Welcome back to round two of the 3rd Annual Marco Awards. If you read last week’s blog, you’ve seen the big winners in the Movies category. (If not, go check them out here.) Sincere thanks to those of you who already let me know my recommendations have intrigued you enough to watch and enjoy some of films we discussed. Today, more of the same as we move on to the honors for Television (and it was a lot!)
This was an incredibly competitive season because Covid had wrecked with the first two. Of course the Awards were born out of lockdown so that was a mini season based on what was already produced for distribution before quarantine shut down Hollywood. The second awards were those shows that were ready to go into production as soon as allowed, producing a second half season of nominees with onlyl two series that were represented in both awards. This year is the first season that Hollywood was in full production with all the old shows plus new ones this season, and nominations were harder than ever.
The rules for TV are a little more complicated because, unlike movies, it’s not a one-time event, but an action over a time period. I am still the nominating committee and voting body, and have declared that a TV series will be eligible if it aired a new season on in-home streaming between February 1st, 2021 and January 31st 2022, and I watched it. There is a twist here. If I have previously watched the series up til this season, only the current season and cast members are eligible for nomination. However if I have never watched it, all previous seasons and cast members are eligible as my first viewing. Also, like in the Movies category, but with a slight modification, anyone who won an Emmy for a role in 2022 is ineligible, just to keep things from being repetitive, but anyone who has won for a current role from 2021 prior is included. “Best Guest Actor/Actress” will be defined as an actor who is featured from a single episode but no more than one entire season in a role outside the regular core cast, usually a character who drives a new plot for a season. Again, I’m just making this up as I go, like the 31st is a purely arbitrary date set by the nominating committee (me) giving the voting body (me) enough time to catch up and tabulate the results for release sometime around the anniversary of Covid shutdowns (now).
So, with that, Welcome to the 3rd Annual Marco Awards for Excellence in Television that appeared all day every day in your living room, the most comprehensive awards show there is for the media. I’d like to think that these awards are a replacement for the what the Emmys have devolved into, or at the least are significantly funnier (which is a low bar because the awards show circuit in general has become pathetic). Again, I’m your host, Mark Briner, and may the best shows win. The nominees are:
The First Annual MARCO AWARDS 2020: TELEVISION
BEST DRAMA
The First Lady—American History gets an untold reboot with the background stories of three of our most underrated First Ladies and how they influenced their husbands’ administrations. Top class acting from the award winning stars: the sublime Michelle Pfeifer as Betty Ford, always powerful Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, and two-time Marco winner Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. Each episode is based around common parallels each woman faced in her marriage and her tenure, and how they helped shape their famous husbands’ legacies. Worth the 10 hours just to hear the incomparable Davis shoot down a too-familiar intern at her law firm, young Barak Obama, to get his thrift store loafers off her office sofa.
Interview With The Vampire—With their long dead undead staple The Walking Dead laid to rest, AMC is banking on the works of Anne Rice to fill their voids, and this 50-year-old reboot of her landmark book is a fantastic reinvention of the original story that rectifies all the critiques of the misguided Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt movie. The show runners conceived a clever way to update the work and added a winning cast built around sexy performances by Jacob Anderson & Sam Reid.
Inventing Anna—Another truth-is-stranger-than-fiction in the real life story of Anna Delvy, who successfully passed herself off as a German-born heiress and scammed millions out of New York’s biggest banks and investors to fund a hypothetical upscale Manhattan artists’ colony. Star Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark) gives a star-making turn.
The Last of Us—Just when The Walking Dead finally died a slow and painfully boring undeath and made the zombie trope as played out as Twilight left vampires before that, this HBO offering, based off a popular video game, arrived and breathed new afterlife into the genre with a new scarier zombie form and a more compelling story about how the true dangers of the apocalypse aren’t the zombies, it’s our fellow garbage humans. It’s everything TWD wishes it had been for the last 9 long-assed seasons, and even better, headed by the big names at Game of Thrones. Features many familiar faces from that series, and bonus points for casting many roles with voice actors from the original game.
The Offer—Albert Ruddy thought he hit the goldmine when he acquired the movie rights for Mario Puzo’s best seller The Godfather. But he never anticipated the pushback he would get from every corner, from Frank Sinatra (who was outraged over the gossip that the Johnny Fontaine character was him), to Francis Ford Coppola (who felt it promoted demeaning stereotypes of Italian-Americans and resisted any involvement), to the studios (who opposed Coppola’s casting choices and had strong opinions of their own—Robert Redford as Michael and Ernest Borgnine as the title character?), to the actual mob (who wasn’t crazy about the spotlight being shined on their shady business dealings; actual hits were put out over this movie). A combination of great action combined with backstage gossip and creating classic scenes from the movie make this Offer one you cannot refuse.
Pamela & Tommy—What sounded like an unnecessary tabloid tale turned out to be anything but—a very comprehensive and ultimately sympathetic look into the lives and ridiculously sleazy tale of how the infamous sex tape ended up stolen from Tommy Lee and black-marketed into an early internet sensation. Buoyed by sincere, stellar performances by Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the titular couple, with good writing and fun comic support from always dependable Seth Rogan and Nick Offerman as bumbling burglers/wannabe porn kings, the series does the improbable—painting a sympathetic portrait of Pamela Anderson as a better actress and smarter businessperson than we ever imagined.
Winning Time—I was actually shocked by this mesmerizing account of the creation and rise of the LA Laker franchise, because I never knew a time when pro basketball was not the glamorous, high paying mega-business it has been ever since. The saga of down and out Jerry Buss who purchased the floundering organization and envisioned an experience like never imagined for the sport, including the revitalization of the LA Forum to rebranding the cheer squad into the infamous Laker Girls. Also a fun dose of nostalgia with all the familiar faces from the era with their own engrossing backstories including new recruit college sensation Magic Johnson, frustrated coach Jerry West, newly converted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar facing discrimination over his faith, and even the genesis of Paula Abdul. Yes, despite popular misconception, Mark can and does enjoy sports, especially when it involves a great underdog tale like Buss’.
