25 Best Performances of the TV Season

So, the 2008-09 TV season has officially ended and while the doldrums of the summer season begin and I impatiently wait for Mad Men and my Bravo reality shows [My Life on the D-List, Flipping Out, Tabatha's Salon Takeover and Shear Genius (if that's even coming back)], I decided it's the perfect time to celebrate the best of the past season. Instead of attempting to do a massive Emmy ballot like last year which I know would just end up a complete disaster, I decided to just rank my favorite performances of the season. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think the best of the season were.

25. Portia de Rossi, Better Off Ted
Hilariously deadpan. She's now officially my second favorite lesbian (after her wife, of course)

24. Sebastian Stan, Kings
That scene where his father denounces him for his homosexuality totally killed me. And don't we all love a scheming and manipulative gay (I think someone's been taking lessons from their girlfriend)?
23. Brie Larson, The United States of Tara
She gets the funniest lines on the show and I love that even if she's a bitch most of the time, she's still my ideal older sister.
22. Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Always a delight as the unlucky-in-love Olive. I especially loved her nun storyline this past (and last, sadly) season.
21. Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock
Often has the most ridiculous, WTF lines on the show and he still makes them work.

20. Hannah Murray, Skins
I'm so behind on Skins it's almost embarrassing, but, thanks to Murray, her season one episode was one of the most heartbreakingly real takes on anorexia and eating disorders I've ever seen.
19. Keir Gilchrist, The United States of Tara
Adorable, instantly lovable and already one of my favorite gays ever. As an added bonus, I want his wardrobe more than any other person's on TV.
18. Marcia Gay Harden, Damages
Practically oozes a confident sexuality unmatched by anyone on TV. The fact that she's over 40 and is still sexier than Megan Fox is a testament to her acting (and her incredible, real body)
17. Eva Longoria-Parker, Desperate Housewives
She gets better and funnier with every passing season and still no respect. I do not understand Hollywood sometimes.
16. Ian McShane, Kings
Overpowering and authoritative like any king should be.

15. Hugh Laurie, House
Consistently probing while chipping away at the psyche of one the darkest, complicated and most awesome characters on TV ever. Has anyone done this much character work on what is, more or less, a "procedural" show?
14. Becki Newton & Michael Urie, Ugly Betty
My favorite gay guy/fag hag combination ever (Will & Grace excluded, of course). Apart, they're brilliant. But when they're together, all hell breaks loose. I love that the show is allowing Urie's Marc to grow and become more than just a shallow (yet hilarious) stereotype, while I'm impressed that they have managed to keep Newton's Amanda fresh and freakishly hilarious week after week.
13. Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live
One of the very few reasons I watched Saturday Night Live as much as I did this season. Given just a couple of props and quirks, she develops characters that are so funny I forget to breathe sometimes. And the best part is she's ALWAYS funny, no matter how awful some of her sketches are.
12. Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives
Ms. Cross will forever and for always be my favorite desperate housewife. I just wished she got better storylines and more respect from all of the awards groups (One Emmy nomination and NO wins?! How is this even possible? She should have 2 statues, easily).
11. Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
What more does this woman have to do to prove that she's infinitely worthy of an Emmy nomination? She's consistently brings the house down every week and her quotes are the ones I'm always repeating for weeks on end.

10. Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Adorable, achingly sweet and just awkward enough to be completely endearing.
9. Rose Byrne, Damages
Scarily intense. I thought I loved her the first season, but she upped her game tenfold for the second. Now, will Emmy fall in line and actually nominate her?
8. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, The New Adventures of Old Christine
My favorite moment of the entire season happened in the episode of Christine where Louis-Dreyfuss is trying to prove to the gang what a sore loser her boyfriend is after he has a complete meltdown when she beats him in tennis. She asks everyone to make sure that he loses at all costs, but when he starts beating everyone, she has a meltdown herself, stamping on the floor and throwing game pieces all over the place. Apparently, I was causing such a commotion with my laughter, my parents had to ask and make sure I was alright. It is for moments like this that I love Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and her take on the burned out single mother.
7. Glenn Close, Damages
By now, Glenn Close has this cold, intense and generally frightening gorgon act down pat, but you can see that she maintains Patty Hewes as a work in process; Close continues to add layers to the character with each passing episode.
6. Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
I was tempted at first to call Portia de Rossi my favorite corporate ballbuster on TV, but then I remembered that Alec Baldwin was on my list and I completely forgot about that. He's still the funniest guy on TV and seeing his chemistry with Tina Fey only get stronger and funnier every week fills me with complete joy.

5. Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
It's a man's world, but Moss's Peggy Olson is fighting to good fight for women's equality in the workplace in her own special way. I love that she doesn't give big, moralizing lectures, but instead does her work better than any of the men while slowly gaining the respect of Don. But, she also has her heartbreaks and its during these moments that we are really moved by Peggy and Moss's performance.


4. Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty
For a show that has more ups and downs, quality wise, than Britney's comeback, it's never less than surprising the way Vanessa Williams is able to consistently find new ways to make being a complete diva bitch compelling and funny. After three seasons, you would think we would get tired of this shtick, but Williams is a much smarter actress than most people give her credit for and knows how to be villainous while showing her human side at the same time. It's a very difficult role, but Williams handles it without breaking a sweat.


3. Jon Hamm, Mad Men
The most interesting thing about Hamm's interpretation of Don Draper, and consequently why it's ones of the best performances of the season, is that for everything that happens to him throughout the course of the season, he remains as much of an enigma as before. Who is Don Draper and, furthermore, will anyone (including Don himself) ever really figure him out? Thanks to Jon Hamm, we'll continue to have fun guessing.


2. Tina Fey, 30 Rock & Saturday Night Live
My professor this semester wondered out loud about Tina Fey's Liz Lemon, "I find it hard to believe that anyone can be that pathetic." I thought about this for a second and had to disagree. Liz Lemon has to be that pathetic because we are all Liz Lemon in one way or another. We have all reacted in similar ways to the situations Liz gets in week after week (and don't you deny it!). On the other hand, Fey's Sarah Palin interpretation became a full-blown cultural phenomenon and it was all highly deserved.


1. Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl
If you're at all surprised by this, then what site have you been reading for the past year? I liked her well enough during the first season, but it wasn't until this year that it blew up into a full-blown obsession. With every passing week, Meester turned Blair Waldorf from a guilty pleasure to one of the coolest and most cheerworthy characters on television. Every time she delivers a bitchy one-liner, manipulates her way out of a situation or devises a scheme to eliminate a potential threat to her well-being, we cheer her on and laugh at the sheer outrageousness of her character (especially when she embarrasses her frenemy Serena in front of the dean of admissions by telling him about Serena's "murder"). But then there are the quieter moments when Meester truly shines as a dramatic actress as well. I still remember the scene where Blair is standing in front of a mirror and, in a beautiful long take, she stares at her reflection and goes from stoic, to upset, to a blubbering mess, back to upset, sullen and finally happy. This all happens in a matter of 45 seconds and is one of the most entrancing moments of the past season. For all of these reasons and more, I mention to JD every week that she's worthy of an Emmy nomination. It completely saddens me that she'll probably never get the respect she deserves just because she's young, relatively unknown and on a "teen" drama on the CW. Leighton Meester is a goddess and one of the most promising and hottest actresses in Hollywood- when will the rest of the world start to take notice?

My Emmy Winners

Best Performance in a TV Special:

Victoria Beckham, Victoria Beckham: Coming to America

Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series or Made-for-TV Movie:

Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical 2

Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Made-for-TV Movie:

Dame Judi Dench, Cranford


Best Reality Show (Non-Competition):

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

Best Reality Show (Competition):

Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School

Best Guest Star (Actor or Actress):

Britney Spears, How I Met Your Mother
(And, unfortunately, she'll have to settle for my award since the Emmy's have snubbed her from the Top 10 Finalists list. Those fucktards.)

Best Supporting Actor (Drama):

Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl

Best Supporting Actor (Comedy):

Chi McBride, Pushing Daisies

Best Supporting Actress (Drama):

Rose Byrne, Damages

Best Supporting Actress (Comedy):

Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

Best Actor (Drama):

Hugh Laurie, House

Best Actor (Comedy):

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Best Actress (Drama):

Glenn Close, Damages

Best Actress (Comedy):

Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives

Best Drama:

Gossip Girl

Best Comedy:

30 Rock

My Emmy's (Part 1)

As promised, here are my personal nominees for the 2007-08 Emmy's. You already know the nominees for the real Emmy's are going to be as boring as usual, so I hope you enjoy the few "oddball" choices I threw in. My winners will be announced sometime in the future.

