Where do your favorite drama actors stand at the Emmys?

“Mental health, race, class, domestic dispute etc. I kind of can’t stand that because all it does is protect the only constant in each case: a gun.”

That’s from Quinta Brunson, the creator of “Abbott Elementary” who plays a second-grade teacher on the show. Brunson and other cast members of the Emmy-contending ABC comedy were shaken just like the rest of us by the elementary school shooting that left two teachers and 19 children dead Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas.

I’m Glenn Whipp, awards columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter. What now?

Emmy drama acting power rankings

Last year at the Emmys, “The Crown” took not only the drama series trophy but also all four drama acting categories, with Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor winning lead prizes and Gillian Anderson and Tobias Menzies prevailing for their supporting turns.

If you felt that was a bit ... much, good news: “The Crown” won’t be competing this year, as its new season is still months away from debuting — and then going on to dominate next year‘s Emmys.

In the meantime, there’s much to laud that has nothing to do with the monarchy, as you’ll see in our annual Emmys Drama Actor Power Rankings. (And, yes, Yuh-Jung Youn is a queen in all but title. “Pachinko” is worth a subscription to Apple TV+ all by itself.)

Yuh-Jung Youn in “Pachinko,” airing on Apple TV+.

(Apple)

‘This Is Us’ wraps up its final season (sob)

I mentioned members of the “This Is Us” ensemble in my Drama Actor Power Rankings list. (How could I not?) The series’ finale aired this week, and Times television writer Yvonne Villarreal, who has covered the show with an unrivaled authority during its run, was of course there on the set during the shooting of that last episode.

Yvonne spoke with the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, breaking down that goodbye, and, honestly, I got a little something in my eye while reading the story. All right ... I teared up. What do you want from me? It’s been that kind of week.

“It’s the No. 1 thing everybody can relate to — family,” Fogelman said, describing the appeal of the show. “At its core, the most relatable part of the human condition is having parents, being a child of a parent, and having a childhood. We all have childhoods — some of our childhoods were incredibly s—, some of them are wonderful, but we all had them.”

Then she gathered the cast together to see if they were shedding as many tears as we were. Yep, they were.

“This Is Us” cast members Susan Kelechi Watson, from left, Sterling K. Brown, Jon Huertas, Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz and Chris Sullivan.

(Dylan Coulter / For The Times)

While we’re on the subject of finales ...

My pal Robert Abele has a great write-up on the Season 3 finale of “Succession,” which still haunts and delights me months after it aired. Robert zeroed in on two specific scenes — Kendall’s confession to his siblings and the family’s final confrontation with Logan — speaking with the show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, director Mark Mylod, actor Matthew Macfadyen and the sensational Sarah Snook. (Sorry ... I couldn’t pass up that alliteration opportunity.)

About that last scene, Robert notes that Macfadyen’s Tom comes in only at the end.

Says Macfadyen: “It was quite something to walk into that energy in the room. I just sort of pretend everything’s OK, it’s solicitous Tom!” The actor isn’t sure Tom has clocked that Snook’s Shiv is on to him, but he loved watching it later and seeing her expression, hidden from the husband she’d routinely underestimated. “The look on [her] face is brilliant, hilarious — truly murderous and shocked.”

Matthew Macfadyen in the season finale of “Succession.”

(Graeme Hunter / HBO)