WINNER: The Last of Us. This category was literally a dead (no pun intended) heat for the other 6 entries, having to plot out pros and cons of all when HBO dropped this hot series which came at the very end of the genre’s trend, just under the eligibility deadline, and it became the first must-see series that I couldn’t wait till next week’s episode in a long time, and at the same time reinvented it and gave it new life.
BEST COMEDY
Abbott Elementary—This timely satire of the current state of public education gives us all the familiar tropes you’ll hear from any frustrated teacher today—the idealistic new teacher intent on making change, the jaded career professionals who understand and hate what it has turned into, the grandstanding administrators hungry for attention and adoration, and touches of the realities of lack of funding, sad home lives of the students, and the pitfalls of social media, make for a funny/sad appreciation for finding big humor in everyday situations. This series gets an A+ for effort and execution.
Dead to Me—The long awaited final season of this outstanding Marco Winning dark comedy favorite that was sidelined when star Christina Applegate sadly became incapacitated by MS, finishes strong but bittersweet mostly due to Applegate, who brought an amazing strength, and strategic blocking which entirely camouflages the fact that she could barely walk. This hilariously dark comedy turns full circle with a beautiful, touching end to the tale of many hidden secrets and crimes.
Loot—Maya Rudolph rises from comic support to take center in this fun, satirical series of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. As a recent divorcee of an internet magnate who neglected to get a prenup back in the days when they were young, poor, and in love, Rudolph inherits her half of his empire. Now with $87 billion at her disposal, she also finds that among his holdings are nonprofit tax shelters she knew nothing about. After some bad social media exposure, she decides to fix her image by working with one particular charity, a homeless women’s shelter, much to the frustration of its by-the-books administrator who can actually relate to the issues her clients face.
Reboot—Real life Hulu brings a a brilliant, multi-layered comedy delivering great humor about the insanity of Hollywood, when in-the-show Hulu reboots a successful 2000 sitcom about a nontraditional family (think Full House or Step by Step) reconceived by a young writer who loved the original by reuniting the original cast (and the baggage they carry around their roles in the original series’ cancellation) and updating the tone to reflect present day, serious family issues. A flawless cast including Rebecca Bloom as the writer, Keegan Michael Key, Judy Greer, and Johnny Knoxville as the dysfunctional cast, and Paul Reiser as the original creator who still has creative control over the revision of his vision milk laughs out of the absurdity of Hollywood. The best humor evolves from Bloom and Reiser butting heads over comedy—Bloom hires young relevant creatives as writers of all races and sexual persuasions to reflect current humor and trends; Reiser brings in three old Borscht Belt Jews who wrote pratfalls and potty humor for the original and talk smut in the workplace. The clash of generations in the writers’ room are some of the funniest scenes in the series. Ironically, in the ultimate, unintended inside joke on the exact insanity of Hollywood they are skewering, real life Hulu canceled the successful and acclaimed series despite having an impressive first season and unlimited comic potential. Hooray for Hollywood.
Sex Lives of College Girls—A surprisingly fresh and funny take on one of the oldest tropes of sophomoric comedy—the raunchy college experience, this time from the female point of view as seen by creator Mindy Kaling. Without preaching feminism or anti-sex-shaming, Kaling gives us 4 prototypes of modern American college women—the athlete, the privileged kid, the needy scholarship student, and the 2nd gen immigrant—to bring new experiences—and laughs—to the genre.
Upload—One of the most original new series takes a futuristic look at the tech industry in a tale of a hypothetical company in the not-so-distant future wherein clients facing death can have their thoughts and memories uploaded into a computer and inserted into a luxury virtual existence of their choice (with the luxury of the existence determined about the level they are capable of paying) until a cure for their conditions is found. In this story, the protagonist, a rising tech star who is near death from a questionable car crash, just as his condition is taking a turn for the better is enrolled in the program by his heiress fiancée who suspects he was on the verge of breaking up. At the mercy of his fiancée paying his costs and keeping his mind alive, and falling for a case worker who is getting more deeply involved with him than protocol allows, and internal conflict arises for a leading man torn between two worlds with a firm foot in neither.
What We Do in the Shadows—This ridiculously insane comedy concerns the fate of old world vampires trying to take over new world Manhattan, but can’t quite mesh their 10th century sensibilities with the attitudes and technology of the world today. Just like True Blood reinvented a dying vampire genre by relocating theirs to backwoods Louisana amidst all the Southern gothic foolishness, Shadows reinvents it again by relocating it to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia adjacent. The freestyle adlibbing humor of the quick and hilarious cast breathes continuous new afterlife into vampires once again.
Ineligible: Emmy winner and fan-favorite feel-good Ted Lasso.
WINNER: Reboot. This series with minimal advance publicity just jumped out at the right time with the right parodies of what comedy is today. A brilliant inside spoof of all foolishness, frivolity, and ferociousness of Hollywood, this series benefits from flawless casting, great comic performances, sharp writing, and a lot of messages about the state of entertainment on every level today. Add the ultimate final joke on itself that the actual counterparts of the fictional production company cancelled its winning show with all the brutality and senselessness the show is parodying.
BEST ACTOR in a DRAMA
Taron Egerton (Black Bird)—The former Marco Movie Award winner (Rocketman, 2021) translates his big screen appeal to the small one, as a charismatic convicted arms dealer that the FBI identifies has a personality which may be useful, finding someone so engaging that they may get a tight-lipped serial killer to confess the whereabouts of his victims. The newly buffed-up Kingsmen star could charm anyone into confessing anything.
