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Rhea Seehorn is the best thing about ‘Better Call Saul.’ So where’s her Emmy nomination?

Rhea Seehorn has never earned an Emmy nomination for "Better Call Saul." She deserves one.
Rhea Seehorn has never earned an Emmy nomination for “Better Call Saul.” She deserves one.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )
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“Better Call Saul” picked up nine Emmy nominations Tuesday, including nods for series and actors Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito and Michael McKean.

But once again, Emmy voters failed to recognize the best part of the show: the actress who plays attorney Kim Wexler, the character who acts as the series’ moral compass and stands as one of the great working women on television.

Where the hell is Rhea Seehorn?

We get it. Voters loved “Game of Thrones,” giving it a record number of nominations including four nods for supporting actress drama, the category where Seehorn was competing. Gwendoline Christie and Sophie Turner earned their first nominations. Maisie Williams picked up one for, we guess, killing the Night King. Lena Headey got love for gazing into the distance and holding a goblet with style.

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Seehorn, meanwhile, played the last season of “Better Call Saul” with her arm in a cast at a 90-degree angle, the latest indignity that the righteous Wexler had been forced to endure in a series that has seen her poised attorney overcome so many obstacles (not the least of which her ill-advised romance with Odenkirk’s scam artist Jimmy McGill).

Seehorn’s performance is controlled, often stoic, but she always excels in showing the cracks behind Kim’s polished facade. Clearly, Television Academy members have no problem rewarding the acting on “Better Call Saul,” nominating Seehorn’s four male co-stars this year. That just makes ignoring the show’s female lead all the more puzzling -- and infuriating.

Thanks to “Breaking Bad,” we know how Jimmy’s story ends. Not so with Kim. Rumors have run rampant the past two seasons that, like so many characters in the “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” universe, Kim will meet an untimely end.

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Does Wexler have to die for Seehorn to finally earn that long overdue Emmy nomination? We don’t wish for bad things to happen to good people, but that may be what it takes for Emmy voters to wake up to Seehorn’s brilliance.

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