The casting team at HBO seems to have the secret sauce. They’ve stacked the ensembles of Succession and Big Little Lies and Sex and the City. They’ve paired Idris Elba and Wood Harris as Stringer and Avon, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, and Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as a couple of true detectives.
Every actor in every season of The White Lotus is talented and charismatic and interesting enough to anchor an entire series on their own, but they’re just a small piece of a larger mosaic of acting talent. The actors in The Wire and The Sopranos and Deadwood all brought a striking sense of verisimilitude to the worlds of cops, mobsters, and cowboys. From James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano to Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, these are the greatest acting performances from HBO shows.
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David Schwimmer As Captain Herbert Sobel
Band Of Brothers
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David Schwimmer was already a TV icon from his role as Ross Geller on Friends before he played Captain Sobel in Band of Brothers, but HBO’s classic World War II miniseries showed a whole new side of the sitcom star. Sobel is hard on his men, to the point that they all hate him for it, but he genuinely cares about his unit.
Schwimmer makes him so convincingly hateable right until a prank gets Sobel removed from his post, and then he catches you off-guard by making you feel bad for this guy. The hangdog look on his face as he loses command of his men still haunts me to this day.
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Zach Woods As Jared Dunn
Silicon Valley
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On the whole, Silicon Valley has one of the strongest casts of any sitcom. They’re all scene-stealers, but no one stole more scenes than Zach Woods as Donald Dunn, a.k.a. Jared, a.k.a. O.J.
The way Jared casually trauma-dumps in the middle of mundane conversations will never not be funny. Whether he’s speaking German in his sleep or suppressing a panic attack in a boxy, fluorescent-lit office, Woods throws himself wholeheartedly into every ridiculous scenario presented to him.
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Regina King As Angela Abar
Watchmen
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Watchmen boldly set out to sequelize Alan Moore’s seminal superhero comic, and actually managed to pull it off. Watchmen retains the spirit of Moore’s comic — the social commentary, the deconstruction of genre tropes, the alterations to American history — but tells a new story, with new characters.
At the heart of that story is Tulsa Police detective Angela Abar, who dons a nun’s habit and a balaclava and fights crime under the superhero pseudonym “Sister Night.” Regina King is believably badass in this role, but she finds something much deeper and more human in Angela, too.
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Rip Torn As Artie
The Larry Sanders Show
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Rip Torn was the perfect comedic counterpoint to Garry Shandling in The Larry Sanders Show. The comic avatar of Larry played into all of Shandling’s deepest neuroses and insecurities, and his producer Artie had all the rage and bravado that he lacked.
While Larry was afraid of confrontation, Artie had no qualms about telling network executives to go f*** themselves — in fact, he relished it. The role couldn’t have been cast better; Rip Torn’s no-nonsense delivery style fit Artie’s profane one-liners like a glove.
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Frances Conroy As Ruth Fisher
Six Feet Under
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Frances Conroy was the dramatic anchor point of Six Feet Under as the grieving family matriarch, Ruth Fisher. Ruth is a much more complicated, human, well-rounded character than women of a certain age usually get a chance to play in Hollywood.
Conroy plays the put-upon mother to perfection. Ruth is emotionally repressed, which is a huge challenge for an actor, and she’s trying to create a new, independent life for herself following the untimely death of her husband.
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Dexter Sol Ansell As Egg
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
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Earlier this year, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrived as a breath of fresh air in the Game of Thrones universe. It’s not a big, sprawling epic about armies fighting a global war over different claims to the Iron Throne; it’s just a low-stakes, small-scale buddy comedy about a lowly hedge knight and his cheeky young squire.
Peter Claffey gives a pitch-perfect performance as Dunk, the lovable oaf with an unexpected capacity for bravery and heroism, but Dexter Sol Ansell stole the show as Egg. He nailed all the acid-tongued one-liners, effortlessly proving he’s smarter than all the adults in the room, but he also nailed the darker, quieter moments, like when he contemplates murdering his own brother.
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Kyle Chandler As Hal Jordan
Lanterns
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Kyle Chandler was so perfect as Hal Jordan in Lanterns, it made me wish we’d been seeing him as Hal in Green Lantern movies for the past 20 years. Chandler doesn’t tone down Hal’s arrogance — if anything, he dials it up — but he has such an undeniable charm that he doesn’t lose you.
He’s frustrating, but you can’t stay mad at him. He doesn’t always do the right thing, but he always has your sympathy. Chandler was perfectly matched with Aaron Pierre as his resentful rookie, John Stewart; it’s like seeing two great dance partners share the stage.
13
Jennifer Coolidge As Tanya McQuoid
The White Lotus
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Jennifer Coolidge was so clearly the breakout star of The White Lotus, they brought her back for season 2. Tanya McQuoid’s messy, maniacal adventures across the world’s tourist hotspots have provided us viewers with endless entertainment, but the character has also highlighted a depth we didn’t know Coolidge had.
We always knew she was hilarious from her work with Christopher Guest and the American Pie franchise, and she’s hilarious here, too. But the role of Tanya showed her previously unseen dramatic side. As irritating as Tanya can be, she’s also deeply human.
12
Bill Hader As Barry Berkman
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When Bill Hader came off Saturday Night Live and announced an HBO comedy about a hitman who dreams of becoming an actor, it seemed like he was stretching a sketch idea from SNL into a gimmicky, one-note sitcom. Little did we know, he was cooking up a mind-bending, almost David Lynchian cinematic odyssey into the darkest corners of the human psyche.
The role of Barry Berkman makes plenty of use of Hader’s comedic talents, especially when his sociopathic tendencies are being juxtaposed with normal human behavior. But the really impressive thing about this performance is just how emotionally raw it is; Barry has genuine meltdowns every couple of episodes, and it really looks like Hader is going through something.
11
Zendaya As Rue Bennett
Euphoria
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Even when Euphoria fell off a cliff and became one of the worst shows on television in its third and ultimately final season, Zendaya remained as captivating as ever in the role of Rue Bennett. She carried this series on her shoulders from the very beginning, and elevated Sam Levinson’s less-than-stellar writing.
No matter how bad Rue’s behavior got, Zendaya always humanized her. She was volatile, but vulnerable.
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