Colin Firth (The Staircase)—Oscar winner Firth (The King’s Speech) gives his usual rock solid performance in this true story of a South Carolina writer with local political ambitions whose wife is found dead at the bottom of a staircase of suspicious nature. Persecuted by the local police (and those who he was running against for office) in the usual, lazy “the husband did it” investigation, with the aid of a French documentary team who delved much deeper into the evidence than any of the shoddy locals, Firth shines as an admittedly lousy husband, which does not automatically make him a murderer, watching his blended family and supporters being torn apart by assumptions and lies.
Matthew Goode (The Offer)—As flashy Hollywood hotshot Robert Evans, producer of The Godfather with a resumé peppered with hits like Love Story balanced by debacles like Heaven’s Gate, Goode is everything Hollywood—the grandeur, the superiority, the arrogance, the shallowness, the attention to the surface, the ultimate insider—and a dead ringer for the real Evans. He’s the embodiment of the surreal world where art is made and trashed at the whims of the privileged in another truth-is-stranger-than-fiction depiction of all that is right and wrong in the industry.
Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time)—Isaiah scores big as winning, wide-eyed, optimistic rookie Magic Johnson, trying to navigate his entrance into the NBA while dealing his deep-rooted media-imposed rivalry with Larry Bird, desperate to succeed on both fronts.
Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us)—Just when you think this actor’s star couldn’t rise any faster (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian), Pascal soars to the stratosphere as a strong, hardened hero who watched his own beloved daughter die at the beginning of the Apocalypse, now take charge of a young girl who may be the key to saving humanity from the fungal infection that turns humans into zombies. Pascal is one of the most engaging anti-heroes in a long line of recent creations.
Sean Penn (Gaslit)—Penn is unrecognizable as former Nixon attorney general and head of the Committee to Reelect the President John Mitchell. Teamed up with Julia Roberts doing her best work of her career, Penn becomes the solid center of the shady executions of the Nixon aids who covered up the mess that Watergate became.
Evan Peters (Dahmer)—the longtime American Horror Story regular has paid his dues and Ryan Murphy rewards him with the role of his career so far as the most infamous serial killer in modern history, perfecting his gallery of awkward to horrible characters with the most nightmarish performance to date. Peters somehow brings a hint of humanity to the character, never being apologetic or seeking sympathy, just providing some insight into how the most heinous serial killer in American history was in some ways created.
Sebastian Stan (Pam & Tommy)—Perhaps the most improbable nominee in the category, Stan brings a basic humanity to and sympathy for the self-destructive Tommy Lee and genuinely shows, despite his excesses, his love for Pamela Anderson. Lee even sells the absurd scenes where he discusses his relationship with Anderson with his 9 inch penis. (Yes, that is no typo, he actually described this bizarre ritual in his autobiography).
WINNER: Evan Peters. As usual, Peters brings life and depth to his character despite his despicable nature. He even gives a glimpse into a psyche that may subconsciously have wanted to be caught, unfortunately a high request of the most ineffective, incompetent police departments in the history of ever, with a dose of racism and homophobia making their response even more repulsive. It’s a difficult to watch and uncomfortable performance, but a credit to Peters for allowing it to be so in the extent of authenticity, resisting the rookie to urge to beg for approval.
BEST ACTRESS in a DRAMA
Jessica Chastaine (George & Tammy)—The multi-talented chameleon Chastaine, who won the Oscar last year for playing PTL queen Tammy Faye Bakker, strikes again as another famous singing Tammy, Wynette, and serenades us through an emotional journey of her biographical repertoire from “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” to “Stand by Your Man” to “D-I-V-O-R-C-E”. If this acting thing ever fails her, Chastaine has a solid backup plan as a country singer.
Julia Garner (Inventing Anna)—The multi-award winning Garner, with 3 Emmys and one Marco under her belt for her riveting breakout performance as blossoming backwoods mobster Ruthie Langmore in Ozark, is beguiling and remorseless as international scam artist Anna Delvy, who took the entire financial world of NY for a ride passing herself off as an icy European heiress with a plan for a high end arts commune. Get past the accent. That’s what the real Russian-born/German-raised Delvy sounded like when superimposing all those accents over English as a third language.
Lily James (Pam & Tommy)—The radiant James, who has wowed us with versatility in everything from period pieces (Downton Abbey) to classics (War & Peace) to pop musicals (Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again) shifts gears once further as Baywatch babe/pop icon Pamela Anderson in the untold story of how the O.G. sex tape came to our attention. James’ accomplishment here: we gain a greater understanding of and totally sympathize with Anderson, who always takes the high road in this sordid tale, and was a much better businesswoman than real life every gave her credit for.
Anna Paquin (A Friend of the Family)—Paquin provides the grounding for this suburban soap opera, also based on a true story, about a close friend who kidnaps her 12 year old daughter and gaslights her into thinking they must marry and have a baby to save the planet from aliens. Paquin pulls better performances out of everyone she shares the screen with.
Michelle Pfeiffer (The First Lady)—The always dependable Pfeiffer gives a refined and enlightening performance of the First Lady we barely got to know, and how influential she was in her husband’s brief 2 year term in office. The Fords we knew were a punchline—Joan Rivers: “The First Couple makes no sense! She drinks and he falls down.” Pfeiffer shows us the smart, dignified, and very progressive Betty Ford who was once a premiere dancer (having had the opportunity to perform with Martha Graham), and a formidable early proponent of women’s rights and mental illness who used her platform wisely and well to promote those causes—much to the chagrin of the ultraconservative leftover Nixon administration who used their power to silence her and force her husband to tow the Republican line. Sharing screen time with powerhouse costars multiple Emmy winning (and double Marco winner) Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt and Viola Davis (who would have won all the Marcos for How to Get Away With Murder, if they had been around during its run) as Michelle Obama, Pfeiffer is somehow the star that shines brightest of that megawatt trio.
