Feelies Academy, you are up!
For the seventh consecutive year, we’re presenting our totally biased, by no means comprehensive television awards. We’ve broken down our shortlist of favorites in every category, and you’re responsible for the rest.
Voting will remain open until Saturday, August 15 at 5 p.m. ET. You can vote as many times as you want. You can campaign. You can shit-talk people who don’t agree with your choices. We don’t care! What you cannot do is the following:
- Complain that we’re not following Emmy submission rules. Everything is fake and the points don’t matter, so we’ve combined the drama and limited series categories and put actors in leading or supporting based on our own criteria. (We also included Pose Season 2 in last year’s Feelies, which is why you won’t see it nominated here.)
- Complain that we’ve left off something that you think deserves to be here. It probably does! We won’t argue with you. But we’re only two people, and even with a pandemic on, we can’t watch everything.
Oh, and there are TONS of spoilers below. Consider yourselves warned.
So with that in mind, on to this nominations! We don’t envy the decisions you’re going to have to make… –Sage
Best Comedy
The Good Place
Schitt’s Creek
Sex Education
The Unicorn
What We Do In The Shadows
Sage: What a year to have to say goodbye to Schitt’s Creek. The final season of Dan and Eugene Levy’s riches-to-rags comedy did not hold back when it came to tugging on our heartstrings, bringing the Rose family’s journey back to each other to a satisfying close. It would have been easy to get bogged down in sentiment in sending each character off, but Schitt’s Creek never relinquished its sarcastic edge.
We re-categorized Sex Education this season because we can and because it handles the most awkward, mortifying, confusing parts of adolescence (and adulthood, come to think of it) with humor and heart. Truly, I’m jealous of teens who’ll get to grow up with this show in their lives, as that awful time can only be made easier by such frank, empathetic depictions of experiences that fall all along the spectrum of sexuality.
Little did they know when they were making it, but the second season of What We Do in the Shadows turned out to be the comedy we needed in quarantine. Never have the vampire mockumentary’s delightfully dumb jokes been more welcome, not to mention its inspired cameos (Mark Hamill, Haley Joel Osment, Lucy Punch) and silly storylines (Laszlo goes into hiding as “regular human bartender” Jackie Daytona, the vamps confuse a Super Bowl party for a celebration of a “superb owl”). But beyond that, the series gave us a new kind of hero to root for as Guillermo stood up for himself and stepped into his legacy. For a show that doesn’t ask for much of you, Shadows delivers in both laughs and feels.
Kim: Expectations were sky high for the final season of The Good Place and boy, did it deliver. From the heartbreaking twist of Chidi losing his memory and Eleanor being forced to watch him with Simone as his soulmate to saving humanity and FINALLY making it to the Good Place to the emotional wallop of the finale, Mike Schur kept us on our toes the entire time while we questioned what it really meant to be a good person.
Every few years, a comedy comes along that, on paper, seems like a show that’s an immediate PASS from us (RIP Go On, Trophy Wife, and Speechless) but in actuality, it turns out to be a goddamn delight. Enter CBS’ new comedy The Unicorn, which centers around recently-widowed father Wade and his attempts to get back into the dating world. I know! Sounds like garbage right? Instead it’s a heartwarming look at the support system of found family, dealing with grief and learning to be a single parent of teenage girls, and yes, dating at a certain age. It’s a terrific ensemble, led by hot dad Walton Goggins, and we KNOW you guys aren’t watching it, and we’re begging you to!
Best Drama
Doctor Who
Evil
Prodigal Son
Succession
This Is Us
Unbelievable
Watchmen
Kim: Series twelve of Doctor Who saw Chris Chibnall taking the training wheels off in a massive way. From the shocking return of the Master in episode one to the surprise return of Captain Jack Harkness to saying fuck all canon with the reveal of countless unknown regenerations of the Doctor, Whovians were left truly breathless.
This Is Us continued to deliver the goods in season four from the flash-forward reveal of Jack Damon to the tender way Nicky Pearson is brought back into the family fold to Rebecca’s devastating pre-Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the way it tore Randall and Kevin apart. It also unintentionally went into attack mode, showcasing New York City right as we all went into lockdown, hitting us with even more feels that usual.
Unbelievable may have only been an 8 episode miniseries, but it grabs hold of you from the very first minute and never lets you go. It fills you with rage at the misogyny of our justice system, it breaks your heart at the plight of Marie and how her life falls apart after her assault, and it leaves you triumphant as two female detectives buck the system to put a serial rapist piece of shit behind bars. Anchored by its three leading ladies, it’s the kind of show that stays with you long after you’re finished.
It may sound like an insult when we refer to Prodigal Son as “Trash Hannibal,” but truly, it could not be more of a loving nickname. While it may not have the prestige of its predecessor, it definitely has the bat shit craziness we’ve all been missing in our lives. (Remember how Malcolm cut a guy’s hand off in the PILOT?) Plus we’ll never say no to more of last year’s Best Actor in a Drama winner Michael Sheen on our television screens.
Speaking of bat shit crazy, we were also gifted this year with Evil. It feels like, after the successes of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, that Robert and Michelle King were given carte-blanche to do whatever the fuck they wanted at CBS. Thus, the latest procedural with a believer (Mike Colter, way too hot as a conflicted priest) and a skeptic (Katja Herbers, also very hot as a criminal psychologist) was born, and if it doesn’t make you jump out of your skin or have very disturbing dreams…well, have you considered you might be George?
Sage: HBO’s Murdoch family fan fiction Succession was already viciously sharp and funny in its premiere year, but it took off like a rocket (and not an ill-fated satellite) in Season 2, as the Roys battled corporate scandal, encroaching competitors, and – most frequently and brutally of all – each other. A smorgasbord of assertive, bombastic performances and endlessly tweetable dialogue, the drama manages to be both a prolific meme factory and a deceptively nuanced takedown of American culture. Not an easy line to tow.
Also on HBO, Damon Lindelof’s reimagining of Watchmen turned a revered IP on its head, delivering a scathing expose on anti-Black racism both past and present, on the page and off. It’s as fun to watch as it is unflinching, and it doesn’t spoon feed viewers its mythology, making it satisfying for newcomers and long-time worshippers alike. Also: Regina King.
Best Actress in a Comedy
Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good Place
Aidy Bryant as Annie Easton, Shrill
Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great, The Great
Annie Murphy as Alexis Rose, Schitt’s Creek
Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose, Schitt’s Creek
Geraldine Viswanathan as Alexandra Shitshoveler, Miracle Workers: Dark Ages
Sage: A role like Shrill’s Annie Easton is what Aidy Bryant deserves, and in the second season, we see the newly self-actualized version of the writer attempt to have all of the things she deserves. What makes Annie so relatable is that she’s well aware that her size shouldn’t dictate the way that she’s treated or that she be defined by her job, but it’s possible (and pretty universal) to know those things intellectually and still be battling internalized self-hatred. Aidy walks that line while also cutting Annie’s sweetness with her rage. And isn’t that the balance we’re all trying to live every day?
