Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

Romola Garai - "Bel Rowley", The Hour
Rebecca Hall - "Sylvia Tietjens", Parade's End
Jessica Lange - "Sister Jude Martin", American Horror Story: Asylum
Elisabeth Moss - "Robin ", Top of the Lake
Sigourney Weaver - "Elaine Barrish", Political Animals

I love the way The Hour depicts its profession, showing Bel as the determined producer mediating between wary executives and reporters begging to be let off the leash. Garai demonstrates the balance of a woman's professional life in the nebulous period between World War II and the rise of the second wave in showing the value Bel places in doing a good job even as she struggles to keep her heart in check. Hall as Sylvia is mesmerizingly vain, a woman determined to challenge and laugh at the world, but constantly thwarted when she tries to bring others along with her on what some part of her fears might be the road to hell. Lange's performance brought an unexpected depth to the emotional and redemptive arc across the season of American Horror Story, bridging from the flinty sternness of Sister Jude to the deep-seated pain of Judy Martin. It's difficult not to compare Elisabeth Moss' two major performances this year, but each makes the other stand out in contrast because they're so different and together indicate a startling range. The interiority of Moss as Robin makes other "cop who takes it personally" roles feel awfully histrionic. And as acting in single scenes within the year goes, Robin telling the story of her rape is a heartrending high mark. Weaver resists imitating Hillary Clinton in a role obviously inspired by her, and instead finds an authoritative voice of her own without which Political Animals would not have worked.

Honorable Mentions: Hayley Atwell, Restless; Queen Latifah, Steel Magnolias; Sienna Miller, The Girl

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Angela Bassett, Betty & Coretta; Brenda Blethyn, Mary & Martha; Mary J. Blige, Betty & Coretta; Jewel, Ring of Fire; Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter; Lindsay Lohan, Liz & Dick; Helen Mirren, Phil Spector; Hilary Swank, Mary & Martha

Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie

Peter Capaldi - "Randall Brown", The Hour
Rob Lowe - "Dr. Jack Startz", Behind the Candelabra
Zachary Quinto - "Dr. Oliver Thredson", American Horror Story: Asylum
David Wenham - "Al", Top of the Lake
Thomas M. Wright - "Johnno", Top of the Lake

Capaldi is so notoriously skilled with the rapid-fire profanity of the Iannucci oeuvre that his understated news executive proved unexpectedly to be a highlight of The Hour's second season. In addition to playing well off of Anna Chancellor, Capaldi took a potentially cliche-heavy story of a parent searching for a child placed for adoption and rooted in an emotionally honest, quietly devastated performance. Something about Rob Lowe in Behind the Candelabra felt grounded in his decades of experience in Hollywood - how many people who feed on the vanity of others in a youth-obsessed town may have crossed his path and wound up even partially represented in his chillingly blithe performance? I said last year that Quinto "was perfectly tuned to Murphy's particular wavelength," and his different role in the new incarnation of American Horror Story did the same with a more overtly villainous cast. The second season of AHS tapped into the same vein that made Quinto so magnetic in the early seasons of Heroes. I waffled about who to take from Top of the Lake, but had to ultimately make Peter Mullan my #6. Wenham's performance is creepy the way people in real life are creepy - many performances on TV can't leave it as subtext, but Wenham signals subtly that there's just something off about Al where another actor might have overplayed their hand. And Wright impressed me even before I realized that that nagging feeling of familiarity came from a goofy old Disney Channel movie. Within Johnno's reserved nature, Wright shows both his frustration with his inaction and the fact that he still can't push himself past it.

