The best TV performances of 2018
Image: Photo: Billy Porter in PosePhoto: Rhea Seehorn in Better Call SaulPhoto: Maya Rudolph in ForeverPhoto: Bill Hader in BarryGraphic: Libby McGuire TV Features Best Of 2018
The year in TV performances was marked as much by transformation as star power, as Hollywood A-listers continued to flock to the small screen. Rapt audiences watched as a couple of British gents who know their way around a Jane Austen drama turned into cads, and America’s sweethearts (past and present) tapped into their dark sides. Teen-comedy-breakouts-turned-Oscar-winners had a genre-bending experience, while a filmmaker’s muse became fashion royalty. But the glow from those marquee names couldn’t overshadow all the rising stars, the newcomers who grabbed our attention as they held their own against some of their most acclaimed peers, or the veteran actors who are not only the glue of their respective ensembles but also continue to show us all how it’s done. There’s some argument over how many truly great shows emerged this season, and that’s fine—but, as our list demonstrates, 2018 could easily be the year of the peak performance.
Individual performances
Darren Criss, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
With less of an ensemble focus than its acclaimed predecessor and a narrative that criss-crossed the United States (with a brief stop off in the Philippines), The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story needed a center of gravity. It had one in the fashion designer of its title; it found one in the actor who played Versace’s murderer. Former Glee star Darren Criss graduated to the Ryan Murphy big leagues with his calculating, chameleonic turn as Andrew Cunanan, a tragic figure forged from the pressures of internal and external homophobia, who pretended to have all that was promised to him by a doting, con-man father—then made like dad and took everything else. It’s a performance about performance, with enough vulnerability to keep the blood from draining out of it, and enough menace to never let you forget that Cunanan killed at least five people. (You can see both in Criss’ full-throated “Gloria” sing-along.) Cunanan’s murders were enabled by a culture that looked the other way, but Criss makes it so that you can’t take your eyes off Andrew. He confidently spins Cunanan’s webs of bullshit, while doing just enough to tip the character’s hand: his puppy-dog over-eagerness opposite Cody Fern’s David Madson, the wanton violence with which he attacks a sandwich in the miniseries’ Chicago chapter. Even when Cunanan’s words sounded too good to be true, Criss was always believable. [Erik Adams]
Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta
All four main characters on Atlanta are quiet observers of their environments, but Brian Tyree Henry’s turn as rapper Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles takes that mantle and really runs with it. Although Henry has mastered the GTFO reaction shot, he’s added new layers of teeming frustration to his performance this season, especially since Paper Boi has since garnered some measure of acclaim. Henry has the ability to mine humor just from his weed-stained delivery, but he imbues his role with a well of repressed melancholy that’s potent just by the nature of Henry’s restraint. Paper Boi has to deal with family squabbles, nuisances from fans and peers alike, and Robbin’ Season violence, and all the while, he maintains a disaffected façade necessary to moving through this world. Henry’s imposing size has always informed his performance, especially when he has to modulate his personality depending upon his company, but this year, he finds a way to play big and small in the same moment. Henry has had a banner 2018, and has appeared in three of the year’s most acclaimed films, but his role as Paper Boi allows him to use all the tools at his disposal. [Vikram Murthi]
Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul
If ever there was a season of Better Call Saul to sound the alarm on the tremendous work being done by Rhea Seehorn, it’s this past one. The actor’s work as Kim Wexler has been consistently excellent since this show began, but the arc of season four was a showcase for Seehorn to demonstrate just how good she can be. From the moment in episode two when her beleaguered lawyer unloads on Howard Hamlin in a volcanic display of anger and protectiveness toward Jimmy, Kim assumed center stage in the narrative, her frustrations with her impersonal and overbearing client and her desire for meaning in life pushing her to double down on the world of Slippin’ Jimmy—right up until the moment when she realizes her unceasing faith in her partner might be misplaced. Seehorn plays each emotion with such complicated ambiguity, layering nuance upon nuance during each new confrontation with a roadblock in the path to happiness (some of her own making), that eventually the actor’s charisma simply takes over, pulling everyone into her orbit in the process. Better call the Emmys. [Alex McLevy]
William Jackson Harper, The Good Place
D’Arcy Carden made a strong, 11th-hour push for the title of 2018’s Soul Squad MVP, but what William Jackson Harper lacks in episodes spent playing opposite himself (playing opposite himself playing opposite himself playing opposite himself playing opposite himself), he more than makes up for in time spent keeping The Good Place’s feet on the ground. That was a little easier once Chidi Anagonye and his fellow legions of the bureaucratically damned were pulled back to Earth in season three, and Chidi’s classroom became the launchpad for their second chance. But second chances mean second choices, which gives Harper even more indecision to mine, and eventually puts him in the spot of playing a man with a head full of information who must accept that said information can’t save him from an eternity of torture. It would follow that someone who spends so much time pondering would get big laughs from shouting questions into the sky; it’s one of Harper’s intangible gifts that he can wring so much feeling (and the occasional extra syllable) from his “what”s and “why”s. He’s so entertaining in panic mode, The Good Place writers must be constantly tempted to throw hat decisions, break-up scenarios, and complete existential crises at Harper. But as he recently proved (with a big assist from Carden), when Chidi needs to step up and save someone he loves (and, you know, the whole universe), Harper can sell that with gusto, too. This is why everyone hates moral philosophy professors—with one “surprisingly jacked” exception. [Erik Adams]
Matthew Macfadyen, Succession
HBO’s Succession is the best show you haven’t watched this year. By turns tense, hilarious, and deeply, disturbingly relevant, Jesse Armstrong’s satire thrives in no small part due to its gilded ensemble. The Roy family, the owners of a Fox-like media empire, form the nucleus of the narrative, but some of its best characters exist on the fringes. One of them is middle manager Tom Wamsgans, the proud, opportunistic, and fragile fiancé of Shiv, the Roy’s only daughter. Played by Matthew Macfadyen, Tom is deliciously out of his depth and, cowed by the Roys’ power vacuum, desperate for someone to bully. That someone arrives in Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), with whom Tom forms a comically abusive, codependent bond that only the hangers-on of a global empire could. Everyone on Succession exists in some stage of moral rot and, by virtue of being right on the verge of sociopathy, Tom’s struggles with his drowning conscience are some of the show’s most striking. Macfadyen is pitch-perfect in the role, his unassuming countenance allowing him to pivot from moments of rich vulnerability to bouts of pure monstrousness. Aside from Greg, he might be the most likable in a sea of unlikable characters, if only because he’s insecure enough to still be relatable. [Randall Colburn]
Justina Machado, One Day At A Time
It takes a lot for a January show to be remembered at the end of the year, but with its acclaimed first two seasons, One Day At A Time makes it look easy. So does series lead Justina Machado. Machado grounds the show’s broader elements and brings pathos to its serious moments, always bustling with energy and making Penelope the force of nature she must be to keep up with her busy, demanding life. From the frantic exercise bike study session of “Schooled” to the madcap, screwball antics of “Locked Down,” the second season gave Machado plenty of straight comedic material to play, highlighting her physicality and timing. These bigger scenes also laid the groundwork for the wallop that came each time the series slowed down and let her show her dramatic chops. Machado steals viewers’ breath with her utter stillness in the final act of “Locked Down,” demands at least a tear with her emotional monologue in “Not Yet,” and most powerfully, completely transforms to portray Penelope’s spiral into clinical depression in “Hello, Penelope.” Multi-cam family sitcoms and their lead actresses are often overlooked come awards season. Machado’s performance proves just how much vitality remains in this classic form. [Kate Kulzick]
Stephan James, Homecoming
Holding your own against an Oscar winner and America’s sweetheart is no easy feat, but damn if Stephan James doesn’t make it look that way sitting across from Julia Roberts in Sam Esmail’s adaptation of Homecoming. The role of Walter Cruz is a meaty one, that of a military veteran with PTSD who undergoes a most unconventional treatment overseen by Heidi Bergman (Roberts). James’ incredibly nuanced portrayal respects every part of that struggle (and the Gimlet Media podcast) while also hinting at a life not previously seen or heard. Walter may be the one on the analyst’s couch, but with measured responses to Heidi’s questions, he’s the one who seems to be saying, “Tell me more.” The bulk of that emotionally laden character work is James’: Walter and Heidi’s relationship—be it a friendship or something more—is preordained, but it would be nothing without the intimacy developed by every conspiratorial smile exchanged between them. This is a breakout year for James, who also stars in Barry Jenkins’ achingly beautiful If Beale Street Could Talk, but he doesn’t seem concerned with owning the spotlight. His performance is as generous as it is beguiling, both absorbing and reflecting the waves of longing that emanate from Roberts as Heidi. [Danette Chavez]
Amy Adams, Sharp Objects
