Poll Results–Outstanding Actor In A Drama

This one is probably going to have more pictures than text. Nine votes were cast and we have a three way tie. Hugh Bonneville, Steve Buscemi and Michael C. Hall all received no votes. Bryan Cranston, Jon Hamm and Damien Lewis all received three votes each (33%).

I’m pretty sure that the winner again this year will be Bryan Cranston for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad. And, from a lot of what I’m hearing – I don’t watch Breaking Bad, by choice – Cranston turns in another amazing performance this year as the former high school Chemistry teacher who started out “just” cooking meth to build up a nest egg for his family, but has increasingly become darker and more evil. The Walter White who was seen at the start of the series is not the Walter White we are seeing today, and that sort of change and growth in a character reflects well on the actor who portrays the character (though it hasn’t even gotten an Emmy nod for Anna Torv *pout*).

The dominance of Bryan Cranston in this category has had a negative effect on Jon Hamm’s chances of winning an Emmy for playing Don Draper in Mad Men. In three of the four previous years in which he has been nominated for the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Emmy he has gone head to head with Cranston and a performance that – in most years – would have earned him the Emmy has wound up as the runner-up (one would surmise). And the fact is that it would be hard to convince a lot of people that the wrong decision had been made; that Hamm’s performance was in fact better than Cranston’s. Last year’s Emmy’s, when Breaking Bad wasn’t eligible for the awards, may have been Hamm’s best chance for the Emmy and he lost to Kyle Chandler for Friday Night Lights. Now that is one you can argue about, considering that Hamm submitted a strong episode – The Suitcase – while I think it could be argued that Chandler’s award was as much a cumulative award for five years of outstanding performances as for the episode submitted. But Cranston’s back, and it may be that Jon Hamm’s chance to get an Emmy for the role of Don Draper has passed.

The dark horse in this race is probably Damien Lewis for playing Nicholas Brody in Homeland. A caveat here is that I’ve always enjoyed watching Lewis in just about everything I’ve seen him in, including the mini-series Band Of Brothers, where he played Major Dick Winters, and the criminally underrated Life where he played Charlie Crews. I haven’t seen Homeland, but everything I’ve heard about the show, and the characters in it – those played by Lewis and his co-star Claire Danes – are complex and not always what they seem, with layers over top of layers. I would love to see Damien Lewis win in this category, but I’m afraid that it’s not to be.

New poll up in a bit.