After watching her grow up onscreen, it’s a delight to see Elle Fanning sink her teeth into a role as bold and meaty as Catherine in The Great. As a foreign noble who is immediately disabused of the notion that married life in Russia will be some great romance and not a test of how much debasement she can endure, Elle is funny and fiery. While Catherine sets almost immediately to stealing the throne out from under her impulsive idiot of a husband, Elle gets to scheme and screw around and deliver Favourite-like lines about how much it sucks to be a woman surrounded by men, now and forever. (Regarding attempted rape: “If anyone ever invents something easier than buttons, we are all in trouble.”)
Catherine O’Hara was already a legend pre-Moira Rose, but there’s no question that her Schitt’s Creek matriarch is one of her career-defining roles. Though Moira never quite warms to the town the way that her husband and children do, amid her tantrums, there’s a vulnerability and a newly discovered maternal nature that shines through. From her one-of-a-kind accent to her namesake line of fruit wines, Moira is a high-maintenance gem, and we shall miss her.
IMO, it’s Alexis Rose who changes the most over the course of the Schitt’s Creek run, and if anybody but Annie Murphy were playing her, I can’t say that I would be this proud. Alexis has always had ambition and an indefatigable survival instinct (How else could she escape with her life after being boarded by Somali pirates?), but she also knows her own heart better than any other character. The decisions that she makes in the show’s final season aren’t easy – even less so because Alexis is the most fearful of losing what they’ve found – but they are right. And because of the sensitivity and bravery Annie brought to her, I sleep soundly every night knowing that Alexis will be just fine.
Patreon supporter Meghan nominates Geraldine Viswanathan of the TBS series Miracle Workers! Slate wrote of her character in the second season of the comic anthology, “Alexandra is a striver, but one with a moral compass. Viswanathan enlivens her persona by walking a line between snark, warmth and empathy, making her able navigator through a world of amiable idiocy.”
Kim: I may not know much about the other ladies nominated this year (I know, I’m the worst) but I DO know that The Good Place would absolutely have never made it four seasons without Kristen Bell as the anchor of the ensemble. Michael may be the gooey emotional center and Chidi may be the moral compass, but Eleanor is the glue that holds them all together, and Bell’s acerbic sweetness is what keeps her compelling without ever having her cross into manic pixie dream territory. It’s a feat few actresses can pull off and it infuriates me that awards bodies at large haven’t recognized her performance.
Best Actress in a Drama
Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, The Crown
Katja Herbers as Kristen Bouchard, Evil
Regina King as Angela Abar, Watchmen
Allison Tolman as Jo Evans, Emergence
Merritt Wever as Det. Karen Duvall, Unbelievable
Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor, Doctor Who
Kim: Coming off her Oscar win for The Favourite, it felt incredibly fitting for Olivia Colman to step into the sensible heels of another British monarch in The Crown. What makes her performance so sublime is how restrained it is. Elizabeth is the queen (ba-dum-bum) of tight-lipped and repressed emotion and Olivia can say more with one twitch of an eyebrow or a pursed lip than most actors can say with a page long monologue.
Merritt Wever brings a similarly quiet energy to her compassionate portrayal of Karen Duvall in Unbelievable; she never shouts, her voice is always at an even keel and her mouth stays set in a firm line. And yet, she has such fiery ferocity and dogged determination in her eyes that I have no doubt she would tear a person limb from limb if it would help her catch the bad guys. I want her on my side, always.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Jodie Whittaker, who really got to let loose in series 12 of Doctor Who. While I adored the diplomatic, everyone-gets-a-say version of Thirteen we got in Series 11, I have to say I loved seeing dark, twisty, out-of-fucks-to-give Thirteen who not only had to deal with the return of her love/nemesis and the destruction (again) of Gallifrey, but was forced to grapple with the possibility that her whole existence is a lie AND the potential end of the world. After all, sometimes, the team structure isn’t flat.
Then we have Evil‘s Katja Herbers who takes up the mantle of Gillian Anderson and Emily Deschanel as the overly rational/skeptical half of a crime fighting duo. (To discuss at another time, why is the woman always the skeptic, hmmm?) Evil throws a lot at its actors, from literal nighttime demons visiting to demonic virtual reality goggles to actual bed-scorching sex. It’s the kind of show that doesn’t work unless the actors fully commit to it, and Katja does just that. Kristen is both incredibly messy and competent at the same time and Katja’s dry wit and sparkling chemistry with her costars makes her throughly watchable. Now…about that crucifix burning her skin in the season finale…
Sage: And, I mean, what is there to say about Regina King that hasn’t already been said? As Watchmen’s Angela Abar/Sister Night, she’s the bridge from the source material to this new, post-giant-squid reality in which our characters are living. She’s a superhero you want to root for within a story that’s constantly reminding you that you’re probably going to regret that someday. She’s so layered that, by the end of the limited series, you’re left feeling like you’ve barely scratched her surface.
RIP Emergence, one of our favorite new series from the 2019-2020 season. And long live Allison Tolman’s Jo Evans, a police chief who becomes embroiled in an international conspiracy when she takes in an A.I. in the form of a child. Jo is the kind of heroine we’ve been waiting for: not a “strong female character” in that she’s just an avatar of a man, but a suburban mom with a normal job who just happens to be – as many of us are – capable of handling some really bizarre shit. Allison always brings that realism and we sincerely hope this isn’t the last time we see her take on deep sci-fi.
Best Actor in a Comedy
Asa Butterfield as Otis Milburn, Sex Education
Ted Danson as Michael, The Good Place
Walton Goggins as Wade, The Unicorn
Nicholas Hoult as Peter III, The Great
Dan Levy as David Rose, Schitt’s Creek
Eugene Levy as Johnny Rose, Schitt’s Creek
Sage: On Sex Education, Asa Butterfield is rebooting the hormonal teen boy lead as Otis Milburn, amateur sex therapist. While being light years more progressive and less disgusting than the many sexed-up geeks who’ve come before him, Otis is still desperately at sea when it comes to love. Asa tackles the most embarrassing plot lines with fearlessness and an endearing lack of self-consciousness, and Otis’ innate tenderness make him huggable even in his sullen adolescent funks.
The Great settles it: Nicholas Hoult is a comedic genius and no funnier than when he’s playing a dim, self-obsessed asshole. Peter runs his court like a frat house and treats the people around him like toys, but Nicholas imbues him such a joyful egomania that you can’t ever hate him for it. Every time he’s on screen, it’s a master class in line reading (“I am perfect, but I know I must change somehow. It’s a fucking conundrum.”), and his puppy dog eyes are so effective that you can’t help but understand how confused Catherine gets when he shows a modicum of growth.
