‘Apples Never Fall’ will bag Alison Brie her first Emmy nomination
Peacock’s “Apples Never Fall” features a quartet of terrific performances with veterans Annette Bening and Sam Neil leading the way while young stars Alison Brie and Jake Lacy keep the pace. The limited series, adapted from Australian author Liane Moriarty‘s book of the same name, follows four adult children and their father trying to work out the unsettling disappearance of their mother, Joy (played by five-time Oscar nominee Bening).
Brie plays Joy’s oldest child, a spiritual life coach, in a role that enables her to truly shine in ways she perhaps hasn’t done before. Critics have noted that this role is a nice change of pace for Brie, giving audiences a side to her we haven’t seen so far.
Meredith Hobbs Coons (The A.V. Club) explained: “Then there’s the amazing Alison Brie: She steps in and really rescues a part that, in less capable hands, could fall into the realm of caricature… But when her storyline finally drifts beyond the punchlines about hosting “hope circles” or being an adult in her thirties renting a room from a landlord/roommate in his mid-twenties, her performance plunges emotional depths in a way that’s beautiful to see. At the same time, she channels her ‘Community’ chops to make some jokes that could be cringey actually work without sacrificing her character’s truth or sense of dignity.”
Ben Travers (Indie Wire) noted that each episode is titled after the character it focuses on, with Brie’s episode titled “Amy.” Travers wrote: “‘Amy’ then pivots to the black sheep of the family, played with a pitch-perfect combination of entitlement and empathy by Alison Brie.”
Cristina Escobar (Roger Ebert) observed: “Alison Brie as elder daughter Amy inhabits her character’s woo-woo beliefs, building distinct mannerisms that telegraph her inner struggles. Under her thoughtful care, Amy isn’t a caricature or a wounded spirit, she’s a woman struggling to find her place when she’s so different from those who raised her.”
Brie is looking for her first Emmy nomination but she is no stranger to awards. She earned four SAG nominations for her work in “GLOW” (two for individual, two for ensemble) plus a SAG win for Best Drama Ensemble for “Mad Men.” She also reaped two Golden Globe bids for “GLOW” plus two citations for the same show at the Critics Choice Awards while the same organization recognized her performance in “Community,” too.
Brie is clearly an actress that awards groups like and she must have been close to snagging an Emmy nomination on at least one of those occasions. It would therefore be a natural next step in her career to finally land that first Emmy bid here.
That would make sense as Brie is still a young up-and-coming star and plenty of similar actresses have earned their first nominations in this category of Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress, including Camila Morrone (“Daisy Jones & the Six”), Kaitlyn Dever (“Dopesick”), Moses Ingram (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Margaret Qualley (“Fosse/Verdon”), and Zoe Kazan (“Olive Kitteridge”).
“Apples Never Fall” is also the exact sort of genre of show that gets nominations in this category. Actresses who have earned nominations in this category for family dramas with an edge include Patricia Arquette (“The Act”), Shailene Woodley (“Big Little Lies”), Laura Dern (“Big Little Lies”), and Kazan (“Olive Kitteridge”). Brie could be next.
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