Usually in a bleak, gothic mystery, the kind that Sharp Objects spun over the course of eight weeks this summer, our main character/investigator is a rather solid sort, to give us something to latch onto in all the darkness. But Amy Adams’ Camille Preaker is already a sinking victim of Wind Gap, Missouri, by the time we meet her at the start of the series: a former golden girl who’s now an alcoholic reporter, her troubled past immortalized by the words she’s scratched into her skin all over her body. The fact that those words were in Adams’ own handwriting is telling; the actor fully possesses the role of Camille, who’s forced to move into her old family home of horrors to investigate a string of child murders in her hometown. The thick tension that pervades the Preaker/Crellin family is suffocating, causing Camille to lunge for her vodka-filled Evian bottles; the more she finds out, the more she herself unravels, until getting to the truth nearly causes her own destruction as well. Increasingly over the eight episodes, Adams bravely opens her character up to a series of more and more devastating emotional exposures, until her pain becomes our own: Sharp Objects ends on Camille’s face—an impossible combination of complete astonishment and total loss—the only way it could have. [Gwen Ihnat]
Billy Porter, Pose
If we only saw Pray Tell in full-blown master of ceremonies mode, delivering scathing reads and flinging huzzahs with equal, regal abandon, then Pose’s Billy Porter would still have given one of the best performances of the year. In an absolutely stacked ensemble, he stood out from the first moment. Giving a performance that crackles not only with electricity but also an authenticity that somehow manages to more firmly root the story in its time and place, is no mean feat. But as Pray Tell’s story continued, and Porter was given more to play and explore, his work became increasingly vulnerable and heartbreaking. In the season standout “Love Is The Message,” Pray Tell organizes a cabaret for the AIDS patients at a local hospital, then lets loose with a swooningly romantic version of Donny Hathaway’s “For All We Know.” It’s a moment few episodes or performers could top. Minutes later, Porter tops it. That’s what watching his work in this exceptional freshman season is like—just when you think he can’t possibly get better, he does; just when you think nothing else could be so painful and beautiful, he proves you wrong. Porter’s well-earned Golden Globe nomination this week will be the first of many, mark our words, and my god, we can’t wait for the acceptance speech. [Allison Shoemaker]
Noah Emmerich, The Americans
From the very start of the superlative spy drama The Americans, Noah Emmerich’s Stan Beeman had to contend with being 100 percent wrong. It’s the same challenge presented to Hannibal’s Laurence Fishburne: “You’re a brilliant, career federal agent who’s going to spend years alongside the very subject of your investigation without ever catching on—Go!” Counterintelligence agent Stan had the worse of it, though, as his position as next-door neighbor to a pair of undercover Soviet spies sounded like the overheated cherry on top of the series already high-concept cake when The Americans began. But the seemingly stolid Stan, played by Emmerich with his signature ruddy, kind-eyed gravitas, managed to make his six-season arc of wavering suspicions and just-missed opportunities heartbreakingly human, without ever making us feel Stan was anything but a stellar spy hunter. As Stan’s and his neighbor/quarry Philip’s common denominator suburban dissatisfactions drew the pair together, their friendship also transcended mere contrivance, with Emmerich tracing all-American tough guy Stan’s gradual disillusionment with the life he’d built, right into the paradoxically truest friendship of his life. In this final season, Emmerich made Stan’s eventual, inevitable confrontation with the fleeing Philip, Elizabeth, and daughter Paige Jennings into classic tragedy, their hair-trigger tense standoff in a parking garage seeing Stan coming to terms with just how complex his loyalties are—and how much he’s ultimately willing to live with. [Dennis Perkins]
Sissy Spacek, Castle Rock
The best fiction by Stephen King finds a way to meld the supernatural with completely natural problems like grief, trauma, and family drama. The writers of Castle Rock found a way to weave those issues through their creepy narrative about a young man who may or may not be the devil, but they saved their greatest feat for episode seven, “The Queen,” providing a platform for a tour de force performance from Sissy Spacek. As Ruth, a woman whose increasing dementia has blurred the line between past and present, Spacek relates true, mounting confusion, culminating in a moment of pure horror that comes not from the other side but from the fallible human condition. “The Queen” was the showcase, but Spacek was phenomenal all season, grounding Castle Rock in something pure and relatable in a way that only one of our best living actresses can do. In a show prone to spooky flights of fancy, she was the rock (sorry) that grounded it in something real, making her fate all the more moving and poignant. Four decades after she defined King’s legacy in film as Carrie, Sissy Spacek has done it again for television. [Brian Tallerico]
Hugh Grant, A Very English Scandal
If nothing else comes of Donald Trump’s association with Vladimir Putin, we’ll always have the homophobic memes. Liberal society loves the story of the powerful closet case’s secret gay affair—because it’s never told by actual homosexuals. Enter Russell T. Davies, whose BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal rejects the usual pity and insularity and points back at the braying crowds. The true-ish story of rising Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant) and the jilted lover (Ben Whishaw) he endeavors to silence, it’s a major work for all three primary collaborators—but for Grant it’s a culmination. From his brutal way with love in Maurice, across decades of cinematic charmers and cads, to his late embrace of the cartoon and the villain, Grant brings it all to bear on his portrait of a vampiric old queen whose ego and class interests violently win out against his humanity. Grant puts on a show—seduction, politics, Keystone comedy—every unpracticed jaunt and studied look of confusion an expression of the status that distinguishes and excuses him. It’s a challenge to the received wisdom. With his wolfish smile and batting eyes, Grant embodies not the self-hating queer, but the insatiable monster. [Brandon Nowalk]
Brendan Fraser, Trust
Even at his career peak, Brendan Fraser was not getting a lot of serious roles. There’s something about his all-American physicality that makes filmmakers want to place him on a spectrum somewhere between goofball and lummox. But in Trust, the FX limited series about the Getty kidnapping of the 1970s, Fraser reminds us what he could do in the supporting role of James Fletcher Chace, a fixer in the employ of Getty (Donald Sutherland) tasked with miscellaneous duties related to the kidnapping of Getty’s grandson (though not, notably, simply handing over the ransom money). Fraser, meanwhile, is tasked with occasionally breaking the fourth wall with audience asides, and he’s so quietly commanding as Chace that the show sometimes suffers in episodes where he takes a backseat or doesn’t appear at all. The bright side, though, is “Lone Star,” a character showcase mostly following Chace as he initially attempts to track down the Getty kid. Fraser, bulked up in middle age, smartly underplays his physical side; Chace is believably tough, but he meets almost everyone with a plainspoken politeness as he plays amateur detective out of his element in Rome. His character is ultimately not particularly heroic (he still works for the odious Getty, after all), but Fraser captures the nuances of a man whose decency doesn’t keep him from becoming something of a helpless bystander. [Jesse Hassenger]
Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek
If there’s an art to vocal fry, Annie Murphy of Schitt’s Creek has mastered it. As Alexis, the daughter in the abruptly impoverished Rose clan, she’s essentially developed her own language of vocal tics and mannerisms. In her capable hands, the simple pronunciation of her brother’s name became so memorable that the writers are apparently finding extra ways to shoehorn in opportunities for her to say it, and there’s an entire compilation on YouTube of the many times she has said, “Ew, David!” But Alexis is more than her YouTube roundup would suggest—in the most recent (and best) season, she struggled through romantic heartbreak and opening her own business. It’s quite a ways from the premiere, when she was a high school dropout who never spoke to her family. It would be very easy for a character like Alexis to be one note: the spoiled rich girl who doesn’t know anything about real life. But even amid the comedy royalty playing the other Roses (Eugene and Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara), Murphy stands out for her careful crafting of a portrait of a vulnerable, newly ambitious woman who, at 30, is finally figuring out what she wants in the world. [Lisa Weidenfeld]
Justin Theroux, Maniac
Befitting its subject matter, Maniac has some issues figuring out its tone. The show veers between treacly material about “mental illness,” genre pastiche, and dark comedy about technological advances and the struggle to exist. The comedy is the most consistently successful part of the show, and it largely works because of Justin Theroux’s performance as Dr. James Mantleray. The mastermind behind the cutting-edge, dangerous drug study that absorbs the other characters, Mantleray is obstinate, insecure, and hilarious to watch. Wearing a limp, ridiculous hairpiece and scrunching his mug into a permanent condescending, gaping fish face, Theroux throws himself fully into the role of a grown man who is terrified of his mother and trying desperately to render her profession obsolete. It’s a performance that’s been compared to John C. Reilly’s mythical creation Dr. Steve Brule—and while nothing beats Brule for pathos, Mantleray, introduced to the show using a VR setup to jerk off while pretending he’s the king of Atlantis, might be an even more pathetic creature. Coming from The Leftovers, Theroux follows in the tradition of Jon Hamm as a ridiculously hot person trying to discover if playing dumb and kind of gross will be funny. It is. [Eric Thurm]
Mandy Moore, This Is Us
