Same situation as with Supporting
Actor: five of last year's nominees are ineligible and the two that remain
almost certainly deserve to be here. As with the previous category I'm limiting
my choices from The Pitt to two nominees even though I will be fine if
more actresses from the cast are nomination.
Some of the nominees I have are
from last year and I think the odds are better for at least one of them. So
without further ado, here are my seven choices this year.
Taylor
Dearden, The Pitt
I
could just as easily have chosen Isa Briones, Fiona Dourif or any of last
year's brilliant members of the staff from Season One to be among the nominees.
And again I'll be fine if they're here. But I'm going with Taylor Dearden as
Mel because perhaps more than any of the interns we met in the first season she
represents the most complex changes.
Mel
spends much of the shift worried about a deposition about a case from last
season we remember and she spends most of the first half not getting support
from anyone, certainly not Robby. After the deposition her sister ends up in
the ER with a sexually transmitted disease and she's stunned, comically, that
she's not only sexual active but has in many ways a better personal life then
Mel does. She's the most understanding to Langdon when he returns and its clear
there's still a bond – and who can forget the post-credits scene of the series
when we see her singing karaoke with her frenemy for two years?
In
addition Dearden happens to be the daughter of five time Emmy winner Bryan
Cranston and she's clearly as gifted at mixing drama and comedy as her father
is. And considering the father won another Emmy last year, why not have him be
able to escort his daughter as a nominee in her own right?
Alison
Janney, The Diplomat
Allison
Janney was the biggest victim of the deluge of support for The White Lotus last
year. To that point she'd been nominated
for a Critics Choice Award and a SAG-AFTRA award for her work as the embattled
Vice President on The Diplomat – quite an impression for an actress who
only appeared in two episodes last season.
Now
as her character ascends to the Presidency we find her taking center stage
against Kate who knows her secret and who says she'll protect it – despite what
she said before the President died. Much of the third season was about a chess
match between Grace and Kate as well as their respective husbands. When the
season ended and a far worse secret was unfolded we now faced a scenario no one
could expect.
Janney,
of course, has already gotten more then her share of wins from the Emmys
already and indeed she could end up managing a trifecta for her work in Palm
Royale as well as in the TV Movie/Limited Series (I'll get to that
eventually). So Janney doesn't need another nomination or Emmy but honestly,
come on: wouldn't there be synchronicity in the actress who played CJ Cregg for
seven years get a nomination for finally becoming the President?
Katherine
LaNasa, The Pitt
It
was a shock to everyone – including LaNasa – when she won in this category last
year for her incredible work as charge nurse Dana Evans. And honestly after
season one ended no one was sure we'd be seeing her back for Season 2.
Indeed
Dana has returned but she's not handling her trauma any better than Robby is.
She's punchier, with less patience for everyone then before, is less of a mama
bear then a grizzly to the majority of the nurses and interns, seems less
willing to take crap then she did in Season 1 (and she didn't take much then).
Its clear she's angrier then before, basically at everybody and by the time the
shift ends she shows in a fashion far more horrific then anything that Robby
has done directly so far that leads to a knock-down drag out argument between
the two in which both of them make it clear that they can't see the mote in
their own eyes but are perfectly fine with the ones in everybody else. Still,
by the end of the season its clear Dana's in a better place then Robby is –
though that's not saying much.
LaNasa
has slightly less of a chance of repeating in this category then Wyle does: she
will doubtless be splitting votes with her co-stars on this show much the same
way there was a similar split in The White Lotus last year. (Just
because I'm only nominating two actress doesn't mean there won't be more.)
Still no one can deny her power and that force and she will be in this category
for years to come – assuming she survives each season.
Skye
P. Marshall, Matlock
I'm
pretty convinced the surplus of nominations that eliminated Janney as a nominee
last year had an effect on Marshall's chances as well. She'd also been
nominated for a Critics Choice Award and had been nominated for the Gotham TV
Award in this category last year as well.
And let's not kid ourselves: Marshall's work as Olivia was the real
story of Matlock.
It
takes a great actress to hold the stage with one of the greatest actresses of
all time. And yet in every scene they share Marshall makes it clear Olivia is
as much a powerhouse as Bates's Madeline. This was even more true in Season 2
then Season 1 as the two former friends spent the first half of the season as
reluctant allies, each maneuvering against each other, and as Olivia slowly
revealed how badly the manipulations of Maddie had left emotional scars on her.
Considering Olivia has always been a pawn in the manipulations of Senior and
had no role in the conspiracy Maddie was investigating, the scars that she felt
were genuine and her anger just as real as Madeline's.
Much
of the pleasure of Season 2 was watching these two find a way to rebuild their
friendship and find a way back to each other. (This is as much a love story for
a drama today as that of Deb and Ava in Hacks.) As the conspiracy
unfolded it became clear that Olivia wanted Maddie to be happy as much as she
wanted to bring the law firm down and it was so much fun to see them get drunk
in the season finale. And that the new series will deal with the two of them going
forward together against the world is as much a joyful experience as anything I
saw on TV last year.
Marshall
may be more of an underdog in Season 2 then last year, as I said there a lot of
good candidates. But I'd like to see her nominated among these incredible
talents.
Julianne
Nicholson, Paradise
It
gave me immense pleasure to see Nicholson nominated for her work as Sinatra in Paradise
last year and even more that she would be nominated – and win! – for her
work as Dance Mom in Season 4 of Hacks. Nicholson has always been one of
the most undervalued actresses in TV during the 21st century but in
this past decade the Emmys finally seemed to have realized what a force she is:
I was overjoyed when she won for Mare of Easttown in 2021.
