As I wrap things up, once
again I find myself blending between the old and the new. A couple of the heavy
favorites in this category I am willing to support not so much because I like
the series’ that they are in but because I love their work in so many other
things. At least three of the nominees I
will suggest are likely contenders anyway given the popularity of their performances.
In two cases, I’m going to my own devices.
Maria Bello, Beef
Ever since I first saw
Maria Bello in her sole season on ER I have been captivated by her as a
performer. She has been one of the best
character actresses over the past quarter-century starring in such minor
classics as The Cooler, A History of Violence and Thank You
For Smoking. I was one of the few admirers of her work in the disastrous
adaptation of Prime Suspect and was impressed by her work in Goliath.
Now it looks like her time has come for superb performance in Beef. Playing
Jordan, the billionaire woman who so many of the characters are trying to curry
favor with who Amy desperately wants to be even as Jordan continues to
manipulate her, whose every attitude says: “I’m an ally in public and a Karen
in private’, Bello is absolutely astonishing in every scene she’s in. Could she
end up being the spoiler in this race? If she did, I would have no problem with
it.
Niecy Nash-Betts, Monster
I’ve been an admire of
Niecy Nash-Betts for less time than Bello even though she’s been around for as
long. But I got there. From her superb comic work in criminally undervalued Getting
On (which deservedly earned her two Emmy nominations) her fine work in the
last season of Master of Sex, her searing performance in When They
See Is and her dominating work in the underrated Claws, Nash-Betts has
been a force. I have admired her work in The Rookie: Feds which I truly
hope ABC renews. Given her win at the Critics Choice for Best Supporting
Actress and her incredible acceptance speech, she is the overwhelming
front-runner for her work in Dahmer. Is it unfair that she might finally
win the Emmy she deserves for work in a show that’s beneath her (even though
people who loathe the series admit her performance was the one great thing
about it?) Of course it is. But who cares? She’s been owed this for at least a
decade. Time for her to collect.
Claire Danes, Fleishmann
is in Trouble
It’s hard to argue that
Danes is lacking for recognition from the Emmys by this point: she’s already
won three, including two Best Actress Emmys for her role of a life time as
Carrie Matheson in Homeland. That said even in a series I have little
use for, its very hard to deny the power of Danes’ work as Rachel, the openly
aggressive career wife of the title character in this very complicated series. In
the first two episodes Danes comes across as so blunt and unlikable that you
can understand (if not sympathize) why Jessie Eisenberg spend so much time ignoring
the fact his ex-wife has disappeared off the face of the earth before he starts
to openly worry that something might be wrong.
Danes’ presence in the series has been one of the few constants about
awards shows: she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by both the Golden
Globes and Critics Choice Awards and is rising in the odds to defeat Niecy
Nash-Betts. Danes doesn’t need another
Emmy but I can’t argue she doesn’t deserve another nomination.
Judy Greer, White House Plumbers
Please tell me what Judy
Greer has to do to get a nomination for anything. I grant you the lion’s share of her work
has been on film but she’s been doing voice work for Archer for a decade
and has gotten nothing. She starred in two of my favorite underrated series of
all time: Married and Kidding and got nothing. Last year she was
in two superb limited series:
The
First Lady and
The Thing About Pam, and while the HCA nominated her for the latter,
nothing from the Emmys. Now here she is again doing a superb ditzy comic role
as Fran Liddy, the often ridiculously naïve but loyal wife of her buffoon
husband Gordon and its looking like Headey will be nominated but Greer might
very well be ignored. Admittedly recent polls do show that she is rising fast
in predictions and considering how hysterical she was to watch, she deserves
it. Will this work in a category that always seems to recognize drama? (Then
again, several of the nominees in this category are giving comic performances,
so there is hope.)
Lena Headey, White
House Plumbers
Even people who did not
like White House Plumbers raved about Lena Headey’s work as Dorothy
Hunt. As someone who hated Game of Thrones, I have to say that Headey’s
work was the biggest surprise and the greatest delight. Dorothy may have been
the one voice of reality in this entire series: the only one who could tell her
husband what a complete idiot everything he was doing was, the buffoons he was
working with, who realized just how much trouble the Hunts were in – and who
may very well have paid the ultimate price for it. Headey was capable of
stealing every scene she was in, and considering most of them were with Woody Harrelson
that tells you just how great she is. She’s the most likely actor in this
series to get a nomination and I couldn’t be happier.
Ashley Park, Beef
I hate Emily in Paris. Let’s
get that out of the way. I’ve never seen
Girls5eva. But watching her work as Naomi, I can understand the appeal
of Ashley Park. She’s the best friend we all think we have, the ally at work,
who does not like it when she is being usurped and has no problem doing
anything she can to regain her power – including destroying said best friend
online and tracking down someone who might be involved in road rage. This is the Netflix show Park deserves
recognition for. If she gets for Emily in Paris – well I will be as
irked as most of the cast in Beef.
Lily Rabe, Love and
Death
The role of Betty on this
series had less screen time compared to some of the others but in a way it’s the
most critical. Betty came across as unpleasant in the first episode, trying to
work things out with Allan in the second, a good friend in the third with some
concern – and then deranged in her last act. It is a credit to the incredible
work of Rabe that you could see all of those things in every aspect of Rabe,
know she was the victim and also know that she was as much to blame for what
happened as Candy Montgomery. We will never know what propelled the actions
that led to what happened between them that night, but Rabe’s performance made
it clear that Betty Gore was as much a victim as the instigator and we could
see that she was capable of each.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Linda Emond, The
Patient
You want to know something
that’s more frightening then a serial killer who abducts a therapist and chains
him to a bed in the basement? The man’s mother who knows the therapist is
there, listens to him kill a man in the basement, helps him dispose of the
body, and tells him afterward not to give up on therapy. Throughout the series every time Alan tried
to get back to the problem that Sam’s mother was as the process, Sam completely
shut down. Near the end of the series Alan finally confronted her on this and
made it very clear she bore responsibility for it, and her entire reaction had
been to ignore it. It might have been an action designed to force Sam to do
what he was going to but Alan was making it clear. In the final scene of the
series, Sam acknowledges his mother’s role this by making certain she will
spend the rest of his life doing what she did never did while he was killing:
taking responsibility for his actions. It is unlikely that any attention will
go to Emond based on those of the two leads. But in a season filled with the
monstrousness of serial killers, it would be nice to seem the Emmy nominate
someone who was, in a real way, as big a one as Larry Hall or Sam Fortner.
A few random notes. Given
the changes in the rules for Variety, I am hoping that Seth Meyers and Jon
Stewart are nominated, but would just as much like to see Amber Ruffin
acknowledged in Variety Talk Series. Given the new Variety Scripted Series, let’s
see if they can show some imagination and nominate Ziwe for her last season and
possibly History of the World: Part II.
And that’s it for the predictions.
Next week, I’ll spend a lot of time covering the HCA TV nominations and the
following week, we will see just how disappointed I am with the actual Emmy nominations.
Let’s hope the awards take place this year.
Support the WGA and the Screen
Actors Guild!
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