last. In the meantime, this is still my favorite to win this category, although it is facing worthy competition and isn't a guaranteed winner. After all, Good Night Oppy had six nominations and was my pick to win Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary two years ago, but lost to How to Survive a Pandemic. Something similar could happen here.

Follow over the jump to watch the trailers or the equivalent for the rest of the nominees in this category and another look at Best Documentary.

'Good Night Oppy' has six nominations at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary and Best Documentary

I told my readers to "stay tuned" as "I'm feeling like examining Good Night Oppy's nominations at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards instead" at the conclusion of 'Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie' leads nominees for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the Emmy Awards. I begin with the category I think Good Night Oppy is most likely to win.

Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary
Earthstorm Netflix
Good Night Oppy Amazon Prime
How To Survive A Pandemic HBO Max
NOVA Augmented PBS
NOVA Ultimate Space Telescope PBS

Good Night Oppy leads with six nominations at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards and one at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for a total of seven nominations at two ceremonies. Only the Nova episode "Augmented" among its competition has another nomination for Outstanding Promotional Announcement. The rest only have this one nomination. I'd say Good Night Oppy is the favorite to win.

I'm sharing the trailers for these nominees, beginning with Good Night Oppy - Official Trailer | Prime Video.


After watching this, I remember why I used a different version of the trailer; that one had a good video description. This one is just advertising for (Amazon) Prime Video, so I'm not quoting it. Instead, I'm quoting myself.

Fifteen years is the lifespan of a dog. I can understand why Opportunity's ground crew would get attached and people would mourn its shutdown, which would feel like a pet passing.

The dramatic orchestral arrangement of David Bowie's "Life on Mars" made the trailer even more emotional.

Next, NOVA | Reinventing Bionics | Augmented | PBS, which is nominated for its own Emmy.

Follow the dramatic personal journey of Hugh Herr, a biophysicist working to create brain-controlled robotic limbs. At age 17, Herr’s legs were amputated after a climbing accident. Frustrated by the crude prosthetic limbs he was given, Herr set out to remedy their design, leading him to a career as an inventor who is helping to test a new approach to bionics.

I can see why this trailer earned a nomination. It's inspiring and makes me want to watch the show.

Now for the trailers to shows with only this nomination, beginning with Earthstorm | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Storm chasers, survivors and first responders recount their harrowing experiences with volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes.

This looks like another good show to recommend to my students, especially since I just told my earthquake stories to my geology students last Thursday. These are much more graphic than my experiences!

Speaking of harrowing stories in the face of natural disasters, watch How to Survive a Pandemic | Official Trailer | HBO.

Two years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, How to Survive a Pandemic takes viewers behind the scenes of the race to make a vaccine.

The effort to end the pandemic is certainly worthy of a nomination and also a video I'll recommend to my biology students.

The last trailer is NOVA Ultimate Space Telescope PREVIEW from Arizona Public Media (AZPM).

Discover how NASA engineers built and launched the most ambitious telescope of all time.

The James Webb Space Telescope was the top science story of 2022 and a major reason why 2022 was another great year in space.


Good Night Oppy is also competing for Best Documentary.

Best Documentary
CNN Films Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain CNN
Escape From Kabul HBO Max
FRONTLINE, The Associated Press Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes PBS
Good Night Oppy Amazon Prime
The Janes HBO Max

While Good Night Oppy is the most nominated entry at this ceremony competing for this award, I don't know enough about its competition yet to pick a winner. The Janes has four nominations, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain has three nominations, and Escape From Kabul and the FRONTLINE episode "Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes" have two each. Based on total nominations, I'd say The Janes is Good Night Oppy's stiffest competition, but I wouldn't be surprised if Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain pulls an upset. I'll get back to this category when I examine the rest of the nominees.

Follow over the jump for the rest of Good Night Oppy's nominations.

'El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie' vs. 'Bad Education' and 'American Son' — Outstanding Television Movie nominees about crime and punishment at the Emmy Awards

I told my readers to "Stay tuned," as "I'm skipping to television movies for the next installment of this series" to conclude 'Queer Eye' leads structured reality program nominees at the Emmy Awards while 'preaching love, acceptance, pride, and compassion'. Here are the Emmy nominations for television movies followed by my comments on how much they focus on politics and government and their chances of winning.

Outstanding Television Movie

American Son (Netflix)
Bad Education (HBO)
Dolly Parton's Heartstrings: These Old Bones (Netflix)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)

Look! No "Black Mirror!" That means that the field is clear for a movie part of the anthology series. The two movies most likely to claim the award also happen to be about crime and punishment, "Bad Education" and "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie." Of the two, "Bad Education" sticks closer to one of the main themes I'm examining in this series, depictions of government and politics in entertainment, as it's a dramatization of a real-life scandal. From IMDB: "The beloved superintendent of New York's Roslyn school district and his staff, friends and relatives become the prime suspects in the unfolding of the single largest public school embezzlement scandal in American history." Remember, public schools are government institutions. On the other hand, "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie" is purely fictional and focuses less on government and more on the criminals. That written, it has four nominations to two for "Bad Education," so I think it's more likely to win.

Out of the rest of the nominees, both "American Son" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend" also have government in the form of law enforcement as settings, if not themes, as "American Son" takes place in a police station while "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend" has a prison as one of its settings. Only "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings: These Old Bones" has nothing to do with government; it's a musical.

