Thursday, July 18, 2013

Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Lead Actress in a Drama

Claire Danes - "Carrie Mathison", Homeland
Julianna Margulies - "Alicia Florrick", The Good Wife
Tatiana Maslany - "Sarah/Beth/etc.", Orphan Black
Elisabeth Moss - "Peggy Olson", Mad Men
Keri Russell - "Elizabeth Jennings", The Americans
Kerry Washington - "Olivia Pope", Scandal

Claire Danes' season on Homeland is about both little moments - that smile erupting in flickers across her face after Carrie's market chase, her reaction to Brody's suicide video - and the broad emotional arc. If the first season showed Carrie at both her hyper-efficient best and her unmedicated worst, the second rested in the shaky middle, with Danes showing Carrie's fragility, uneasiness, and the cracks created by betrayal and electroshock therapy. The journey of Alicia Florrick is one of subtle shifts made visible by Margulies. The woman who once appeared as a naif in the world of corporate law has transformed into someone savvier at working the system, but Margulies showed the constant note of disappointment in everyone around her simmering under Alicia's titular facade. Critics have been praising Maslany over and over in the past few months, but her achievement across only ten episodes of television was so astounding that it doesn't even feel hyperbolic. It's not just the multitude of distinct, specific characters she played, but the nuance involved in something like marking the difference between Sarah pretending to be Alison and Alison pretending to be Sarah. Thinking back on Elisabeth Moss' performance in this season of Mad Men, I keep landing on Peggy's initial rejection of Don's offer to leave in "Shut the Door, Have a Seat." That suspicion that her relationship with Don would become an anchor, that apprehension of his making her a target for his own disappointment with himself. Even more than the series of events that lead to her deciding to leave SCDP in the first place, this season showed those fears made manifest. Moss shows Peggy's enduring disappointment warring with the professionalism she has fought so hard to acquire and maintain. In a television landscape that seems unsure of how to define the female opposite number to the male antihero, the stern pragmatism of Elizabeth Jennings immediately felt bracingly different. Russell's performance shows the different parts of Elizabeth she has locked away to be able to function within her double life - she knows and shows the difference between Elizabeth the spy and Elizabeth the reserved woman determined to scorn sentimentality and romanticism even in her daily lfie. The expansion from the brief seven episodes of Scandal's first season really showcased the depth and shading in Washington's performance. The "good at her job, shaky in her personal life" figure is somewhat of a cliche, but Washington excels at both the professional hyper-competence and caring that draws people to Olivia, as well as the emotional spiraling of her relationship with the President.


Honorable Mentions: Khandi Alexander, Treme; Connie Britton, Nashville; Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey; Lucy Liu, Elementary; Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy; Jessica Raine, Call the Midwife; Katey Sagal, Sons of Anarchy; Robin Wright, House of Cards

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Glenn Close, Damages; Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel; Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; Mary McDonnell, Major Crimes; Anna Paquin, True Blood; Emmy Rossum, Shameless; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer; Emily Van Camp, Revenge

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