BLIND SPOTS: I don't get any pay channels, so you won't see any acclaimed shows like Weeds, The Wire, Tell Me You Love Me or Californication. Somehow, Mad Men alluded me throughout it's season on AMC (which I do get), so I'll hopefully catch up with the first season on DVD soon. CBS procedural dramas annoy the fuck out of me, so don't expect CSI here. In fact, most shows on CBS annoy the fuck out of me, so there's not much from that channel. Neil Patrick Harris is the man, but I don't watch How I Met Your Mother anymore (the only episodes I saw this season were the one's with Britney) so it didn't feel right to nominate him. No matter how wildly you praise Battlestar Galactica I will probably never watch it; I just can't stand sci-fi. Too many years of watching Star Trek when my parents had it on has made me a lifetime hater.

Best Comedy
30 Rock (NBC)
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)
Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Ugly Betty (ABC)

To be honest, the only reason Ugly Betty made it in is because I couldn't find another show more worthy. I love the show, but Ugly Betty works better when it concentrates on characters and interaction instead of dealing with a storyline. When you get Mark, Wilhemina and Christina into the same room, few can top it. At other times, however, it nearly stalls. I feel much stronger about the other four comedies. Pushing Daisies was the nicest surprise of the year- an eternally optimistic and schmaltzy show that didn't get on my nerves and was actually charming. Who knew that was possible? The New Adventures of Old Christine, for being a show about a 40-something divorced mother, is strangely a show I can totally relate to. The more this show gets going, the funnier it gets. 30 Rock thankfully retained its offbeat sense of humor into the second season. With the addition of the newest housewife on Wisteria Lane, Desperate Housewives felt rejuvenated and made me feel like I was watching the first season again.

Best Drama
Damages (FX)
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
Footballers Wives (BBC America)
Gossip Girl (The CW)
House (Fox)

I don't watch many dramas, but this is a shortlist I can feel very comfortable with. House is procedural, for sure, but it never feels stale to me. The ensemble works well together and the medical cases always have me fascinated. The final season of Footballers Wives wasn't as addictive as the first few seasons, but the show cranked its "batshit crazy" meter up to 11 and went places that few American shows do. Speaking of addictive, now other show on TV had me talking as much as Gossip Girl. I was enthralled with every minute and nearly every conversation on Thursday morning had me starting off with, "OMG, did you watch Gossip Girl last night? Wasn't that crazy?" Dirty Sexy Money had not only the best title of any new show, but it also had one of the most in-tune ensembles of the season. The show is pure trash, but it's enthralling nonetheless. Damages was brilliantly addictive in a way that even Gossip Girl couldn't imagine. Every scene had you re-evaluating the last one, wondering if you were judging a character wrong or if so-and-so is really a good/bad person.

Best Actress (Comedy)
Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Tiffany Pollard, I Love New York 2 (VH1)

My favorite category this year was also one of the hardest to narrow down to five. This meant that Eva Longoria, who had her best season yet on Desperate Housewives, couldn't get a nomination, but I'm happy with my shortlist. Tina Fey is the straightwoman on 30 Rock, but no one does it as well as her. And bonus points for making Liz Lemon the most relatable character on TV. Marcia Cross is brilliant in every episode of Desperate Housewives and this year was further proof that this woman should be winning Emmy's every year for her work. Her best moment: her line reading of "Ow, my baby!" when Orson pokes her in her fake pregnancy belly with a BBQ fork. Louis-Dreyfus' Christine is, theoretically, one of the most awful characters on TV. She's lazy, meddling and inconsistent, but that's why I love her. Who else but her would spend a week in bed after Melinda Doolittle's defeat on American Idol and not allow anyone to mention it ever again. Anna Friel is charm personified, but she keeps her Chuck grounded in reality so she doesn't become annoying. I realize that I Love New York 2 is a reality show, but if Tiffany Pollard (aka New York) wasn't acting, then she needs to get counseling because she is majorly fucked up. To prove my point, recall the scene between her and Buddha in her hotel room where she goes from hating him, to loving him, to kicking him out of her room, to inviting him to stay the night and then getting angry when he doesn't....all in a matter of about 2 minutes. Those girls from The Hills should get lessons from Pollard about how to act for reality television, because after 4 different series with this character she has finally perfected her.