Not only does Mandy Moore have the hardest job on This Is Us, she also has one of the hardest jobs on TV. Portraying family matriarch Rebecca Pearson across 50 plus years of history, Moore regularly hops from playing a bright-eyed twentysomething to a melancholy grandmother, and everything in between. And unlike This Is Us’ breakout stars, Sterling K. Brown and Milo Ventimiglia, she doesn’t have the benefit of playing a character who’s preternaturally likable. Quietly flawed suburban moms aren’t exactly pop culture’s go-to figures of sympathy, which could be part of the reason Moore’s work on the series has been so weirdly underpraised—she’s yet to receive an Emmy nod and was ignored by this year’s Golden Globes, too—or perhaps it’s just because she makes her Herculean task look so easy. Without relying on showy tics, Moore subtly shifts her physical and vocal performance for each stage of Rebecca’s life, slowly adding layers to believably build up to playing a character twice her age. Moore nails big emotional scenes like an explosive present-day family therapy session or a postpartum grocery store breakdown, but her best moments tend to be quiet and understated—like the disbelieving way Rebecca processes the news that her husband has unexpectedly died. Given a featured spotlight on This Is Us’ second season, Moore proved she’s an actor with incredible craft. It’s about time we started talking about her that way. [Caroline Siede]
Parker Posey, Lost In Space
On the original 1960s version of Lost In Space, Jonathan Harris played the devious Dr. Zachary Smith as a comical coward and bumbler, causing trouble for the Robinson family more due to a generalized incompetence than any overt evil. But on the Netflix revival, Parker Posey’s take on Dr. Smith—or, more accurately, her take on the cleverly named, egomaniacal con-woman June Harris, a fugitive from justice who impersonates Dr. Smith in order to escape to another planet—is more deliciously malicious. Set against the magnificent Molly Parker as super-mom Maureen Robinson, Posey’s bad doctor isn’t just a delight to watch, she also gives the show its sense of purpose. The actress uses her go-to facial expression (eyes wide, mouth agape) to convey the combination of sweaty panic and improvisatory shrewdness that keeps her character alive. She’s playing a terrible person, in an absolutely wonderful way, in a series about the mundane problems humanity has to overcome to keep going as a species. [Noel Murray]
Noah Robbins, Forever
Amazon’s afterlife sitcom Forever escaped never-ending banality thanks to the odd cast of characters that inhabited this particular community of “formers.” Noah Robbins’ eternal 17-year-old, Mark Erickson, particularly stood out, as a technical 58-year-old with the sensitivities of a 1970s hooligan. Mark’s endless crankiness was juxtaposed with Oscar’s pleasantness, earnestly translated by Fred Armisen; as much as Mark protests Oscar’s bonding efforts, like the attempt to throw him a series of around-the-world dinner parties, the two wind up true friends in the end, bonded by Oscar’s heartbreak and Mark’s crush on the coolest girl at his high school, now a middle-aged woman in the house down the block. There are worse ways to spend eternity than hanging out at skateboarding parks, eating Reggie bars, and jamming to Blue Oyster Cult, and Robbins’ Mark appears to have pragmatically come to grips with his afterlife fate, despite his appealing surliness. Robbins had already won us over as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s nerdy, well-meaning boss Todd; by playing Mark in the same year, he established himself as a young actor to keep an eye on, belying his brief time on this particular earth. [Gwen Ihnat]
Dynamic duos
Comedy: Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, Detroiters
On this batty, sadly canceled Comedy Central sitcom, Detroit joins Philadelphia as a city of brotherly love. Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson play Tim and Sam, respectively, best friends and brothers-in-law who run a Detroit-based advertising agency. Every episode, the duo concoct campaigns for their clients—wig stores and other low-budget shops—and bumble in search of new business. Robinson and Richardson are veterans of Chicago comedy, so no surprise their work embodies a core tenet of improv and sketch: introduce characters who like each other. They eschew the traditional straight man/funny man dynamic, where one would deliver all the punchlines, in favor of elevating each other’s barrage of jokes. For every tagline Tim pitches, Sam has another at the ready, and vice-versa. They fail together, hitting the bar to praise each other for genius ideas simply ahead of their time. At the height of their tension in season two, the partners of Cramblin Duvet split and Sam, who secures a new job, stumbles upon a struggling Tim, in the midst of a desperate pitch. (“123 Warehouse: It’s as easy as ABC… warehouse.”) He quickly ducks in to help his former partner. Sam and Tim reunite and confess love for one another. In this heightened version of Detroit, blood runs thicker than water, even for honorary brothers. [Steve Heisler]
Drama: Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
As TV villains have become more nuanced and compelling, their nobler counterparts have struggled to keep up, leading to a protagonist problem in even the best storytelling. But Killing Eve manages to have its cake—or, shepherd’s pie, as the case may be—and eat it, too. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer bring classic Hollywood chemistry to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s innovative, erotically charged thriller. Villanelle is the showier of the roles that make up this perfect pairing, and Comer absolutely dazzles as the remorseless psychopath and highly skilled killer from her first moment on screen. She arranges and rearranges her delicate features into the full spectrum of human emotion, including desire, curiosity, and barely suppressed rage. But as expertly as she approximates these feelings, they’re nothing more than a look that Villanelle is trying to nail—and Comer’s jaw-dropping performance captures both the effort and her pleasure at what she’s getting away with. That is, until she meets Sandra Oh’s Eve Polastri, the mid-level MI5 officer who’s hot on her tail (and, as the chase goes on, under the collar). Her character may be a step or two behind, but Oh matches Comer move for move, steadily peeling back the more mundane layers of Eve’s existence to reveal a well of longing. Eve’s wardrobe may not hold a candle to Villanelle’s, but Oh’s performance is every bit as exceptional as Comer’s. [Danette Chavez]
Most excellent ensembles
Comedy: The cast of GLOW
When you have a story about a ragtag bunch of misfits coming together for the power of teamwork, that story is only as good as both the talent of and the focus on said ensemble of misfits. This is a major part of why, while GLOW’s first season was very good, its second season was even better. It improved upon the show’s already impressive, albeit somewhat underutilized cast outside of Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin, allowing the series to better capture the feeling of being a story about a group of women building something together (professionally and personally). Even before the finale, episodes like “Nothing Shattered” and the gut-busting “The Good Twin” are the payoff of the series finally coming into its own regarding the ensemble, the culmination of a solid build-up for all of these characters.
Our coverage of GLOW included plenty of praise for (and awe of) Gilpin’s inhuman acting ability when it comes to her work as both Debbie and Liberty Belle. Even months removed from the season, her performance is still one of the most impressive (if not the most impressive) of the year. But the most surprising featured performance of the season came from Kia Stevens (namely in “Mother Of All Matches”). Viewers could be forgiven for assuming Stevens was an established character actress instead of the absolute monster wrestler she actually was (as Awesome Kong/Amazing Kong/Kharma). GLOW has a talented cast across the board, but the series as a whole deserves praise for its ability to bring out unexpected or untapped talent in this cast at every turn. [LaToya Ferguson]
Drama: The cast of Lodge 49
Early in Lodge 49’s first season, it registers as the story of two men—Dudley and Ernie, played by Wyatt Russell and Brent Jennings, both great—stuck in a rut whose lives will be changed by whatever alchemy is uncovered as they dig deeper into the lodge’s history. They’re actually the only characters mentioned in the Wikipedia plot summary. But the show quickly established a much broader interest in the death of the American dream, and while the entire ensemble (especially Linda Emond) does strong work building out this world, Sonya Cassidy’s Liz Dudley is at the heart of it. Crippled by her father’s debt, she’s at a dead end waiting tables, but feels equally adrift when welcomed into the vapid world of corporate leadership. After literally jumping off a yacht to escape capitalism’s version of upward mobility, Liz ends up at the bank that holds her father’s loan, and what follows is one of the most impactful scenes of the year. Carrying the weight of Liz’s personal grief and the season’s critique of the power that money holds over society, Cassidy lays bare the plight of debt-ridden Americans, and embodies the depth of theme and character that Lodge 49 and its ensemble developed (and which its Wikipedia page really needs to be edited to reflect, someone please get on that ASAP). [Myles McNutt]
2018’s Most Valuable Player
Maya Rudolph for Forever, Big Mouth, and The Good Place
Maya Rudolph should be nominated for her reading of “bubble bath” alone, but she’s given us so much more. She imbues The Good Place’s Gen, the eternal judge of the universe, with the breezy geniality of an old friend, offering chips and guac and chatting about Mark Harmon. As Forever’s June, Rudolph deploys deft and entirely believable reactions to outrageous circumstances, grounding a show that sometimes threatens to float into the ether. But it’s her performance as Big Mouth’s Hormone Monstress that rises hair and haunches above the rest. Connie’s embodiment of adolescent urges, anger, and angst—and Rudolph’s rich, rolling delight in her own voice—reaches heights and depths that eclipse the barriers of age and gender. In the disco-inflected “I Love My Body,” Rudolph (living up to her mother’s legacy) celebrates the “cornucopia of flesh” that is human variety with loving raunchiness—and with a boundless joy that only bolsters the solemnity of her horny swearsies in season’s end. Maya Rudolph keeps being cast in otherworldly roles for a simple reason: Maya Rudolph is transcendent. [Emily L. Stephens]
Hall Of Famer
Bill Hader
The A.V. Club praised Bill Hader as one of the best TV performers of 2015, singling out an active year when the Saturday Night Live alum put his man-of-a-thousand-faces abilities to the test across multiple programs. The following year, we lifted Hader up again, this time focusing on his work in Documentary Now; it was the season of the Spalding Gray episode, “I’m gonna cry now. It’s gonna be a weird cry,” and the Kid Stays In The Picture parody where Hader kills despite being restricted almost entirely to voice-over and still photography. He then made no major TV appearances in 2017, aside from a one-off appearance as Anthony Scaramucci on SNL. That year, The A.V. Club did not publish a list of the best TV performances.
