No one from last
year is eligible; indeed, none of the major contenders going back three years
will be eligible. Therefore this category will be full entirely on new faces.
I’m basically in
accord with four of the heavy favorites for nominations this year. I haven’t
seen three of the series that may have the most likely contenders, though that
will probably change within the next few weeks. So among my nominees will be
two slight longshots who have nevertheless gotten Best Actor nominations from
other critical groups and may very well do so later.
So let’s get
started.
Cosmo Jarvis, Shogun
Blackthorne is
the only white character in Shogun but he is anything but a white
savior. Jarvis took a character that Richard Chamberlain immortalized forty
years ago and not only made it his own but made it so you couldn’t imaging
another person playing him. His work as Blackthorne was one of the most brilliant
pieces of work in the series because it was radical to have the only white
character be by far the most savage and frequently the most clueless to the
manipulations around him. Understandably Jarvis was overshadowed by the
incredible work of his co-lead in this series but it was nevertheless an
absolutely riveting piece of dramatic and brutal work. The move of Shogun to
Best Drama has helped his chance of an Emmy nomination the most of any actor in
the series; given the caliber of nominees in Limited Series, his chances were
remote. Now it looks like he’s rising fast and I think we’re all good with
that.
Gary Oldman, Slow
Horses
Oldman is one of
the greatest actors in history and the role of Jackson Lamb is as iconic among
the British as so many of the characters he famously played for American
audiences. He’s currently the front-runner for this award according to gold
derby and there are signs the Emmys will recognize him. Oldman received a
Golden Globe nomination for this last December and he was recognized for this
performance two years ago by the HCA. Jackson Lamb is actually the right kind
of character for the Emmys to be nominated these days; he's the perfect balance
between anti-heroes and an outright hero, much in the same way Pedro Pascal has
for completely different kind of leaders. His character also is having a
ridiculous amount of fun in each season and after years of recognizing so many
dark, albeit extraordinary characters in this category for the last decade,
from Kendall and Roman Roy to the work of Lee Jung-Jae in Squid Game, we’re
well overdue recognition for someone who is a genuinely fun to watch. Whether
or not Oldman wins the Emmy this year is irrelevant; much like with Pedro
Pascal, it’s a matter of when, not if. Nominating him will be a start.
Timothy
Olyphant, Justified: City Primeval
Olyphant has
been part of the era of Peak TV ever since he played Seth Bullock on Deadwood.
Since then he created the iconic character of Raylan Givens on Justified
made us laugh on Santa Clarita Diet and a guest spot on The
Grinder, has done brilliant guest work on The Mandalorian and last
year did fine work on the brilliant limited series Daisy Jones and The Six. He
has received a huge amount of recognition from various awards groups over the
years: the Critics Choice Awards nominated him for Best Actor five times for
playing Raylan Givens, but the Emmys have treated him like a red-headed step-child,
only nominated him for Best Actor once and only twice for two other awards,
never given him a prize. I honestly think Olyphant needs to go up to the Emmy
judges and get them to draw a gun on him, because they truly have it coming.
Olyphant has
received another Critics Choice nomination for Best Actor and I suspect there
will be one from the ASTRA in a few weeks. But of all the shows the Critics
Choice have given love to that the Emmys have ignored, Justified is by
far the biggest victim. I’m putting Olyphant in this category for the same
reason I did almost every time when I was arguing for the Emmys when Justified
was on the air. Each year, he gave an Emmy worthy performance. Each time,
the Emmys in their infinite wisdom chose to ignore him and to be very clear
many of their alternatives, such as Jeff Daniels from The Newsroom, boggled
the mind then and now. I don’t really expect the reality of Olyphant’s
brilliant work to make a difference this time: the Emmys have a long and
storied history of doubling down on their mistakes no matter how many
opportunities they get to rectify it. But I’m still fighting for him and I hope
City Primeval comes back to give the Emmys another chance – to ignore
him.