Honorable Mentions: Scott Bakula, Behind the Candelabra; James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum; Rupert Everett, Parade's End; Joseph Fiennes, American Horror Story: Asylum; Michael Gambon, Restless; Stephen Graham, Parade's End; Peter Mullan, Top of the Lake; Evan Peters, American Horror Story: Asylum; Sebastian Stan, Political Animals; James Wolk, Political Animals

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Dan Aykroyd, Behind the Candelabra; Billy Campbell, Killing Lincoln; Ciaran Hinds, Political Animals; Lindsay Owen Pierre, Betty & Coretta; Oliver Platt, The Big C: Hereafter; Matt Ross, Ring of Fire; Jeffrey Tambor, Phil Spector; James Woods, Mary and Martha; Malik Yoba, Betty & Coretta

Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

Anna Chancellor - "Lix Storm", The Hour
Oona Chaplin - "Marnie Madden", The Hour
Holly Hunter - "G.J.", Top of the Lake
Sarah Paulson - "Lana Winters", American Horror Story: Asylum
Lily Rabe - "Sister Mary Eunice", American Horror Story: Asylum



Honorable Mentions: Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals; Adelaide Clemons, Parade's End; Frances Conroy, American Horror Story: Asylum; Michelle Dockery, Restless; Carla Gugino, Political Animals; Charlotte Rampling, Restless; Phylicia Rashad, Steel Magnolias; Miranda Richardson, Parade's End; Jill Scott, Steel Magnolias; Imelda Staunton, The Girl; Alfre Woodard, Steel Magnolias

Wouldn't be surprised to see: Roma Downey, The Bible; Janet McTeer, Parade's End; Condola Rashad, Steel Magnolias

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

Connie Britton - "Vivien Harmon", American Horror Story
Romola Garai - "Bel Rowley", The Hour
Nicole Kidman - "Martha Gellhorn", Hemingway and Gellhorn
Julianne Moore - "Sarah Palin", Game Change
Emily Watson - "Janet Leach", Appropriate Adult

Britton undoubtedly gets credit because I already like her, but also for rolling with the punches on a show that threw everything and the kitchen sink at her character. Garai infused Bel with professional competence, making the shaky-personal-life/good-at-her-job character seem like less of a cliche than it might have. I didn't love Hemingway and Gellhorn, but Kidman honored her character's intelligence and her impatience with other people's bullshit. Moore portrayed Palin without judging her or making the fish-out-of-water aspect of her story too cartoonish, grounding the narrative even when the movie didn't quite seem to know why they thought what they were doing was important. Watson completed Appropriate Adult's mesmerizing destructive dyad, making clear Janet's feelings about her responsibilities to the situation of representing Fred and attempting to get some version of the truth out of him, even as events spiraled out of control.

Honorable Mention: Rachel Weisz, Page Eight

I Wouldn't Be Surprised to See: Patricia Clarkson, Five; Ashley Judd, Missing; Clemence Poesy, Birdsong; Emma Thompson, The Song of Lunch; Jeanne Tripplehorn, Five

Five is some sort of Lifetime short film collection/anthology thing? As with many Lifetime properties, various of the names involved are just well-known enough to throw doubt on how significant a contender they may ultimately be.

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

Taissa Farmiga - "Violet Harmon", American Horror Story
Jessica Lange - "Constance Langdon", American Horror Story
Jena Malone - "Nancy McCoy", Hatfields and McCoys
Lily Rabe - "Nora Montgomery", American Horror Story
Mare Winningham - "Sally McCoy", Hatfields and McCoys

Teen characters on predominantly adult-cast shows are annoying at least as often as they're interesting, but Farmiga stood firmly in the latter category. The scene where Violet realizes she is dead is one of the show's high points. Lange's performance is a true diva turn, showing all the different layers of the facades Constance uses to alternately lull her neighbors into a false sense of security and distract herself from the tragedies of her life. Nancy McCoy's historical story is a puzzling one, but Malone made her actions, and especially her callous self-interest, feel plausible as those of a young woman who grew up in an environment saturated in violence. I found Rabe's performance fascinating when I watched it, bringing a sense of overheated Tennessee Williams-style melodrama to American Horror Story as the woman whose tragic motherhood has seeped into the house's character. Winningham's moment as Sally McCoy bid farewell to her sons as they're about to be executed was an emotional standout of the entire Hatfields and McCoys miniseries.

