1.
Pete Holmes as himself, Crashing (HBO)-As
opposed to most comedians (or the fictionalized TV versions of themselves) who
just want to get ahead, this show has a protagonist who’s sincerely trying to
navigate the changing boundaries of integrity as he gets a taste of success in
the world of stand-up. The apologetic Holmes is gangly, awkward and sometimes
wrong but there’s an underlying sweetness to him.
2.
Giovanni Ribisi as Marius Josipovic/Pete Murphy,
Sneaky Pete (Amazon)-Watching genius at work is why we’re attracted to a
character like Pete whose extroadinary abilities to think on the fly, read
people, and work a con make him almost like a stateside Sherlock Holmes on the
wrong side of the law. With a supreme expertise in his field, Pete is in the
mold of the procedurals of the aughts (particularly Burn Notice but also House
and Monk) but his backstory and the progression of his relationship to the
Murphy clan make him fit into the serialized mold as well.
3.
Julie Garner as Ruth Langmore, Ozark (Netflix)-Ruth
feels like she wouldn’t fit in anywhere other than the Missouri/Arkansas border
and that’s great for the show. She’s pragmatic and tough-as-nails but she doesn’t
shy away from showing her emotions with her allegiance to her boss or her hope
for a better future for her cousin.
4. Kristin Chenoweth as Lavinia Peck-Foster, Trial and Error (NBC)-To fill in the shoes of John Lithgow’s unapologetically weird professor and carry the momentum of a sitcom into a second season with entirely different, Chenoweth had a high bar to meet. She’s not just a great caricature of disconnected rich privilege, but she also is a great example of the bunny ears lawyer trope (someone who shouldn’t be as effective professionally as they are) as killers go considering she seems to have so little awareness of reality.
5.
Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza, Good Place (NBC)-There
is now depth to the stupidity of Jason Mendoza that can’t be mined for comedy.
This year’s Jason-centered episode “The Ballad of Donkey Doug” proved quite a
bit of impressive backstory for a guy who’s Jacksonville upbringing has sounded
too ridiculous to be true.
6.
Wyatt Russell as Sean “Dud” Dudley, Lodge 49
(AMC)-Think of how great the world would be if we had more people as open to other people
(of all generations) and as curious about the world around them as Dudley. The
seemingly dense surfer has had some bad breaks with the death of his dad and
the decline of his pool business but he never stops seeing the glass as half
full.
7.
Carla Jiminez as Alba, The Mick (Fox)-The
opening scene of the pilot shows us a protagonist who saunters into a grocery
store and uses the cosmetics aisle for her morning routine without even paying.
But even then, she’s not the most id-driven character on the show. That would
be the nanny left over from a past regime who will happily shirk responsibility
and go on a bender if the situation calls for it. She’s also body positive.
8.
Juliett Lewis as Jandice, Camping (HBO)-Most
suburbanites probably know a soccer mom or HOA member who resembles Jennifer
Garner’s uptight camping trip organizer Kathryn. Likewise, most of those people
wish that those Kathryns in their lives could be paired up with a foil like the
boundary-pushing hippyish Jandice.
9.
Wilson Bethel as Ben “Bullseye” Pondexter, Daredevil
(Netflix)-A fitting doppelganger to our title character, Daredevil’s powers are
more fully spelled out than in any other iteration of this story which makes
his fight scenes both cool (duh) and menacing within the context of this
higher-stakes story.
10.
Allisyn Ashley Arm as Heather, AP Bio (NBC)-Heather
started as one of about dozen students
in fraudulent teacher Jack Griffin’s
teacher through which limited screentime has been divided. But Arm used every
opportunity when the camera was on her and every line delivery to be
spectacularly eccentric and a treasure in her own right.
11.
Dale Soules as Frieda Berlin, Orange is the New
Black (Netflix)-The focus of the show’s sixth season was on two feuding sisters
who turned the rest of the prisoners into competing gangs. The squirrelly Frida
managed to show how far her survivor instincts had gotten her by quietly
outsmarting the show’s main villains in Rube Goldberg fashion.
12. Jordana Spiro as Rachel, Ozark (Netflix)-The kinds of characters in these high-pressure dramas (like Breaking Bad or The Americans) that get caught between conflicting sides with no way out are generally the innocent bystanders worth rooting for. Rachel is a resilient firecracker with good instincts and it’s wonderful to see her make it out alive.
14.
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Daredevil (Netflix)-In
my previous iteration of this list, I felt I had to make room for Foggy, Matt,
and Karen as all three big something to the team besides being well-drawn characters
themselves. As the stakes felt higher and the story became more gripping, Karen
was the one who was most transparent with her dread and resolve. She also made the list the last time I did this.
15.