Can it be any coincidence that we’ve revived this feature in the wake of another landmark Hader turn, this time his Emmy-winning work as an assassin-turned-aspiring-thespian on Barry? Yes, it absolutely can be. But the first season of Barry—in which Hader plumbs new depths of soulfulness and proves that it takes a great actor to do bad acting so well—will be the last eligible for inclusion on this list. Same for next year’s third season of Documentary Now: In fairness to the thousands of other actors currently working on TV, and in the hopes of avoiding the nightmarish scenario where someone looks at our year-end TV coverage and thinks, “Ugh, him again?”, Bill Hader is hereby enshrined in The A.V. Club Best TV Performances Of The Year Hall Of Fame. For the steely manner in which he guns down those Chechens at the end of the pilot, for every marble-mouthed recitation on Gene Cousineau’s stage, for the way Barry turns his performance inward after so many years of extremely outward performances—we salute you, Bill Hader. Please rise as The Blue Jean Committee plays a very special version of “Catalina Breeze” and we raise Stefon’s Ed Hardy shirt into the rafters, starting… now. [Erik Adams]
245 Comments
No love for D’arcy Carden?
She’s wonderful, but “performance of the year?” Not really. No, not even including Janet(s).
“No love for D’arcy Carden?”
Can’t read?
I love Many Moore’s performance in This Is Us, but does she have to shake her head constantly every time she has a monologue? You could play a drinking game to that shit.
Aka the Drew Barrymore head-shake.
Parker Posey is probably the only reason to watch the thuddingly dull Lost In Space. Not enough for me to watch season 2 but yeah, she’s great.
I didn’t think so. She mostly hams it up a lot, just in a different way from the original series. She only comes off as intelligent because everybody else on the show had a stupid ball sewn on to their necks when they signed up for the trip.
That’s fair. It’s not a very good show. I’m just a fan of hers in general
In extra fairness, Posey is playing a character who is hamstrung by the writing. She’s supposed to be a Littlefinger-esque schemer. Except she’s matching wits with a six-year old and losing. And there’s no sign on the part of the writers that they recognized the fundamental contradiction between “show” and “tell” that this created in their scripting.So, I guess I could say her performance isn’t so much “best” as “went down swinging-est”, because she did a lot to paper over the glaring problems in the script, and made her character a lot more seamless than she should have been.
“She’s supposed to be a Littlefinger-esque schemer. Except she’s matching wits with a six-year old and losing.”
This is the first thing I’ve read about the show that has ever made me want to check it out.
If you skip it, you will lose nothing, I promise.More basically, it falls prey to the practical problem of what TVTropes (not going to link it) refers to as Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. The show is about a group of colonists to another world, who got pushed off course and landed on a world they weren’t supposed to be on. They have limited supplies and, I think (it’s fuzzy, because the show wasn’t particularly engaging) a ticking clock. But more importantly, they have a limited complement of people and only each other to rely upon.Which means that a character like Posey’s, who plays every game of Prisoner’s Dilemma as if the concept of “multiple iterations” has no meaning, and ruthlessly defects at the drop of any and every hat, is going to last only as long as she keeps meeting new people to defect against. As a rule, people tend to apply Scotty’s principle of “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” pretty stringently.Which means that Posey’s character is pursuing a “strategy” that is undermined by the very premise of the show. Which means in the first episode, you think Posey’s doing a great job. By episode six, you’re just tired of her character. By episode eight, you want everyone who keeps blundering their way into her webs to die by spacing. Posey’s talent as an actor is the only thing that saves the character from having as much emotional depth as Gargamel.
Very well put. All the subterfuge and sabotage she engages in feels ultimately self-defeating. How her cover isn’t completely blown the minute she runs into the mechanic she left to die is utterly inexplicable.
She’s probably the most defensible part of the new ensemble.http://www.jgmcquarrie.scot/2018/11/lost-in-lost-in-space.html
Really?REALLY?That was the most over-the-top amatuer ham performance I’ve ever seen. It wasa so overacted even William Shatner would have been turned off by it. It almost singlehandledly ruined what was otherwise a great show. I found myself continually tempted to just fast forward past her. I can’t believe anyone actually enjoyed that crap.
Yeah it was a bit hammy but basically the only memorable part of the show for that reason
Otherwise a great show…Really? REALLY?
OK, fair enough. An otherwise reasonable entertaining show. I can admit when I’m wrong.
After a while I actually DID start fast forwarding through her scenes. Honestly couldn’t stand it.
Posey gets props for over the top scenery chewing, while Elizabeth Henstridge is STILL criminally under appreciated after 5 years.
Her character is so poorly written I don’t blame her for it but I find her performance to be weak. They are going for sociopathic but it just doesn’t ring true.
Interesting. I thought she was pretty terrible, overall. Like trying to watch Alfre Woodard in Luke Cage. Nothing but overacting and scene chewing.
Sissy Spacek was in the movie ‘Badlands’, man.
I’d kill for Jodie Comer to become a bigger star. Her range in Killing Eve is amazing.And yes, Brendan Fraser in Trust is amazing. He was the only reason for me to watch the show in the first place. However, I never found the Getty family interesting anyways so I was disappointed whenever he didn’t appear in the show.
I second the Jodie Comer love, because that was the best totally new performance of 2018 for me. She was amazing.Other performances I loved this year (D’Arcy Carden, Vella Lovell, Natasha Rothwell) I have actually seen in previous years’ seasons of the shows (The Good Place, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Insecure respectively) so not exactly brand new.
When D’Arcy Carden played the 4 different characters to perfection on The Good Place, dang it was note perfect.
That is correct.
Natasha Rothwell is amazing. The heart of Insecure is the sometimes warm, sometimes toxic relationship between Issa and Molly, but the most gut-busting moments are always from Kelli.“Don’t look a gift horse in the dick.”“That’s not how that saying goes.”“Bullshit, my grandma said that all the time.”
She along with Rita Seehorn got robbed for Emmy/GG noms for sure.
Brendan Fraiser in Trust was like seeing a cousin you hadn’t seen in five years and suddenly all the love comes back. Actually, though, I thought the best acting job in the series was Primo, Luca Marinelli. You can’t take your eyes off him because he’s charismatic, twitchy, and could kill any cast member at any moment.
If anyone has ever been ready for a Quentin Tarantino fueled comeback, it’s Brendan Fraser
Ugh, fuck no, keep Encino Man away from Tarantino please.
I just watched Trust and struggled to get through the bloat. He was the only part of it worth watching.
I thought Trust was a lot of good performances stuck with a meandering script. I watched all of it, but didn’t really care for any of it.
I don’t know why Carrie Coon was actively avoided, but even one hour of television with her is list-worthy.
Were you referring to season 2 of The Sinner?
It’s a different kind of show entirely but Vella Lovell is also awesome in ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’.
Thanks for giving Rudolph the kudos. She is a marvel, especially her voice work in BIG MOUTH.But also, thanks for recognizing Fraser, who ended up being the only reason to watch TRUST.
Before scrolling down, my first thought was of D’Arcy Carden in The Good Place. Followed swiftly by William Jackson Harper. and of Maya Rudolph flapping her arms around as Judge Gen. So, happy that AV Club acknowledged all 3 performances!