Honorable Mentions: Louise Brealey, Sherlock; Alexandra Breckenridge, American Horror Story; Frances Conroy, American Horror Story; Kate Mara, American Horror Story; Sarah Parish, Hatfields and McCoys; Molly Parker, Hemingway and Gellhorn; Sarah Paulson, Game Change; Lindsay Pulsipher, Hatfields and McCoys; Lara Pulver, Sherlock; Ruth Wilson, Luther

I Wouldn't Be Surprised to See: Gillian Anderson, Great Expectations; Judy Davis, Page Eight

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie

Tom Berenger - "Jim Vance", Hatfields and McCoys
Powers Boothe - "Judge Valentine 'Wall' Hatfield", Hatfields and McCoys
Martin Freeman - "Dr. John Watson", Sherlock
Evan Peters - "Tate Langdon", American Horror Story
Zachary Quinto - "Chad", American Horror Story

Berenger and Boothe represented two poles on the Hatfield side - the eye-for-an-eye firebrand of Vance and the measured, highly rational mediator of Wall Hatfield. Freeman got to show not only how much Watson enjoys his life as a sleuth, but how deeply he's come to care about his friendship with Holmes. For all the attention Glee gets, Peters may have given this year's best performance as a teenager under the Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuk umbrella, showing Tate's deep anger while also making him plausibly romantic as half of a ghostly Romeo and Juliet pairing. Like Tammy Lynn Michaels on Popular, Quinto was perfectly tuned to Murphy's particular wavelength, infusing his character with just the right mix of nastiness and out-and-out camp.

Honorable Mentions: Matt Barr, Hatfields and McCoys; Noel Fisher, Hatfields and McCoys; Ed Harris, Game Change; Boyd Holbrook, Hatfields and McCoys; Denis O'Hare, American Horror Story; David Strathairn, Hemingway and Gellhorn; Ronan Vibert, Hatfields and McCoys

I Wouldn't Be Surprised to See: Ralph Fiennes, Page Eight; Michael Gambon, Page Eight; Tony Shalhoub, Five; Tony Shalhoub, Hemingway and Gellhorn; Ray Winstone, Great Expectations

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: The Unsubmitted

It's well past time to get this show on the road. Ideally, I like to get these done and posted before the nominations get announced. We'll see how far we get before tomorrow morning.

Andrew Scott - "Jim Moriarty", Sherlock

Here's where I wish for a site that focused on the mechanics of how the television academy votes, because I'm not sure whether PBS electing to submit "A Scandal in Belgravia" for Sherlock precluded Scott from submitting his work in "The Reichenbach Fall". (It's a curious decision overall, as I think "Reichenbach Fall" is a stronger episode all around, especially for the central actors.) If that isn't the case, it's not surprising, necessarily, that Scott didn't submit, given that Cumberbatch and Freeman didn't get nominated last year, but his performance was such a standout that it's disappointing regardless. (He just won a BAFTA, for goodness' sake.) The scene where Moriarty insists he's actually an actor was eerie perfection in sowing little seeds of doubt.

Indeed, there's a whole chunk of British actors who I was surprised to see unlisted in the ballot of prospective nominees. Underinformed management teams across the pond?

Jack Gleeson - "Joffrey Baratheon", Game of Thrones
Charles Dance - "Tywin Lannister", Game of Thrones

More than the others, I think these two being absent from the ballot represents someone asleep at the wheel in compiling HBO's submission package. Gleeson and Dance helped the show's writers demonstrate a sense of scope in depicting the Lannisters and their thirst for power - Tywin as the craftiest guy in the room, but also a man who recognizes the potential inherent in being the one pulling the strings instead of the public face, and Joffrey as the rotten manifestation of all his family's foibles.

