To quote Dan Aykroyd
when he played Bob Dole on Saturday Night Live we know who’ll win in
this category: “I know it, you know it and the American people know it.” (I
made this reference deliberately as you’ll see.) But that does mean there are
going to be other nominees in this category.
I’m willing to
go along with the two overwhelming favorites as nominees. But when it comes to
Larry David, even though I know he’ll be here, I can’t raise enough enthusiasm
for him. So I’m going to go with a couple of alternatives I’d really like to see
and as to another one of the choices, he’s a dark horse but far from
impossible. So here goes.
Martin Freeman, Breeders
Freeman has
never quite gotten enough requisite love from the Emmys to this talent. Yes he
got recognized for Sherlock but
it came at the cost of losing for Fargo there was nothing for his work
in the original Office or the BBC work before that and he’s been part of
one of the best comedies on TV for four seasons and got zilch to show for it.
His work as Paul, the angry father trying to so hard to show his love for his family
and always frustrating by everything, such as life, has been one of the most
realistic father figures we’ve gotten in recent years and he has nothing to
show for it either as a performer or a producer. He isn’t going to stop working
– he’s currently the lead in The Responder which has already won him an international
Emmy but nothing from the real ones. The least the Emmys can do is nominate
him.
Kelsey Grammer, Frasier
I don’t normally
advocate for nominees in reboots – or in the case of Paramount plus, a continuation
– but I will always make an exception for Frasier. I’ve made no secret
that it was my favorite series of the 1990s, and a far more worthy recipient of
Emmys than Seinfeld was and an infinitely more enjoyable show. They
might have gone slightly overboard when it came to recognizing Grammer – I don’t
think he deserved the last Emmy he got – but Frasier Crane is one of the great
characters in comedy history and Grammer’s performance one of the most iconic.
There were those who had doubts as the series was rebooted this year but over
the course of it, it gradually began to win fans and critics back over. He is
currently rising very quickly in the possibility for a nomination in this
category – at the moment he ranks seventh in Gold Derby. And on a personal
note, if it came down to a choice between him and Larry David, well, I’d prefer
the Emmys recognize tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
Steve Martin, Only
Murders in the Building
Few performers
have had a longer career and gotten so little recognition it from awards show
then Steve Martin. He never got a single Oscar nomination for any of the brilliant
comic performances he gave in his life. Ditto the Golden Globes. As a writer he’s
done better winning a couple of WGA awards and actually winning an Emmy for his
work on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and somehow he’s managed to
win five Grammy, both for comedy and bluegrass music. But while he has received
nominations for hosting and writing the Oscars and for his work with a Martin
Short variety special, he has received no other love for the Emmys as a
performer. The insult came last year when Martin Short got nominated in this
category but he didn’t. As Steve Martin has said: “Welcome to my world.”
Well he’s
definitely going to get a nomination for his work as Charles Haden-Savage this
year as well as another for co-producing this show. It is unlikely he will win –
White did just as well against a similar field – but hopefully there is next
year.
Martin Short, Only
Murders in The Building
Martin Short’s
track record with the Emmys is not quite as bad as his co-star but its not much
of an improvement. He did receive an Emmy for his work writing SCTV (though considering all the nominees that
year were SCTV it’s hard to see how he could have lost and for Outstanding
Variety Special for his tribute to Mel Brooks. But he’s had less luck on a
personal level and he’s had more opportunities that showed a wider range. He
lost for his work in Merlin, for playing Jiminy Glick and for showing
his dramatic range in Damages and The Morning Show. He’s had
better luck then his co stars in other awards; he famously won a Best Actor in
a Streaming Comedy over Jason Sudeikis in 2022 and he’s the only one of the
three leads to be nominated in each of the first two seasons. (Yes I know about
Selena Gomez; I’ll get to that in the actresses.)
Now as the
producer of the play where the most recent murder victim has passed, Oliver
gets to inhabit the world of hysteria and comedy that he does better than practically
any other living comic. He continues to shock and awe five decades into his
work and another nomination is in the offing.
Jeremy Allan
White, The Bear
White has
already made a cycle of the Best Actor in a comedy awards, just as he did in
the lead up to last year’s Emmys. The Golden Globe, SAG Award and Critics
Choice Awards are already his and everyone knows he’s going to make it two in a
row this year. This is a habit of the Emmys; before they gave two straight ones
to Jason Sudeikis for the title role in Ted Lasso and then they gave
Bill Hader two consecutive ones for his work in Barry. And just as with
those two legends and their iconic performances, you can’t watch the second
season of The Bear and not understand why its an inevitability.
Carmy is just as
troubled, messed-up and emotionally wrecked in Season 2 as he was in Season 1.
He continues to march towards the next impossible goal, ignoring all the
obstacles as something he alone can deal with and taking no joy or pleasure in
his successes. We’ve known for awhile how messed up his family dynamic was and
in the certain winner for best teleplay ‘Fishes’ we got an up close and
personal view of just how monstrous it was to live in it. By the end of Season
2, Carmy is just as messed up as he was at the start of the series and the
question is whether he can make any emotional growth at all or whether he’ll
keep wrecking everybody as he moves endlessly forward to a goal he doesn’t
have. Carmy has no joy in life right now, but White has to be experiencing it
for being at the center of the one show everybody in the world is locked on.
D’Pharaoh
Woon-A-Tai, Reservation Dogs
Woon-A-Tai has twice
been nominated in this category by the Critics Choice Awards and his work as
Bear has been the engine of so much of the action. Bear has spent the entire
series going on a vision quest and for much of the final season he went on an
actual one. After trying to visit his father in California, he got left behind
and ended up encountering Maximus, the lost member of the reservation who was
the backstory of Season 3. He finally encountered Deer Lady who has been one of
the spiritual visions and now proved real. As the series unfolded, he has been
working towards independence, something that troubled his mother but now has
been able to move forward. And in the series finale, he came to a final
realization and true growth. Other performers from Reservation Dogs have
a better chance of earning nominations than Woon-A-Tai in this category but he is
just as deserving of recognition as his co-stars are and deserves it more than
some of the front-runners in this category. They will nominate the lead of The
Bear, perhaps they can nominate another actor who played a character named
Bear, and who clearly is far more emotionally healthy at the end of his journey
than Carmy is right now.
FOR YOUR
CONSIDERATION
Iain Armitage, Young
Sheldon
Iain Armitage
took on a goliath task when he took on the title role in this series. Jim
Parsons had already won four Emmys for playing the grown-up Sheldon and the
original was still on the air when the spinoff began. Armitage very quickly
made this version of the character his own and demonstrated that he is one of
the greatest superstar young talents. (Those of us who watched him as Ziggy in Big
Little Lies already knew that.)
Yet despite all
the brilliance and love of the show, it has never received any recognition that
its originator did from the Emmys. Critics have loved it and it has gotten love
from other awards show but nothing from the Emmys. Perhaps in a year of
transition this series could get some love from the Emmys and that would start
with giving a Best Actor nomination to the young actor who did the impossible
for seven years: completely make us forget the legendary performance that he
would grow up to be and make a character as unique as his own.
Tomorrow I deal
with Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy. This one is going to be much tighter
than this one was. Trust me.
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