2015 Bennys: Drama Awards

Third and finally: The drama awards!

Welcome back to the 2015 Benny Awards! For our final day, we'll be presenting the drama awards, as well as the Miniseries and miscellaneous categories. 

 And now, here's your host: Max Benowitz, Sultan of Television himself!



Best Drama:
  1. Better Call Saul
  2. Justified
  3. Mad Men
  4. The Leftovers
  5. The Knick
To award best drama, a lot of difficulty went into the decision. The endings of Mad Men and Justified both left a huge impact, while The Knick may have also ended, leaving a fantastic finish behind as well. Better Call Saul had about as powerful a debut as it could, but in the end, The Leftovers stood out head and shoulders above. The thought going into the season, the character development, and the mysteries brought up made every hour of the ten episode season riveting and amazing. Damon Lindelof is back to his former glory, even more so. 
Best Miniseries:
  1. Show Me A Hero
  2. The Jinx
  3. Fargo
  4. Wayward Pines
  5. American Crime
Fargo came into this year with a lot of pressure to top the Benny-award winning first season, and it exceeded all of those expectations. Much as I loved The Jinx and Show Me a Hero, the definitive runners-up, Fargo didn't have a bad episode, a bad performance, or a bad character in the season. It was as well thought through as it gets, and the quality is all the evidence needed.
Best New Show:
  1. Narcos
  2. Better Call Saul
  3. The Man in the High Castle
  4. Mr. Robot
  5. The Comedians
  6. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
2015 was a year of great shows leaving and new shows coming in. Chief among these was the surprise hit of Better Call Saul, something I laughed at in theory but was amazing in execution. Odenkirk's outstanding work, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's flawless collaboration, and essentially every other possible went in to making this the best new series of 2015. 
Best Opening Sequence:
  1. Game of Thrones
  2. The Man in the High Castle
  3. Hell on Wheels
  4. The Leftovers
  5. Mad Men
  6. True Detective
Game of Thrones had a rather weak season this year, but their opening sequence remains awesome, and without Boardwalk Empire to rival its majesty, the opening takes the cake. 
Best Lead Male Actor (Drama):
  1. Rami Malek - “Elliot Alderson” - Mr. Robot
  2. Jon Hamm - “Don Draper” - Mad Men
  3. Bob Odenkirk - “Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman” - Better Call Saul
  4. Kevin Spacey - “Frank Underwood” - House of Cards
  5. Timothy Olyphant - “Raylan Givens” - Justified
  6. Clive Owen - “John Thackery” - The Knick
  7. Oscar Isaac - “Nick Wasicsko” - Show Me a Hero


