It makes sense that standout TV performances are often found in great TV series. However, it becomes impressive when these performances stand out even in mediocre or even bad series. Every year we try to recognize performances in which talented actors shine despite subpar material.
The following list combines acting skills in exceptional TV series as well as in less successful productions. One of the performances mentioned comes from a series that made it onto the list of the 10 best series of 2024. Others come from shows that narrowly missed making this list – or didn’t have a chance at all. But they all deserve applause. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
10 Ncuti Gatwa – Doctor Who (Disney+)
It’s easy to see Gatwa’s performance as the Fifteenth Doctor in the context of the new path he set for the venerable British sci-fi series. He is the first black man to play the role of the Doctor and the first openly gay man. He is also the second youngest actor (after Matt Smith) to take on a role usually played by middle-aged or older men. It’s easy to think of the historical facts until you sit down and watch Gatwa at work. Suddenly he is simply the doctor, and a particularly charismatic and lovable one at that. He brightens up every scene he enters, no matter where the Doctor is in time and/or space. He conveys the gravitas of the centuries-old Doctor (if not millennia-old Doctor; the math doesn’t add up after a while), while at the same time exuding youthful energy, along with the same sensitivity that Gatwa displayed in his role in Sex Education . Most Doctors don’t stick around for more than a few seasons, so enjoy this one while we still have it.
9 Betty Gilpin – Three Women (Starz)
Gilpin stole everything that wasn’t already screwed down in Lisa Taddeo’s film adaptation of her nonfiction bestseller about the complicated desires and story of three women. In fact, the “GLOW” alum could have left some of what was already set in place – that’s how stunning she played a Midwestern housewife who is destroyed by her husband’s sexual neglect. While the other installments of Three Women were uneven at best, Gilpin’s performance was so vivid, so heartbreaking, and so endearing that it became even harder to care about her when the plot moved on to one of the other storylines. With “GLOW,” “Mrs. Davis” and this one, Gilpin is in such a good mood that she will soon attempt the impossible to succeed Cole Escola in “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway. After what she’s done on TV lately, it’s hard to bet against her.
8 Moses Ingram – The Lady in the Lake (Apple TV+)
7 Allison Janney – The Diplomat (Netflix)
Near the end of the second season finale of the breezy political drama, Janney – who plays the ruthless sitting vice president appointed to replace Keri Russell’s desperate ambassador – drags a huge map into a room, retrieves a lump of coal from a nearby fireplace and spends the next three and a half minutes to use the map to explain to Russell how geopolitics actually works. It’s like the reverse of all those early West Wing scenes where one of Janney’s men had to explain our political system to CJ, who was the White House press secretary. Diplomat creator Debora Cahn cut her teeth on The West Wing – especially in the later seasons when CJ no longer needed as much hand-holding. So she knew exactly what she was getting when she brought in Janney to kick ass, take names and tower over Russell’s Kate Wylerl both physically and emotionally. Janney only appeared in two episodes this season, a classic case of audiences wanting so much more.
6 Rashida Jones – Sunny (Apple TV+)
Jones has spent most of her career playing the “straight woman” to bigger, more over-the-top actors, most famously as “Beautiful Ann” on “Parks and Recreation.” With this strange sci-fi comedy, in which she plays a woman who uses a household robot to get over the supposed deaths of her husband and son in a plane crash, it was Jones who got to present herself as a big mess. A sparkling, exaggerated character like this suits her extremely well. As a story, “Sunny” was a bit all over the place. But as an opportunity for her star to show that she can sell jokes as well as she creates them, it was great fun.