Emmy Catch-Up: Self Made

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. This year, I’m watching the entire season of every series nominated in the top category, as well as this one, which netted a lead actress bid for Octavia Spencer but missed the main limited series race.

Self Made: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Walker Girl” (B+)

With only four episodes in this limited series, it’s understandable that things would skip almost right away from a few donations from other women to Sarah running a very successful factory. That didn’t mean, of course, that Sarah was done with working hard to ensure that success continued, and it turns out that the worst threats were from people closest to her. CJ should have realized that the “Walker girl” he was advertising didn’t represent his wife and the market she was trying to reach, and she probably should have been attuned to the fact that his fragile ego would send him into the arms of another woman. Sleeping with one of her top sales associates who also jumped ship while she was out of town was a low blow, and showing up drunk to the factory and sabotaging a major deal that it looked like she was going to be able to sell was pretty unforgivable. After that therapeutic bike ride, it was affirming to see Sarah hold her ground and tell her husband to pack his stuff and get out in no uncertain terms. Lelia got to experience the wonder of New York City with her mother and then realize that both she and John were equally uninterested in their marriage, and a relationship with Esther away from all of this wasn’t in the cards even if her future holds many great things (some quick research indicates the real Lelia wasn’t known to be gay but definitely supported and bolstered free-thinking expression of sexual identity for others). Ransom is doing his best to remain a positive support for Sarah with his cousin dragging him down at every turn, and Addie is just as determined to bring Sarah down as Sarah is to succeed.