Last year’s Feelies winner Dan Levy brought it as a writer, director, and performer in the final season of Schitt’s Creek. It was a big one for David Rose, who has to come to terms with the baggage he’s still carrying from his old life, despite how happy he is with Patrick. Dan can sell an entire comedic scene with with one groan or gesture (hence our recapper Gillian naming her funniest moment superlative the “David Plucking at the Plastic Sheet” award), but he can also remind you with a look that David remains just a little bit broken inside. So when he does receive his happy ending (smirk), we know how hard he worked to get it.
Our dorky dad, our beloved straight man – I don’t know a better guy than Eugene Levy’s Johnny Rose. Throughout six seasons of Schitt’s Creek, Johnny has been the glue, which makes Eugene’s job look much easier than it likely is. Only an actor and a comedian who doesn’t need to take up the most space in every scene could be this good as the show’s constantly be-suited voice of reason.
Kim: What more can I say about Past Feelie Winner and National Treasure Ted Danson that I haven’t said before? All I can say is that’s been an honor to watch him work and see how his depiction of Michael has evolved over the past four seasons. Who would have thought that a demon would end up being the big, beating heart of The Good Place? But that’s just what Ted Danson IS. Not only was he clearly the quiet leader of the ensemble off screen, he infused Michael with such a sense of wonder and longing that the story became his as much as Eleanor’s. Give us the spin-off of his life on Earth, Schur!
After turns on prestige dramas The Shield, Justified, and Sons of Anarchy, the last thing I saw Walton Goggins doing was signing up for a sitcom on CBS. (I should have seen it coming though! Remember how delightful he was when he did an episode of Community?) His casting is exactly why The Unicorn works; as the titular unicorn Wade, Walton brings both a befuddled warmth to the screen, as well as a sense of world-weary gravitas. He never goes for the easy gag but instead finds the humor in everyday situations and the ridiculousness of trying to start over in middle age. It’s a gem of a performance and I’m so happy we get to see it for another season. Please give it a watch!
Best Actor in a Drama
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg, You
Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson, This Is Us
Brian Cox as Logan Roy, Succession
Paul Mescal as Connell Waldron, Normal People
Matthew Rhys as Perry Mason, Perry Mason
Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy, Succession
Kim: As an oldest child and a type-A control freak, I immediately identified with Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Kendall Roy, whose impassive face belies the fact that he always seems about five seconds away from losing his shit. My boy Kendall spent a lot of the season as just a total sad boi mess, seemingly content to do his father’s bidding in order to do penance for his previous sins and stay in Logan’s good graces. (“Why?” “Because my Dad told me to.”) Jeremy flips the entire performance on its head in the finale (I’ll have more to say on that later, believe me.) but also…does he really? The brilliant thing about his portrayal is you always see Kendall trying to think ten moves ahead. He’s like a duck on a placid pond, furiously paddling to stay afloat just underneath the surface. It’s nothing short of masterful.
On the flip side of Jeremy’s restraint, but equally as masterful, we have Brian Cox as Logan Roy. This casting is nothing short of genius. I mean, who better to cast as this patriarch than an Shakespearan actor perhaps best known in that realm for playing King Lear? Logan is the one who is full of piss and vinegar, the one who is never afraid of erupting like a volcano at any given moment. It’s not that Logan isn’t calculated or manipulative, because Jesus Christ, he is, but he’s also a man who wants what he wants when he wants it and he makes no bones about making it known. And if he doesn’t get his way, he’ll just smirk as he plots your downfall. He IS a killer after all.
Past Feelie winner Sterling K. Brown has been giving a masterclass in consistent excellence for the past four seasons as Randall Pearson on This Is Us. He just delivers. Every. Single. Time. No matter what is demanded of him, Sterling always rises to the occasion. (Much like I said with Ted Danson, it feels like an honor that I just get to sit back and watch him work every week.) When I think of Randall in season four, two moments come to mind. One is the bone-chilling stillness the moment he encounters an intruder in his kitchen and the way Sterling kept all of his panic in his eyes while his body became a tightly coiled spring ready to pounce. The other is the superb showcase of “After the Fire,” where, in an intense therapy session (most of it filmed in uncomfortably tight close-up) Randall lives out two different scenarios of his life, had Jack survived the fire. It’s Sterling K. Brown and This Is Us at its finest and it’s why it remains appointment TV for me.
Sage: If all genres were equal, people would be throwing awards at Penn Badgley for his chilling and hilarious performance as Joe Goldberg in the stalker thriller You. Penn is the king of voiceover acting, his dynamic narration helping us to understand how a sociopathic killer can see himself as nothing more than a hopeless romantic. You would fall short of social satire and land among the problematic disasters without his performance striking exactly the right tone, and he’s constantly earning bonus points IRL by shutting down any and all attempts to romanticize his toxic character.
Sally Rooney’s literary-minded jock Connell Waldron leaps off of the page in the hands of Irish hottie Paul Mescal in Hulu’s Normal People. Both aloof and profoundly sensitive, Connell is an accidental fuck boy with a heart of gold. The TV adaptation of his and Marianne’s of-the-moment romance wouldn’t be half as heartbreaking with anyone else in the role.
No one is more appealing as an almost complete failure of a human being than Matthew Rhys. The instant I saw him as a heavy-drinking, down-on-his-luck, private dick version of Perry Mason, I was in love. In the hard-boiled prequel to the black-and-white legal drama, Mason is just getting acquainted with the depths of human depravity, and Matthew balances his early onset world-weariness and unfailing moral compass beautifully.
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Gillian Anderson as Dr. Jean F. Milburn, Sex Education
D’Arcy Carden as Janet, The Good Place
Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, What We Do In The Shadows
Betty Gilpin as Debbie, GLOW
Emily Hampshire as Stevie Budd, Schitt’s Creek
Micheala Watkins as Delia, The Unicorn
Sage: As far as we’re concerned, Gillian Anderson can do no wrong. Even thinking about it semi-objectively, her second season as Dr. Jean Milburn on Sex Education is just as winning as the first. It’s especially fun to see her bounce off of more of the younger cast as Jean sets up shop in her son’s school (and her Insta shows what a high regard she has for those actors). On top of that, Gillian gets more dramatic beats this time around, with the sex therapist experiencing a her own romantic crisis and a major life change) that she didn’t see coming. She also wears the hell out of another string of covetable pantsuits.
I’m so grateful to What We Do in the Shadows for bringing Natasia Demetriou into my life and for giving her such incredible stuff to work with as Nadja, the sole female vampire in the house. From befriending a haunted doll of herself to hitting an open mic with her lover Laszlo and performing as “The Human Music Group” to saving her dumb, horny housemates from a coven of witches, she was absolutely on fire this season. Every eye roll is scathing, every talking head interview is dryly hilarious. Nadja may be stuck on Staten Island, but she’s still the queen of the undead.
