It is all but a foregone
conclusion who will be the winner in this category in 2026. Less so is who the
other nominees will be. With Adam Scott, Pedro Pascal and Diego Luna all for
various reasons ineligible for Best Actor there are at least two very clear
vacancies among the five nominations allowed in this category. Three are certain to be filled – deservedly –
from the nominees from last year. Who will get the final two? Here are my
picks.
Sterling
K. Brown, Paradise
In Season 1 Xavier Collins was the
one man in Paradise determined to get to the truth in what was thought to be
the last safe place on Earth after 'The Day'. At the end of the season he flew
out to see what was left to find his wife.
He spent most of Season 2
traveling the wreckage of America, first being rescued by one of the last
survivors in Graceland (Shaleigh Woodley), then following her until she ended
up dying in labor. Eventually he did find his wife and learned that things were
not the same for her as they were for him. He ended up returning to the Bunker
to rescue his family from a cataclysm within and invaders without. And by the
season finale it became clear that he might be the salvation of mankind in a
way that is not clear yet – but the fact its Xavier may be the clearly sign of
hope.
Sterling K. Brown, along with Paradise
showrunner Dan Fogler, created one of the most iconic characters of the
last decade in Randall Pearson on This Is Us a role that won Brown his
second Emmy. Now the two have created another iconic character on a show that
seems destined to be another classic in television history. In the last decade
Brown has become an Emmy regular across no less than five series in every
category an actor can be nominated in and his presence is a sign of great
television. Brown will win in this category for the final season but we all
know he's going to be nominated for the second straight year and it has nothing
to do with institutional laziness. He and this show are just that good.
Billy
Magnussen, The Audacity
Despite the initially mixed
reviews for The Audacity Billy Magnussen received near universal praise
for his work as Duncan, the dysfunctional Silicon Valley mogul at the center of
the action. I understand why almost from the moment I watched this episode.
So many of the best characters in
TV dramas have had uncharted depths. Duncan is unique at being someone who is
entirely surface, who isn't at smart as he believes, who time and again reads
every single cue, no matter how subtly or heavily delivered completely wrong
and who might not even have an original idea in his head. He spends the entire
season using the tech of someone he doesn't even know, spying on everyone
around him who he's certain is plotting against him (and only a few of them
really are) is constantly outwitted by people who are far more clever then him
and who have slightly more self-awareness and seems determined at every step of
the way to do anything to be hated by his peers all to take the spotlight
momentarily. By the end of the season his determination to be at the spotlight
leads him to learn a horrible truth about his family and even then he's
determined to keep moving forward, trying to outrun everything he is just to
stay ahead.
Magnussen is hysterical portrayal
every level of Duncan, someone who seems to love setting himself on fire if
that means people are paying attention to him for a moment. At a certain level
he knows everything he does will lead to destroy him down the road but all he
cares about is momentary satisfaction and we know that's going to destroy him.
He sets out to make Duncan unlikable at every level so its kind of shocking
that by the season finale we feel some form of sympathy for him even as he
continues to destroy everything around him.
Magnussen has received some
pre-awards discussion most notably an Astra for Best Actor in a drama. With
only four of the nominations in this category locked down for certain Magnussen
could be the wild card in this race and I'm willing to gamble on him over some
more likely contenders.
Gary
Oldman, Slow Horses
Gary Oldman had nothing to prove
when he took on the role of Jackson Lamb back in 2022. So he's spent five
seasons playing one of the most beloved characters in TV history as well as one
of the most iconic characters in literature. And he does both with the complete
attitude of a man who absolutely gives no F's about anybody or anything, not
his job at the worst place in Slough House or the agents who work under him.
Not Diana Taverner who at the end of the season may be in the best position to
take him down for good. Not the terrorists who are engaged in the biggest
threat to London and the UK yet so far.
Not even about how much he stinks, his halitosis or how he breaks wind
on a regular basis.
Jackson Lamb isn't an antihero or
a hero or really anything the TV viewer like myself has gotten used to in
thirty years. He's clearly smarter then he looks, clearly effective at his job,
clearly an efficient agent and killer. But Oldman is superb because every line
out of his mouth – his entire posture – is of a man who doesn't seem to care
about anybody or anything. He seems to care about his own well-being but
considering how every season he seems to sigh reluctantly and go: "I have
to save these idiots" - and by
extension the country – you can't tell how much of this is an act. We know he's
one of the legends at MI-5 and it may be a front but every time he says
anything it seems designed to isolate everybody including himself. That's why
we have so much fun watching Slow Horses in a way we really don't
for so many other series. Jackson Lamb's
trench coat may be plot armor but he barely seems to care whether that gets
messed up.
Someday I want Oldman to win for
playing Jackson Lamb. Not just because he deserves it but because I want him to
accept his as Jackson Lamb. Profanely, messily and like everything else with no
reserve: "You tossers are lucky I was busy dying to receive this"
would be a good start.
