Emilie’s Emmy

A couple years ago, out of desperation to find something entertaining to watch on Netflix, I watched (the first season of) The New Legends of Monkey. Overall, I didn’t care much for it. However, before I gave up on it, a character appeared who caught my attention: Sandy, played by Emilie Cocquerel. She was hot, in a down-played way, and so I kept watching. Then her character proved to be interesting: a quiet underdog, unaware of her potential, and struggling to believe in herself. Also a bit crazy-dangerous.

I watched to the end of the series, which was only one season at the time. There wasn’t enough of her.

Recently, I started following Emilie Cocquerel on Instagram. A couple days ago, she posted with excitement that she had been nominated for an Emmy for her role as Sandy. I guess I found it a little surprising that this show could have been on the radar for the Emmys at all.

Today, the topic of Emmy nominations came up again while I was in front of a computer. That got me searching for the list of nominations. It took a few tries to find the one with Emilie’s name on it.

BEST PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCE IN A CHILDREN’S PROGRAM
Emilie Cocquerel, “The New Legends of Monkey”

Oh. Children’s program. That explains a lot.

Anyway, I also wondered why a show from 2018 would receive an Emmy nomination in 2021. Evidently, there was a second season released last year (2020). I haven’t watched it, and I wasn’t even aware of it. Now I’m wondering if I should. I’m not sure what a “principal performance” is, but does that mean her character has a more central role in the second season? Can I stomach another season of that show to watch more of her?

Update: I watched the second season. I actually binge-watched it. Overall, it seemed a bit better to me than the first season, but I don’t know how much that was due to the fact that I knew going in that it was children’s programming. Emilie’s character does indeed have a more central role, being one of the four main characters who are in everything together, rather than making surprise appearances as she did for the first season. Her maybe-dangerous sort of crazy was replaced with quirky, humorous naivety, which was a bit of a disappointment to adult me. Where she was dark and conflicted in the first season, she was sweet and finding herself in the second. Emmy worthy performance? Yes, I think so. Certainly within the context of children’s programming. She brought a straightforward character alive with her own uniqueness using subtle expressiveness. That said, the performances by Luciane Buchanan and Josh Thomson were also pretty good.

Update 2: I have been following Emilie Cocquerel long enough to know that season-two-Sandy is much more like real-life-Emilie. Ms. Cocquerel definitely seems like a beautiful soul who optimistically sees the beauty in others.