Yep — and I was all about Matthew McFayden, Sissy Spacek and Brian Tyree Henry this year so glad to see them here! Plus, you can’t beat the love for Brendan Fraser and Bill Hader.
I also think Liv Lisa Fries in Babylon Berlin and Lili Reinhart in Riverdale deserve mention. Fries manages to be everything that show demands of her (and that’s saying something). Lili Reinhart’s Betty is so perfect you can imagine her bettering every show she could be in (think of Betty in ‘Succession’ and tell me she wouldn’t be great). If the Emmys and the Golden Globes were actually about the work and not about the politics, it’d be an amazing competition to watch this year.
Um, I have seen literally none of the shows you are referencing. Matthew Macfadyen I know only from Spooks (I’m English), Sissy Spacek I know only from movies. Oh wait, correction, I have seen Atlanta and do know Brian Tyree Henry (recently saw him in Widows and his guest spot on How to Get Away with Murder). Saw 3 episodes of Atlanta then gave up, I just couldn’t get into it. Which I guess is odd given all the critical acclaim and because it is often mentioned in the same breath as one of my favourite shows, Insecure.Also – haven’t seen Brendan Fraser or Bill Hader’s new shows. Don’t know who Liv Lisa Fries and and Lili Reinhart are. Never seen Riverdale or Succession, never seen nor heard of Babylon Berlin…
I don’t understand the point of this comment.
Um, what’s there not to understand? I posted a comment about performances in The Good Place; @onon replied to me about performances in other shows, and I replied to @onon that I haven’t seen any of these other shows.Now, I could maybe understand your confusion if you were asking @onon what these other shows have to do with The Good Place, but since your confusion is with my response, I can only deduce that:YA BASIC!
Yeah, not caffeinated enough today…I thought the post to which you were replying was the OP and you were just listing things you hadn’t seen or didn’t know about.I’m just some Basic AF Arizona trash this morning.
Lol, yeah sometimes I’m too un-caffeinated to function in the morning.So, I’d like to amend my previous comment to simply say Ya basic-ally need some coffee, that’s all!
if anyone is thinking of watching “forever” due to the exposure avclub is trying to give it, don’t. its some of the worst tv i’ve seen all year. it’s not even bad its just boring and doesn’t go anywhere at all. big waste of time.
It was easily the most disappointing show this year.
Most critics seem to think The Romanoffs is the most disappointing. I don’t have Amazon Prime, so I fortunately avoided both.
Forever caused a huge debate in our household due to my boyfriend and I arguing over about why it’s so bad. Not bad-bad, just nothing. It’s like they sketched out the premise on a napkin, sat back satisfied, and called it a day. The worst sin (of many) is- there are no surprises. It takes an admittedly “ohh, let’s see where this goes” premise and … just doesn’t do anything. Catherine Keener and Maya Rudolph eating lunch would make better TV.
For a show with such an intriguing premise, “boring” is unfortunately the most apt description. Big letdown.
well it’s one of my favourite shows of the year lmao so i must suck. I think it was a fun introspective show about commitment and the opportunities we miss or take in life and if you didn’t get that from “Andre and Sarah” or see any of June’s arc with Oscar from when she sets fire to her dresser to that beautiful underwater walk at the end then idk. I think it has a clear story about matrimonial ennui from the opening montage but I guess I’m alone here in my praise so heck
It is so completely uninteresting. I thought it was maybe just because I don’t love Maya Rudolph the way I’m supposed to (she’s the only part of The Good Place I don’t enjoy)? But I think it would be boring with any actors.
I haven’t seen it, but I have to think it’s starting with a handicap in that there’s already a fantastic show set in the afterlife and it’s called ‘The Good Place’. Comparisons can’t be kind.
Just like the real afterlife!
I really loved it, for Maya Rudolph’s character and performance. I was conflicted about its ending, though.
So if I couldn’t even make it through the pilot of The Leftovers, then I shouldn’t bother with Forever?
You seem to have forgotten Alfre Woodard in “Luke Cage.”
I believe we’ve all forgotten Luke Cage even existed.
i respectfully disagree..
All of the Marvel Netflix shows had great supporting actors who were not served particularly well either by the principals or the plots. I mean, the first season of Luke Cage (well, the first half) had Mahershala Ali. Disney+ needs to take a good hard look at the shows, pick apart what worked from what didn’t, and cobble together at least a new Defenders or the Daughters of the Dragon.
I think Disney+ would probably be best served by a Daughters of the Dragon. It’s one of those properties that is fairly malleable.
Honestly, I’d take a “Heroes for Hire” if they considered recasting Danny and gave Mike Colter a bit more to do. Jones wasn’t up to the job, but I think the writing failed Colter more than anything, and both Missick and Henwick were obviously fantastic in their roles.
Gods, she was so great in season 2. She would walk right up the edge of hamming it, peek cooly over the precipice, then walk back. I was seriously expecting the show to give her superpowers by the end of the season. Maybe season 3 will do that!
Agree, but Woodard’s one of those good-in-everything kind of actors anyway, though.
SPOILERS for anyone who hasn’t seen Luke Cage yet and still plans to: Woodard was great all the way through, but she was at her best when they put Mariah in prison, which was unfortunately one episode before they killed her off. I wish that had happened halfway through the season and the rest of her episodes had been about her being boss bitch on the inside while pulling strings to stay in control on the streets.
God, she was so good in that scene where she takes over in prison. She played both the before and after sides of the scene perfectly.
Whoooooo! She was dynamite on-screen!
I was getting annoyed as I scrolled down through names and Sandra Oh wasn’t on the best actor list, thank goodness she was listed on duos. If anyone hasn’t seen Killing Eve yet, go, now, watch it. And while Jodie Comer was also very good, I wouldn’t have liked it as much without Sandra. Then again, I’ve loved her since Arliss so maybe I’m biased
Christina was my favorite character on Grey’s I’m at the third season.
Why does this site just ignore all the abuse allegations of Kia Stevens? She seems to be one of the few people that gets a pass here.
What are you even talking about?
I assume he’s referencing the allegation that she assaulted a coworker backstage while in TNA Wrestling, which led to her release from the company.
A wrestler got into a fight backstage? Wow what a scoop. That’s probably why it’s not getting much coverage, it’s not much of a story.
“Got into a fight” and “assault” are not the same thing. I don’t follow TNA enough to know the details, but as I understand it the incident was beyond the standard locker room fight. I also suspect the fact that she’s twice the size of her coworkers had an impact on what happened too.
Either way if she was let go then appropriate action was taken, and it also doesn’t sound like “abuse” the way that Brad framed it.
A wrestling fan who needed to come to the comments section of a Pop Culture website to shit on a woman who also happens to be a P.O.C.? As a wrestling fan, I’m SHOCKED /s
Because no one has heard of her?
The best part of Succession is Cousin Greg, going from innocent pot head to power hungry is so great followed by the theme song for the show.
Really wish Rob McElhenney got some sort of shout-out for that Sunny finale.
I’m a bearded man in his mid-40s and that finale brought a tear to my eye. I got it.
I’m going to give a shout out to Christopher Melloni in Happy! Though the whole series could have been better, it wasn’t for Melloni’s performance.
Jason Ritter in Kevin (Probably) Saves the World gave a superb performance.
I’m gonna miss that show, loved Dustin Ybarra and Kimberly Hebert Gregory on that show too. And Sasso!
Sissy Spacek is excellent in Castle Rock (and she is excellent in her small role in Homecoming as well). But much like Mandy Moore in This Is Us, sometimes the actor required to carry the most water somehow gets overlooked. That’s my long way of saying that I thought Andre Holland’s performance in Castle Rock was superb. That show is not successful without Holland’s grounded performance.
I thought Melanie Lynskey was particularly a standout on Castle Rock, both funny and moving, though her character Molly didn’t get the dramatic payoff that Spacek’s or Andre Holland’s did.
Spacek was magnificent playing a character with dementia. I’ve always imagined that Alzheimer’s would be a frightening disease to have and she played it very well, both terrifying and lost in her own home.
Brian Tyree Henry is one of the best actors of this generation.
He has an amazing future ahead of him, and honestly, he’s sexy af.
Everyone on Atlanta seems bored. Or like they just woke up from a nap. Maybe both.
They’re stoned and disaffected for the most part, it’s part of the characterization of the slice of life they’re portraying.
He was amazing as Miles’s dad in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, as well.
Charisma to burn also in ‘Widows’
Man, I’ve seen, like, one and a half of these shows.
About Succession: Is anyone else kind of burnt out on the “rich assholes screwing each other over for a little bit more” genre?