Laura Carmichael - "Lady Edith Crawley", Downton Abbey
Zoe Boyle - "Lavinia Swire", Downton Abbey

The Downton Abbey-as-convalescent-home storyline gave Carmichael an opportunity to grant some much-needed shading to Edith as she discovered a sense of purpose in helping others. (And Carmichael pretty much single-handedly kept that whole potential-heir/burn-victim story from going too far off the rails.) I think the fundamentally good-hearted but ultimately doomed young woman (Beth March, Melanie Wilkes, etc., etc.) is a deceptively difficult role, but Boyle performed hers capably.

Anna Chancellor - "Lix Storm", The Hour

An old-school character for a period show, Chancellor's savvy, experienced newswoman provided good low-key balance to the energies brought by Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai. (And her character feels more and more valuable the more I watch of The Newsroom. Another rant for another time.)

Alex Karpovsky - "Ray", Girls
Andrew Rannells - "Elijah", Girls

Both Karpovsky and Rannells performed admirably in their roles as the blunt truth-tellers of the Girls universe, keeping the show on an even keel by tempering the self-absorption of other characters. They also had my absolute favorite moments in the finale - Karpovsky's scenes with Zosia Mamet (there is like not even enough material there to get shipper-y over, and yet I am slightly obsessed with the concept of Ray and Shoshanna together. I need it to happen in Season Two) and Rannells' line reading of "Girls who huff." (The tone of which is difficult to communicate here, but it cracks me up every time.)

Matt Ross - "Dr. Charles Montgomery", American Horror Story

I already think Ross was criminally underrecognized for his work on Big Love, so that's probably giving him a boost here. But he made Dr. Montgomery's Frankenstein-esque forays into medical experimentation some of AHS's best trips over the top.

Lamorne Morris - "Winston", New Girl
Dan Byrd - "Travis Cobb", Cougar Town

I tend to take a sort of "Throw your hat in the ring! Why not?" attitude towards most potential submissions, especially when most or all of the other members of an ensemble present as contenders. It took New Girl's writers longer to "find" Winston than it did for Nick and Schmidt, but by the end of the season, Morris had turned in some good moments too. (Like the Theodore K. Mullins speech). And some of Byrd's best work on Cougar Town came this year in their exploration of Travis and Laurie's relationship.

Taran Killam - "Mr. Rad", Community

Maybe Community's best one-off, grounding the show's Glee parody in crazy-eyed mania and subtly sending up Matthew Morrison's performance as Will Schuster.

Roger Bart - "Mason Treadwell", Revenge
Ashton Holmes - "Tyler Barrol", Revenge

Bart was the best of the characters against whom Emily sought revenge, showing the cracks in his man-about-town facade where his image of himself as a journalist comes into conflict with the knowledge of how he sold his soul and screwed the Clarkes over. And Holmes' performance fit perfectly into the vein of classic crazy soap villains, from quiet menace to devourer of scenery.

Jay Jackson - "Perd Hapley", Parks and Recreation

Jackson has become Parks and Rec's most valuable tertiary player over four seasons, representing the heart of Pawnee's absurd media culture. The fourth season's depiction of the election cycle gave him ample opportunities for more examples of Perd's affable cluelessness - my favorite might be his running out the clock on Leslie's response in "The Debate."

Morena Baccarin - "Isobel Swift", The Good Wife
Mary Beth Peil - "Jackie Florrick", The Good Wife
Parker Posey - "Vanessa Gold", The Good Wife

Baccarin held her own as a foil to Dylan Baker's Colin Sweeney, a character who is essentially designed to suck all the air out of the room. Peil was great both in shrouding Jackie's machinations in a faux-innocent "who, me?" exterior, and in muddling her motivations as potential mental issues came into play in the latter episodes of the season. And maybe it's residual Josie and the Pussycats love, but I thought Posey and Alan Cumming were delightful together as politically minded exes.

Kate Burton - "Vice President Sally Langston", Scandal

Burton had twice as many potential submissions as ultimately ended up on the ballot, so I'm not surprised that her Scandal role fell by the wayside. Nevertheless, her scenes as the evangelical Christian VP of Scandal's universe didn't veer over into caricature when they easily could have and suggested that the show going forward may have some very interesting things to say about women in politics. (And as a lover of troupe-building creators, I love that Shonda Rhimes gave her such a different character from Ellis Grey to play here.)