All seven of these men acted their asses off, but in honor of the final time we'll see him and in honor of the emotional climax that Don Draper ended his run on, I give this award to Jon Hamm. For eight years now, he has given us one of the best anti-heroes on television and with the end of the show, a rain of accolades should be given to the man who made it compelling. 
Best Lead Female Actor (Drama):
  1. Elisabeth Moss - “Peggy Olson” - Mad Men
  2. Lena Headey - “Cirsei Lannister” - Game of Thrones
  3. Carrie Coon - “Nora Durst” - The Leftovers
  4. Jean Smart - “Floyd Gerhardt” - Fargo
  5. Rachel McAdams - “Ani Bezzerides” - True Detective
  6. Kirsten Dunst - “Peggy Blomquist” - Fargo
Woah - Kirsten Dunst is good. Peggy Blomquist may have been the most entertaining Fargo character ever, even including Lorne Malvo. Her quest to become self-actualized, her delusional, sometimes murderous actions, and anti-hero tendencies made for by far the best lead actress performance of the year. I'm just sad she won't (or at least probably won't) grace our screens in the third installment.
Best Supporting Male Actor (Drama):
  1. Angus MacFadyen - “Robert Rogers” - Turn: Washington’s Spies
  2. Christopher Heyerdahl - “Thor ‘The Swede’ Gundersen” - Hell on Wheels
  3. Rufus Sewell - “Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith” - The Man in the High Castle
  4. Bokeem Woodbine - “Mike Milligan” - Fargo
  5. Jonathan Banks - “Mike Ehrmantraut” - Better Call Saul
  6. Walton Goggins - “Boyd Crowder” - Justified
  7. Robin Lord Taylor - “Oswald Cobblepot” - Gotham
  8. Peter Dinklage - “Tyrion Lannister” - Game of Thrones
Pound for pound, this was the most competitive category. In the end, Walton Goggins must get his due. All eight of these guys were the sneaking stars of their respective shows, even if there is a larger lead to take that credit. Goggins, for every season of Justified made such an impact on the show, conversing with Timothy Olyphant's Raylan Givens in a way that was nothing if not electric. Goggins deserves his due at the end of the show, one of the great villains and characters in general of all time. 
Best Supporting Female Actor (Drama):
  1. Robin Wright - “Claire Underwood” - House of Cards
  2. Melissa McBride - “Carol Peletier” - The Walking Dead
  3. Christina Hendricks - “Joan Holloway” - Mad Men
  4. Ann Dowd - “Patti Levin” - The Leftovers
  5. Mary Steenburgen - “Katherine Hale” - Justified
  6. Eve Hewson - “Lucy Elkins” - The Knick
After viewing "International Assassin," the episode in which Ann Dowd's character comes to an ostensible end, I knew she had this award in the bag. Ann Dowd made for a sympathetic character, a hate-able character, and at times, a hilarious character during her portrayal as ghost Patti Levin. At the end of the day, good as the other nominees were, she sweeps it. 
Best Directing for Drama:
  1. Mimi Leder - The Leftovers - “Axis Mundi”
  2. Matthew Weiner - Mad Men - “The Milk and Honey Route”
  3. Steven Soderbergh - The Knick - “Ten Knots”
  4. Miguel Sapochnik - Game of Thrones - “Hardhome”
  5. Vince Gilligan - Better Call Saul - “Uno”
  6. Keith Gordon - Fargo - “Did You Do This? No, You Did It!”
For all the crap I gave Game of Thrones this season, "Hardhome" almost makes up for any and all writing flaws. This episode was the best action sequence of 2015, on the small or large screen. The brutal battle between the white walkers and the wildlings was terrifying, but epic at the same time, gluing viewers to the screen as it went on. Even compared to episodes like "Blackwater" or "Watchers on the Wall," also directed by Sapochnik, this was his best work. Truly epic cinema. 
Best Writing for Drama:
  1. Thomas Schnauz - Better Call Saul - “Pimento”
  2. Noah Hawley - Fargo - “Rhinoceros”
  3. Damon Lindelof - The Leftovers - “International Assassin”
  4. Matthew Weiner - Mad Men - “The Milk and Honey Route”
  5. Graham Yost - Justified - “The Promise”
  6. Scott M. Gimple - The Walking Dead - “Here’s Not Here”
Much like Ann Dowd's performance in this episode, after viewing it, I knew it had won. This episode blew my mind, the best hour of television possibly since Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias." The rhetorical questions about life and death asked, the vivid vision of the afterlife according to Lindelof, and more made for the most intense, emotional, and gripping hour of the year, penned by the great Lindelof. 
Best Guest Actor/Actress on a Drama:
  1. John Carroll Lynch - “Eastman” - The Walking Dead
  2. Raymond Cruz - “Tuco Salamanca” - Better Call Saul
  3. Bruce Campbell - “Ronald Reagan” - Fargo
  4. Diana Rigg - “Olenna Tyrell” - Game of Thrones
  5. Catherine Keener - “Mary Dorman” - Show Me a Hero
  6. Damon Herriman - “Dewey Crowe” - Justified

In our final award of the evening, an old favorite from Breaking Bad takes it. Raymond Cruz is electric as he shouts, curses, and scares Saul Goodman, much in the same way he did all those years ago to Walter White. He takes this category by a small margin though, as the other five nominees did a lot to their small crop of episodes.

Conclusion:

 Thank you all once again for reading! Hope you all enjoyed the blog during 2015, and the Bennys in particular.

Here's to plenty more content and good TV in 2016! Happy New Years!

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