Honorable Mention: Damian Lewis, Life; Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl
Probably also some from shows I like, but didn’t watch much of this season, like Hugh Laurie in House or Michael C. Hall in Dexter; it’s too bad that NBC couldn’t find a way to keep Life around – Lewis, along with his castmates, elevated the show beyond the generic crime procedural it could have been; a lot of people seem to write Gossip Girl off, but Westwick was fantastic this season, particularly as Chuck dealt with the death of his father.
Supporting Actor, Drama
Jeremy Davies, Lost
Nelsan Ellis, True Blood
Michael Hogan, Battlestar Galactica
Vincent Kartheiser, Mad Men
Kevin McKidd, Grey's Anatomy
John Noble, Fringe
Davies proved himself the best of the freighter folk introduced last season, particularly as Faraday attempted to reconcile the scientific practicalities of time travel with the aftermath of Charlotte’s death; Ellis elevated what could have been a flat stereotype and imbued his character with warmth – this is one thing that I felt was much better executed in True Blood than it was in its source material: if, as it appears, Lafayette is dead, then the life Ellis brought to the character will make fans emotionally invested in the ensuing second season mystery; Hogan is one of the actors who makes rewatching BSG from the beginning seriously rewarding – as the series went on, he wore Saul Tigh’s increasing fatigue on his face, particularly as he consciously clung to his humanity; Pete Campbell has become television’s best-executed man-child – Elisabeth Moss deserves props for her season-ending monologue, but Kartheiser merits recognition too for showing the audience the floor dropping out from under Pete; I’m frequently bothered by the fact that the doctors on Grey’s only date other doctors, but McKidd made me temporarily suspend my complaining as the former Army surgeon Owen Hunt; Noble is easily the best part of Fringe, injecting each episode with a loopiness that manages to remain endearing without grating.
Honorable Mention: Justin Chambers, Grey's Anatomy; Michael Emerson, Lost; Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights; Aaron Shaw, In Treatment; Sebastian Stan, Kings
The first three are continuing characters, Chambers bringing new nuance to Karev as he dealt with Izzie’s illness and Emerson and Gilford just being excellent at what they do (villainy and quiet striving, respectively); the other two were new: Shaw was heartbreaking as the downtrodden Oliver; Stan could have been a great primetime-soap-type anti-hero as Kings’ conflicted prince. I’ll also mention two actors who apparently neglected to submit their names for consideration – Bryan Batt from Mad Men – across all media, I think Salvatore is the one fictional character who, more than any other, I truly want to be happy; Batt seemed to make about ten different emotions play out across his face in the scene where Euro-Smith comes out at the office and I thought it was one of the best-acted moments of the past television season – and Alessandro Juliani from BSG – like Michael Hogan, Juliani wore the weariness of the series beautifully, and Gaeta’s tragic demise was one of the highlights of the final season.
Guest Actor, Drama
Richard Hatch, Battlestar Galactica
D.W. Moffet, Friday Night Lights
Mark Moses, Mad Men
Gaius Charles/Scott Porter, Friday Night Lights
Stephen Root, True Blood
Noah Wyle, ER
Hatch, as a cast member from the original show, could easily have decided to be uncool about the BSG remake; however, his turn as Tom Zarek became one of the series’ most compelling recurring characters – the coup storyline from this past season was thrilling TV; Moffet’s uber-controlling football dad was the best addition of this season of FNL; I have a lot of residual love for Mark Moses from his time on Desperate Housewives (and probably would have put him in the “supporting” category, but that’s between him and his agents), but even if I didn’t like him I couldn’t deny that the alcoholic downspiral of Duck Phillips was unbelievably well acted; Charles and Porter (ultimately I couldn’t choose) both turned in heartrending farewell arcs; Root was Alan Ball’s best-executed addition to the Dead Until Dark outline of True Blood’s first season as a decidedly unsexy vampire; Wyle served as a sort of institutional history for the final season of ER, grounding the flashbacks and reappearances of old characters.