Alison Brie - "Trudy Campbell", Mad Men
Embeth Davidtz - "Rebecca Pryce", Mad Men
Christine Estabrook - "Gail Holloway", Mad Men
Sam Page - "Greg Harris", Mad Men

None are terribly flashy performances, but all contribute to the fully realized world of Mad Men, particularly in the interplay and contrast between home and office beyond whatever Don's situation is in any given year. I've always been disappointed not to see Page submit his name for consideration - true, most (if not all) Mad Men fans hate Greg, but Page has always done a great job of presenting him without judgment, with all his weaknesses. You want Greg to accept responsibility for why things in his life are the way they are, but also understand why he doesn't feel the need to be introspective. I don't think Page gets enough credit for that.

Week in TV: October 30-November 5

Boardwalk Empire, 2.6: "The Age of Reason"

- There have been a lot of quiet scenes of serious, bone-deep loneliness this season - Richard's scrapbook, the stilted conversations of the Van Aldens - but nothing compares to the heartbreaking sequence of Lucy realizing what was happening and then gathering herself together to give birth alone. It seemed like the show relied a lot on Paz de la Huerta's established persona to build Lucy's character in the first season, but I think she's really done a great job with the more subdued material of this storyline.

- It's a small role, but I really like the performance Anatol Yusef is giving as Meyer Lansky. To the extent that BE ever functions as a sort of a biopic, it's what I think of as the ideal biopic performance - aware of the mythos without being overly reliant on it. There are just brief flashes here and there where you can say, "Oh, yeah, I can totally see this guy being a major player in revolutionizing American organized crime," but I never feel beaten over the head with it.

Sons of Anarchy, 4.9: "Kiss"

I know it's not really a flashback kind of a show, but I'd really love to see SOA take a look back at the early years of the Gemma-Unser relationship. (I'm sort of envisioning a West Wing "Two Cathedrals"-style setup.) What kinds of interactions did the cop and the wild daughter of Charming have back in the day that earned her such enduring devotion from him?

Revenge, 1.7: "Charade"

- I don't envy the people working on the upcoming Dallas reboot for TNT - Revenge has been bringing the primetime soap back with a vengeance (heh, no wordplay intended) and even if New Dallas is amazing, it seems likely that Revenge will totally steal their thunder. The introduction of Stripper Emily and the Nolan-Tyler blackmail hookup collectively showed that the show has transcended the pseudo-procedural revenge-of-the-week setup in only a few episodes.

- I know it's still a bit of a ways off, but what happens when the summer is over? The Graysons aren't year-round Hamptons residents, right? I'd like to think that the show will just continue on to other locales where the wealthy vacation - a season in Aspen or Palm Springs or wherever - but who knows?

American Horror Story, 1.5: "Halloween, Part 2"

- Finally, finally, a ghost tells one of the Harmons directly that they need to do some research. (In this case, one of Tate's apparent victims incredulous at Violet's ignorance of the situation.) The most frustrating thing about this show to me so far has been the Harmons' bizarre lack of curiosity regarding the house and its sordid history. If I was considering moving into a house and the realtor told me the previous tenants had died in a murder-suicide, I would Google That Business. Immediately. The further incidents of a) a stranger claiming to have burned his family to death in said house, b) a home invasion based around recreating events of a famous dual murder in said house and c) the Murder Tour of Los Angeles bus pointedly making a stop IN FRONT OF SAID HOUSE would prompt me to, again, Google That Business. Maybe take a trip to the library and spend some quality time with the Los Angeles Times on microfiche. It's difficult to feel bad about any of the terrible things happening to the protagonists when they seem so determined to face it all with as little helpful information as possible.

- Okay, so it's a major part of the story that the family doesn't have enough money to move, right? Then how do they have enough to afford that tricked-out security system with the prompt, personalized service?

