Emmys 2020: Best Drama Series — Our Dream Nominees

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be airing (in some form!) on Sept. 20. Before the real nominees are unveiled on July 28, we at TVLine have come up with our own dream nominations in 15 major categories. Scroll down to see our ideal contenders for Outstanding Drama Series, then give us your thoughts!

BETTER CALL SAUL

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Jimmy McGill becoming Saul Goodman could've been the end of the story... but instead, a rollicking, riveting Season 5 was just the beginning. AMC's Breaking Bad prequel keeps getting deeper and richer each season, and with Jimmy and Mike sharing an epic trek through the desert, Tony Dalton making a strong case for the TV Villain Hall of Fame as the viciously charming Lalo Salamanca, and Rhea Seehorn emerging as the series' stealth MVP as the increasingly bold Kim Wexler, Season 5 had us thinking: Is this the rare spinoff that's actually (gasp) better than the original?

EUPHORIA

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: The portrait of modern teenhood, in which kids are more likely to trade nudes than go to prom together, is a parent's nightmare but a prestige-TV connoisseur's dream. At the HBO series' core — looking past the bared adolescent skin, the alarming drug use and the dubious sexual consent — is a story about teens trying to discern who they are among conflicting messages about who they're supposed to be. And it's anchored by Zendaya, who week after week gives one of the most underrated performances in TV today.

EVIL

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: In just 13 episodes, Robert and Michelle King created a spooky, captivating world in which modern-day New York City passes as the devil's most entertaining playground. The storytelling is engrossing, the characters — particularly Mike Colter's priest-to-be David and Katja Herbers' forensic psychologist Kristen — are fascinating and the momentum with which Season 1 presses on to its shocking finale makes for one hell of a good time.

POSE

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Following up a groundbreaking freshman season is a tall order, but FX's life-affirming LGBTQ chronicle topped itself in Season 2, finding a new confidence in its storytelling and sharpening its focus on house mother Blanca and her ballroom brood. Billy Porter submitted another knockout performance, but Indya Moore, Mj Rodriguez and Angelica Ross rose to meet the high bar he set, as well. And though the subject matter got tough at times, it always found an unwavering sense of hope — and an upbeat song to dance to.

STRANGER THINGS

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Season 3 of Netflix's time warp was so exciting and funny, so heartrending and sublime, we won't even "like, totally" resort to 1980s slang to sing its praises. The series deserves better — and an Emmy nod — after rolling out eight eye-popping episodes that alternated between "Did you see that?!?" action sequences, LOL-worthy subplots (Operation Child Endangerment for the win!) and moments of stunning vulnerability (Robin's coming-out, for starters). On second thought, forget a nomination; the Duffer Brothers deserve free ice cream for life.

SUCCESSION

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Season 2 of HBO's dysfunctional family drama showed us that its freshman run barely scratched the surface of that which Logan Roy and his crafty kin are capable. There was infighting (Kendall vs. Roman! Shiv vs. Dad's waffling!), family feuding (with their liberal doppelgängers, the Pierces), Tom's cringey Senate testimony and the world's blandest eulogy ("All of us will die one day"). Throw in a brutal round of "Boar on the Floor," and you have a decadent diorama of deplorable life.

THE MANDALORIAN

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Going into this live-action Star Wars series, we had little reason to care about some random bounty hunter whose face we never see. And yet over the span of eight short episodes, this galactic adventure in babysitting had us reeled in with its perfect pacing, loving homages to Westerns and samurai films, sparse but spot-on casting, creatively engineered vistas and one adorably wild Child. We have spoken.