Download and read scripts from the 2022 Emmy-nominated TV shows.

The landscape of television has grown substantially in the last decade as the TV industry has expanded beyond major network content with critically-acclaimed and widely-viewed shows on cable networks and streamers.

The expansion of cable network shows and the streaming platform has created hundreds upon hundreds of additional screenwriting jobs throughout the Film and TV industries.

• Series television is in a Golden Age
• TV movies are back
• Miniseries (now referred to more as Limited Series) are back

There are more opportunities for established and budding screenwriters than there ever have been.

With that in mind, here we share teleplays from 15 of the 2022 Emmy-nominated TV series to give screenwriters a look into the format, structure, narratives, character arcs, and story arcs of today’s most celebrated television content.

Scripts from this Article

Abbott Elementary

Barry

Better Call Saul

Hacks

Maid

Ozark

Only Murders in the Building

Severance

Squid Game

Station Eleven

Succession

Ted Lasso

What We Do in the Shadows (Series)

The White Lotus

Yellowjackets

Abbot Elementary

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

Follows a group of teachers brought together in one of the worst public schools in the country, simply because they love teaching.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 98% and an audience rating of 90%. A perfect blend of a diverse cast, comedy, and drama.

Barry

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city’s theatre arts scene.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 99% and an audience rating of 89%. The series showcases suspense, action, drama, and some hilarious comedy.

Better Call Saul

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

The trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill in the time before he established his strip-mall law office in Albuquerque, New Mexico as Saul Goodman.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 98% and an audience rating of 96%. A spin-off of the equally esteemed series Breaking Bad. The show offers a sometimes humorous and sometimes serious look into a unique criminal underworld.

Hacks

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

Explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a phenomenal critics rating of 100% and an audience rating of 85%. The series features two strong female roles, partnered with a diverse supporting cast. It’s full of humor, drama, and a peek into the behind-the-scenes goings-on of the entertainment industry.

Maid

Nominated for Best Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Drama Special

After fleeing an abusive relationship, a young mother finds a job cleaning houses as she fights to provide for her child and build them a better future.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 98% and an audience rating of 88%. Packed with emotion and inspiration, the drama series follows the strong female lead through a life that many women can relate to and audiences of all races and genders can empathize with.

Ozark

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

A financial advisor drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder money to appease a drug boss.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 82% and an audience rating of 87%. Filled with impactful characters and intense suspense, the series melds family dynamics and dysfunction with criminal underworlds.

Only Murders in the Building

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

Three strangers who share an obsession with true crime suddenly find themselves caught up in one.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an exceptional critics rating of 100% and an audience rating of 92%. From the brilliant and hilarious mind of Steve Martin, the series embraces the recent “whodunit” trend with equal parts laughs, mystery, and suspense.

Severance

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 97% and an audience rating of 93%. A high-concept thriller with an outstanding cast that sends up office life with dry humor, accompanied by high-stakes suspense and thrills full of mystery and intrigue.

Squid Game

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes. A survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 95% and an audience rating of 83%. Produced in its native Korean setting, the Netflix series is a record-breaking hit with a full Asian cast that offers outstanding performances. It’s another high-concept series that offers mystery, intrigue, suspense, thrills, and sometimes brutal violence.

Station Eleven

Nominated for Best Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Drama Special

A post-apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines, telling the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 98% and an audience rating of 73%. Based on the novel of the same name, the series balances post-apocalyptic story elements/settings, drama, and hope — all told through the narrative lens of multiple timelines. The diverse cast is terrific and the scope of the series is both intimate and epic at the same time.

Succession

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

The Roy family is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 94% and an audience rating of 85%. A behind-the-scenes look at the dynamics of corporations and the families that own and run them. The characters are intense. The relationships between them are full of depth, packed with the perfect storm of love, loyalty, and hate.

Ted Lasso

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

American college football coach Ted Lasso heads to London to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League football team.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 95% and an audience rating of 79%. A unique dramedy series that is one of the most inspiring shows you will find on television. You don’t have to like soccer (or fútbol). You don’t even have to like sports. The series manages to brilliantly combine humor with heart that inspires all demographics in cathartic ways. The diverse cast is outstanding.

What We Do in the Shadows

Nominated for Best Writing for a Comedy Series

A look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of four vampires, who’ve lived together for over 100 years, on Staten Island.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critics rating of 98% and an audience rating of 92%. A brilliant and hilarious send-up of the vampire genre. Created by Oscar-winning screenwriter, director, and producer Taika Waititi, the documentary-style show is full of laughs, creepy imagery, and even some scares.

The White Lotus

Nominated for Best Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Drama Special

Set in a tropical resort, it follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the limited series has a critics rating of 89% and an audience rating of 77%. An ensemble piece full of great performances amidst interconnecting storylines that tell sometimes hilarious and sometimes cringe-inducing moments of relationship dynamics on all levels.

Yellowjackets

Nominated for Best Writing for a Drama Series

A wildly talented high school girl soccer team becomes the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a stellar critics rating of 100% and an audience rating of 78%. The high-concept mystery is driven by powerful female leads that drive a story on two timelines — the past and the present — with the mystery of what really happened always lingering. The revelations that come about are shocking.

Read More: And the 2023 Emmy-Nominated Scripts Are…

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies