Julia Louis-Dreyfus, gone at last.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, not eligible in this category. Natasha Lyonne, not
eligible. As the new decade begins, a new face will set the standard for the
Best Actress. (Well, maybe not quite as new.) With several series coming around
for the last shot, some have a chance of being recognized. Here are my choices
for Best Actress.
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Sometimes she’s been the best thing
in inferior projects (witness Californication).
And it’s possible just having been associated with a pariah (Louie C.K. was the
executive producer of her series until recently) that ended up with her being snubbed
last year. But there are few actresses who are willing take unflinching looks
at just how hard it is to be an ex-wife, a mother to daughters who don’t seem
to appreciate her, and a daughter to a mother who doesn’t seem to care about
anybody. A lot of the action in Season 4 revolved around the most innocuous of
things – a lot of it was set among sleepy, rainy days. But as Sam makes strides
to becoming accepting the flaws of everyone around – and herself – Adlon
continues to demonstrate why she is one of the greatest talents working in
television. It’s hard to imagine her being ignored. But it was hard to imagine
her being ignored last year, too.
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
I’ve only recently become involved
with the big deal on Netflix, but it’s very hard not to be enchanted by
Christina Applegate, a comic genius who never seems to get the respect she
deserves. True, she spent a brilliant decade playing dumb on Married… With Children, and won an Emmy
for her work on Friends, but neither
of her undervalued comedies Up All Night and
Samantha Who got the love they
deserved. Now in her forties, she’s found another genius role as Jill, the
widow with two kids in the midst of a complicated relationship with Jen. (Linda
Cardellini deserves a nomination herself, but I just can’t see them making room
for her.) I’ve been a fan of her work for awhile, and she seems more than
deserving of repeating this year.
Kirsten Bell, The Good Place
From her earliest days in Veronica Mars, Bell never seems to have gotten the
appreciation from the Emmys that she deserves. Even when starring in one of the
greatest shows of our time, she keeps getting locked out. And what more will
she have to do? She took over the neighborhood to try and save humanity. When
it seem humanity was doomed anyway, she went for a bigger fly. She finally got
to the Good Place
and saw it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be – so she helped fix it, too. She
was finally reunited with the love of her life for eternity – until she
wasn’t. And after so many Jeremy
Beremy’s, she worked through all her issues and had the last word – in the Good Place and on
Earth. If anyone has demonstrated how much a flawed human being can find
salvation, it’s Eleanor. If any actress has demonstrated just how to get the
comedy and drama out of any role, it’s Bell.
Keep it sleazy for her, and give her a
forking nomination.
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous
Mrs. Maisel
Brosnahan has been one of the great
pure discoveries of the new Golden Age.
It’s astonishing when you realize she’s not even thirty yet, because
she’s been so much a part of the Golden Age, from The Blacklist to House of
Cards to Manhattan. One hesitates to say she’s found the role of a lifetime, but it’s
hard to imagine anyone else in the title role. As Midge carries on her path
towards stardom, she continues to be as fast talking, hysterical and loving as
ever. She’s already going to have to have a shelf put together for the prizes
she’s already won for being Midge, but it’s safe to say she has not yet begun
to be as big as her title character hopes to be.
Kristen Dunst, On Becoming A God
in Central Florida
About the only thing keeping Dunst
from a nomination in this category is the fact that the Emmys can’t seem to
agree on whether her so is a comedy or a drama. But when you see Dunst inhabit
– that’s the only way to describe it – Krystal, the thirtyish widowed mother
trying to make a living at the center of a pyramid scheme, and reacting to all
of the slogans and sincerity around her with utter incredulity, there’s no way
to look at this as anything but an utterly flawless comic performance. For all
her flaws, she constantly comes across as the only sane person in the world of
FAM, which gives her leg up not just on everyone else. She’s so utterly a
creature of the antiheroines of Showtime that it came as a shock that this
wasn’t originally made for them. Will the Emmys call this show comedy or a
drama? I don’t know. But if they nominate her for a former, they’ll see what a
winner looks like.
Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek
Has there ever been a more
undervalued comedienne than Catherine O’Hara? From her days on SCTV to her unforgettable role as
Kevin’s mother on Home Alone to all
of the incredible comedy stops she’s made in Christopher Guest’s movies. One of
them, For Your Consideration was such
a brilliant parody of the Oscar nomination process that there was actual talk
of nominating O’Hara. But Hollywood
wasn’t that meta… not yet. Now, as she goes into her fourth decade as a
performer, she wraps up playing yet another mother – but Moira has been more
beloved than perhaps any of the ones before. There are too many candidates her
who deserve to win, and it’s still early to consider her a sentimental favorite
(something the Emmys acknowledges less and less). But her acceptance speech
would probably be the funniest of the group.
Issa Rae, Insecure
Rae has finally gotten comfortable
enough with the writers of her show that she no longer needs to write every
episode of the series she started. And this episode featured the most growth
Issa has demonstrated yet. From the long plan to get her block party started to
her disassociation with Molly that seemed to end their friendship to her
wending her way back to Lawrence
who was being set up as a happy ending – until the last five minutes blew it to
hell. The fact that she managed to rebuild her friendship with Molly after all
this may be her best sign of hope. Rae has spent the period between seasons
breaking big in her own right. I think she more than deserves another nomination.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Yara Shahdi, grown-ish
Anyone of the leads of the
brilliant black-ish series deserve
consideration - Tracee Ellis Ross has
always been a worthy contender, and I’m impressed by Arica Himmel’s ability to
get the nuances of the young Bow in mixed-ish.
But I’m going to go on a limb, and name the lead of the only series that
doesn’t appear on ABC. Shahdi had the incredible ability to steal every scene
she was in on black-ish, and on grown-ish she more than demonstrates
that she’s able not just to step into Anthony Anderson’s shoes, but take Zoey
through angles that Dre wouldn’t be able to see or understand. As she tries to
be a good friend, roommate, and a young black woman in college, she manages to
reach nuances you didn’t think she quite had in the parent show. Grown-ish couldn’t work without Shahdi,
and though she’s a very long shot, I think she deserves a nomination. No doubt
Zoey does too.
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