Jack Huston - "Richard Harrow", Boardwalk Empire
Vincent Kartheiser - "Pete Campbell", Mad Men
Gabriel Mann - "Nolan Ross", Revenge
Neal McDonough - "Robert Quarles", Justified
Nick Nolte - "Walter Smith", Luck
Mandy Patinkin - "Saul Berenson", Homeland
Huston's performance is mesmerizingly quiet in a show full of big personalities. He made the act of simply flipping through a scrapbook seem like the saddest thing I'd ever seen, and makes Richard's mask feel like a part of him instead of a prop. Kartheiser has long been one of my favorite members of the Mad Men ensemble - this season, he made Pete's discontent so deeply felt that it could've been an extra character. I'm not the sort of viewer who particularly needs to like a character to enjoy watching them, but I really liked Nolan a lot. Mann is a supporting player in the best sense, letting Nolan function as a friend and sidekick to Emily, as a distinctive, droll character but not one who overshadows. McDonough gave a great single-season villain performance (a new-ish archetype in light of the rise of cable drama?), particularly in devolving over the course of the season from highly controlled to no control at all. I never really felt like I understood horse love until I watched Luck, and the warmth at the core of Nolte's performance was a big part of that. I hope whatever hype carried him to his Oscar nomination this year brings some attention to his work on Luck. I think Patinkin was fundamental to Homeland's success in its first season, a still point for the action to move around. He shows Saul as someone who deeply wants to trust Carrie, but remains wary so as to avoid being drawn into a folie a deux with her.
Honorable Mentions: Dylan Baker, Damages; Raymond Barry, Justified; Sean Berdy, Switched at Birth; Christian Borle, Smash; Jim Carter, Downton Abbey; Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey; Henry Czerny, Revenge; Jack Davenport, Smash; Guillermo Diaz, Scandal; Seth Gabel, Fringe; Walton Goggins, Justified; John Goodman, Damages; David Harewood, Homeland; Jared Harris, Mad Men; Joshua Jackson, Fringe; Joel Kinnaman, The Killing; Kevin McKidd, Grey's Anatomy; Joseph Morgan, The Vampire Diaries; Michael Mosley, Pan Am; John Noble, Fringe; Jeff Perry, Scandal; Nick Searcy, Justified; Brent Sexton, The Killing; John Slattery, Mad Men
Particular props to the ensembles of: Boardwalk Empire (Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Michael Kenneth Williams); Breaking Bad (Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Dean Norris, Bob Odenkirk, Aaron Paul); Game of Thrones (Alfie Allen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Richard Madden); The Good Wife (Josh Charles, Alan Cumming, Matt Czuchry, Chris Noth); Luck (Ritchie Coster, Kevin Dunn, Dennis Farina, Jason Gedrick, Ian Hart, Richard Kind, Tom Payne, Gary Stevens); Sons of Anarchy (Dayton Callie, Ryan Hurst, William Lucking, Ron Perlman, Theo Rossi)
This category is my bete noire every year. (Yes, I know. Someday, when I have enough patience, I'll go hunt down the appropriate symbols for all this errant French.)
I Wouldn't Be Surprised to See: Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age; Robert Sean Leonard, House
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