The third season of GLOW took the ladies to Vegas for their residency, and no one is more conflicted about enjoying that success than Betty Gilpin’s Debbie. Between rocking the world of every busboy and baggage handler on the strip, she grapples with guilt over being away from her child and butts heads with Bash when she’s left out of business decisions. Betty is a revelation always, but especially in the desert camping episode when Debbie rages against the root of all her frustrations: You guessed it! Men. (“Even when I’m fucking the cute young ones, I like to take my hand and just crunch their face into the pillow, hard, because they are just so…free.”) And if that doesn’t secure your vote, her hilarious Emmy nomination reaction may do the trick.
The final season of Schitt’s Creek cemented the fact that Stevie Budd is now and will always be a member of the Rose family. They (mostly David and Johnny) inspired her to ask for more out of life, and it’s been a pleasure to watch Emily Hampshire embody that arc. Season 5 saw her crack open, and in this last year, Stevie starts to trust herself and settle into the future that she wants. Emily captures the uncomfortable thrill of being a cynical person who’s starting to value sincerity, and you have to be dead inside not to be moved by her heart-to-heart scenes with Dan (one in particular we’ll discuss later).
Kim: Good news, everyone, we can put our plans to burn the Television Academy to the ground aside, for this year at least, because at long last, your reigning Feelie champion D’arcy Carden is an Emmy nominee. Not to brag, but we’ve been beating the drum for her since season one. In our winners post last year, Sage said this: “This far into The Good Place and it’s 100% clear to me that the show is going to keep throwing insane challenges at D’Arcy Carden either until it ends, or until they find something that she can’t handle. The former is definitely going to come first.”
The Former most definitely came first. Mike Schur upped the challenge this year, not just sending us into ONE Janet void but multiple ones as Janet summoned every single Janet to exist, hiding the Judge’s earth erasing clicker button in one of them in a last ditch effort to save humanity. She makes every single one of them slightly different! It blows my mind. SHE blows my mind. (Has someone thought about getting D’Arcy and Tatiana Maslany to character off? Make it happen, universe!)
In a complete 180 degree turn from her new-age, hippie-dippie, flaky turn as second wife Jackie on Trophy Wife, Michaela Watkins is now bringing it as neurotic, control freak, alpha female Delia on The Unicorn. As Wade’s late wife’s best friend, Delia takes her job of looking after Wade and his girls very seriously. She’s overbearing, overprotective, and she’s wonderful. Her chemistry with TV Hubby (and fellow nominee) Rob Corddry is top notch. But the reason Micheala (and The Unicorn) is so great is that she can turn on a dime and suddenly punch you in the face with feels. One minute she’ll be fighting a losing battle with a nacho cheese dispenser at a concession stand and the next she’ll be having a meltdown at all her best friend’s things being sold at a yard sale. It’s such a fully realized performance and one definitely worthy of Feelie consideration.
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, The Crown
Juliet Rylance as Della Street, Perry Mason
Jean Smart as Agent Blake, Watchmen
J. Smith-Cameron as Gerri Kellman, Succession
Sarah Snook as Siobhan Roy, Succession
Susan Kelechi Watson as Beth Pearson, This Is Us
Kim: Listen. It can’t be easy to be Succession’s Siobahn Roy, the only woman among a family of high maintenance alpha (and wannabe alpha) men. As Shiv, Sarah Snook masterfully plays being 100% done with all this fucking testosterone while at the same time valiantly trying to get them to take her seriously so she can prove that she deserves a seat at the table. It’s not an easy balance to pull off but Sarah does it with ease and flair, never letting them see her sweat in those impeccably tailored power outfits, and never a hair out of that hella fierce bob out of a place. I fear her and I want to BE her.
Like her principal scene partner, Susan Kelechi Watson is the Queen of Excellent Consistency as Beth Pearson on This Is Us. What I loved about this season is we got to see Beth navigating the tricky waters of parenting teenage girls, from Tess’ increasing anxiety to dealing with Deja both falling in love with an older boy and seeking out a relationship with her birth mother. But Susan really shone when she was trying to get her stubborn ass husband into therapy, where she finally pulled back the veil to show just HOW MUCH she’d been keeping the family together in order to protect Randall’s mental health and having the bravery to tell him she was running out of rope. It’s an incredibly powerful scene, and Susan nails it.
All of the casting for The Crown has been on point, but casting Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret was truly inspired. She’s just so fucking watchable. It’s very much like of COURSE the more stalwart Elizabeth would be jealous of the kind of charisma Helena imbues Margaret with and of COURSE Margaret would long for people to take her seriously and wish that she could just say fuck it all when it comes to her royal responsibilities at the same time. She owns the last two episodes of the season where her life completely implodes and I dare you to not be riveted by her.
Sage: Every trash bag PI needs that ally who makes their work matter within the system they’ve rejected (or that’s rejected them), and on Perry Mason, that’s Juliet Rylance’s Della Street. A crusader for justice in her own right, Della is limited by expectations of her gender while still being smarter than every man in the room. Juliet slyly makes sure that we know that Della is acutely aware of both of those things while still being driven by her compassion for her firm’s railroaded client. And it’s a total joy to watch Della and Perry team up in the latter episodes of the first season, forming a modern version of one of TV history’s most well-known crime-fighting duos.
Is there anybody fucking cooler than Jean Smart? Watchmen gets another jolt in Episode 3, when her Agent Laurie Blake shows up to investigate the murder that sets the narrative in motion, and any comic book fan who’s ever been let down by the source material’s treatment of Silk Spectre II gets vindication. I first fell in love with Jean as Charlene Frazier of Sugarbaker & Associates, so it will never not tickle me to watch her fully and efficiently emasculate a man with a single look. Who better to cast to prove that the one-time superhero girlfriend has evolved into a feared alpha female?
GERRI ALERT. Waystar Royco’s general counsel Gerri Kellman and her portrayer J. Smith Cameron have bloomed into Succession fan favorites and with good reason. Not being a Roy herself, Gerri serves the purpose of bearing witness to their toxic family dynamic, but J. never lets you forget that Gerri also knows where all the bodies are buried. (And probably shoveled some dirt on them herself.) So much more than just a “clever filing cabinet,” Gerri (and her inimitable eyebrow raise) have stolen full scenes, and her Whole Thing with Roman (more on that later) has us even more eager to see what her next move will be.
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
Rob Corddry as Forrest, The Unicorn
Harvey Guillen as Guillermo De la Cruz, What We Do In The Shadows
Willian Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye, The Good Place
Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza, The Good Place
Noah Reid as Patrick Brewer, Schitt’s Creek
Harry Styles as Multiple Characters, Saturday Night Live
Sage: I would die for every character (which is convenient, since they enjoy killing people), but Season 2 of What We Do in the Shadows belongs to Guillermo. When we first meet him, he’s been Nandor’s submissive familiar for years, impatiently waiting for his master to turn him. The revelation at the end of Season 1 flips that dynamic on its head to the point where I felt like I was watching a human/vampire version of Marriage Story. Harvey Guillén’s strength is that he plays everything so straight, which makes Guillermo’s inner conflict over whether to yield his power or suck it up and keep on serving the being he loves (It is CANON, he has confirmed it.) genuinely poignant.
