For the first time in this
particular group of nominees I’m actually more in alignment with the favored
choices. I have seen the lion’s share of the eligible nominees and I fully
agree that they are among the best supporting performances. They also happen to
include some of my favorite character actors even in series I don’t like. That
said, I intend to deviate somewhat form the norm as you shall see below. There
is an overwhelming favorite in this category and I have little dispute with it.
David Choe, Beef
There is an overwhelming
agreement that there will be at least one nominee in this category from Beef
– it has an exceptional bench of supporting players, some of whom I’ll get
to when I wrap up this series. And I can
see the reasoning of nomination Young Mazino or Joseph Lee. But of all the cast
the one I think who deserves it the most is David Choe as Isaac, the ex-con who
gets rolled in deeper in Danny’s floundering life. Every moment Choe is on
screen, he steals the camera from anyone else who’s on it. He is incredibly dark and almost every line out of
his mouth is hysterical, some of which often undercuts his criminal
antics. I will be fine with any of the
cast getting nominations but I’d be thrilled if David Choe did.
Domhnall Gleeson, The
Patient
My one minor quandary with
Gleeson is why he is considered a Supporting Actor when he’s as much a lead in
this series as Steve Carell is. That’s a minor quibble since I have absolutely
no problem with his performance. There have been many limited series about
serial killers this year that are in contention but there were few as truly
frightening as Gleeson’s work as Sam, who was so terrifying to watch as a man
so lacking in the ability for empathy you were honestly surprised he’d been
able to function before his abduction of Dr. Strauss. His actions as a killer
were so utterly out of proportion, cold-bloodedly denying any resemblance of
being able to function in a social setting and looking pathetic when he tried
that you actually saw a man who seemed to be looking for permission rather than
to be cured. The longer the series went
on, the more inevitable the conclusion was and when Sam finally accepted his
fate, it was an acknowledgement that the therapy had worked – but only by
destroying the patient. In another year Gleason would be a certain winner. The
problem is…
Paul Walter Hauser, Black
Bird
Hauser’s performance as
Larry Hall was one of the tour de forces of 2022, particularly for a virtually
unknown actor. Every time Hauser
appeared on screen your eyes were drawn to him, someone so literally
soft-spoken that despite his size and the threat he clearly assumed authorities
could not accept his crimes even after he confessed. Hall was a frightening
killer not just because of the true dark level of his nature and his disconnect
from reality that he seemed like the kind of person who was willing to confess
to crimes he didn’t commit. Even as the evidence piled up against him, even as
Jimmy kept getting closer to him, it wasn’t until the final episode that you
truly realized the nature of his evil – and his wrath became apparent. Hauser’s work has deserved won both a Golden
Globe and a Critics Choice award for Best Supporting Actor. It is very likely
that he will prevail this September and there are few more deserving winners
this year.
Richard Jenkins, Monster
Ever since I met Nathaniel
Fisher Senior on the series premiere of Six Feet Under, I have been in
awe of the work of Richard Jenkins. No matter who he is sharing the screen
with, he always makes you marvel at the depths of his performance whether he is
working with the Coen Brothers, Thomas McCarthy or Guillermo Del Toro. He
already notched a win in this category in the incredible HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge
in 2015, right before the Limited Series was about to take over and while I
have little use for Dahmer as a series, I would have little trouble with
Jenkins getting a second nomination for his work as Lionel Dahmer to mirror his
previous one. Jenkins is one of the most
undervalued character actors of the 21st century and categories like
this were designed to recognize actors of his talent even in lesser roles.
Greg Kinnear, Black
Bird
Lost under the brilliant
work of Hauser and the appreciation of Liotta’s last work was the quiet
performance of Greg Kinnear as the detective who gets called into investigate
the initial murders and ends up arresting Larry Hall. It’s understandable that happened:
almost all of Kinnear’s scenes were either flashbacks or happening adjacent to
the action in the prison where Jimmy was trying to get close to Larry. But in
many ways Kinnear’s performance as Brian Miller was the engine that made Black
Bird run. He was quietly determined to make sure that Hall paid for what he
did and for much of the investigation was the only detective who seriously
considered Hall a threat. He was determined to find Hall through police work –
he didn’t think what the FBI was doing with Keene qualified as such. And his
storyline was among the best work Kinnear has done in his career. Over the last
decade Kinnear has been moving away from his admittedly brilliant comic films
to increasingly good drama work. Interesting much of it has been as political
authority figures on flawed TV movies or series – the maligned mini-series The
Kennedys, Joe Biden on Confirmation, the controversial final season
of House of Cards. This performance is among his best work over the last
decade and while it is likely to be overlooked, it deserves recognition.
Ray Liotta, Black Bird
Ray Liotta was one of the
most underappreciated actors of all time. Did he receive his nominations from
the Golden Globes and Critics Choice more out of posthumous respect than
anything else? Possibly but that does not change the fact his work as Jim Keene
Senior is one of the greatest performances he ever gave. Playing a father whose
corruption had led to his son’s imprisonment, who wanted to protect his son
only to find his son went to a dark place to help save him, he played a
father’s whose deteriorating mental condition did more to hit Jimmy and make
his life far harder. Liotta’s role was among the more morally complex
characters in the series and resonated emotionally well after the final credits
role. It demonstrated what a tragedy it was that the world lost him at such a
relatively young age. In both his acceptance speeches Hauser appropriately paid
tribute to him even though many expected him to win the Critics Choice. I actually would be fine if he got the Emmy
posthumously. It would be a fitting tribute.
Jesse Plemons, Love
& Death
Having watched Plemons
over the course of a decade over some of the greatest series in TV history, he
has become renowned for playing characters whose simple looking expressions
underlying hidden and often darker complexities. It was fascinating watching
him take on the role of Allan Gore, the husband who becomes Candy’s lover – and
whose wife Candy eventually kills – and see him play a man whose simple looking
expressions laid bare an individua who
was - simple. I don’t mean that
there weren’t some complexities – he was more conflicted about his marriage and
he did mourn his wife – but the more you saw of Allan, the less their seemed to
be. (It’s actually somewhat unbelievable that two other women married him after
the events in this series.) It is a credit to Plemons as an actor that we spent
much of the series trying to figure out whether he was a villain, a tool, or an
innocent bystander – and were no clearer at the end of the series than the
start. In any case, Plemons has never quite received as much recognition from
the Emmys as he should have and this one role where he’s earned it.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Tom Pelphrey, Love &
Death
I am told by fans of Ozark
that Pelphrey’s work as Ben Davis was one of the great triumphs of TV. I’ll
take their word for it. Having seen Pelphrey’s performance as Don Crowder, the
real estate attorney who ends up defending Candy against impossible odds, I’m inclined to believe that he is a
great actor. Pelphrey’s role was smaller compared to some of the other actors
on this series but when he took command of Candy’s case, he commanded the
screen in every scene he was in. When his wife told him in the series finale
that this case was going to eat him alive, you didn’t quite believe it - until
you saw the end credits and learned the sad fate of Perry. Pelphrey has been
working in and out of recurring roles on TV, mostly on action series such as Banshee
and Iron Fist. Like his work in Ozark, this role shows what a
great and versatile performer he is and I hope the Emmys will acknowledge it.
Tomorrow I wrap up this
series with Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series/TV Movie along with
some additional ephemera. Expect some more disagreement.
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