Award shows like the Emmys can
be very snobby and stick their nose up at superhero shows. The ironic thing is
that Jessica Jones isn’t a superhero
show, not really anyways. Jessica Jones
is a drama that smartly deals with tragedy, rape, power, and PTSD. While
it’s true that the show is based upon a Marvel comic book and co-produced by
Marvel Studios, any semblance of superhero-ness is just an excuse to tell the
deeper and more heartfelt story. The lynchpin holding this story together is
Ritter who plays the titular character. Ritter has always been great on
television from her work from Breaking
Bad to Don’t Trust The B in Apt 23,
but she really brings it in this star making role. It’s a shame the show has
even a whiff of Superhero on it, because chances are, that whiff will cause
Emmy voters to take a pass.
2) Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) HBO
While many of you knew of Theroux before The Leftovers as Mr. Jennifer Aniston, I
knew him as a writer with such projects as Tropic
Thunder and Iron Man 2. But
Theroux really won me over as an actor, bringing such gravitas to this heavy
role. Critically, The Leftovers was a
bigger hit in its second season versus its first, and probably a lot of that
had to do by focusing less on Theroux’s Kevin Garvey and focusing more on The
Murphys in Miracle, Texas, but Kevin was still integral to the show’s stellar
second season, and one of the best television episodes of the year (probably of
the past ten years) was solely regarding a journey of Kevin Garvey. I don’t
know how an Emmy voter can watch International Assassin and not give Theroux
All The Emmys. As great as Theroux was throughout the entire second season of The Leftovers, Emmy voters look at individual submission episodes versus entire seasons. That process will make Theroux's inevitable snub that much more baffling.