Julia Roberts (Gaslit)—Roberts gives the first performance in her 40+ year career that is not Julia Roberts and hits a grand slam. Carrying the series as hard drinking, loose-lipped “Mouth of the South” Martha Mitchell, Roberts is riveting as we see the behind-the-scenes events that the Nixon administration played out to silence the whistleblower who shined a national spotlight on the shady president and all his even shadier men, including her own husband. She is especially riveting in the sequence we never heard about when her husband, at Nixon’s orders, had her violently silenced and held prisoner in a California hotel while he jetted home to sweep the Watergate incident under the oval office’s presidential carpet, to poor avail.
Juno Temple (The Offer)—Temple plays Ruddy’s secretary/assistant/girl Friday and brings her strength as a woman locked in a track with good instincts and better business sense than given credit for. Many of the good decisions made during the filming came from her pursuasions. And only she knows where the horse’s head came from the props department.
Ineligible: Two time Emmy winner Zendaya for her revelatory performance in Euphoria, who consistently breaks new ground in her acting as teen drug addict Ru. She would have swept this category for one single real-time episode showcasing her desperate search for a fix, taking a short break to stop by a friend’s party and blow up all their secrets in one of the most compelling hours of acting filmed this decade. If she ever gives up the Emmy, I’d love to give her a Marco.
WINNER: Michelle Pfeiffer. One of Hollywood’s most overlooked actors even though she has been one of the only women guaranteed to be able to open a movie with successful audience appeal, Pfeiffer is luminescent as the strong but flawed Betty Ford, the First Lady we never knew. At the end of the era when First Ladies were little more than decorators and spokeswomen, Pfeiffer enlightens us with her failed aspirations as a dancer to her role as a pioneer for 70s feminism and mental health, both dirty words in her husband’s conservative cabinet, and the ugly side of alcoholism when her family stages an early intervention to get her into care. Not to mention her disappointment in her husband for pardoning Nixon and ruining his own good name in the process. And no, this is just not a make-up award for her iconic (Oscar snubbed) performance as Catwoman. Well, not entirely.
BEST ACTOR in a COMEDY
Robbie Amell (Upload)—Amell is winsome as an entitled golden boy about to come into a tech windfall who is tragically subverted by a possessive girlfriend into being held hostage in a provisional afterlife.
Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows)—As the third vampire in the old world comedy, Berry provides all the internal tension as a modern vampire (from only the 12th century) who relishes change even though he can’t grasp the demands of the newer world they live in.
Tyler James Elliott (Abbott Elementary)—Little Chris Rock from Everybody Hates Chris is all grown up as a sympathetic substitute teacher who finds a calling when he enters the underprivileged (and underrun and undersupervised) Abbott Elementary.
Neil Patrick Harris (Uncoupling)— Created by Darren Starr as a Gay Sex in the City, Harris stars as a middle-aged, gay, male Carrie Bradshaw whose long-term partner decides to leave him at his 50th birthday party, abandoning him to negotiate present day dating in gay New York for the circus it is.
Keegan Michael Key (Reboot)—Key is a master at humor and has found a character to sink his skills into as the star of a classic sitcom who quit the show in his early successful years for brighter opportunities that never materialized, sending the show into cancellation. Now reunited with his former castmates, still harboring resentment for their post show failures, Key excels as the self-proclaimed consummate actor trapped in sitcom hell, all the while dodging swipes from the management above and his co-stars laterally.
Kayvan Novak (What We Do in the Shadows)—Novak takes the lead in this broad class comedy as a vampire out of his element in present day New York. His quick humor and Always Sunny style of outrageous ad lib humor sets the tone for the other undead and their minions to play off of.
Paul Reiser (Reboot)—Reiser, whose biggest success to date has been the schmaltzy 90s Mad About You, the very kind of dated sitcom Reboot skewers, has found a second career playing a vindictive writer who’s prized sitcom is being retooled by an ambitious Gen X-er. The layers of Reiser defending the kind of stale situational comedy that made him famous is another facet of the casting gem that makes this show buzz.
Ineligible: Jason Sudeikas for his repeat Emmy win as the mild-mannered, good-natured titular character of Ted Lasso.
WINNER: Keegan Michael Key. In the smartest and strongest new comedy ensemble this season, Key is the point guard for slam dunk humor. Whether fielding conflict from a producer, a writer, a costar, his back-in-NY girlfriend, an ex for whom there may or may not be mutually unrequited feelings, or internally from himself, Key nails all the comedy form all sources and holds the story together.
BEST ACTRESS in a COMEDY
Christina Applegate (Dead to Me)—Former Marco winner (2021) for her role as an angry young widow with two adolescent boys figuring out why life has happened to her this way excels on so many extra levels, especially when one realizes she performed this entire season while suffering from debilitating MS and could barely walk. That dedication alone would earn her a nomination, even if she wasn’t still absolutely brilliant in her role negotiating her new friendship with costar Linda Cardellini in the face of more dark secrets between the two.
Rebecca Bloom (Reboot)—The former Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reinvents herself in this strong ensemble comedy as a budding writer who readapts her favorite canceled childhood sitcom to present day sensibilities, all the while unloading a boatload of daddy issues that it turns out the old show helped assuage.
Rachel Brosnehan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)—Brosnehan turns in another solid year as an upstart female stand-up comic in the male dominated Borscht Belt days, based on an early Joan Rivers, learning to stand on her own while balancing her career with her fractured family and new success.
Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary)—As the creator and star of the cult hit, Brunson is charming as an idealistic new teacher who is determined to make a difference in a public school where the system is stacked against her and her students.
Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me)—The first two seasons pitted Cardellini against Applegate as new friends with a past they are hiding from each other. The final season lays that all on the table and shifts the balance from sympathy for Applegate as a tortured young widow and single mom to Cardellini as a woman trying to quietly say goodbyes and make everything better for the rest.
Natasia Demetriou (What We Do in the Shadows)—Acting as the “Sweet Dee” stand-in as the only female vampire in the company of irrational men, Demetriou is hilarious, shining best in her sublot about pursuing a random New Yorker she is sure is the reincarnation of the 10th century love of her life, a triumphant and brutal, executed warrior knight.
Maya Rudolph (Loot)—Rudolph is her usual stellar self as a suddenly rich ex-wife who decides to take an interest in some of her newly-inherited non-profits to better her bad press, Rudolph expertly negotiates the pratfalls in this fun class comedy.
Ineligible: Emmy Winner Jean Smart in the role of her career as an old-school stand-up comic pro based on latter day Joan Rivers trying to adapt her creaky Catskills act for a more contemporary audience in Hacks.
WINNER: Linda Cardellini. Cardellini does the almost impossible—steals the show from scene-stealing Applegate, even with a sympathy vote for successfully battling MS to finish this season. That’s how wonderful Cardellini has been to ascend in this final bittersweet season. Seasons 1 and 2 clearly go to Applegate. Season 3 is Cardellini’s turn to shine, and she rises to the occasion.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR in a DRAMA
Justin Chambers (The Offer)—The Gray’s Anatomy star shows he’s more than just a dreamy soap doc with his uncanny portrayal of Marlon Brando at his most outrageous. More than just a cartoon impersonation, Chambers shows us Brando’s internal process as well, as well as his artistic sense, which is a bigger accomplishment than it sounds
Aaron Eckhart (The First Lady)—Eckhart is a surprisingly strong choice to portray Gerald Ford and succeeds in his genuine desire to do the right thing while negotiating the sketchy political landscape of post-Nixon DC. The only president we never elected accomplished many progressive things, all of them overshadowed by his one big mistake—pardoning his clearly guilty predecessor “to allow our country to heal”.
Colin Hanks (A Friend of the Family)—The son of Tom Hanks plays far against familial type in another fractured role as the father of a young girl kidnapped by a close family friend, also watching his marriage fall apart, and himself being manipulated by the abductor. Hanks is the polar opposite of his father who made a career of likeable goofs. Hanks sinks his teeth into meatier drama, like his turn as a season 6 serial killer in Dexter and an asshole Hollywood producer determine to tank the making of The Godfather in this season’s The Offer, a role he may have been nominated if he wasn’t stronger in this one.
Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird)—Hauser is scary and creepy as the serial killer being pumped by Egerton in this prison nail-biter. It’s Hauser’s intense portrayal of the real life killer who gives Egerton the room to excel.
Richard Jenkins (Dahmer)—The always dependable Jenkins plays yet another flawed father who may have fed into his misfit son’s psychotic ways. Through Jenkins we see the way Dahmer’s crimes effected those around him.
Sam Reid (Interview with the Vampire)—Tom Who? Reid is captivating, mesmerizing and everything else Anne Rice described as the sexy, alluring, tortured, hedonistic Vampire LeStat. Reid makes vampires sexy again as an uninhibited and controlling lover who manipulates his creation Louis leaving all memories of the miscast Cruise in the beleaguered movie version.
Dan Stevens (Gaslit)—The former Downton Abbey star and matinee idol utilizes all his natural charm as John Dean, the former Nixon attorney turned whistle blower in the story that brought an administration down post Watergate.
WINNER: Paul Walter Hauser. Like Peters, Hauser is chilling as the serial killer at the center of this tale of cat and mouse, friendly enough but ready to explode if costar Egerton pushes the wrong button. I even wanted to resist the event of rewarding two serial killer performances, but Hauser was equally as compelling and critical to the success of the series as Peters was to his.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS in a DRAMA
Patricia Arquette (Severance)—Arquette continues her string of strong second half career performances as the boss of the highly secretive organization who, against company policy, meddles in employees’ personal lives. Arquette commands every scene she is in and milks the company drama.
Eve Best (House of Dragons)—Carrying the lead as the adult version of Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestor, Best apparently contributed all the genes for the future Khalisi’s strength, smarts, and leadership skills
Jennifer Coolidge (White Lotus 2)—Eliglble on a technicality, Coolidge was 2022’s Emmy winner for White Lotus season 1, but nominated here for her even better work in an expanded role in season 2. The almost overexposed character actress has created some of the most hilarious characters of this generation and it’s time she gets all the credit for her unique style of humor.
Betty Gilpin (Gaslit)—Gilpin as Mo Dean gives the series a little respite from the political shenanigans as the stewardess who marries John Dean despite his being pulled in every direction by the wrong people. Gilpin’s Mo accomplishing what Betty Ford and Martha Mitchell couldn’t do with their party-tolling husbands—convince him to cut ties and do the right thing.
Neicy Nash (Dahmer)—The usually brassy and bold comedienne Nash is unrecognizable as the down-to-earth next-door neighbor who repeatedly called the police about Dahmer’s sketchy behavior and the noises, odors—and one particular naked 14-year-old petrified boy—escaping from his apartment, to no avail. The racist and homophobic police ignored her. Nash gives an incredibly dignified performance as the crusader who keeps the victims’ memories alive and provides a sense of what the community lost at Dahmer’s sadistic hands.
