Maggie Smith - "Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham", Downton Abbey
Morgan Turner - "Young Veda Pierce", Mildred Pierce
Ruth Wilson - "Alice Morgan", Luther
Evan Rachel Wood - "Veda Pierce", Mildred Pierce
Melissa Leo and Maggie Smith are the kinds of actresses that the television academy loves to nominate in the miniseries/movie categories: Oscar winners working in buzzy period pieces. Entirely coincidentally, they gave two seriously great, scene-stealing performances. Leo, in Drag Race parlance, served Sassy Thirties Character Actress Realness in every frame of Mildred Pierce she appeared in, while Smith anchored Downton Abbey's look at shifting class mores with regal bearing and amazing line delivery. ("What is a week-end?" rightfully becoming an instant classic.) I couldn't see putting forth Turner without Wood or vice versa; Turner provided the perfectly snooty base in the miniseries' first three episodes, from which Wood crescendoed to delightfully campy heights in the final two. Together their performances shaped one gloriously monstrous young woman. And Wilson brought a necessary energy to Luther with Alice's particular brand of sociopathic menace.
Honorable Mention: Eileen Atkins, Upstairs, Downstairs; Cynthia Nixon, Too Big to Fail; Mare Winningham, Mildred Pierce
I wouldn't be surprised to see: Gillian Anderson, Any Human Heart; Kim Cattrall, Any Human Heart; Patty Duke, Unanswered Prayers; Betty White, The Lost Valentine
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