Nick Sandow as Warden Joe Caputo, Orange is the
New Black (Netflix)-Obviously the main storyline of Season 6 is Tasha “Taystee”
Jefferson but to see an ally say he’ll do something and then put his money
where his mouth is, is quite cathartic. Yes, the white savior trope can be
debated but that doesn’t necessarily mean Taystee’s story has been diminished
or Caputo’s stepping up isn’t insignificant.
16.
Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weinberg, Marvelous Mrs
Maisel (Amazon)-Poor Abe. Certainly not the most stringent and unreasonable of old-world
Jewish fathers from the era but he’s been dealing with a world that’s changed
too fast for his comfort. He should have given his wife more agency, and he
should have been less stubborn about his
university , but Amy Sherman-Palladino’s shows aren’t built around tragedies:
Hopefully, there’s room for Abe to grow in later seasons.
17.
Brandon Flynn as Justin Foley, 13 Reasons Why
(Netflix)-While 13 Reasons Why can be tonally inconsistent and come across more
like a typical high school show than something worthy of the topics it
broaches, Justin has been written surprisingly strong this season. He’s dealt
with guilt and remorse over enabling rape, a broken family, a drug addiction,
threats from a step-mom and a betrayal by his best friend and it’s all been
handled in such a way that I can’t take my eyes off the guy.
18.
D’Arcy Carden as Janet, Good Place (NBC)-Janet
can literally do anything, but it’s the moments when she chooses to deal with
the mundanities of, say, getting over an ex or dealing with people who aren't at her speed (like Michael typing at 6 wpm) where she shines. And bonus points for that bar brawl that she impulsively starts against Sean's demons in her dress and high heels. And even more bonus points for the creation
of the second best character on the show in Jason Matzoukas’s Derrick.
19.
Carol Kane as Lily Kaushtupper, Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)-The final half-season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was
a great showcase for the whole cast but count me in for more of the unattached Lily
who has Tracy-Jordan-like namedrops to past chapters of past badassery. Kane
gives the monologue of the season
20. Hillary Anne Matthews as Diedre, Alex Inc (ABC)-An example of how an otherwise forgettable show can be watchable just to see a scene-stealing side character. Deidre is a scatter-brained assistant whose clinginess to her boss (Zach Braff) overtly borders on obsession.
21.
Cedric the Entertainer as Scott Joplin, Another
Period (Comedy Central)-Part of the fun of this show has been the exaggerated cameos
of historical figures who inexplicably make their way into the lives of the
Bellacourt clan like Sigmund Freud (Chris Parnell), Albert Einstein (Matt
Bessar) and Thomas Edison (Stephen Tobolowsky). Perhaps none of these comic
characters is as cleverly constructed as the show’s version of Scott Joplin who’s
presented as an aughts version of Kanye West (complete with self-worship and an
Armenian bride).
22.
Libe Barer as Carly Bowman, Sneaky Pete (Amazon)-The
Brendon de Wilde to Alan Ladd’s Shane, Carly is the kid of the family (if you
can believe a 27-year old actor passing as 16) who stars agape at her older
cousin who fascinates her with hints of a less provincial life. What’s
interesting behind Carly is that she’s one step behind the others but you can
never count her out as she has traces of Bowman ingenuity herself.
23. Connie Britton as Abby Clark, 9-1-1 (Fox)-No harm in adding a pollyanna to a procedural. Abby is middle-aged and single with an aging parent to care for but there’s a certain upbeatness to her that makes her a quiet sort of stand-out. Her scenes, set apart from the rest of the cast, make her an interesting narrator of sorts.
24. Jonah Hill as Owen Milgrim, Maniac (Netflix)-One of the best portrayals of a depressed character to appear on TV. Jonah Hill does an excellent job at portraying the quiet surrender and numbness as he goes about his every day life and eventually enters into the world of fantasy.
25.
Dania Ramirez as Jacinda/Cinderella, Once Upon a
Time (ABC)-When introduced in her featured episode, Jacinda is a femme fatale
disguised as a typical Cinderella. It matches well with her real-life persona
who’s down on her luck but refuses to play damsel in distress with the two men
vying for her affections.
Honorable Mentions:
Armen Weitzman as Garfield, Another Period; Beth Dover as Linda Ferguson, Orange is the New Black; Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch, Daredevil; Danielle Brooks as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson; Dascha Polanko as Daya, Orange is the New Black; David Koechner as The Commodore, Another Period; Henny Russell as Barbara Dennan, Orange is the New Black; Jane Adams as Maggie Murphy, Sneaky Pete; Jayma Mays as Carol Anne Keane in Trial and Error; Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good Place; McKenzie Phillips as Carol Dennan, Orange is the New Black; Parker Posey as Dr. Smith, Lost in Space; Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Masel, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel; Sally Field as Dr. Greta Mantleray; Sophia Black-D’Ella as Sabrina Pemberton, The Mick; Scott MacArthur as Jimmy, The Mick; Ted Danson as Michael, The Good Place; Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
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