I thought the same thing before I watched the show. As a pitch, it’s a hard sell in our current climate. But the execution and performances are so brilliant that it turns out I DO have room for more rich assholes screwing each other over.
So I take it that you aren’t going to watch the new Netflix series “Rich Assholes” then?
I gave it a real try. After about the fifth episode, I decided I didn’t like any of the characters, so what was the point in seeing what happens to them.
I don’t disagree with your general assessment, yet 1) Succession was really good, and — more to my point — 2) a lot of successful TV shows are about rich or well-off people (because no one likes poor people, amirite?).
I’m a little surprised overall that The Expanse hasn’t gotten much love from the AV Club on these lists. To this one in particular, Wes Chatham as Amos has been a complete revelation – fitting perfectly with the character as written, he’s been a great blend of physicality, simmering anger, world-weariness, and caring. I really struggle to think of the last time I’ve seen a character be so expressive with a single facial expression.
Maybe season four gets to his backstory. His character seems, very much like part of the show’s long game – with an explosion to happen at some point.
Without getting too book-spoilery, I think the show has done a great job alluding to certain aspects of his backstory and personality without giving too much away. So I do expect that at some point we’re likely to see more of that filled in.
I’d blame the Thomas Jane factor. I don’t hate him, but I feel like he’s consistently overpromoted.
I agree. It makes sense (he’s the biggest name), and I both like Thomas Jane and think he’s a good Miller, but I think others in the cast shine brighter.
I still get a little verklempt when I think about the look on his face when Alex called him “My best friend in the whole world.” Then he follows it up with “I am that guy.” Amazing stuff.
“I am that guy” was telegraphed but still a massively satisfying payoff. And yeah, the reactions and subtle emotions he displays really are great.I’m in the process of reading the books (up to 6 now), and watched the series in the last two months. The way I know how the actor has inhabited the role is that as I’ve been moving ahead in the books, my vision of Amos shifted from what I originally had in my head to be Wes Chatham.
What’s wrong with Kinja?Sorry, let me rephrase – what’s this new additional thing wrong with Kinja? I see notifications “12 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago …” but no info on whether it’s a reply or a star. What gives?
yup, I’m having the same problem. And if I click on a notification, it just hangs – you too?
yup, I’m having the same problem. And if I click on a notification, it just hangs – you too?Me Too
Getting that too, but if you go to See All Notifications, you should be able to see them. Worked for me today.
tried that, but it just takes me to a page with a grid of site logos. If I click on the AVClub logo, I’m back on the main page. (Thanks for the tip, though.)
Same. I thought that it was Ghostery, but pausing it didn’t fix anything. Maybe Chrome broke something?
I’m on Safari, so it’s not Chrome. And I have to sign-in everytime I visit. It’s a pain.
I’m having the same issue on Firefox. Also both desktop and mobile versions with completely different add-ons so it’s all Kinja.
Worse, 90 percent of the time, when I come to the site, I’m not logged in like normal and it won’t log me in.
I can only log in on one machine, even though my log in is linked to Facebook.
I had to create a second account when my account I had for 6 years was unceremoniously moved to the greys after 3 months of Kinja.
I’ve been seeing that too. It’s obviously a bug of some kind.
Has been true for me, and for all I know everyone, for close to a week now, on any browser I try (Safari and Chrome).
I got one that worked! After several that is like 38 Minutes Ago ??????
If you click on “See all notifications.” you can then get to a page where the links work. Someone (and a big thank you to them) in another thread posted this solution and it has worked for me on a PC using the Opera browser.
So glad it isn’t just me.
This, and also the monumentally stupid idea of moving the headline down below the photo instead of leaving it above where it belongs.
Yeah, mine’s been fucked like that for days now. I can go back and manually recheck stuff to see if someone has replied to me, if I can remember what I commented on.
I’m using Firefox, and when I load the main page of all the GMG sites, I see pictures but no text, kind of like the whole page is spoiler text.
Me too.
Just go to the bottom and click on See All Notifications, and they’ll display properly there. It’s inconvenient, but it works fine that way.
Glad you amended that – we don’t have enough time to go through all of What’s Wrong With Kinja.
I just love that this post is the most popular on this stories comments. Hopefully someone from the tech department is ready this…(Also: new bug -when I click on my notifications on the top right, I see the first line of a comment, but even if I guess what the comment is about, and go to the story comment section, the comment isn’t there! yay…)
I still remember rolling my eyes back when the commenters on the old AV Club system used to groan about the impending kinjapocalypse. I thought “what’s the big deal, stop being a bunch of cry-babies, surely it can’t be that bad?”Turns out it is, and instead of improving it actually gets worse!
Kinja wants to make us nostalgic for the old times when the awful platform at least kinda worked
If you click on the “See all notifications” button it will show them to you.
Oh man it’s terrible. Lets see…
-Can’t see comments or notifications at all in Chrome; need to use Firefox
-Commenting crashes constantly
-Notifications on firefox don’t show who liked what, just that something changed
-Checking notifications in Firefox doesnt allow me to click on them; I need to go to my profile and manually scroll to see what changed
-The setup with pending/community continues to be miserable
Nice system you got here, AVClub! Great merger!
Same.
To be clear, there nothing homophobic about showing Trump and Putin kissing. You would have to be delusional or simple-minded to think the “punchline” was they are gay.
You’re wrong.
If either had been a woman, there wouldn’t be an outcry (well maybe if Trump were, it would possibly be decried as sexist, but if Trump were a woman, he wouldn’t behave anything like the way he does). The meme suggests they are fucking or in love as an explanation for Trump’s behavior. To interpret this as homophobic says more about the lack of normalization of LGBTQ persons in our media. Why anyone would pick up on the fact they are two men is beyond me.
You’re wrong. Don’t use my sexuality as an insult. Take the loss.
I didn’t and neither did the creator of the image.
Okay, homophobe.
Ok, overly emotional, irrational, close-minded fool
Stop projecting, homophobe.
OK. My mother taught me not to engage with trolls, so I am done here.
Did she also teach you to be a homophobe?
The meme is as much about trying to emasculate/insult Trump by showing him be physical with a guy as it is about Trump’s particular subservience to Putin. It’s not delusional or simple-minded to understand that it’s doing both of those things. Turns out political images can have more than one meaning in what they communicate.
See, I don’t see that at all. And I see no reason to make that inference other than they are both men.
Because we as queer people have been through this a million times before, we know what this is and what it’s doing because it’s not new. It’s trying to insult and embarrass a person by connecting them to the homosexual acts. People latch onto it for the same reason they enjoyed the naked statue of him — it demeans him. And even if some fans, or whatever, of this image or concept of Trump hearts Putin are not themselves homophobes and do not believe it is something to be embarrassed about, they take joy in knowing that Trump’s homophobia means it would be an insult to him. Which is still playing into homophobia.
Historically, your point is inarguable. All I am saying is that that is the entire basis for your interpretation and I do not believe that was the intent (unless there are aspects to the image that add to the inference that I am missing.) I was judging this on the basis of if one of the two parties was a woman (1) would this cartoon likely exist, and (2) would people be okay with it. Other than some possible cries of sexism, I believe the answer is yes to both. However, in the historical context you are right. Regardless of the intent with the meme. I could see an analogy to any depiction or analogy made between a black person and an animal. Many are made between white people and animals. However, the history of our country (justifiably) suggests how that will be interpreted.
If it was a woman, I imagine a significant (not necessarily majority) portion of people would find it sexist for projecting a female world leader into a sexual situation with a (boorish pig of a) male world leader. So, if you consider the people who get uncomfortable seeing some of the few female world leaders reduced to sexua objects as counting for this experiment, I do not believe it would be considered as “ok,” because people are more conscious of that than they are implicit homophobia.Your arguments are interesting but also based entirely on unprovable thought experiments, so I offer one of those of my own: there are people out there who know they hate Trump (or feel like socially that’s what they should be doing) who enjoy that image without having any clue who Putin is. They just see Trump making out with some bald dude, and the insult of that is clear enough for them.
“If either had been a woman, there wouldn’t be an outcry”Galaxy brain take here. If the joke hadn’t been about gay people, it wouldn’t have been homophobic!
It wasn’t about gay people. That’s the point. The only evidence that it was about gay people is that both people were dudes. If you saw that as anti-gay, that’s on you.
It was about men kissing other men
It was about Trump’s seeming love for Putin and his inexplicable inability to say anything bad about him and his desire to do the things Putin wants. It was joking that they must be fucking, because that’s the only non-corruption explanation.
“that’s the only non-corruption explanation”This betrays a gross lack of imagination.
It is entirely about the perceived emasculation of homosexuality, and as such yeah, it’s very much homophobic. But something makes me think you’re not worth arguing with beyond that.