Aubrey Plaza (White Lotus 2)—The cold and quirky Plaza brings her stock aloofness to the White Lotus: Italy as the wife a tech company head who is on vacation with his fratboy college friend he just sold his business to. With a marriage in jeopardy and infidelity a possible effect, Plaza holds her own as Coolidge tries to steal the rest of the show.
Sophie Turner (The Staircase)—Turner is the glue that holds her fracturing family together as the suffering daughter trying to keep support strong for her stepfather once he is accused of murdering her mother.
WINNER: Neicy Nash. Nash is almost unrecognizable and nothing short of amazing in her first mainstream dramatic role. Stripped of all her usual physical flash (no wig, no makeup, no nails), she gives a profound performance of a concerned, caring woman who the law ignored because her problems were from the wrong zipcode. Nash digs deep and delivers, and made us aware of the victims other than just statistics.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR in a COMEDY
Joel Kim Booster (Loot)—The Korean-American comedian steals scenes even from Rudolph as her pretentious assistant, a fellow fish out of water in her ventures in the charity world. Even though he’s the stock judgy gay fashion plate, Booster puts his own unique humor in the role and strikes a pose for social justice.
Harvey Guillen (What We Do in the Shadows)—As the sweet, nerdy, closeted, attention-starved familiar of the vampires, Guillen is the present day voice of reason and perfect straight man to their otherworldly nonsense.
Johnny Knoxville (Reboot)—Knoxville pokes fun at his real life party boy persona as part of the dysfunctional returning cast in the fictional sitcom within the sitcom with hilarious results.
James Marsden (Dead to Me)—In a dual role, Marsden gets stronger each season as the sweet but neurotic, alcolholic twin brother who is a complete contrast with his original role. Although the good and evil twin is a soap opera trope, Marsden negotiates the territory perfectly.
Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)—The multiple Emmy winner and veteran character actor again steals all his scenes as the title character’s curmudgeonly father who is alternately stressed by a career change and a move to New Jersey in the home of his irritating in-laws. Whatever the situation, Shalhoub makes the comic best playing off it.
Anthony Turpel (Love, Victor)—Like Norris, Turpel is the strongest addition to the sweet coming-of-age gay story, guaranteed laughs as best friend and best ally Felix, dealing with too many of his own neurotic life problems to be anything but supportive .
Callum Williams (Reboot)—The former Disney Channel kid strikes it big, again playing off his real life goofy child actor persona, the child at the center of the blended family sitcom in the show is now aged out and fully grown but still coasting on his juvenile film credits and goodhearted immaturity. Williams plays off the pros like one of them.
Ineligible: Two time Emmy winner Brett Goldstein as the foul-mouthed, hothead team captain turned coach on Ted Lasso
WINNER: James Marsden. Marsden is an often underrated actor who’s matinee idol good looks get in the way of appreciating his performance. But Marsden scores here and rises to the company of his costars, blending completely into their chemistry and contributing to both the pain and the heart of the show over the course of the series.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS in a COMEDY
Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)—Always a contender as the title character’s tough-talking, no-nonsense manager, Borstein gets extra laughs this season dealing with her second client, the demanding, egotistical, insane Jane Lynch.
Tisha Campbell (Uncoupled)—As Neil Patrick Harris best girlfriend and business partner, Campbell is the stand-in for Kim Catrall with the saucy dialogue and sexy backtalk.
Allegra Edwards (Upload)—As the fiancée who had Amell uploaded to keep him from leaving her, Edwards milks all the rich, spoiled, neurotic white girl tropes there is, but keeps the laughs coming in the process.
Judy Greer (Reboot)—Veteran character actor and voice-acting legend Greer has finally found the role of her life as a faded actress on a favorite family friendly sitcom undergoing a divorce and approaching middle age desperate for one last comeback. Greer never disappoints but this role plays to all her strong, quirky, insecure strengths.
Janelle James (Abbott Elementary)—James ups the insanity as a flashy, career climbing, social media conscious principal who puts image at least on par of if not above the benefit of her students.
Ilia Isorelys Paulino (Sex Lives of College Girls)—As the tough talking barista at work study coffe shop adds laughs to and makes fun of the sexual tribulations of said college girls
Michaela Jae Rodriguez (Loot)—As the head of a non-profit for homeless women in LA, Rodriguez’s job just got harder having to deal with and rein in the antics of new president, heiress Maya Rudolph.
Ineligible: Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph as the jaded veteran teacher who realistically sees the public education system as what it has become.
WINNER: Judy Greer. Greer has been around forever as a ubiquitous character voice actress who one may or may not remember for her solid performances, but finally she has scored the right role at the right time in her career and brands it all hers. Not so much a career win, but a justification for why her career has been so expansive without one.
BEST DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES
The Andy Warhol Diaries—A trippy look at the Austin Powers-like social phenomena that made up the world of modern art pioneer Warhol. An in-depth look at the artist, the art, and the culture that spawned it all.
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal—A look at the seedy side of backwoods politics and good-ol-boy culture as a powerful and well-connected South Carolina legal family bribes, buries, and bullies everyone involved to cover-up and make disappear multiple murders and manslaughters in the most disturbing case of dodging the law since the night the lights went out in Georgia.
The Staircase—This real life documentary shown being filmed in the HBO series of the same name was wisely released by Netflix to show along side the screen drama to go back and forth and see the real characters enacting the events displayed in the TV version as we watch the law railroad the husband as the only suspect in his wife’s demise, again in South Carolina. The sad conclusion is that the documentary team seemed to have actually solved the case but the daughter would not agree to exhuming the body to confirm. #TheNightTheLightsWentOutInSouthCarolina
WINNER: The Staircase. It may just be smart timing, but to investigate the actual evidence as you are witnessing the dramatization is priceless, and the fact that a team of movie makers from France can solve a crime the lame American police were too lazy to investigate is another strike against the greatest country ever.
BEST REALITY COMPETITION SHOW
The Amazing Race—The 22 year old series is up and globe trotting again as in the old days of travel. If only real life travel was as easy.
Chopped—Anybody that can open a basket of squid ink, monkey brains, pomegranate seeds, and a 5 pound gummy bear and turn it into a riveting contest to make a dinner in 90 minutes is still doing something right.
The Great British Bake Off—This gentle show with a classical score masterfully blends competition with art, respect, and impeccable manners as the single calming influence for audiences when the rest of the world, like this program’s obnoxious American cousins, is a nerve-wracking terror. Grateful for not only a new traditional season, we also received a much needed Christmas present with a complete holiday special also, And yes, it will be referred to as its proper name, not the legally mandated one in this horrible litigious country. Get over it, Dough Boy.
Fuckboy Island—This show got nominated just because the title makes me laugh. The show is pure Kardashian era garbage—women searching for love have to figure out if the guy they are interested in is one of the half in it for love, or one of the fuckboys. But bonus points for calling a spade a spade.
Survivor—Jeff Probst returns with a 4th heavy-handed “new era” of Survivor. Despite promises of new and exciting twists, everything post-Covid has become progressively more boring, particularly the casting. Although, like sex, even bad Survivor is good Survivor, remember one third of the winning combination is “outplay”.
RuPaul’s Drag Race / RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars—The current season 15 of the original is exdceptional, but the latest all-stars season of all winners was the best ever. The best of the best rovided a season of no weak performances and the most amazing double Snatch Game ever. Winner Jinkx Monsoon proved she is the most amazing of all time.
WINNER: RuPaul’s Drag Race / RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars. It’s getting a little repetitive but the big reality shows are just fading. Drag Race had literally the best of the best ever with its all-winner all-stars edition and thanks to the talent and personality that was on display, no competition this year. The All-stars could have won just for the incomparable Jinkx Monsoon’s already iconic performance as Judy Garland on the Snatch Game episode.
BEST REALITY COMPETITION HOST
Ted Allen (Chopped)—The original Queer Eye food guy continues to prove that cuisine can be fascinating as he lords over some of the most unlikely recipes your grandmother never passed down.
Paul Hollywood (The Great British Bake Off)—Although comparatively gentler and more refined, Hollywood is equally as demanding and intimidating as the Simon Cowell of biscuits and breads. His steely blue gaze can unnerve, but the prospect of a rare handshake makes putting one’s baking credibility on the line worth it.
Noel Fielding (The Great British Bake Off)—If Hollywood is the kinder, gentler Simon Cowell, British comedian Fielding is the loopier, quirkier British cousin of Ryan Seacrest as he encourages the contestants along with his goofy humor to effectively alleviate the tension.
Nikki Glaser (Fuckboy Island)—Glaser is an fun host and, as a R-rated female comedian who talks about sex, a great choice for this show, but she’s really only nominated because I just wanted to say “Fuckboy Island” one more time.
Jeff Probst (Survivor)—Probst returns this season with the shakiest season of ever, with evermore boring contestants and a new propensity to “Jeff-splain” every element of the game that we’ve been watching for twenty years. He’s a solid host in absolute control of everything, but he’s becoming a ghost of what he formerly was.
RuPaul (RuPaul (RuPaul’s Drag Race/ RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars)—RuPaul excels in keeping the mood of the show light but competitive, with tongue-in-cheek risqué commentary and his beefy assistants, the pit crew, keep the action fun and flowing. Superior casting this year in both franchises give her much to werk with too.
WINNER: RuPaul (RuPaul’s Drag Race/ RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars)—RuPaul has somehow taken a once subversive and divisive art form and transformed it with humor and flair (and a dash of bleeped-out language) into Friday night family viewing in your living room. As a host, in drag she is firm with clever puns and bon mots to officiate the contest, and out of drag, he is the most supportive and nurturing den mother to his pack of queens. While some have been more memorable than others, thanks to RuPaul’s strong guidance and vision, this franchise has arguably been the only competition show to never experience a dull season. And I would have never seen this series if it wasn’t for Hayley leading me through it. Hayley Briner, you may present the award.
BEST GUEST APPEARANCE by an ACTOR
Corbin Bleu (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series)—IN shades of Matt LeBlanc’s hilarious Episodes turn, Bleu has a blast playing a jaded, selfish, asshole version of himself in the Disney Channel’s most delightfully self-aware and self-referential franchise.
Eric Dane (Euphoria)—The former Dr. McSteamy is the new DILF on this teen angst series, and this season received an unexpected side story fleshing out his personal misery and showed the next generation they aren’t the only ones who suffered.
Adam Scott (Loot)—As Maya Rudolph’s cad husband who leaves her at her 50th birthday party for his younger, hotter assistant sets the story in action when she inherits half of his multi-hundred-billion-dollar empire.
Nick Offerman (The Last of Us)—Offerman is a revelation in a touching, subtle performance like we’ve never seen from the expert deadpan comedian. As an isolated gay hermit, secluded in his fortress of booby traps with a powerful arsenal, when he unexpectedly finds love in the midst of the apocalypse, the hardened, grizzled loner lets his guard down in an unexpectedly sensitive, heartfelt tour de force.
Christopher Walken (Severance)—It’s all the cowbell we need form Walken in an uncharacteristically gentle role as an aging employee who keeps the secrets at the clandestine tech company.
Jake McLaughlin (Black Bird)—As Hauser’s serial killer’s twin brother, who “tried to kill him in the womb”, McLaughlin brings strength, sympathy, and a subtle regret for any part he may have played in creating the monster his brother turned out to be.
Nick Kroll (What We Do in the Shadows)—In a recurring role as Simon the Devious, a rival old world vampire intent on taking over Manhattan, the always dependably over-the-top Kroll is a delightfully obnoxious foil for the Staten Island contingency. If Mean Girls was about vampires….
WINNER: Nick Offerman. Kroll is his usual scene stealing genius, Dane brings more depth than that shallow Meredith Grey ever allowed, Walken gives a sweet performance for the usually outrageous character actor, and even Bleu has great fun poking fun at himself, but Offerman blew all the minds this year with a side of him we never knew existed. If he doesn’t take this year’s Emmy, that system is as rigged as it looks too.
BEST GUEST APPEARANCE by an ACTRESS
Beanie Feldstein (What We Do in the Shadows)—As a student recruited as a potential minion from a fresh pool of untapped virgin blood (a D&D college club), Feldstein comes to enjoy the attention and sensuality becoming a vampire may offer.
Sally Field (Winning Season)—The two time Oscar winner brings her typical high class performance to the show as Buss’ no-nonsense mother, the bookkeeper for the organization with a better grasp on the business than her son.
Jane Lynch (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)—Lynch is her usual over-the-top scream as a egotistical, bloated blue-collar comedian (who is secretly an upper class millionaire) with aspirations of becoming a serious actress—if the production team can put up with her demands and her insanity.
Jennifer Coolidge (The Watcher)—Yes, the series based on a real story was rather ridiculous, but Coolidge as always steals the show as an inflated real estate agent who’s greed gives the stalker motive. It’s almost worth watching the whole series for the one dinner scene where Coolidge describes her love of oral sex as only she can.
Kaitlyn Olson (Hacks)—Olson brings a character as self-absorbed as her one in Always Sunny as Jean Smart’s spoiled, needy, attention-starved daughter who’s life choices reveal all the mommy issues.
Katie Segal (Dead to Me)—As Cardellini’s white trash mom who abandoned her, Segal brings back all the Bundy in a last ditch effort to make amends with her daughter.
Lily Rabe (The First Lady)—Rabe brings a dignified strength to her Lorena Hickock, Eleanor Roosevelt’s lesbian lover, a status which negatively effects her career as a bright White House correspondant.
WINNER: Sally Field. There’s a reason Field has two Oscars and this type of strong, genuine, heartfelt performance is why.
BEST STAND-UP COMIC PERFORMANCE Filmed for TV
Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual—Booster had a big year jumpstarting his career writing and starring in his successful reinvention of Pride and Prejudice as Fire Island, the rare gay movie that is actually really good, his Marco nominated costarring role in Loot, and this hilarious Netflix special highlighting his experiences as a gay Asian child raised by Midwestern white parents, and a crash course in the seamy side of gay dating explained for the straight white male.
Ronnie Chieng: Speakeasy—Cheng brings his fish-out-of-water comedy in his second Netflix special, sharing his views on emerging from the pandemic, his journey as a comic in America, and thoughts on the crap that is cancel culture.
Hassan Minhaj: The King’s Jester—Manhaj is the most astute and smartest comedian with accurate understanding of social and political implications of the world. His second special deals with more of his experiences of a second generation Muslim Indian-American, as well as his journey through infertility therapy and the fallout of his former Netflix series Patriot Games, where he received death threats from the corrupt Saudi regime he featured in one exposé episode.
Nikki Glaser: Good Clean Filth—Glaser has good, clean fun with the downfalls of dating and sex from a woman’s point of view.
Matt Rife: Only Fans—The TikTok and Instagram sensation had to self-produce his own original special which he released for free on YouTube and it’s every bit as funny as he is in the internet clips. Rife excels in his quick rapport with the audience and witty comebacks in the moment. He could be the next big thing to happen.
Fortune Feimster: Good Fortune—The good natured Southerner brings her upbeat comedy to her second Netflix special with updates such as married life and the struggles of being a lesbian who knows nothing about home repairs.
Ali Wong: Don Wong—Wong turns in her third solid Netflix special, with all new material about being a powerful, newly divorced, Asian female in comedy and how that turns out so differently than it does for men. Wong pulls off being crude and honest and funny as hell.
WINNER: Hassan Minhaj: The King’s Jester. I struggled with this between Minhaj and Rife. Minhaj has honed years of experience on several TV platforms, is the relevant voice of political and social issues of a generation, and has the Netflix empire behind his efforts. Rife has played tiny clubs honing his act for 12 years since he was a goofy-looking 15 year-old and had to self-produce and self-fund his special. Minhaj is more polished flashy, and Rife excels on off-the-cuff, quick-witted audience banter. But in the end, I had to admit Mihnah just excels on a bigger, grander level. I mean if you’re getting death threats over your comedy act, you must be doing something right. Because of this, and after having the opportunity to have seen both live this year—Minhaj at the Philadelphia Music Hall in a dress rehearsal for this Netflix taping, and Rife in the front row of a 35 seat room in DC (and, yes, being the hilarious butt of some of his interactive audience humor)—I will crown Jester the King, but create a new special-achievement award…..
BEST DEBUT OF A NEW ARTIST IN COMEDY goes to Matt Rife, and I feel privileged that I was there absolutely experiencing the start of something big. His second self-produced special, Matthew Steven Rife, just debuted as a pay-per-view on Moment.com and just this week was released as a free offer like Only Fans on YouTube. Check both out. Hopefully next year I’ll be nominating Rife for his high profile Netflix special.
If you missed them, check out last weeks’ Marco Awards for Movies, and check back next week for the final installment for Stage performances.