Next, two acting nominations that will be presented at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt on Watchmen (HBO)
Hugh Jackman as Dr. Frank Tassone on Bad Education (HBO)
Paul Mescal as Connell Waldron on Normal People (Hulu)
Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman on Hollywood (Netflix)
Mark Ruffalo as Dominick and Thomas Birdsey on I Know This Much Is True (HBO)

This is a prestigious enough award that the Television Academy made a video for it. Watch Tatiana Maslany announce the nominees in 72nd Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series.

The nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series are Jeremy Irons, Hugh Jackman, Paul Mescal, Jeremy Pope, and Mark Ruffalo.

The television movie nominee is Hugh Jackman for "Bad Education." He belongs here, but he's not likely to win; the competition is too stiff. The nominees from limited series will likely outpoll him. As for my pick, I'll repeat what I wrote in 'Watchmen' and 'Unbelievable' lead nominees about politics and government at the 2020 Television Critics Association Awards: "I would not count out three-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner as a producer Mark Ruffalo, the one actor from a show not nominated for Program of the Year, who played a set of very different identical twins in 'I Know This Much Is True.'" It's between Ruffalo and Jeremy Irons, who played what I would barely call a leading role as Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt in the very political "Watchmen."

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Calvin "Cal" Abar / Doctor Manhattan on Watchmen (Episode: "A God Walks into Abar") (HBO)
Jovan Adepo as Young Will Reeves on Watchmen (Episode: "This Extraordinary Being") (HBO)
Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)
Louis Gossett Jr. as Will Reeves on Watchmen (Episode: "See How They Fly") (HBO)
Dylan McDermott as Ernest "Ernie" West on Hollywood (Episode: "Meg") (Netflix)
Jim Parsons as Henry Willson on Hollywood (Episode: "Outlaws") (Netflix)

Tituss Burgess is the television movie nominee in a field full of limited series actors. I think his only hope of winning is if the voters split their ballots among the two nominees for "Hollywood" and three nominees from "Watchmen." Otherwise, I think the Emmy electorate will settle on an actor from "Watchmen." I would vote for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, but I expect they will vote for Louis Gossett Jr., who has won both an Oscar, an Emmy, and two Golden Globes already.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations for "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie" at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Kerry Washington promotes 'The Fight,' a documentary about the ACLU's legal battles with the Trump Administration

Two weeks ago, I wrote about "John Lewis: Good Trouble" for the Sunday entertainment feature. Today, I am featuring another documentary about civil rights and politics, "The Fight," "an inside look at the legal battles that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union are facing during the Trump administration." Watch The Fight - Official Trailer by Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing.

The Fight is an inspiring, emotional insider look at how these important battles are fought and the legal gladiators on the front lines fighting them. Directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres capture the rollercoaster ride of the thrill and defeat in these deeply human battles. When a mother is separated from her child, a soldier is threatened to lose his career, a young woman’s right to choose is imperiled at the pleasure of a government official, and the ability to exercise our basic right to vote is threatened, the consequences can be devastating to us and to future generations. The Fight celebrates the unsung heroes who fiercely work to protect our freedoms.

While I've mentioned the ACLU in passing before and even reported on the organization being nominated for Creative Arts Emmy Awards two years ago, I've never made the ACLU the main subject of one of my posts until now. Time to make up for that omission.

Kerry Washington, the star of "Scandal," is one of the film's producers. She has been busy giving interviews promoting the documentary, including the one that got my attention, Kerry Washington on the ACLU | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO).

Emmy-nominated actor and producer Kerry Washington joins Bill to discuss her work on the ACLU documentary, "The Fight."

Washington's star power should serve the film well when it comes time for awards such as the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards and Academy Awards. It's already won two, a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking at the Sundance Festival and Best Documentary at the Miami Film Festival. May those be good omens for the film's award prospects.

Speaking of awards, Good Morning America interviewed Washington in Kerry Washington talks Emmy noms and a ‘Scandal’ reunion – in her PJs. "The Fight" got third billing to the two entertainment events in the title.

Catching up with Washington, who was nominated for four Emmys this year, including one for her role in “Little Fires Everywhere.”

Looks like I'll be busy with the Emmy Awards for the next two months. Stay tuned.

"We eat a lot of oil"

I'm showing "The End of Suburbia" to my students this week, which means it's time to update the Guide to entries that contain answers to "The End of Suburbia."  For this semester, I'm following through on a promise I made in a comment on the latter entry last semester.

I need to write about fossil fuel use in agriculture, a topic covered by Questions 14-16 for "The End of Suburbia" and Question 28 for "Food, Inc." Stay tuned.

Follow over the jump for the four questions and the answers in the same style as Corn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet.

Real-life 'Europa Report' from JPL

I concluded Local gas now $2.77 by telling my readers to "stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment entry."  I'll do something different tonight by connecting two videos from NASA/JPL that I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Philae discovers organics) with a science fiction movie, "Europa Report," a movie about the search for extraterrestrial life.  It turns out that NASA is interested in the moon for exactly the same reason.

For an overview, watch Europa: Ocean World.

Scientists believe there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. NASA-JPL astrobiologist Kevin Hand explains why scientists are so excited about the potential of this ice-covered world to answer one of humanity's most profound questions.

For a terrestrial analogue to the oceans of Europa, Extreme Shrimp May Hold Clues to Alien Life.

This extreme oasis of life deep in the Caribbean Sea may hold clues to life on other planetary bodies, including Jupiter's moon Europa.

Art imitating life imitating art.  Should humans actually ever get to Europa, or at least a robot explorer, may the results be as successful but less tragic than the finale of the film.

Speaking of finales of films about Europa, there is always this warning from the end of "2010."


Looks like both the real makers and fictional backers of "Europa Report" ignored this one.