Monday, December 30, 2019

Golden Globe Winner Predictions: Best Actor in a TV Series – Drama


The competition:
Brian Cox (Succession) plays cutthroat businessman Logan Roy in the second season of HBO’s ensemble drama. He was previously nominated for his supporting work in the miniseries “Nuremberg” back in 2000. His show is up for Best TV Series – Drama, and costar Kieran Culkin is also nominated.

Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) plays Jon Snow, a warrior and leader of a northern kingdom in the eighth and final season of HBO’s fantasy series. Despite two Emmy nominations, this is Harington’s first bid. He’s also the only representative of his show, which was previously nominated five times for Best TV Series – Drama.

Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) plays Elliott Alderson, a computer hacker trying to bring down an evil worldwide corporation in the fourth and final season of USA’s tech drama. He was nominated for the first two seasons of the show, winning an Emmy for the first, and he won both a Globe and the Oscar last year for his performance in the film “Bohemian Rhapsody.” His show and costar Christian Bale have been nominated in the past, but not this year.

Tobias Menzies (The Crown) plays Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the third season of Netflix’s historical drama series, taking the role over from actor Matt Smith. Menzies was previously nominated in 2015 for his work on “Outlander.” He is joined by costars Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter this year, and his show contends for Best TV Series – Drama.

Billy Porter (Pose) plays Pray Tell, a ball emcee in the second season of the popular FX series set in the late 1980s. This is his second consecutive bid, and he won the Emmy this past year for this role. His show was nominated for Best TV Series – Drama last year but isn’t up this time around, making him the sole representative for his show.

Additional notes: Last year’s winner, Richard Madden (Bodyguard), isn’t nominated because his show has yet to air its second season. The previous two winners, Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and Billy Bob Thornton (Goliath) aren’t in contention despite their shows still being on. This category does tend to reward freshman series, but not always.
Who should win? I only watched a good portion of season one of Cox and Porter’s shows, so I can’t comment on how they were in season two. Harington was good but doesn’t need to win this award. I’m very happy Malek was included again since he did superb work as always in season four of his just-wrapped show. My choice, based on the just over half of his show’s season that I’ve watched thus far, is Menzies, who is really terrific.
Who will win? Porter didn’t win this last year, so it’s possible he’ll earn late recognition, and the same goes for Cox, who wasn’t even nominated before. I think Menzies takes it, though I’m not overly confident about that choice.

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