Gentle, loyal, and so indulgent, Patrick Brewer continued to be the perfect foil for David Rose on Schitt’s Creek this year – the Johnny to his Moira. But Noah Reid also had several opportunities to get into the sandbox himself. For every touching scene like the one where Patrick assures Johnny that he’s going to take care of his son, there was a bachelor party escape room or Patrick high as fuck on painkillers after oral surgery. His romance with David is one of the major reasons Patrick is so beloved, but Noah doesn’t get enough credit for how funny he is, and I’m glad he got to shine that way in this last outing. (Also, he put out a great record this spring! Get into it.)
Kim: It’s our blog and we WILL nominate Harry Styles for Best Supporting Actor for his one episode of Saturday Night Live if we want to. Our Haz got the honor of doing double-duty on SNL in advance of dropping his (masterpiece) second album Fine Line and boy, did he deliver. From nailing his monologue to indulging in some puppy play to doing a pretty decent Icelandic accent to stripping down to his skivvies and shaking that ass he’s worked so hard for, Harry (working that trademark shit-eating grin and impish twinkle in his eyes) proved that he was up for doing anything. Literally anything. Just ask Shawn Mendeez and the good old folks at Sara Lee the day after the episode aired.
We love a Beta Husband here at Head Over Feels, and The Unicorn’s Rob Corddry fills the void that Speechless’ John Ross Bowie left in our hearts. What’s great about Forrest is that he’s equally as neurotic and WASPy as Delia is. He’s just the other side of the coin, passive where she’s aggressive and emotionally intelligent where she is more rational. (It’s probably why it’s a DELIGHT to watch them attempt to fight with each other.) I love how, for me, Rob is playing against type here. Everything else I’ve seen him in feels harder, more sardonic. It’s a revelation seeing him go a little more gooey on the inside with this performance. Forrest is the kind of guy who will take your tween daughter shopping and pick out a perfect outfit for her and he’s also the guy who will do his goddamn best to awkwardly wingman you. Get a man who can do both, I say!
What more is there to say about our Good Place duo of William Jackson Harper (your winner in this category last year) and Manny Jacinto? It was devastating to see Chidi revert to a blank slate for most of the final season, in an effort to save the world, and William Jackson Harper kept this new version of Chidi JUST close enough to the version we knew and loved to make it devastating, both for us and for Eleanor. And then when our Chidi came back to us with a “Hi. Shut up. I’m confident now.”? Pass me my smelling salts. Ask any actor and they’ll tell you that playing dumb isn’t as easy as it looks. And yet, Manny Jacinto has made it look effortless for four years now. It’s a genius performance and one that’s been unheralded because he makes it look easy. You try delivering some of his lines with a straight face! The best thing about Jason is that yeah, he’s dumb and easy for a punchline, but he’s also the purest soul who can bust out with something completely profound at any given moment. Plus, he’ll wait infinite Jeremy Bearimys just to give you a necklace. I may miss him most of all.
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Calvin Abar, Watchmen
Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy, Succession
Sacha Dhawan as The Master, Doctor Who
Michael Emerson as Leland Townsend, Evil
Justin Hartley as Kevin Pearson, This Is Us
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, Succession
Michael Sheen as Dr. Martin Whitly, Prodigal Son
Kim: Anyone who follows the #GuysWhereAreWe hashtag on Twitter knows that I’m absolutely obsessed with Michael Emerson and how fucking good he is in everything he does. When I tuned into the pilot episode of Evil, I had no idea he would be in it and I basically seal clapped with joy. As Leland Townsend, Michael gets to use all the skills that make him a most excellent big bad because spoiler alert…he’s an actual flesh and blood goddamn demon. It’s a delightful performance and I can’t wait to see what kind of mischief he gets up to in season two.
Why, yes, it’s another year and another Feelie post and no, I’m still not going to shut up about Justin Hartley and how he is the unsung VIP of This Is Us. It’s no secret that I have a super soft spot for Kevin Pearson, my problematic fave who fucks things up more often than not, but always comes through in the clutch moments. It was a roller coaster season for Kevin, from connecting with his Uncle Nicky (and, as Shannon put it in her recaps, finally becoming SOMEONE’S favorite Pearson child) to finally closing the door on his relationship with Sophie to the devastating way he clashed with Randall over Rebecca’s dementia diagnosis and her subsequent treatment. It’s a LOT of story and time and time and time again, Justin has shown he’s more than up to the task at hand. Give him some recognition please!
I actually don’t know what I can say about Sacha Dhawan other than he was the gift I had no idea I was expecting from this series of Doctor Who. His Master is so delightfully over the top and unhinged but it works because all of his rage and all of his pain come from a real place of hurt and anger. Anger towards the Doctor for being so special, anger at the Time Lords for being secretive assholes, and just a general anger at the world. It’s a brilliant performance and we are SO LUCKY we got to have him. Hopefully it’s not the last we see of him.
Sage: If we could, we’d nominate Yahya Abdul-Mateen II twice over for playing two totally distinct Watchmen characters who just happen to share the same body. He makes the transition from warm and supportive stay-at-home dad Cal to the all-powerful, stoically analytical Dr. Manhattan seamless by anchoring them both to the love they have for Angela. Yahya has a presence that quietly demands your attention, which is why it was SO SMART to cast him in a role that only reveals itself over the course of the series.
Kieran Culkin took Roman Roy from black sheep to wild card in this season of Succession, as Logan’s youngest son proved to have some valuable business acumen to supplement his snappy one-liners and indefinable sexuality. Kieran is apparently one of the most comfortable improvisers in the cast, which is damn impressive, considering how thoroughly fucked up Roman is; and he is never more gripping than when his little-shit facade slips to expose that he actually does feel things and require human connection, thank you.
When it comes to tragicomic characters, Matthew Macfadyen has elevated Succession’s Tom Wambsgans to the level of JLD’s Selina Meyer. (No higher praise from me.) Tom can be just as manipulative as the dynasty he’s married into, but Matthew always layers in the nonstop humiliation he’s subjected to (for example, getting bullied into an open marriage on his wedding night), to the point where you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor bastard. The beta to Shiv’s alpha, the Biblical serpent to Greg’s innocent Eve, Tom is so much more than just Logan’s disappointing son-in-law.
God love Michael Sheen (a Feelies winner last year for Good Omens) for never being afraid to be extra. Knowing little else about Prodigal Son, his casting as a serial killer/dad/genius was the immediate draw for us, and of course, he did not disappoint. Dr. Martin Whitley has a wild-eyed unpredictability that you can’t take your eyes off of, and Michael is obviously having the time of his life playing a completely indefensible murderer who doesn’t exhibit a shred of remorse. (Also, the man can wear a cardigan.)
