Emmys 2022: Outstanding Drama Series — Our Dream Nominees!

TVLine's annual advocacy period known as Dream Emmy season has arrived! As per tradition, we're launching the three-week event with the Outstanding Drama Series race and this burning question: Can anyone beat the Roys?

Without question, HBO's Succession — riding a wave of much-deserved acclaim for its COVID-delayed, nine-episode third season — enters awards season as the frontrunner to take home the top drama prize (as it did in 2020). However, a trio of red-hot rookies — we're looking at you, Squid Game, Yellowjackets and Severance — could easily play spoiler.

The bigger question, of course, is whether any of the aforementioned series deserve to be in the running for TV's highest honor. And that's where we come in!

Scroll through the list below to review all of our Dream Nominees (it bears repeating: these aren't predictions; they're wish lists) and then tell us if our picks warrant a "Hell, yes!," "Um, no" or "How could you leave off such-and-such?!"For the record, 2022 Emmy nominations will be voted on from June 16-27, and unveiled on July 12. The 74th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled to air on Monday, Sept. 12 on NBC.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Kristen's maybe-demonic possession was the least of David & Co.'s problems in the supernatural series' tantalizing sophomore season, which made for a run of extremely strong episodes that took on (in no particular order): union-busting, white privilege, a horrifying urban legend and David and Kristen's ever-diminishing (and ultimately, completely obliterated) ability to keep their hands off each other. Add in that excellent silent episode, plus the show's overall extremely effective talent for building and maintaining dread, and you've got one hell of a scripted drama.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Robert and Michelle King's sublime legal drama inched closer to becoming a full-blown comedy in Season 5 with the arrival of Mandy Patinkin as a renegade judge overseeing a kangaroo court. Patinkin's faux magistrate was a swirl of constant chaos, and it was a blast watching Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald's unflappable alter egos struggle to make sense of his unorthodox brand of justice. But it was the way Wackner took Marissa (Sarah Steele, more glorious than ever) under his wing, and the hilarious and occasionally touching teacher/student dynamic that resulted from it, that made Good Fight great.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: This adaptation of Min Jin Lee's novel of the same name is, in a word, ambitious, toggling as it does between multiple timelines to chronicle the difficult life of Kim Sunja, a young woman who grew up in a Korea lorded over by the Japanese. The sweeping saga, which to date has been mostly set in the 1930s and 1989, has featured illicit romance, heartbreaking deaths, the longing for one's homeland and even a bit of mystery for those who didn't read the book, while being a sumptuous, incredibly cast companion piece for those who did.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Going back to the office can be scary. Apple TV+'s seriously creepy sci-fi thriller took a killer concept — what if we could literally separate our work and home lives? — and expanded it into a richly imagined mystery that asked big philosophical questions while adding a healthy dose of dark humor. The cast was spiked with stellar performances, the production design was impeccable (that dance party!) and the tension mounted beautifully across the season, leading to a dynamite finale that left us eager to clock in again as soon as possible.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Netflix's (incredibly) well-watched South Korean thriller attracted its millions and millions of eyeballs based on the merit of its compelling, if often unsettling, narrative, in which 456 strangers are forced to compete in deadly versions of childhood playground games. A solid cast led by Lee Jung-jae (as protagonist Seong Gi-hun) gave us characters to root for, people back home to sympathize with, and villains/cheaters to grumble expletives at. It was the gripping "must binge" of the fall — if you could stomach it.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: HBO's corporate tragicomedy is the blue-chip stock of TV dramas, topping itself yet again with a masterful Season 3 that saw the Roys jockeying for position as Kendall declared all-out war on his father, Logan. Series creator Jesse Armstrong balanced out all the high-stakes boardroom wrangling with a wickedly quotable sense of humor, and the cast was 10-deep with fascinating performances, led by Jeremy Strong's wildly manic, heart-wrenchingly desperate turn as former golden boy Kendall. They're horrible, they're miserable... and we can't stop watching them.

WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: The tale of a downed plane full of high school girls, which at first seemed like a simple survival drama, turned into something much darker (and much more delicious) as the season unfurled its creepy, captivating story. In addition to the central mystery, we were riveted by what was happening in both of the show's timelines, and that's thanks to the deep-bench cast of heavy hitters (Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Tawny Cypress) and up-and-comers (including Sophie Nélisse, Ella Purnell and Sophie Thatcher).