My Picks For This Years Emmys: Best Actor In A Comedy

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY

The clear advantage in this category is held by Douglas, who triumphed at the Golden Globes. I didn’t think he deserved it; he was worthy. Hader could manage to repeat if voters are lazy (though one would be hard pressed to deny his performance this year). But considering that Jeffrey Tambor is ineligible and William H. Macy has been considered scandalous by association, there are a lot of free slots. Who might fill them?

Jim Carrey, Kidding

You can argue about his political leanings outside of TV (he’s been out of entertainment for awhile, in fact), but it doesn’t change the fact that his work as Jeff Pickles on this impressive Showtime series is one of the most delightful turns of the entire season. As an entertainer who has spent thirty years being the source of positivity in a world that has become increasingly dark, and now finds himself trying to deal with his own inner trauma against his incredibly resistant family, Carrey’s work reminds what a natural comedian he was, and for those who have forgotten, what great ability he has for pathos. Add to this the rarity of someone playing a ‘good person’ in a series anymore, and you can see why he deserves to be a contender

Don Cheadle, Black Monday

I have issues with much of how this series unfolded, and real doubts as to how it can continue for a second season. None of them, however, are with its lead. Though he isn’t, again, the best thing about a seriously flawed Showtime ‘comedy’, his work as Mo was actually more layered than that which he did as Marty Conn in House of Lies. There actually was more to him – more than even I expected by the end – and when you spend nine episodes starting out as an antihero, and come out as the voice of reason, you’re doing something right. I’m not saying Cheadle deserves to win, but he definitely deserves to be nomination.

Ted Danson, The Good Place

One of the nicer side bonuses of the new Golden Age has been watching Danson take his career in a far more interesting direction. One would think that his return to comedy would be a fall back. But playing Michael, a demon who over the past two seasons has become a character determined to become good and change the world, is one of the more remarkable things I’ve seen him do in thirty years. He’s also lost none of the comic timing he’s had, and if anything, he’s become remarkable with facial expressions as well as the scathing put down. I’d really like to see him win this year. Not just because he’s a great actor and it would be good for the show, but because it would be an acknowledgement of talent and art combining perfectly.

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

Douglas has been such a formidable dramatic actor for so long, one might have forgotten what a natural comic performer he has been throughout his career. In taking the role of Sandy Kominsky, a faded actor now reduced to teaching students who are clearly not going anywhere, you could say this would be the kind of role he could do in his sleep. But just as so many of the brilliant talents on Grace & Frankie reached levels of humanity and wit in the simple tasks of aging, Douglas manage to find dry humor in dealing with his friendship with his agent, relationship with a woman his own age, and prostate trouble. It’s a reminder of just how gifted a thespian he is.

Bill Hader, Barry

To my chagrin, I basically dismissed him and his HBO comedy because it was headed by an SNL comic I didn’t really like. Did I blow that one. And now, seeing Hader play a man trying to come to terms with his inner darkness after doing something even he considers unforgivable made me utterly wonder how the hell this could be the same guy who did all those Stefan sequences ten years ago. As he tried to pull away from his hitman root, but kept getting dragged back in by former partners and unruly cops, as he tried to help his actress girlfriend come to terms with her own failings, and as he realized that Gene might end up the victim of his great sin, he went to places many dramatic actors can’t. And that was before the finest (half) hour, where he spent engaged in a miniature kung-fu battle with a karate instructor and his daughter. That episode alone earns him another crack at the Emmy.

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

 Why advocate for an actor whose received what one might call an excessive amount of attention from the Emmys? Because Sheldon Cooper’s evolution is remarkable. It goes against the laws of network TV and characters in the post-Sopranos world: people don’t change, and they don’t want to try. Time after time in the second half of this series, Cooper changed. He became capable of caring for other people. He showed that he could love – not appreciate, but love – Amy. And in his moment of greatest triumph, he chose not to acknowledge himself, but the people he actually cared about: something that, for one, Selina Meyer never could. I think he’s earned one more bite at the Emmy apple.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Andy Samberg, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

That this series was brought back from cancelation this year was a great joy. And what would make that joy would be to honor the most incredible talent on it. Watching Jake Peralta deal with all the havoc at the Nine-Nine (and adding more than his fair share to it himself) has been one of the special delights of the last six years. Somehow, Samberg, despite his Golden Globe, has been repeatedly rejected by Emmy voters despite his hysterical work. Let’s acknowledge his coming home to NBC with a nomination. So what if he bombed at the Globes this year?