Ramon Rodriguez,
Will Trent
After Season 1
of Will Trent Ramon Rodriguez received an Astra Nomination, a Critics
Choice nomination and a nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards. The only
major group not to recognize him were the Emmys. Rodriguez’s work in Season 2
of the series was, if anything, more deserving of a nomination than his first
season. And if you’re a reader of my blog or a fan of the show, you know why I
think that. Throughout Season 2, we saw Will have to deal with the legacy of
his birth father, face the fact that he had a living relative, spend most of
the season dealing with a childhood trauma so deep that he spent most of the
year ignoring it before he accepted it, was about to move forward with Angie
until the season finale when the consequences of her actions in Season 1 turned
violent and left five people dead. In the last minutes of the finale he had to
face a horrible truth that has changed the course of the series forever.
I’ll be honest,
while I think there is little chance Will Trent the show will get
nominated the actor who plays him has a slightly better chance. There is the
fact of his previous nominations and the more cynical reason is that Rodriguez
is LatinX and the Emmys wants to show that it is diverse. I normally chafe at
this but if it gets one of my favorite shows and some of my favorite actors
nominated, I’ll make an exception.
Hiroyuki Sanada,
Shogun
Sanada spent
more than five years trying to get Shogun remade and his devotion to it
shows in every single aspect of it, not the least of which is his incredible
work as Toranaga the feudal lord of
Japan who manages to escape death numerous times and spends the entire series
doing everything in his power to play the man who does not want to take the
role in the title and ends up getting it by the finale. It is not until the end
of the series that we realize just how much of a manipulator he has been of everyone
around him, and that the man we considered a world-wary fighter raging against
politics was just as shrewd and monstrous as everyone around him – he just hid
it better. It was a gamble worthy of everything Toranaga did during the series
to submit the show for Best Drama, where an Emmy would be hard to win, rather
than Best Limited Series where it looked increasingly inevitable. Perhaps
Sanada is as gifted a manipulator as the character he plays and if the gamble
pays off, it will be difficult not to admire the man who knew how to study the
wind.
Dominic West, The
Crown
How is it that
Dominic West, who has been one of the most dominant figures in television for
more than twenty years, has yet to receive a single Emmy nomination? How does
the man who broke out in The Wire, stunned us in The Affair and
is now playing the current king of England, not have at least one Emmy yet?
Most of them, for the record, are his American TV roles: he’s been just as much
a force in such brilliant British Limited series as The Hour and Appropriate
Adult. He has been winning awards for the latter from BAFTA and got another
nomination for playing Richard Burton in a British TV movie. The Golden Globes
have done better by him: he’s won nominations for The Hour and The
Affair over the years and the Critics Choice Awards nominated him for The
Hour both seasons. And yet no matter what West is never recognized by the
Emmys, even on the rare occasion the series he stars in is. Even last year when
he was considered a near certainty for a nomination for his work in The
Crown he was shutout, though in fairness it’s hard to argue which one of
the other nominees you would have excluded. (Cough, Brian Cox.)
But it’s time.
It’s past time, honestly. This is the final season of The Crown and
he’s more than deserving of a nomination. Like Charles the younger, it would be
nice if he could take an Emmy too but we’re past the point of arguing he
doesn’t deserve one.
FOR YOUR
CONSIDERATION
Giancarlo
Esposito, Parish
It seems like
only yesterday – actually it was last year - that Esposito was being considered
the front-runner for an Emmy for his final season as Gus Fring in Better
Call Saul. He’d won the Critics Choice and Astra Award for it, but he
wasn’t even nominated for Supporting Actor because the Emmys had decided only
nominees from Succession and White Lotus were eligible that year.
But it has been
Esposito’s fate to have created some of the most iconic characters in
television over the past decade – from Gus Fring to Moff Gideon and never win
an Emmy. He is a TV icon but he’s never
won anything. So maybe a way to make up for it would be to give him an Emmy
nomination for the very first series he’s ever played a lead in.
His work as Gray
Parish was one of the most riveting performances, even in a series that in its
first season struggled to find its groove. Esposito has spent so much time
playing villains (and playing them brilliantly) that he’s never gotten to play
someone closer to an antihero and he handled it very well every step of the
way. As always you couldn’t take your eyes of him.
It's unclear if
the show will get a second season and if it does maybe Esposito will get
another chance at this. But for now, even in a field with many other actors I
consider worthy, Esposito is my favorite. He’s been the passenger so much in
his career. I’d like to see him nominated for being the driver.
Tomorrow I
tackle the Outstanding Actresses in a Drama. Expect some slight deviations here
too.
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