Honorable Mention: Ted Danson, Damages; Bruce Dern, Big Love; Patrick Fischler, Mad Men; Colin Hanks, Mad Men; Eriq La Salle, ER; Joel Murray, Mad Men; Dean Stockwell, Battlestar Galactica; Eric Stoltz, Grey's Anatomy; Jeremy Sumpter, Friday Night Lights
Too numerous to parse, or this would end up being about 5000 words.
Lead Actress, Drama
Glenn Close, Damages
January Jones, Mad Men
Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Anna Paquin, True Blood
Jeanne Tripplehorn, Big Love
Close makes me, in the viewing audience, fear the awesome power of Patty Hewes even through the fourth wall; Jones and Moss presented portraits of women starting to challenge the old boys’ club and the boxes in which they’ve been placed; McDonnell, now more than ever, deserves a nomination for her uniformly stellar work as Laura Roslin – her tear-jerking death is only one of many exceptional scenes; Paquin provides the human heart to a supernatural world that spins wildly around her; Tripplehorn upped her game as Barb was forced to formally turn her back on LDS and place her faith in Bill and their family.
Honorable Mention: Angela Bassett, ER; Emily Deschanel, Bones; Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters; Mary McCormack, In Plain Sight; Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl; Molly Parker, Swingtown
Supporting Actress, Drama
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Alison Pill, In Treatment
Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica
Amanda Seyfried, Big Love
Britton remains TV’s best mom; as much as I whined about dissatisfaction with Grey’s this season, Heigl knocked it out of the park with Izzie’s cancer storyline; the world of Mad Men seems to simultaneously resist Joan’s independence and shift into an era passing her by; Hendricks makes the pain of that contradiction ever-present; if Pill doesn’t get nominated for an Emmy as self-destructive therapy patient April, it will be a grave miscarriage of television academy justice; Sackhoff brought back the ballsy Starbuck as Kara embraced life while questioning whether or not she was truly alive; Sarah has long been my favorite character on Big Love and Seyfried was excellent through her pregnancy storyline this past season.
Honorable Mention: Mireille Enos, Big Love; Ginnifer Goodwin, Big Love; Chloe Sevigny, Big Love; Miriam Shor, Swingtown; Rutina Wesley, True Blood
Big Love displayed a wealth of actress talent this past season – it’s beyond me why Goodwin and Sevigny are in this category rather than lead actress, but that doesn’t mean they did less than their normal stellar work this season; either one merits a nomination; if this were the Daytime Emmys, Enos would be a shoo-in – playing twins is like a guaranteed award in the soaps – here she should be recognized not only for playing two women, but for poignantly illustrating the emotional destruction wrought by life at Juniper Creek; Shor was the bright spot in the sadly under-watched Swingtown as a woman unprepared for the world changing around her; Wesley’s accent gets maligned, but she makes Tara such a fully realized open book that it doesn’t matter – she’s officially got a spot on the totally hypothetical list of “People Who I’d Want to Play Me In a Movie.”
Guest Actress, Drama
Lizzy Caplan, True Blood
Lucy Lawless, Battlestar Galactica
Mary Kay Place, Big Love
Adina Porter, True Blood
Kate Vernon, Battlestar Galactica
This is the one category where I actively wished some people who didn't appear on the list had submitted their names. Mad Men had fantastic turns by Melinda Page Hamilton as the wife of the man whose identity Don stole and Audrey Wasilewski as Peggy's judgement-heavy sister. Anne Dudek is pretty uniformly excellent wherever she appears, and submitted her name for House, but I also think she's made her turn on Big Love as Alby's most ambitious wife a standout on a show that already features a wealth of amazing performances by different actresses. Otherwise, we’ve got two addicts, two robots risen from the dead, and one woman who would be running the world if she wasn’t subject to a soul-crushing patriarchy.
2 comments:
if mary doesn't even get NOMINATED, I will weep for days and days.
For real. It's positively criminal how the TV academy has neglected to recognize BSG in the past but they're really not doing their jobs right if they don't nominate at least Mary McDonnell this year.
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