If you can humor me for a second, what about the illustration suggests it’s about emasculation? If there is something specific about the image other than they are two men, I am open to hearing it. Maybe you have seen a different image than I did. I have seen the one illustration that I assume people are referring to here and that I know has been labeled homophobic.
[scrolling]You’ve [scrolling] got [scrolling] to [scrolling] be [scrolling] fucking [scrolling] kiddi- [see Noah Emmerich’s name] Oh OK, I’m good.
For me the big revelation was Darren Criss, mesmerizing performance.
Hale Appleman and Summer Bishil in the Magicians. Really though, it’s a whole cast show. You can tell each actor knows his or her co-stars are capable of greatness and they strive to bring their A game every time out. Hale just happens to be the top of the pile – but Jason Ralph & Stella Maeve (as the ostensible leads) dig deep. It’s a cast of friends and rivals.
I love them, but the best performance (of the year) was Mageina Tovah as the Librarian, specifically the sign language sequence with the three Harriets.
She popped into my head too. Heartbreaking.
A much as i love The Americans, I never really rated Noah Emmerich – his default facial twitch was actually quite irritating – but the final few episodes of the final season where stunning. Starting with his silent search of the Jennings house, to that amazing stand off in the parking garage, he went above and beyond. But…How on earth did you not include Kerry Russell? Her performance was so internal, so quiet, so understated – it was one of the best things I’ve seen on tv. Her face was she looked out the train window….
That scene on the train wrecked me. I assume they’ve recognized her before, but giving Emmerich the tip over her seems wrong. She was incredible.
I’m a Matt Rhys guy. But don’t get me wrong, they absolutely ruled for every second of that show. Matty was just more sympathetic, I guess? The show needed Keri Russell to be fully Russian to make the conclusion work, so she was very icy. But I really like the unconventional pick of Noah Emmerich, since this is a unconventional list, and he was as good as the top two by the end. What I’m trying to say is this is a gorgeously acted show.
my favourite Rhys moment: when he tells Elizabeth that he’s sabotaged the plan to kidnap Kimmy. It’s his very subtle sneer when he says “yeah, it’s not gonna happen…”
Those rare moments of seething resentment from Philip to Elizabeth were always so intense.
Like whenever Gregory would come up. Ouch!
Or when he overhears Elizabeth and Paige talking about Paige having sex with a potential mark and he goes “Wait, SEX! What?!”
My most fervent “hate Elizabeth” moment: When she accuses Philip of wanting to “fuck” Kimmy. She doesn’t understand him at all …
And AV could have included them both in the dynamic duos category, see my rant above. This series was so stunningly good. I just rewatched the whole damn thing and was as devastated by the second viewing as I was by the first.
Keri Russel is sooooooo overdue for an Emmy for her role as Elizabeth Jennings. The stress she displayed on her face the entire final season, sheesh..Long live Nadishda
This is the (first 1/3 of the single) best television performance of 2018- Mageina Tovah in the Magicians. There are three scenes where the Librarian is acting against her daughter, a little girl who goes out into the real world while the Librarian stays in a place outside of time. In the second scene she is a young woman, played by deaf actress Stephanie Nogueras (from Switched at Birth) and in the third an adult played by Marlee Matlin. I assume the little girl above is deaf also, but I don’t know for certain.Mageina Tovah is not deaf, and performs a herculean feat of convincing sign language(from what people who can sign have said, I wouldn’t know) and just a masterful use of facial expression. This is the very definition of an award winning feat of acting.I haven’t seen the other two segments on youtube, but combined, it’s among the best 10 minutes in television history.More about the episode here:https://bluebeard.kinja.com/the-magicians-s03-e08-six-short-stories-about-magic-1823425450
I haven’t heard word yet whether or not One Day at a Time is getting another season.
Meanwhile the Ranch is on season 4? I dunno, that show is fresh garbage.
February 8th!
I really like Annie Murphy on Schitt’s Creek & she has done a great job with her character, initially very superficial and unlikable, who has gotten more interesting every season, which still recognizably being the same person. Difficult for me to say that she is better than Emily Hampshire as Stevie though, who has the difficult straight man part and pulls it off wonderfully.
I am hoping, for the next season, for more Alexis/Stevie interaction, and more David/Ted interaction (just because the scene in the Vets office where Ted is telling David how he feels about Alexis and then David eats the dog treat was HILARIOUS).
For whatever reason the Alexis-Stevie pairing has never been used much on the show & I have no doubt it would be fantastic. Stevie would have to find her at least as delightful and exasperating as she does David.
I’m still catching up (starting s4 tonight!) but I understand the lack of scenes between Stevie and Alexis. Stevie is David’s friend because of their similar personalities. I don’t think she is interested in getting to know someone who she doesn’t vibe with or isn’t related by blood or isn’t a hookup. I could be wrong.On another note, it still amazes me how much of the humor in this show is just the Roses reacting. I’ve never watched a sitcom like that and I cannot get enough of it.
Lovely birthday wishes today for Eugene Levy from a Schitt’s Creek costar
I haven’t seen Schitt’s Creek, but Hampshire’s performance on 12 Monkeys was a consistent delight.
I loved her as Jennifer Goines to an unhealthy extent
“All-American” is a weird term to apply to a half-Canadian.Also, Annie Murphy has become Schitt Creek’s breakout star as far as I’m concerned. The vulnerability she brings to Alexis has me really close to tears so often. Alexis’ graduation when she told her family it’s fine if they don’t come and the emotions at play on her face when it looked like they wouldn’t and you could see her hope that they would start to fade while she tried to still look upbeat almost fucking broke me. A self-centered rich kid with the occasional brief mentions of the darkness her life has led to in the past could be so tiresome, but I find myself cheering for her as she tries her damnedest to better herself and her life.
As far as I am concerned, Alexis’ character development this last season or two has been amazing. The episode where Mutt comes back to town for the baby shower really showed how far she had come.
The storyline where Alexis went back to high school to get her degree was gold. I loved how they pushed against the standard story beats you expected, like the other girls passing notes about Alexis weren’t making fun of her, they were talking about how cool and pretty she was.
Also, she took credit for the notes so the girls wouldn’t get in trouble, and then made it look like she was ridiculously writing notes to praise herself. That’s an example of how the show twists things up and makes them funnier.
She easily wins the award for “Most Improved Player” among the Rose family.
Billy Porter/ Pray Tell should do the Oscars. “ and the category is… “
I would have put Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performance ahead of Amy Adams for an HBO series. She’s been fantastic on The Deuce this season . . . it still has 200% too much James Franco, but that’s not her fault.
Oh man I spent so much time bigging up Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, but in the final season Noah Emmerich was so much the real deal. The implications of the series are him. The entire series plays on his face during the parking garage scene. Awesome pick.
I guess it is a function of it being on a tiny basic cable network in the USA, but I can’t believe how little critical love Schitt’s Creek gets on this side of the border. Annie Murphy totally deserves much more attention because she makes a character who should be annoying incredibly fun and likable.I also love that Jodie Comer and Brendan Fraser got mentions.
For dynamic duos, I really, really liked Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther in The End of the Fucking World. Neither character could have been easy to play, and I thought they both nailed it.
Scrolling through this list shows me that I have skipped on a lot of good television this year. Not one show mentioned did I watch this year, though many are on my list of shows I have been planning to watch.
Wow. NO love for the individual performance of Kristin Chenoweth, or the Dynamic Duo of Sherri Shepherd and Steve Boyer as Anne and Dwayne, or the entire ensemble and wacky cast of TRIAL AND ERROR? SO disappointing.
I was really apprehensive that they couldn’t equal Lithgow’s performance in the first season but she was great – flamboyant, deeply sad, and genuinely a little scary.
Lithgow as perfect as Larry and the character for the circumstances of that case, and Chenoweth was perfect for Lavinia and that case. I’ll never be able to listen to “Bird in a Gilded Cage” again without thinking of her.
ANNE AND DWAYNE forever omg I love them and that show so much. Jayma Mays, too! Her physical comedy was outstanding. And Nicholas D’Agosto as well. Just a stellar cast all around.
Totally agree. That’s why we need to work to #SaveTrialAndError and why it sucks it wasn’t recognized here, or by the SAG Awards, or Golden Globes.
was it cancelled?? I haven’t heard of a s3 announcement so I’m assuming it has been.
NBC didn’t pick it up for a Season 3 and so far no other network has either. So it wasn’t “cancelled” exactly. Season 2 was allowed to finish, but the network doesn’t plan for a Season 3. There’s a campaign on Twitter and social media to save the show and try and convince Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, or another network, or even NBC again, to move forward with a season 3, as the show received TONS of critical acclaim. That’s why its cast not being recognized by this site doesn’t help. Use the hashtag #SaveTrialAndError. You’ll find it on Jeff Astrof’s (the showrunner/producer/creator) Twitter and other actors from the show as well. Thanks. #SaveTrialAndError
Once again, no love for JK Simmons and Counterpart. Not sure why this site has such a blind spot regarding the show, but he’s done some amazing work there.
