The Nominees Ranked By Which Actor Should Win:
- Darren Criss for FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
- Benedict Cumberbatch for Showtime's Patrick Melrose
- Jeff Daniels for Hulu's The Looming Tower
- John Legend for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
- Jesse Plemons for Netflix's Black Mirror: USS Callister
- Antonio Banderas for National Geographic's Genius: Picasso
The Versace series was deceptively titled because the show spent the majority of its running time on Darren Criss' serial killer character. His performance was so unhinged and stunning from the first moment onscreen. He had to carry so many large chucks of the story. He did so with reckless abandon and the ability to make the audience intrigued by the story of his deranged killer despite the horrendous acts he was committing. It's a performance that should absolutely send him to a new level of stardom. An Emmy would greatly help with those chances as well. Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch was just as integral to Patrick Melrose. At times, the storytelling did get repetitive with the cycles of addiction and abuse that the central character went through. And yet, Cumberbatch took the audience on that journey and delivered some career-best work. That's impressive because he has been dazzling viewers on screens both big and small for a number of years now. Finally, Jeff Daniels delivered a second great performance in the same year for Hulu. It was so drastically different than his western on Netflix. It was so procedural and could feel formulaic. But Daniels infused his character with the passion behind his arguments even though his story was bound to end in an unbelievable tragedy.
The Nominees Ranked by Which Actor Will Win:
- Darren Criss for FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
- Benedict Cumberbatch for Showtime's Patrick Melrose
- Jeff Daniels for Hulu's The Looming Tower
- Antonio Banderas for National Geographic's Genius: Picasso
- John Legend for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
- Jesse Plemons for Netflix's Black Mirror: USS Callister
Cumberbatch really has become quite a staple in this specific category. The limited series categories are still largely expected to change every year. And yet, the rise of season-long anthologies has broken from that mold or episodes being submitted instead as TV movies. Cumberbatch has amassed six nominations in this category since 2012. That's very impressive. He has only won once in 2014 for Sherlock. But former winners have to be seen as serious threats to walk away with the prize. And so, the towering work that Cumberbatch and Daniels do could propel them forward to victory. Of course, Criss may have a solid track record as well because the voters have recently opted to reward the best performance amongst the nominees. Plus, Courtney B. Vance won when he was nominated for his season of American Crime Story. And so, Criss could also be considered the frontrunner. Even though I didn't think Banderas was any good in Genius, the show still got a ton of love from the Emmys. He may have sailed through to a nomination because of his movie star status. But that could easily lead him to winning as well. As such, it really could be between any of those four performers. A win for John Legend of Jesse Plemons would be truly shocking to me.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments below!