Her
work as the hidden hand behind the bunker in Season 1 was an incredible
performance: in large part because throughout you knew that Sinatra never
really considered herself a villain. (It was a shock to learn that she had
nothing to do with the murder of Cal Bradford.) But she proved that she could
be just as ruthless as any man to protect what was hers – and while she managed
to survive, she ended up being the victim of someone darker then her.
Throughout
Season 2 Sinatra realizes that she no longer has control of events, that forces
within the bunker are mounted against her on all sides and a force from without
is coming. She spends much of the season arguing with herself – in the form of
Cal – trying to make it clear she has a secret to play that might be a trump
card. In the season finale as everything she's built has been destroyed she
makes one last play for redemption before she chooses to sacrifice herself –
and that will change the game for the final season.
Nicholson
is near certain to repeat for this category though her chances for yet another
Emmy remain remote. Perhaps there will be another chance in the final season.
(Yes I know I said she's dead; do you really think we've seen the last of her?)
Cynthia
Nixon, The Gilded Age
If
Christine Baranski were competing in this category I'd be advocating for her.
Since she isn't I'm going to give a chance for her sister to get recognition –
which would be fitting consider not only who Ada is but the role she plays in
Season 3.
For
the first two seasons it was understandable that Nixon's work as Ada would be
overlooked among the more obvious brilliance of Baranski and Coon. It's in
large part to Nixon as a whole: Ada is a frail woman, always in the shadow of
others, who only found love late in life and then had it taken away in a tragic
fashion almost immediately. At the end of the season she found herself now in a
position of wealth and power, so the question was how would she handle it?
The
answer was, awkwardly. Nixon's made it clear that Ada was still carrying the
trauma of losing someone she loved briefly but deeply and had no idea what to
do with the wealth she'd been given or how to express it. The scene where she
confessed that she was the head of a house that was falling apart was a
standout as was the one where she shared just how badly she was broken and lost
after everything. One could forgive for being manipulated by a spiritualist and
one cheered as she found a way forward by choosing to support women's suffrage.
When her sister let her take the head of the table for the first time, it was a
triumph and moment of growth for both women, one I could cheer for.
Nixon
is yet another actor whose politics and proselytizing I find repellent but
whose work always has overshadowed it and that is very much the case for her
work as Ada on one of my favorite shows.
I never have hate watched The Gilded Age and I love her work on
this series. I hope, like in Season 3, Nixon gets a chance to shine.
Karolina
Wydra, Pluribus
To
say Karolina Wydra has a difficult job on Plur1bus is an understatement.
She has to play Zosia, the representative of the hive mind to Carol Sturka,
which means she's not so much an individual but someone whose pretending to be.
She's only allowed one note in her performance, to be pleasant, cheerful and
warm, even when she's telling Carol she killed over a million people with her
anger. She has to do things that are ridiculous by standards, including taking
a life grenade to Carol when she asks for it and throwing it out after Carol
pulls out the pin – while saying "Sorry." She has to be the representation of the
fictional character that was the inspiration for Carol's best-selling novels,
who happens to be a man in them. Then she has to find a way to convince Carol
she's on her side, seem to fall in love with her, and seem to be a good person.
She sometimes has long stretches with no dialogue. And she has to do almost
every scene she's in with the force of nature that is Rhea Seehorn.
This
is a task nearly as Herculean as Carol trying to save mankind. So it is a
credit to the talent of the previously unknown Wydra that she's become nearly
as plauded for her work as Zosia as Seehorn has. The nominations haven't quite
some at the same level but they are there. Wydra did receive a prize for her work at the Saturn's earlier
this year and she was nominated by both the Gotham TV Awards and the Dorian TV
awards (though oddly enough, not the Astras).And she absolutely deserves it. I
always give extra credit for actors who are giving an extra layer of
performance and Wydra's work covers it in spades. Wydra's work as Zosia is so
complex that it may not even be clear to Zosia herself where she begins and the
hive mind ends. It's difficult to be the mouthpiece of a species but she
absolutely pulls it off. And as I said, even in those long silent passages of
the show where she isn't saying a word, you can't take your eyes off her.
Wydra
has the best chance of causing an upset against the forces of The Pitt this
year. And either way I can't look away from her work any more than the Emmys
can.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Madeline
Stowe, Welcome To Derry
I
did consider making Welcome to Derry the series for consideration for
Best Drama instead of The Audacity and I do think its worthy. And to be
clear there are many performances in the entire cast I think that are worthy of
nomination. But the one I'm pushing for the most in Madeline Story as Mrs.
Kersh.
Here
are my reasons. First her character is essential to the canon of the series and
it wouldn't shock me if she's the link that draws all three seasons together:
we've seen some version of her in every season that's happened already, either
as a child or an adult. Second there's the fact that while she is in many ways
an acolyte of IT in a way IT's used so many over their time in Derry she's just
as much a victim of it as the children and grownups Pennywise kills. As we saw
in the penultimate episode she lost her father Bob Gray as a child and has
spent her entire life just wanting to see him again – and as we see after the
Black Spot, IT disposes of her without a second thought and sends her to a fate
worse than death.
And
lastly is the superb, ethereal performance of Stowe throughout the show: she's
clearly a victim at every stage but also a monster and at every level you see
the human being behind every action. By the time the season ended I felt
genuine sadness for Stowe's character even though, if you think about it, she
realized her heart's desire. Combined with the fact that Stowe is criminally
underrecognized for awards her entire career I'm pushing for her. (Who knows?
We'll probably see her next season.)
That's
it for drama. Next week I wrap it up with Best Limited Series. This category
has no real favorites across the board. Should be fun.
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