‘Franklin’ could win Michael Douglas that Emmy bookend
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Apple TV has a lush new biographical, historical drama in the form of “Franklin,” an intriguing, entertaining look at one of America’s most important figures in history — Benjamin Franklin. The limited series follows Franklin’s eight years in France as he attempts to convince King Louis XVI (Tom Pezier) to join the American Revolutionary War.
The series is a superb vehicle for Michael Douglas, who portrays this multi-faceted man. Douglas has always possessed a magnetic screen presence and he is in tour de force mode here, dazzling and charming throughout. As critics have noted, it’s his performance that elevates this series.
More from GoldDerby
Lucy Mangan (The Guardian) observed: “Douglas is wholly convincing as the experienced but idiosyncratic statesman and 18th-century celebrity. And he has his usual undeniable presence (so compelling but always with a hint of creepiness at the edges).”
Carly Lane (Collider) noted: “What an undeniable presence Douglas is… every scene where Douglas inhabits this seemingly larger-than-life person humanizes an American hero — and reasserts that this may have just been the role he was meant to play at this stage in his career.”
Ian Freer (Empire) explained: “This sartorial experimentation sees Douglas elevate the eight-episode period drama, having a costumed ball of a time playing one of America’s Founding Fathers. the show gets by on the sheer force of Douglas’ magnetic personality. Whether he is ruminating on the value of farting or sporting a variety of headgear fashioned out of dead animals, he makes Franklin (and ‘Franklin’) eminently watchable… Franklin is all about Michael Douglas playing the polymath politico with equal parts intelligence and twinkle.”
Douglas is vying for one of the six slots for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor. His closest competitors are: Jon Hamm (“Fargo”), Tom Hollander (“Feud: Capote vs the Swans”), Andrew Scott (“Ripley”), Hiroyuki Sanada (“Shōgun”), Matt Bomer (“Fellow Travelers”), and Tony Shalhoub (“Mr. Monk’s Last Case”).
There are plenty of reasons to predict Douglas for a nomination.
Firstly, Emmy voters adore him. He has nine nominations to his name so far, with his first three bids coming in 1974, 1975, and 1976 — all for Best Drama Supporting Actor for “The Streets of San Francisco”). He then picked up a Best Comedy Guest Actor bid for “Will & Grace” in 2002 before he won his first (and so far only) Emmy in 2013 — for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor for “Behind the Candelabra.” Douglas was then cited three times for Best Comedy Actor for “The Kominsky Method” in 2019, 2020, and 2021. He was also nominated for Best Comedy Series for “The Kominsky Method” in 2020. That is a hell of an Emmys record and it feels like voters will want to nominate him whenever they can. And this is a great opportunity to do so.
Douglas is the exact profile of actor that tends to get nominated in this category — a veteran, A-list movie star. Plenty of these types of actors have earned nominations here, including Michael Keaton (“Dopesick”), Hugh Grant (“The Undoing”), Jeremy Irons (“Watchmen”), Jeff Daniels (“The Looming Tower”), Geoffrey Rush (“Genius: Einstein”), and Robert De Niro (“The Wizard of Lies”).
Plus, Douglas is an Oscar winner. They do well here, too. Irons, Rush, De Niro, Colin Firth (“The Staircase”), Sam Rockwell (“Fosse/Verdon”), Mahershala Ali (“True Detective”), and Benicio del Toro (“Escape at Dannemora”) are all previous Oscar champs who contended in this category.
Portraying real people is, of course, a favorite for voters in this category, too, with the likes of Keaton, Harris, Rush, De Niro, Firth, Rockwell, Michael Shannon (“George & Tammy”), Daniel Radcliffe (“George & Tammy”), Kumail Nanjiani (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Taron Egerton (“Black Bird”), and Evan Peters (“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”) all nominated for depicting a real person.
Specifically, Emmy voters often nominate actors in this category for playing major historical figures in US history. Lin-Manuel Miranda (as Alexander Hamilton in “Hamilton”), Leslie Odom Jr. (as Aaron Burr in “Hamilton”), Bryan Cranston (as Lyndon B. Johnson in “All the Way”), Barry Pepper (as Robert F. Kennedy in “The Kennedys”), Greg Kinnear (as John F. Kennedy in “The Kennedys”), Laurence Fishburne (as Thurgood Marshall in “Thurgood”), Dennis Quaid (as George Bush in “The Special Relationship”), and Paul Giamatti (as John Adams in “John Adams”) were all nominated for such roles and shows.
And Douglas wouldn’t be the first actor nominated for an Emmy for playing Franklin. Tom Wilkinson won Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor in 2008 for his portrayal of Franklin in “John Adams.”
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby newsletters and updates
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
