If We Had an Emmy Ballot: The Best TV of 2010 to 2011

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Walton Goggins of Justified Photo credit: FX

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Michael Cudlitz, “Southland”
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
Walton Goggins, “Justified”
John Noble, “Fringe”
Michael Shannon, “Boardwalk Empire”
Alexander Skarsgard, “True Blood”

There are some definite pipe dreams on that list above, but I’m not yet cynical enough to give in. Who’s MORE likely? John Slattery (“Mad Men”) and Andre Braugher (“Men of a Certain Age”) were nominated last year and likely will be again. Both are certainly deserving choices, but there are SO many great candidates for this category that there could be twice as many nominees and the talent pool wouldn’t be at all shallow.

How about just an alternate six? Slattery, Braugher, Irrfan Khan (“In Treatment”), Denis O’Hare (“True Blood”), Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”) and Michael Pitt (“Boardwalk Empire”) would be a better selection of nominees than most whom have filled out this category in recent years.

And even with TWELVE, there would be worthwhile nominees snubbed — Michael Stuhlbarg (“Boardwalk Empire”), Josh Charles & Chris Noth (“The Good Wife”), Mark Addy (“Game of Thrones”), Billy Campbell & Brendan Sexton III (“The Killing”), Clarke Peters & Wendell Pierce (“Treme”), and Delroy Lindo (“The Chicago Code”). I wouldn’t be too upset if any of them were nominated. This is an insanely crowded category.

So who does make the cut? No one who was nominated last year. Yep, I’m rooting for a complete clean sweep – a new group of talented actors from the entire spectrum of television. Many of my choices are simply the best of some very-talented ensembles. The Academy doesn’t give an ensemble award, but Michael Shannon, Michael Cudlitz, Peter Dinklage, and Alexander Skarsgard are all on programs that would be highly considered if they did. They can represent their entire teams.

Then there are a pair of unique actors who have redefined their programs through their supporting work. More than any other actor on network television, people ADORE John Noble’s complex work on “Fringe” and, even though I’m not a fan of the program, there’s so much passion for his work that I feel it should be recognized. Just look here for HC reader Ceil’s impassioned plea for “Fringe” love.

With all of this intense competition, my final choice is the man I’d like to see win — Walton Goggins. The former star of “The Shield” took an already-complex character and made him one of the most unique and fascinating in all of television.

Jeanne Tripplehorn of Big Love Photo credit: HBO

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama

Michelle Forbes, “The Killing”
Kelly MacDonald, “Boardwalk Empire”
Margo Martindale, “Justified”
Archie Panjabi, “The Good Wife”
Jeanne Tripplehorn, “Big Love”
Debra Winger, “In Treatment”

This category may not be quite as strong as the male version, but there are still some spectacular choices available for Emmy voters. As great as the aforementioned Goggins is on “Justified,” the only performer who stole scenes and even entire episodes from him was the great Margo Martindale as the most terrifying character on TV so far this year. I’m a little surprised that Martindale didn’t submit as Guest Actress instead of Supporting, but she’s here and she deserves to be nominated somewhere.

Last year’s winner Archie Panjabi should return for “The Good Wife,” but if her co-star Christine Baranski gets the nod instead I won’t complain. The only nominee I would return from last year is one of the two “TGW” ladies, as Sharon Gless (“Burn Notice”) didn’t deserve it then and doesn’t deserve it now and Christine Hendricks (“Mad Men”) just barely misses my cut.

Other runner-ups include Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”), Natalie Zea & Joelle Carter (“Justified”), Chloe Sevigny & Ginnifer Goodwin (“Big Love”), Khandi Alexander & Melissa Leo (“Treme”), Jennifer Carpenter (“Dexter”), and Amy Ryan (“In Treatment”).

Who does that leave? “Big Love” never became the Emmy powerhouse that we expected it to be, but it was still one of the stronger programs this year and the best performance of the final season belonged to the always-underrated Jeanne Tripplehorn as a woman watching her husband make progress toward acceptance of that which he believes in, but, who in turn, is held back from her own beliefs. She was stellar.

Tripplehorn isn’t the only supporting actress from HBO deserving of a nomination as Kelly MacDonald and the great Debra Winger did nomination-worthy work as well. It’s a shame so few people watched “In Treatment” that it won’t be on again, but I hope it gets at least one nomination for its final season and Winger is the best choice.

That leaves only one spot and, after much debate, it belongs to Michelle Forbes as a woman watching everything she built fall apart after the death of her daughter. Forbes (thanks in no small part to excellent supporting work by Brendan Sexton III as her husband) rarely went for the easy melodrama, choosing instead to embody a pain that most of us can never even fully imagine.