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| Bryan Cranston will have to fight off Matthew McConaughey for his fourth Emmy. |
Now we come to the big guns.
Not to disparage the other categories, but the drama lead actors
probably have the strongest performances of any individual group. They may not have the depth of the drama
supporting actors or the performance diversity of the comedy lead actresses, but here you will
often find the hands-down best performances of the year. 2014 felt like it was going to be the
coronation for Bryan Cranston and Breaking
Bad, but then, this winter, True
Detective happened, throwing everybody for a loop. Now, it feels as though this once shoe-in
category is up for grabs.
A couple of caveats before we start. First, I’m working from the actual Emmy Performer Ballot, so I can’t move somebody from lead to supporting
(Woody Harrelson), nor can I call True Detective
a miniseries or Orange Is the New Black
a drama, nor can I nominate somebody who didn’t submit themselves (like Alan
Cumming in The Good Wife). Also, I’m only including actors from shows I
watch regularly, so if your favorites from House
of Cards, Parenthood, The Good Wife, or
Scandal aren’t here, that’s why.
My 2013 Choices:
Bryan Cranston (Breaking
Bad)
Hugh Dancy (Hannibal)
Michael Emerson (Person
of Interest)
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Damian Lewis (Homeland)
Timothy Olyphant (Justified)
Actual 2013 Nominees:
Hugh Bonneville (Downton
Abbey)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking
Bad)
Jeff Daniels (The
Newsroom) - *
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Damian Lewis (Homeland)
Kevin Spacey (House of
Cards)
* I refuse to
acknowledge that Jeff freaking Daniels won this award last year over that
collection of actors. And that’s coming
from somebody who actually enjoys The Newsroom.
I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen with this
category. History says we can expect to
see Cranston and McConaughey here without too much doubt, but the other four
spots all appear to be up for grabs. I
can think of a dozen men I’d nominate before Jeff Daniels, but he was last
year’s surprise winner; you can’t rule
him out. Homeland was pretty bad last year while Downton Abbey and House of
Cards appear to have fallen out of the cultural zeitgeist, but as I said before, you’ll never lose money betting on
the Emmys to continue recognizing fading shows for two years too long. Jon Hamm seems like he should be guaranteed a
chance to lose his sixth straight Emmy contest, but it’s entirely possible that
the academy has just soured on Mad Men
to the point where he doesn’t even get nominated. That’s what happened at the Golden Globes,
where Michael Sheen, Live Schreiber, and James Spader all earned nominations
over Hamm.
As for the potential winner: Who knows? Anything is possible after last year. Michael Sheen could earn a surprise win for Masters of Sex. Woody Harrelson could steal the award from
his screen partner McConaughey. Steve
Buscemi and Timothy Olyphant are both former nominees who could find their ways
back into the field. And, obviously,
anybody mentioned above could walk away with the trophy. I still think it comes down to Cranston and
McConaughey, but I thought it was Cranston’s to lose last year. Anything can happen.
I generally do these lists alphabetically, but it’s always
nice to be able to start with my favorite, and here that is Bryan Cranston. Breaking
Bad will go down in history as one of the all-time great dramas and Walter
White as one of television’s great anti-heroes.
I don’t know that the second half of Bad’s final season was its creative peak (I’d probably argue for
season three or four), but Cranston was certainly at his peak, portraying a Walter
desperately trying to keep his world from spinning out of control. In particularly, the trio of closing
episodes, “Ozymandias,” “Granite State,” and “Felina” were probably his best
work in the entire series. Cranston
already has three statues and has a good chance of walking away with a fourth.
Hannibal made The
Leap in its second season, transitioning from an intriguing, beautifully-made
television show to a true work of art.
And nowhere is this more obvious than in the performances of Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen. The two
waged a season-long game of one-upmanship, constantly bringing deeper and more
nuanced performances to the table. That
I would actually believe for even a second that Will Graham could fall under
Hannibal Lecter’s spell is a testament to the strength of Dancy’s work. He was required to play a huge range of
emotions this year, from desperate, to vengeful, to resigned, to determined,
and even a bit of villainy. Mikkelsen,
meanwhile, maintained his aloof and alien presence. Stepping up from supporting actor, what
consistently surprised me about Mikkelsen’s performance is that you can always
see why people fall for his illusion.
He’s a strange figure, but he is alluring in a way, drawing people in
and disarming them with his intelligence and his food. It’s difficult to play a character that both
repels and attracts the way Lecter does, but Mikkelsen does so fantastically.
It seems increasingly likely that Jon Hamm will end up playing Don Draper for eight years and have
only a single Golden Globe and a couple of critics awards to show for it. It seems unbelievable that the man who has
been such a dramatic force on television for nearly a decade will not have won
more awards. Granted, he’s been going up
against Bryan Cranston for much of that time but still, you would think that
just once he could have broken through.
The first half of season seven was, perhaps, not the best showcase of
Hamm’s talent, as Don was forced to tiptoe around pretty much everybody in his
life in order to keep everything from falling apart, but you never once feel
like Don is acting out of character because Hamm sells it all so well. He won’t win the Emmy this year, and may not
even be nominated, and there’s something a little sad about that.
Finally, the duo of Woody
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey
came out of the box swinging in True
Detective. McConaughey is the
favorite here and it’s easy to see why.
He has the showy part, with the existential angst and the minutes-long
monologues. That’s not to say his
performance is all the result of Nic Pizzolatto’s writing. McConaughey had to turn the same person into,
essentially, two different characters, as the Rust Cohle of 2012 and the Cohle
of 1995 are fundamentally different people.
It really was a marvel to watch him bounce back and forth between the
two men in each episode. Harrelson may
not have had the showy part, but he was still just as effective in the more
straight-man role. Because of the nature
of the role, Harrelson is required to react to McConaughey much more often than
he’s allowed to be active, so it would have been easy for him to submit himself
as a supporting actor in order to stay away from McConaughey. I’m glad to see him submit as lead, however,
because it really was a lead performance and it would be great to see him
recognized alongside his co-star. Could
the pair submitting as leads steal votes from each other? Possibly, but I doubt it. McConaughey was strong and his role so big
that he should be able to stand out on his own.
Others meriting consideration: Demian Bichir, Steve Buscemi, Jim Caviezel,
Travis Fimmel, Jonny Lee Miller, Tom Mison, Timothy Olyphant, Matthew Rhys,
Michael Sheen
Previously: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy,
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy
So those are my Emmy choices. Agree?
Disagree? Let me know in the
comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.
Tyler Williams is a
professional librarian and an amateur television critic. You can reach him at TyTalksTV AT gmail DOT
com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.
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