Best Shipper Moment
The Doctor and the Master communicate telepathically, Doctor Who
Agent Brooks LEANS, Emergence
Eve and Villanelle’s dance, Killing Eve
“No one is ever gonna hurt you like that again,” Normal People
David and Patrick’s wedding, Schitt’s Creek
Roman proposes to Gerri, Succession
Sage: Even when they’re apart (as they were for the majority of Season 3), Eve and Villanelle are never far from each other’s thoughts. And at this point, they’ve both accepted it. In the Killing Eve finale, they meet for a slow dance that’s more emotionally than sexually charged. “Do you want to be like that?” Villanelle asks, looking at a senior couple. “Not anymore,” Eve answers. What Villanelle is really asking is whether Eve still wants to be normal, but when she presses her to ask why not, Eve addresses a different question: “We’d never make it that long,” she says, “We’d consume each other before we got old.” Villanelle smiles softly, her face pressed into Eve’s hair: “It sounds kind of nice.”
Sometimes in Normal People, it’s Connell’s tragic inability to say what he feels when he feels it that drives them apart; sometimes it’s Marianne convincing herself that she deserves degradation. That’s not the case for either of them in the penultimate episode of the series, when – after a romantic reunion comes to an abrupt end with Connell refusing to hit her when she asks – Marianne’s abusive brother finally crosses a line with her. The sight of her broken nose breaks through Connell’s wall of passivity, and he charges into the house to threaten Alan. Normally, a move like that would feel dated and anti-feminist, but Connell has been politely blinding himself to Marianne’s trauma to a fault. “No one’s ever gonna hurt you like that again,” he says when he returns to the car, and it’s crystal clear that he’s including himself in that promise.
Schitt’s Creek isn’t the show that’s going to pull an eleventh hour twist before a big finale wedding. So there was never any question that David and Patrick’s nuptials would take place as planned. There are complications, certainly: they lose their venue, Alexis doesn’t understand why wearing a white gown with a cute little headpiece isn’t appropriate, Patrick doesn’t realize his wedding day gift to his groom involves full-body relaxation…but it wouldn’t have been them if it didn’t go off without a hitch. In the moment where they finally meet at the altar, we were all Moira in her bishop’s regalia, just struggling to get through it. David is Patrick’s Mariah Carey; Patrick is David’s happy ending; and together (forever), they are…simply the best. (I’m not sorry.)
When it comes to Roman and Gerri on Succession, it didn’t take long for me to make the jump from “is this really happening??” to fully and unironically rooting for them to actually get together. It remains to be seen how far Gerri’s willing to take this flirtation, but Roman’s feelings have been made clear: casually dropping her into conversion to see what other people will say, listening intently whenever someone else brings her up, defending her against being the company’s blood sacrifice, this look…the list goes on. Only on this show could a proposal of marriage that includes the sentence, “you kill me, you chop my dick off, something, I’m kidding, you know what I’m saying,” be the height of canonical romance, but so it is. Rockstar Moron + the Mole-Woman forever – let’s hope they actually consummate this thing in Season 3.
Kim: Every New Year’s Day, when we are on a Star Wars release cycle, a group of us go see the latest movie on the big IMAX at Lincoln Center. So when Doctor Who aired “Spyfall: Part Two” a mere 4 days later, can you blame me when I started shouting “OMG THEY ARE FORCE BONDING!!!” when The Doctor and the Master started communicating telepathically. It was bad enough when earlier in the episode the Doctor had been forced to kneel in front of her greatest love/biggest nemesis. It escalated when she started banging out the familiar sound of drums in morse code just to get his attention. But then to ACTUALLY start talking to each other in their minds? That’s love, bitch.
One of the best things about Emergence was that every single man on that show was hot for Jo Evans. While we had been rooting the whole season for her to get back together with her ex-husband, played by Donald Faison, who can still get it, our alliances quickly shifted when Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas dipped into their Agent Carter well and cast Enver Gjokaj aka Daniel Sousa as a sexy FBI Agent. The chemistry was sizzling right from the start and then in the middle of a heist Agent Brooks had to pull our favorite trick from While You Were Sleeping and LEAN. It was definitely about wanting…and receiving…and us being on the floor clutching our pearls.
Best Warm Fuzzy
Jake and Amy have Mac, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Michael becomes a Real Boy, The Good Place
Meredith’s medical license is restored, Grey’s Anatomy
Mando dadding Baby Yoda, The Mandalorian
David and Stevie’s “You Won,” Schitt’s Creek
Will and Grace decide to buy a house, Will & Grace
Kim: Baby Yoda and The Mandalorian. Do I really need to say any more? I really don’t think I do. Watching Mando become a begrudging father who would lay down his life for his son is the reason we tuned in every week.
The final season of Will & Grace was a mixed bag (just ask our recapper Sarah) but for the most part, other than anything to do with Karen Walker, they stuck the landing. What began as typical shenanigans, with Will and Grace secretly trying to outbid each other for their dream house in the burbs, became an absolutely heartwarming moment when Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown pointed out that maybe they should just buy it together, since they were already a family. What a way to course correct the original finale!
I don’t know if any of us were truly ready for the emotional wallop that the final episode of The Good Place had in store for us. But amidst all the tears, there was one moment that felt like the warmest of hugs: after all the time he spent learning about humans, wanting to understand them, and wanting to experience the things that they did, our favorite demon Michael got to BECOME one, which made the whole journey worth it, quite frankly. (And he got to spend his life on Earth with his IRL wife Mary Steenburgen!)
I’m a lifer with Grey’s Anatomy and I will also defend it until I am blue in the face. After sixteen seasons on the air, Grey’s can still deliver the feels and the goosebumps and the warm fuzzies. Meredith came very close to losing her license this year, thanks to committing insurance fraud. But in the eleventh hour, in what turned out to be his final appearance (BELIEVE ME, more on that in a moment), Alex Karev swooped in with not only character references from the likes of Cristina Yang, Addison Shepherd, and basically every other character written off the show, but with a parade of patients Meredith had saved over the course of her career, down to Katie Bryce from the pilot episode. It’s a tremendous nod to the history of the show, and proves why it’s still capable of chugging along all these years later.
Sage: Finally, a Melissa Fumero pregnancy that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star didn’t have to hide onscreen! In the finale of this season, Jake and Amy welcome their first child – amid a city-wide blackout, no less – and name him after Jake’s life hero: Die Hard’s Jack McClane. Hey, it was either gonna be that or Holt Santiago-Peralta.
As I was saying before, there was never a threat of David and Patrick breaking up on Schitt’s Creek. But Patrick is thrown when David jumps at the opportunity to flee the town and go back to New York. It takes a deep talk with Stevie to unpack the hurt that’s driving David’s decision. Stevie’s efforts aren’t totally selfless – she doesn’t want David, her best friend, to leave her. But she also doesn’t want to watch him throw himself away on people and a lifestyle that never cared about him back. “Why do you want to go back to a place that’s done nothing but hurt your feelings?” she asks. “Because I want those people to know that I’m not a joke!,” David admits through tears. Stevie gestures at the perfect house that Patrick wants to buy for them, which represents the real home David’s found: “Look at this place. You won.”
Best Right in the Feels! Moment
“It would be unbearable,” The Crown
Connell in therapy, Normal People
Alexis and Ted break up, Schitt’s Creek
Rebecca goes to the Met, This Is Us
Marie calls Duvall, Unbelievable
Forty’s fate, You
Sage: All you have to do to understand the accuracy and the impact of what Connell expresses in therapy in Normal People is to read the comments under the clip on YouTube, where people describe themselves or people they love drawing into the same kind of depression and loneliness. Connell left his town because he thought it would force him to forge real relationships – ones that were deeper and more fulfilling than the friendships he had with his classmates – but it only enabled him to hide himself better and avoid connection. Paul Mescal breaks your heart over and over again in this series (and he cries so pretty), but this is the scene that stuck with me – real, raw, and so cathartic.
If you’re going to make one of your OTPs break up, at least let them look fabulous while they do it. That strategy worked out for Ted and Alexis on Schitt’s Creek, as life circumstances and their own destinies make them realize that they have to part ways while they’re still in love. This show has been important to so many viewers because it doesn’t rank different types of love; David and Patrick’s isn’t any better or more valid because they’re able to stay together. And the most respectful, tender thing Alexis and Ted can do for each other in this moment is to let each other go, without guilt or judgment. Their final date in Cafe Tropical is as romantic as any proposal, and if it didn’t bring a tear to your eye, then the footage of the rest of the cast weeping off-camera definitely will.
The patriarchy is the real villain in You; Joe Goldberg is just a symptom. It claims another victim in Forty Quinn, who seems to be just another spoiled, rich, white LA hipster with directorial aspirations but is revealed to be a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and manipulation that’s never been addressed. With tons of credit to actor James Scully, Forty is a rare source of innocence and playfulness on You, and I was hoping he’d make it through if only because Joe seemed to have a real begrudging fondness for him. But in the end, Forty is too pure to survive being caught between two psychopaths, and the world spins madly on.
Kim: So much of The Crown has Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret at odds, to the point where you can even forget that they were once close sisters. Both of them has something to be jealous about when it comes to the other, and their vastly different philosophies of life often clash. So it’s incredibly touching that when, after Margaret overdoses, Elizabeth doesn’t berate her like her sister was surely expecting her to. Instead, Elizabeth expresses how she can’t imagine being without her sister and that the world would be unbearable without her in it. It’s a rare moment of unfettered emotion for the Queen and a pitch-perfect end to the season.
While many would consider the climax of Unbelievable to be when the finally catch the serial rapist, the catharsis of the entire series doesn’t come until its final minutes, when Kaitlyn Dever’s Marie, who had been rewarded with a paltry $150K and a way too late apology for her life being ruined calls Detective Duvall from a payphone as she’s heading out to start her new life. She doesn’t say much, and neither does Duvall. They don’t need to. A simple “thank you” is all that’s needed. It doesn’t erase what happened to Marie, but those simple words free her and help her know that she’s going to be okay. And that’s all we need to know.
Basically, Rebecca’s entire Alzheimer’s storyline in season four of This Is Us could qualify as a “right in the feels” moment. We KNOW that it’s coming; the signs are all there, and we’ve been told as much, thanks to previous flash-forwards. Still, it’s devastating to watch the Pearson matriarch grapple with it in real time. It all comes to a head in New York City, where Kevin and Randall lock horns at his movie premiere regarding a clinical trial Randall found. And for us, as viewers and New Yorkers, this episode came for our throats as it aired right as New York had completely shutdown due to COVID. So it was EXTRA emotional for us to find Rebecca at her beloved Met, when that wasn’t even an option for us at the time, and then Mandy Moore had to deliver this stunning monologue:
“My life has been full of ‘next times’. Things I always assumed I would get to eventually. But now I realize that I am running out of time to do them. I mean, let’s face it, guys. I’m-I’m losing my memory. Let me finish, please. And I…I want to spend however many good years I have left, I want to spend it with my family. I want to try new things, like…walking on red carpets. I want to make up for all of my ‘next times’. I’m not gonna do that trial, Randall. And I really don’t want to hear what either of you has to say about it, because I have made the decision for myself. Right now I want to be here with the two of you. And for as long as they’ll let us, I want to try and be like that woman. That woman who had all the time in the world to just stare at a painting.”
Right. In. The. Feels.
Best YAS QUEEN! Moment
Ruth is the Doctor, Doctor Who
Ruth walking away from Debbie, GLOW
“My girl!” Prodigal Son
The Sara Lee sketch, Saturday Night Live
Kendall’s press conference, Succession
Laurie and her vibrator, Watchmen
Kim: Is there a better YAS QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN moment than when mild-mannered and slightly confused Ruth Clayton literally smashes some glass and then remembers that she’s actually the fucking Doctor? I still can’t quite believe they did that. It’s the biggest swing that Doctor Who has taken in years, perhaps the biggest swing the show has taken since the reveal of the War Doctor. Plus, we’re here for anything that makes that certain brand of fanboy cry about how expanding the Whoniverse to include more diversity is ruining their childhood.
All season Prodigal Son had built up that Malcolm was just like his father, that there was a killer inside him, just lying in wait. But when push came to shove, Malcolm is more like his mother and couldn’t pull the trigger on bad guy Nicholas Endicott. Imagine our surprise and delight when it was sister Ainsley who was ACTUALLY the killer in wait, slitting Endicott’s throat and stabbing him multiple times, not even flinching when blood splattered across her face. In that moment, we were ALL Michael Sheen’s delighted “My girl!” declaration.
As of posting time, I’m still slowly working my way through Watchmen. (I’m savoring it with one episode at a time, okay?) But I’ve definitely watched episode three, which focuses on Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake aka Silk Spectre II. I know enough about the source material to know her history with Doctor Manhattan, so it’s like I was surprised but also NOT when Laurie settled down for a little self love session after a long day and pulled out a GIANT (like, MASSIVE) blue wand vibrator, complete with its own set of attachable blue balls. You go girl.