I really love the way he plays of Harry Lloyd’s character, who starts off seeming so aloof and gradually becomes more and more pathetic yet relatable.
I didn’t like Killing Eve that much.The villain had no nuance. She was just evil.
Are…you sure it was Killing Eve you were watching?
“Counterintelligence agent Stan had the worse of it”
I mean, Jack Crawford got stabbed in the neck and nearly bled out in a pantry, but I guess Stan had it worse because his friend turned out to be a Russian spy…
My lord and master, the great god Beebo, insists that the Legends of Tomorrow cast deserves Honorary Mention as one of the best ensembles of the year. Jes McCallan’s Ava and Matt Ryan’s John Constantine have been stand out stars over the last several seasons, but every cast member has contributed to this series delicate balance of farce, badassery and poignant comic book soap opera.And speaking of stand out performances, Cara Gee’s portrayal of Camina Drummer on The Expanse deserves notice not only as a supporting character who showed significant growth over a season, but also as an actor who stole every scene she was in, even when Gee was just glowering in the background.
…Donny Hathaway’s “For All We Know.”Again, the 1972 version by Hathaway, like the one by Billy Porter, is just one in a series of great cover versions of this 1934 classic by J. Fred Coots and Sam M. Lewis. It’s not Donny Hathaway’s “For All We Know.”
One Day at a Time really does have a great cast. Even the kids bring depth and humor to their parts. They also have a great knack for finding guest stars who will blend into the ensemble really well. While we’re on family sitcoms how about Speechless? I don’t think this has been their strongest season but it’s another show where the kids feel just as vital and funny as the very strong adult actors.
glad to see William Jackson Harper + Oh/Comer on here. sad at the lack of Christine Baranski.
No mention of Will Arnett for the monologue episode of BoJack Horseman?That’s too much, man.
What the hell does Will Arnett have to do to get some recognition from you people? Does he have to do an entire half-hour episode where he performs a single unbroken monologue with no other actors involved, carrying one of the most emotional and darkly funny episodes of the year all by himself?Because he did that and y’all still snubbed him. SHAME.
Great as that monologue is, if I were to pick a performance from this year’s BoJack it would either be Rami Malek, low-key horrifying as Flip McVicker, or Stephanie Beatriz, who had a heartbreaking arc as Gina and sold it so well.
God, they were all good. I’ve been off work after surgery and I’m halfway through my second binging of Bojack from season one to five. I actually hadn’t seen the show before and I have to say that season five does hold up so well. The show improved. I’m loving Todd. He’s great. Rami was great/awful and Free Churro was perfect. “ICU”
Surprised not to see too many other comments about Bill Hader in Barry. I just watched the entire season for the second time and it was like seeing it fresh. He made me cry from laughing in Documentary Now and regular-cry in Barry.
Bill Hader & Barry is so fucking good it’s insane
I have to rewatch the season too. When’s the next season! I can’t wait.
I don’t think the release date for season 2 has been announced yet, but I did find this article you might enjoy: https://www.indiewire.com/2018/08/hbo-barry-season-2-bill-hader-directors-moss-alive-1201996806/.
*cough* Florence Pugh *cough*
On the comedy-drama spectrum, Glow and Lodge 49 aren’t that far apart. It’s weird to call one a comedy and the other a drama; they’re each like a 60-40 mix.
Nobody from The Terror?? Really surprised how Darren Criss managed to overshadow Jared Harris this awards season when Judith Light, Finn Wittrock and Cody Fern gave more effective performances with a lot less screen time in Versace
Absolutely Jared Harris. Tobias Menzies (who was also damned good on Outlander in a thankless role) and Paul Ready were pretty stellar too. Nive Nielsen transcended the limited dialogue the plot allotted her, Ciaran Hinds did great work, and Adam Nagaitis provided maybe the best villain of the year, in television or film. Haven’t enjoyed hating someone so much since Jack Gleeson left Game of Thrones. Hard to fathom a list of best tv performances of the year being compiled without one of the Terror’s impressive cast on it.
Adam Nagaitis completely came out of nowhere and blew me away, really hoping this is a breakout role for him. Agreed on Nive Nielsen doing so much with little given to her due to the character’s certain speech impediment. What happened to Goodsir was perhaps the most vile thing I’ve seen on any media this year and Ready made him easily the most empathetic character on the show that I don’t know how to recover from that finale
I’d never heard of him. He was amazing.
Yup, “The Terror” was great in many ways, and the opening scene of Episode 8 (“Are we brothers, Francis?”) is better than just about anything ever
funny thing Jodie Comer, does not speak a word of the languages, she just learn it phonetic, in fact she has quite the accent herself
on a spectrum somewhere between goofball and lummoxStealing this for my Tinder profile
Bill Hader for President! <3
Seriously no love for J.K Simmons in Counterpart. There are time when I serious wonder which Howard is the better actor before I remember that they are both him.
He’s not quite in Tatiana Maslany territory, but he does some great work.
How about the ensemble of The Terror? When Ciaran Hinds gives maybe the 6th or 7th best performance on a show, it should really receive more praise.
That spectacular show was tragically underviewed.
Yup. Excellent all the way through, and the opening scene of Episode 8 (“Are we brothers, Francis?”) is the best thing I’ve seen in any movie or show in a very long time
Rhea Seehorn’s performance was so raw and genuine that she literally took my breath away multiple times this season. We’re talking audible gasps people.
Hey, in the ensembles category where are the Legends of Tomorrow and the Roci crew from the Expanse?!
and Rachel Bloom!
VERY glad to see Noah Robbins from Forever (and Forever mentioned twice!) Such a weird, twisty little show, I love it. And Stephan James! Homecoming is great and visually s t u n n i n g. Annie Murphy!!! Her her character on Schitt’s Creek has really grown on me. And EVERYONE watch Lodge 49 it’s superb and so is Barry and basically everything on this list!! I love TV!Special shoutout to Chili Babies! William Jackson Harper as Chidi forever.
would also add the Villanueva women (Gina Rodriguez, Andrea Navedo, Ivonne Coll) and Rogelio (Jaime Camil) and Petra (Yael Grobglas) from Jane the Virgin as well. Consistently amazing cast. Excited but sad for the final season next year.
I’d give TV’s top performance of 2018 to Lee Sun-kyun, mostly for his buttery baritone voice which was a vital component of the series ‘My Ajusshi’.
I really liked Paramount Network’s Waco. Michael Shannon is great in this, but I was surprised how well I was able to buy into Friday Night Light’s Taylor Kitsch! He’s unrecognizable as David Koresh, and you can see how strongly he is connected to his ‘family’. For a figure often painted (publicly) as charlatan, Kitsch has a way about him that woos me in, and its a great performance to kick off 2018.
With Daredevil now cancelled, I’ve come to appreciate even more how strong that entire ensemble was. Foggy, Karen, Fisk, Bullseye, Father Lantom…Compared to other comic book shows, which are certain to have weak links in the cast somewhere, that was never really the case with DD, which seemed to get even stronger with the additions of two great characters in Agent Nadeem and Sister Maggie. But more than anything, I we are losing a hero with true depth in Charlie Cox.Louie Anderson gets all the attention on FX’s Baskets, and I fear Zach Galifianakis may be going under appreciated on his own show. He’s been pulling double-duty as twins from the start, but Season 3 was kind of a surprise in some of the places it took its least fleshed out character, Dale. As usual, Zach plays him funny-angry, but there’s a pain underneath this year that I felt I hadn’t seen before.
Allisyn Ashley Arm, A.P. Bio – a show more people need to check out.
I’m in love with James K Mantleray. Omg. 😂😂😂😂
Chidi’s brain being broken by the tittle above the I in Jeremy Bearimy was probably the best for me this year.
I came here to scream if you did not include Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. You even blew a chance to include them in a dynamic duo category. WTF? Yes, Noah Emmerich is fabulous, and I’m glad you included him, but The Americans is one of the truly great shows (right up there with The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos) and deserved much more recognition in its parting year.
Watching Parker Posey in Lost in Space is a little like watching James Spader in The Blacklist. They’re both chew the scenery with such utter abandon and delight that their respective shows just would not work if they played their parts any other way. And what fun it was to watch Parker’s Dr. Smith kill off that annoying Billy Mumy’s Dr. Smith in Episode 1. Johnathan Harris would’ve been proud.
That video definitely doesn’t do Maniac justice.