- Interesting to see that Tim Minear wrote this episode - something about the tone reminded me a bit of his Angel episode "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been." Indeed, he wrote some of the most interesting flashback-based episodes under the Mutant Enemy banner - "Darla" for Angel, "Out of Gas" for Firefly and "Omega" for Dollhouse - which suggest that he's got a skill set well-suited to this show's particular universe and mode of storytelling. It wasn't the most suspenseful of the episodes that have aired thus far, but it was the first that made me curious to learn more about any of the characters (as opposed to previous episodes, which made me curious to see what sort of random insanity would get thrown up on screen the following week).

Miscellaneous Links:

- Shout-out to this week's A.V. Club Inventory on unexpectedly scary episodes of generally non-scary shows for including the episode that most readily came to mind for me: the Scream-based episode of Boy Meets World. (#10 on the list) "And Then There Was Shawn" is one of my all-time most memorable television-watching experiences, because it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I was over at a friend's house when I saw it, and it marks the only time I can remember having to call home to be brought back from a sleepover during the night. I was wracked with paranoia for months afterward - I constantly checked behind doors to make sure no slashers were lurking and every time I got left alone at home I would just sit tensely in my room, jumping at every little creak, convinced that I was mere moments away from being murdered. Honestly, even though I've gotten older (and at this point, actually watched the real Scream without incident) and accumulated more experience with genre fiction, I'm still wigging a little bit just thinking about it.

Week in TV: October 23-29

Boardwalk Empire, 2.5: "Gimcrack and Bunkum"

- In a media landscape that's often lacking in diversity, I feel like BE deserves props for making the cabal of Atlantic City elders backing the Commodore feel like the oldest, whitest group of old white men anywhere on television. Truly an accomplishment among stiff competition.

- Great interview with Jack Huston from The Daily Beast; the work he's been doing this season is mesmerizing, and really showcases BE at its best.

Revenge, 1.6: "Intrigue"

There are many things to enjoy about this show, but I'm currently really digging Ashton Holmes, Tyler's weird creepiness, and the fact that they've kept his motives fairly oblique; does he want to bang Daniel, replace him in the Grayson family, or murder him and wear his skin? (Maybe all three, not necessarily in that order?) Love it. I was kind of convinced that the shooting that opened the pilot is actually connected to the mentioned-infrequently-but-just-frequently-enough-to-clearly-be-relevant waitress relationship gone bad rather than Emily's revenge plot, but I'm willing to give a percentage of that theorizing over to "Tyler finally snaps." Good stuff.

American Horror Story, 1.4: "Halloween, Part 1"

I think this week really highlighted a central flaw in the show, particularly if the plot heads where it appears to be heading: the most interesting people in any given episode tend to be the former residents/current ghosts. If the seemingly inevitable horrific murder (murder-suicide?) of the Harmons comes to pass, they aren't currently compelling enough for their potential future haunting to seem like an interesting prospect. At the end of the episode, I wasn't concerned about the ostensible protagonists. I was thinking, "Damn, I hope we get some sort of cross-era ghost interaction so there are at least a few scenes of Zachary Quinto and Lily Rabe going crazy on each other, over-the-top Tennessee Williams-style."

Once Upon a Time, "Pilot"

Grimm, "Pilot"

Two takes on fairy tales, neither of which grabbed me right out of the gate. I preferred Grimm's darker take on the material, just because it seemed to owe more to the gorier original stories as opposed to the more clearly Disney-influenced versions in Once Upon a Time (and, honestly, when you're introducing a show like this in 2011, I think you need at least a dash of that kind of self-awareness and to contend with your source material in as nuanced a manner as possible), but I don't think I'm up for what looks to be a more procedural structure in the less whimsical show. I'm more curious to see where Once Upon a Time goes for a while, particularly whether the flashback structure holds up, and whether a long-term strategy for sustaining compelling storytelling emerges. The stated goal of Emma ultimately defeating the Queen and breaking the curse seems like a decent endpoint, but only if there's as little wheel-spinning as possible in the journey to get there.