I’m a new member of the Succession hive and I finished up season two right as Sage started compiling this list of nominees. As soon as I finished the finale, I chatted her saying “You have Kendall having the receipts down for YAS QUEEN, right?” Because really, that’s the only reaction you can have to that press conference! After spending an entire season as his father’s lapdog, Kendall FINALLY found his spine after being chosen as the family’s blood sacrifice, forced to take the public fall for the numerous cover-up scandals at Waystar and told by Logan that he was never going to get the company anyway, because he’s not a killer. In the first few moments, it seems that Kendall is going to be a good boy and read his prepared statement, but then…he shifts. He puts all the blame on his father and says that he has the documents to back up his claims. WHO IS THE KILLER NOW, BITCH?
Sage: Shippers were LIVING when, in the final minutes of GLOW Season 3, Debbie chases Ruth down in an impulsive run through the airport and then offers her a deal she thinks she can’t refuse. But Ruth doesn’t want to be the director of Debbie and Bash’s new network wrestling series, and she doesn’t appreciate Debbie giving up on her dreams for her. (“I don’t want an off-ramp. I never even got on the road.”) It’s a blow to their friendship: Debbie, who desires control above all else, feels abandoned by Ruth; Ruth feels like Debbie is trying to mold her into her own image. But above all, it proves again that GLOW will never go for a “Women Gotta Stick Together” moment of false, rah-rah sisterhood over giving individual characters agency. After all, fights are also eligible for passing the Bechdel Test.
Kim already touched on how proud we were watching Harry Styles host what will hopefully be the first of many SNL episodes, but we have to give some extra love to the most talked about sketch of the night (and maybe the queerest in the show’s history). Written by Bowen Yang and Julio Torres, it involves Harry playing a chaotic neutral social media manager who keeps getting the Sara Lee corporate Instagram confused with his own account. Lord knows how he delivered lines like the one above and “why do guys always freak out when I ask them to spit in my mouth?” without breaking; meanwhile, my soul vacated my body. The instantly iconic clip gifted us the useful phrase “must get rid of toxic in community” and proved yet again that H is a real king that can handle.
Best WTF?!?! Moment
O is the Master, Doctor Who
Devil baby in a cornfield, Evil
Alex Karev’s Dear John letters, Grey’s Anatomy
Frank is Sam and Hannah’s son, How to Get Away with Murder
Crystal Methyd’s final lip sync, Ru Paul’s Drag Race
L to the OG, Succession
Cal is Dr. Manhattan, Watchmen
Guillermo saving his housemates, What We Do In The Shadows
Sage: Patreon donor Angel nominates Ru Paul’s Drag Race contestant Crytal Methyd’s final lip sync. A socially distanced, bird-themed masterpiece to Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird,” it has to be seen to be believed.
I wish everyone in the world could have had the experience of being on Twitter when Succession‘s Kendall Roy first stripped off his suit jacket to reveal a customized jersey, and his boy Squiggle kicked in that sick beat. “L to the OG,” Ken W.A.’s excruciatingly overcooked musical tribute to his terrible, terrible father, is best enjoyed in company. Roman’s girlfriend Tabitha speaks for us all when she says, “It is burning my eyes, but I can’t look away,” and Twitter’s collective reaction was something akin to horror. Yet, with some distance, can’t we agree that Kendall’s got bars?
“We always knew that this day would come,” Angela says to her husband Cal in the seventh episode of Watchmen. That day, apparently, is the one in which she bludgeons him with a hammer in order to excavate his true self: Jon Osterman, a.k.a. Dr. Manhattan, back on Earth after fucking off again at the end of the graphic novel. Whattttttttttttt. This leads into the next hour, which tells their nonlinear love story – one that only begins right before it ends. Like the rest of Watchmen, it’s a mind fuck with a purpose and a point of view – it’s not insignificant that a literal god hides out in the body of a Black man in Tulsa.
Guillermo spends most of the second season of What We Do in the Shadows hiding his Van Helsing heritage from his housemates, but it all comes out in finale, when they are lured by the Vampiric Council and blamed for all the vampire murders that Guillermo committed – both accidentally and on purpose. The house was already falling into disarray without their trusty familiar (Nandor is reduced to wearing his commemorative Dream Team jersey without any other clean laundry; Colin keeps slipping on blood), but it turns out that the situation is even more dire than that. I’m pretty sure I watched the entire sequence in which Guillermo SAVES THEM by getting the drop on every other vampire in the room whilst doing touchdown arms. And to make his badass hero moment even more impressive, that was Harvey Guillén doing his own stunts.
Kim: Patreon donor Will choose the reveal that O is actually the Master for his WHAT THE FUCK moment of the year, and honestly, I couldn’t agree with this choice more. None of us saw this coming. I remember sitting around with my girls on New Year’s Day and all of us immediately joining hands and screaming the moment Sacha Dhawan’s handsome face twisted into an evil snarl. It immediately set the tone for Series 12 of Doctor Who and the show never looked back.
Listen. I don’t envy what the Grey’s Anatomy writers had to do after Justin Chambers was abruptly fired decided to leave the show in the middle of the season with no warning. There was zero set-up for Alex Karev to leave Seattle, especially since he had just settled in as the new chief at PacNorth. You couldn’t just send the last OG intern other than Meredith off into the sunset without SOME sort of explanation, but what do you do when that cast member is only able to appear via voice over? Well, they did…that. They did a mixture of a clip show and having Alex send letters to Meredith, Bailey, and his WIFE JO, explaining that he had reconnected with Izzie (IZZIE STEVENS) during Mer’s trial. He had gone to see her in Kansas and it turns out that Izzie had actually used the frozen embryos from SEASON FIVE and now has borne Alex’s twins. So he says fuck all to his marriage and his LIFE in Seattle to stay in Kansas and be a family with Izzie and YEAH, I am still confused about it too.
There were so many twists and turns in How to Get Away with Murder‘s final season that half the time I was watching, I literally had no idea what was happening, other than it was definitely really really bad. The one time the show actually had me going “The fuck?” is when they revealed that our boy Frank was actually Sam Keating’s son via…his incestuous relationship with his sister Hannah. I know! What the fuck?
And finally, the joy of Evil is that it provided a bevy of “What the fuck?!” moments for us to pick from because there is basically one every episode. How do you choose? Do you go with the first time George visits Kristen? Do you pick the reveal that David does mushrooms so he can see God? How about the time that Leland and Sheryl literally set the bed on fire when they fuck? HOW DO YOU CHOOSE? Ultimately, we went with the time David and Kristen went to visit his estranged father, which led to them taking hallucinogens (so many drugs on this show!) and nearly giving into the growing sexual tension between them. Later, while she’s still tripping, Kristen wanders through a cornfield and witnesses David’s new stepmother giving birth to a demon baby. OR DOES SHE? We’ll never know.
And those are your nominees! Remember, you can vote once an hour and the polls are open until 5 PM EST on Saturday August 15th. We can’t wait to see your choices! It’s all in your hands! Go forth and vote.
[…] favorite thing about the Feelies is that while Sage and I may come up with the nominees, it truly IS all in the hands of our readers and whatever fanbases might stumble upon the post […]