Mark
Ruffalo, Task
Just as with Hannah Einbinder for Hacks
Mark Ruffalo's work as an actor is where I continue to separate the artist
from the art. I find him even more pedantic and self-aggrandizing as a
proselytizer for various causes but he remains one of our greater actors and
that is particularly true for his work as Tom Brandis.
I signaled out Ruffalo's work as
Tom as a step forward for leads in HBO dramas. Unlike basically every single
lead of a drama since Tony Soprano, Tom Brandis is broken but fundamentally a
good man. He has undergone horrible losses before the show even begins: his
wife is dead at the hands of his son, his family is shattered, he drinks
himself to sleep every night. Worst of all, he's lost his faith in God which
was central to who he was before he joined the FBI. He's the last man who
should be leading a task force into a string of robberies in Philadelphia and
he knows it – and that's before he realizes that his force has been
compromised.
Every step of the way Ruffalo is
extraordinary as Tom, someone who knows the words to the job he can do but
barely can dance to it. He manages to keep moving forward trying to find out
who is responsible for the abduction of a small child along with everything
else. Eventually he finds himself at gunpoint with the man responsible and in a
long scene in which he believes he is going to die he ends up sharing almost
everything about himself. He survives but that leads to a confrontation on a
bridge that leads to multiple deaths but nevertheless he keeps going. And
through his persisted nature he manages to solve the crimes, find out who the
leak – and perhaps most astonishingly find peace within himself. How many
dramas have you watched where the protagonist is at a better place then
he was emotionally then at the start of the season?
In another year Ruffalo would be
the frontrunner in this category for his incredible work. But he's up against
another complicated broken man trying to do go and he has little chance of
prevailing. Still we will see him back in the ranks again and despite the
complicated feelings I have to the performer, I'm overjoyed to see that he
hasn't lost a step as an actor.
Noah
Wyle, The Pitt
The first sign we know that Dr.
Robby isn't in good shape is when he rides to his job on a motorcycle and isn't
wearing a helmet. It's the day before he goes on sabbatical and he is not in a
good mood. It's ten months since we
first met him and while everyone is clearly dealing with their own shit, Robby
is clearly not dealing with it at all.
In each case he seems a little
more short-tempered with every attending, nurse and even some of the people
replacing him. He refuses to even talk with Dr. Langdon, back from his first
day after ten months in rehab. He can't offer encouraging words to those who
need it and as everyone starts to feel the baggage of the past several months
catch up with them, he has nothing but increasing hostility towards all of
them, demanding they suck it up. And all through the day there are more
discouraging signs: we learn he's fired two of his previous therapists in six
months. He seems about to break up with a woman he's been seeing for the last
few months. He keeps calling his riding buddy to get himself checked out at the
ER. And when he finally shows up it becomes clear the persistent cough he has
is far worse than it looked.
Robby manages to function as the
crises of each hour continue to build up and throughout the day he holds it
together. It's only in the final hours that we learn the significance of his
sabbatical and just what he may be planning. And in that final hour he engages
in a conversation with the one man who knows what he's thinking of and who
makes it very clear he doesn't want him to do it. I've never been more grateful
to know that Wyle is coming back for a third season before the show concluded:
by the time it ended, I think we were are all scared for him.
It's looking going in that Noah
Wyle may become the first actor to win back-to-back Emmys since Bryan Cranston
managed his three-peat between 2008-2010. As with Cranston I can think of no
better actor to be honored considering there such a long period when it seemed
Wyle couldn't buy an Emmy. His work
makes The Pitt one of the greatest shows on TV and I'm glad that Wyle is
still doing the work that made viewers like me fall in love with him thirty
years ago.
FOR
YOUR CONSIDERATION
Ramon
Rodriguez, Will Trent
Those of you who've read me know
how strongly I feel about this show and the cast. It was just as good in Season
4 as its always been but at this point I've come to accept the cold reality of
how the Emmys just seem unwilling to acknowledge it. That doesn't change the
fact that for the fourth straight season Ramon Rodriguez was extraordinary in
the title role – and then some.
At the start of the season he had
to deal with the fact that not only was his biological father back in his life
but that James Ulster was out of prison. When Ulster ended up dead Will spent
the season struggling with his demons in a way he never had before. He began to
wonder just how much of who he was had to do with Ulster in him and as the
season progressed things only worsened: first when his Uncle was abducted by
the psychotic daughter of Ulster, then as he spent the season trying to unravel
the ring of who took her and then when it came to a head with the death of
Amanda Wagner at her hands. By the end of the season Will was more broken then
he'd ever been and Rodriguez showed that pain at every level. And then somehow,
at the end of the season, Will found a way to come back for it when tragedy
struck Angie. One doesn't know the future of Will and Angie's relationship or
the series in general but we still feel better knowing Will is out there.
I know in my heart the Emmys isn't
going to acknowledge the work Rodriguez does but it should and as long as the
show's on the air I'm going to keep pushing for it and him.
Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding
Lead Actress in a Drama – and the Euphoria of it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment