Fav Television Performances of 2014
LM
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What are your fav performances of this year?
Here are mine. No specific order
Peter Dinklage - His performances during Goffrey's wedding and his trial for Goffrey's murder was incredibly. Dinklage has been given fantastic performances since the show's pilot but he was given such meaty and pure dramatic work this season, that he was at his absolute best.
Carrie **** - Despite being an ensemble show, Carrie **** for me was the star of the show. Her portrayal of grieving wife and mother Nora instantly caught me eye. Especially at how ambigious her actions and emotions were. **** really shined in the episode that was centric to her character in episode 6 where we truly learned why Nora is the way she is. That episode alone was in my view, an emmy award winning performance.
Ruth Wilson - Ruth's mesmerising performance as Allison Lockhart is what for me has been the driving force of the show. Her innocence, her flaws and her heartbreaking pain are for me what are shown in every scene. The scene where she breaks down to her doctor in episode 9 was perhaps the most raw and incredibly sad scene you will see in television this year.
Viola Davis - Best known for her theatre and movie work, Viola joined many others by making a transition to television. In How to get away with murder, Viola plays the manipiulative, ruthless and tough attorney Annalise Keating. Viola is dominating. At time, she is uncomfortable to watch and intimidating. She plays perhaps one of the most compelling, infuriating and interesting female characters on televison right now.
Melissa McBride - In the second half of season 4, the gang we grew to know and love had been seperated due to horrible events. In episode 14, we caught up to see how Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika were doing. This proved to be the most shocking but beautifully acted of the series. Carol was a woman who met in season 1 who was a domestic abuse victim, followed by her husband's death and then her daughter's death in season 2. When tragic events occur, Carol is forced to make a heartbreaking decision. A decision which leads to a stunning performances from Melissa. One of lost hope and dispair. Of what living in the land of evil and darkness does to people, even if those committ horrible acts, it doesn't mean that they are evil.
Here are mine. No specific order
Peter Dinklage - His performances during Goffrey's wedding and his trial for Goffrey's murder was incredibly. Dinklage has been given fantastic performances since the show's pilot but he was given such meaty and pure dramatic work this season, that he was at his absolute best.
Carrie **** - Despite being an ensemble show, Carrie **** for me was the star of the show. Her portrayal of grieving wife and mother Nora instantly caught me eye. Especially at how ambigious her actions and emotions were. **** really shined in the episode that was centric to her character in episode 6 where we truly learned why Nora is the way she is. That episode alone was in my view, an emmy award winning performance.
Ruth Wilson - Ruth's mesmerising performance as Allison Lockhart is what for me has been the driving force of the show. Her innocence, her flaws and her heartbreaking pain are for me what are shown in every scene. The scene where she breaks down to her doctor in episode 9 was perhaps the most raw and incredibly sad scene you will see in television this year.
Viola Davis - Best known for her theatre and movie work, Viola joined many others by making a transition to television. In How to get away with murder, Viola plays the manipiulative, ruthless and tough attorney Annalise Keating. Viola is dominating. At time, she is uncomfortable to watch and intimidating. She plays perhaps one of the most compelling, infuriating and interesting female characters on televison right now.
Melissa McBride - In the second half of season 4, the gang we grew to know and love had been seperated due to horrible events. In episode 14, we caught up to see how Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika were doing. This proved to be the most shocking but beautifully acted of the series. Carol was a woman who met in season 1 who was a domestic abuse victim, followed by her husband's death and then her daughter's death in season 2. When tragic events occur, Carol is forced to make a heartbreaking decision. A decision which leads to a stunning performances from Melissa. One of lost hope and dispair. Of what living in the land of evil and darkness does to people, even if those committ horrible acts, it doesn't mean that they are evil.
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I don't have any stand out performances but i did enjoy the following:
Rose Leslie as Ygritte on GoT, I thought she brought quite a lot to her small character, certainly the part that stayed with me the longest.
I also enjoy Lena Dunham in Girls but i can never tell if she is just playing herself or not. I also like the actress, Zosia Mamet who i think brings a lot to the role of Shoshanna.
Sarah Paulson has been excellent as Bette and Dot in AHS, really good at making the two sisters seem so different from each other.
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Christopher Ecclestone, The Leftovers
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo
It's got to be Billy Bob hasn't it? He was spellbinding in Fargo.
Women:
Emily Mortimer, The Newsroom
Ruth Wilson, The Affair
Carrie ****, The Leftovers
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
If judged on a single episode then it would be **** but Wilson just about wins it for performances through a whole season.
Claire Danes is usually a fixture on these lists but the star of this season of Homeland has been Mandy Patinkin and he just fails to make my list.
I haven''t seen True Detective yet, it's on my list for catching up over the holidays so someone from that could be added by the end of the year.
I'll second that. She's outstanding.
Eva Green in Penny Dreadful. A great cast in general but her performance was the stand out for me.
Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary continues to mesmerise me as Holmes. The mannerisms, the idiosyncrasies and subtle nuances that he brings to the character are a delight to watch.
I know the first is from Game of Thrones and the last is from The Walking Dead, but it may help if you actually named the TV series for each
She was amazing
Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in House of Cards - Probably my favourite TV show at the moment, with these two as the leads, it's a tour de force for acting performances.
Yael Stone (Morello) in Orange is the New Black - The most surprising one for me. What was just really a quirky, minor comedy character in OITNB's first season, her story was weird, yet tragically beautiful and wonderfully played in one episode of the second.
Honorable mentions to Julianna Margulies, Archie Panjabi and Christine Baranski for The Good Wife, (I have yet to see the sixth season, curse you More4!) but all three are fantastic. Melissa McBride has recently become a revelation in The Walking Dead, Taylor Schilling, Uzo Aduba and Natasha Lyonne are consistently great in OITNB, Jamie Dornan is fantastic alongside Gillian Anderson in The Fall.
I watched a few episodes of How to Get Away With Murder, before giving up on it, but in what I did see, Viola Davis is brilliant in that role. One scene in particular stands out.
How she didn't get a Golden Globes nomination is beyond me. Nothing against the actresses who did, but Orphan Black is a once-in-a-lifetime role (okay, set of roles) that has showcased how strong an actress she is.
Reminded me why I have always loved her. Last series was all about Jamie Dornan, but season 2 has really been Gillian stealing the limelight. She plays Stella with such grace, so calming and yet with so much ambiguity. I hope she bags a BAFTA nomination next year.
Agreed. Chuck in Stephen Graham and Gretchen Mol as well. Both absolutely brilliant performances in what was an outstanding series, possibly the best I've seen.
Almost forgot Matthew McConaughey in True Detective, stunning.
Her performances are still incredible but season 2 was let down by some poor writing and a plot which seemed to be all over the place. I didn't enjoy this year anywhere near as much as S1 which was a lot tighter and focused.
I'll throw in Marc Pickering, too, who I thought was quite brilliant as the younger adult version of Nucky.
And also worth a mention in this thread is Robin Lord Taylor in Gotham who has been highly entertaining in the opening 10 episodes as Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot.
My award goes to the entire cast of Revenge, for managing to keep a straight face whilst 'performing' such enjoyable tosh.