Best Actress (Drama)
Glenn Close, Damages
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
Blake Lively, Gossip Girl
Zoe Lucker, Footballers Wives
Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl

The only reason I kept watching Saving Grace after the first couple of middling episodes was because of Holly Hunter. Her character was alive and always interesting even when the show wasn't and Hunter brought much needed star power. Zoe Lucker wasn't given much to do on this last season of Footballers Wives, even somehow emerging as the sane one next to Joan Collins's Eva de Wolfe and Laila Rouass's Amber Gates. But her Tanya Turner was still the fabulous bitch supreme and went out at the top of her game. Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, as Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf respectively, brought delicious energy and zest to Gossip Girl. Serena is positioned as the "good girl," but through Lively's performance you can see her "bad" side sneak through every now and again. Blair, on the other hand, is the bitchy queen and Meester plays up to that supremely well- she's the heir to the fabulous bitch throne now that Tanya Turner. And what more can be said about Glenn Close's triumphant return to form on Damages? She's played these type of roles before, but every moment feels like something brand new and never been done before.

Best Actor (Comedy)
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
James Roday, Psych (USA)
Ray Wise, Reaper (The CW)

I don't watch The Office often, but when I do I'm always amazed at Steve Carell's ability to milk a laugh out of almost anything. Psych is an often underrated show and James Roday is a comedic firestorm who often gets ignored. No one else on TV lets loose with such reckless abandon and gets the same hilarious results. Alec Baldwin just keeps on impressing me in 30 Rock. Best moment: portraying four members of Tracy's family, racist stereotypes and all, in a three minute span. Reaper's quality varies from episode to episode, but Ray Wise as Satan is the only constant. He's charming, sly and quick witted- just what we want in our Devil. Lee Pace's Ned is a conflicted mess on Pushing Daisies, but his love for Friel's Chuck is endearing and provides some of the funniest moments of the show (kissing through cellophane....awwww!).

Best Actor (Drama)
Peter Krause, Dirty Sexy Money
Hugh Laurie, House
Penn Badgley, Gossip Girl
Ben Richards, Footballers Wives
???

You can tell I don't watch many dramas, since I could only come up with four nominees. Penn Badgley, playing the Seth Cohen role of Dan, isn't given as much to do as the girls on Gossip Girl, but his wit and bumbling/moping characterization of Dan is the most honest and realistic thing about the show. Hugh Laurie has got House down, but that doesn't mean his performance is any less fascinating. Bonus points for keeping the dark humor that made him popular throughout the series and not try to sneak in a little sympathy to make him a "full" character. Peter Krause, much like Stephen Campbell Moore in Bright Young Things, has to be the sane sense of reason in a crowd full of nuts. If his performance didn't work, the rest of the ensemble would look ridiculous and be unwatchable. Footballers Wives was Tanya Turner-less for the first few episodes of the season, so Ben Richards had to step up and take command for awhile. He went from wife-beater to guilty murderer to deeply in love to insane in a matter of four or five episodes and the progression was entirely logical. For the fifth and final spot, you tell me who I should nominate: Is Jon Hamm from Mad Men worthy, or do you have someone else to praise?


I've had to split this up into two parts because it's so long, so another post will come shortly with the Supporting Performers, Reality Shows and Guest Performances.

New Banner

100 points if anyone can guess why I have gathered these five women for my newest banner. In case you can't tell, the women from left to right are:

Marcia Cross
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Tina Fey
Anna Friel
Tiffany Pollard (aka New York)

Praise the Lord and Pass the Desperate Housewives

Tonight marked the post-Writers Strike return of Desperate Housewives and boy am I glad to have Bree, Susan, Lynette and Gabrielle back in my life. It's especially gratifying to be excited for a show that actually has a script and doesn't involve aspiring singers, bitchy models, people being caught in lies by a lie detector or a former rapper and his classless potential mates.

With the return of Desperate Housewives, it also means the return of my dear Marcia Cross as Bree Van de Kamp-Hodge.

Oh my Marcia, why does no one else recognize your brilliance? Is it because your not as ridiculous as Teri Hatcher or as serious as Felicity Huffman? In my estimation, you should have at least 2 Emmy's by now.

The episode was definitely a strong return for the show, with Lynette finding religion, Bree striving to be perfect (as usual!), Susan discovering a secret love tryst and Gabrielle being vindictive and selfish (again, nothing new there, although her dialogue was to die for tonight). If the writers can keep the story lines as strong as they are now for the rest of the season, they'll definitely end on a high note.