19 Excellent TV Performances from 2018
19 Excellent TV Performances from 2018 (continued):
11. Andy Samberg, Melissa Fumero, and the rest of the cast on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 5 Episode 22, “Jake & Amy” (Aired May 20, 2018)
Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago get married on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 5 Episode 22, “Jake & Amy.” The scene with their wedding is absolutely wonderful. It’s one of those episodes where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Amy’s carefully planned wedding falls apart, the veil is ruined, they lose the venue, and Cheddar eats the cake.
Yet the Nine-Nine still manages to come up with a gorgeous wedding at the very end. During the vows, there’s not a dry eye in the house.
Jake and Amy are one of the best couples on television, due in large part to Melissa Fumero and Andy Samberg’s incredible chemistry. They make you believe how in love Jake and Amy are.
The vows show how perfect they are for each other. As long as she’s with Jake, Amy doesn’t care if everything is planned to a T. Jake thanks his lucky stars every moment that he gets to be with Amy Santiago. They give us hope in love.
12. Bre-Z on All American Season 1 Episode 3, “i” (Aired October 24, 2018)
On one of the strongest debuts of the fall, All American introduces us to the dynamic Coop (Bre-Z), a masculine expressing gay woman. In a pivotal sequence on Season 1 Episode 3, “i,” Coop gives us a different kind of coming-out story and a touching example of what family really means.
Coop and Spencer have a conversation on the football bleachers about Coop finally explicitly coming out to her mom. Coop defends herself and asserts, “I’m not responsible for their blindness.” But still. A life lived in a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” household is not what Coop wants for herself.
Bre-Z’s performance as she gathers the courage to say “I’m gay,” to her mom is stunning. Bre-Z fills Coop with tenderness and volume, but it’s never loud. It’s a full portrayal, which is what we yearn for in queer representation.
The sequence packs two more punches. First, there’s a jab when Coop’s mother rejects her. She isn’t angry or vicious, which almost makes the hurt reach deeper. She rather matter-of-factly explains that she simply can’t have that in her home.
This stings with familiarity. But All American is quick to provide us with a salve. Coop finds acceptance and affection — the true meaning of family — in the open and caring arms of Spencer’s mom Grace.
13. Issa Rae on Insecure Season 3 Episode 4, “Fresh-Like” (Aired September 2, 2018)
This list is full of some intense scenes. Pain inspires art. But lust can be compelling too.
On Insecure Season 3 Episode 4, “Fresh-Like,” Issa runs into Nathan, a former passenger in her Lyft who beat someone up to defend her and then ran away.
This time, he startles her and makes her drop her barbecue salmon taco. He buys her a new one, but in the hour they have to kill before it’s ready, she takes him on a tour of her LA hood and they end up skinny-dipping in a private pool and playing “Truth or Dare.”
Issa and Nathan’s chemistry makes these scenes stand out, but there’s more depth to it than that. Rae’s honesty and vulnerability is quite startling in the story. She literally gets naked in a pool with a stranger and more quickly opens up to him than any of the other men she’s dated.
The character’s vulnerability exposes a new level of depth in Rae’s acting. We even feel her pain as the taco hits the ground. She’s steady throughout the season, but this episode, in particular, is fun to watch.
14. Aisha Hinds on 9-1-1 Season 2 Episode 9, “Hen Begins” (Aired November 19, 2018)
On 9-1-1 Season 2 Episode 9, “Hen Begins,” there is one grand monologue that Hen (Aisha Hinds) gives that will touch any viewer. Hen is in a situation where she’s struggling against a sexist, racist boss when she first starts out as a paramedic.
In response, she finally puts her foot down and point blank tells everyone that she sees them and their awful behavior. She calls them to action to see her as she is: a proud paramedic who is not just the sum of her parts.
It’s an impassioned speech that shows a strength of character we’ve never seen in Hen before. In a time of unrest for females, black people, and the LGBTQ+ community, Hen’s story shows that we too can rise above and become bigger than the oppressors.
15. Victoria Pedretti on The Haunting of Hill House Season 1 Episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady” (Released October 12, 2018)
Victoria Pedretti is the standout performer of Netflix’s hit The Haunting of Hill House, playing the most tragic of the Crain siblings. Each of the five siblings has a spotlight episode that focuses on them, and Pedretti is never better than in the Nell-focused Season 1 Episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady.”
Viewers are engrossed, haunted, and downright traumatized by the episode’s final scene, which finally reveals the nature of the Bent-Neck Lady who has been tormenting Nell since childhood. The scene also reveals how Nell died.
Pedretti makes us feel all the feels, and it is one of the year’s saddest death scenes to boot.
16. James Roday on A Million Little Things Season 1 Episode 9, “Perspective” (Aired December 5, 2018)
ABC’s newest drama does its fair share of pulling at the heartstrings. Grief is rarely tackled authentically on TV. The premise of A Million Little Things is centered almost entirely on the subject.
On A Million Little Things Season 1 Episode 9, “Perspective,” James Roday’s Gary Mendez is celebrating being one-year cancer free. But by the time he gets to the surprise party meant to commemorate the occasion, he doesn’t feel much like celebrating.
He’s spent the day reminiscing about how Jon (Ron Livingston) helped him through chemo, and he’s furious with his friend for committing suicide. So he can’t celebrate and ignore the fact that his friends are sitting back and watching Maggie die of cancer.
Gary is angry. As with many of the scenes on this list, viewers can feel his emotions through the screen. His anger builds and builds and builds, and by the time he gets to his speech, his words bite.
Just when things get awkward, they get worse. He rips a canvas off the wall and breaks it, and then breaks down crying. Because his friend convinced him to live, and then died. That’s infuriating. And Roday’s speech about it is riveting TV.
17. Kristen Bell on The Good Place Season 3 Episode 6, “A Fractured Inheritance” (Aired November 1, 2018)
The mother and daughter dynamic is a tough one. The Good Place Season 3 Episode 6, “A Fractured Inheritance,” conveys that complicated bond perfectly.
In it, Bell’s Eleanor visits her mother, who she thought was long dead. She finds a woman who is completely different from the mother she knew, and it hurts. Her mother was not a well-adjusted PTA mom. When every effort she makes to expose her mom’s fraud fails, she is forced to confront her pain.
Eleanor tells Michael that if her mom is truly happy and capable of change, it would mean that she (Eleanor) wasn’t worth changing for. It’s a normal instinct to want to make the people you love proud, so that realization stings. But at the end of the episode, she convinces her mom to stay in her happy place. It’s a complex arc about helping the people you love find happiness.
18. David Boreanaz on SEAL Team Season 2 Episode 3 (Aired October 17th, 2018)
David Boreanaz’s performance on Seal Team Season 2 Episode 3, “The Worst of Conditions,” is one of the highlights of his entire television career.
As he battles with heartbreak and anger over the sudden death of Alana, he shows a range of emotions that creates a visceral experience for the viewer — most notably when he loses his cool in the kitchen trying to make one of Alana’s dishes for the kids. It’s powerful stuff, and definitely one of the most memorable performances of the year.
19. Sam Elliott on The Ranch Part 6 Episode 2, “Reckless” (Released December 7, 2018)
Netflix’s The Ranch is one of the most underrated sitcoms on TV today. Like some other shows on this list, it belongs in its genre but effectively infuses drama into its storyline’s often. Danny Masterson’s ejection from the show sadly results in his character Jameson “Rooster” Bennett’s death.
At first, Rooster is just missing. But after visiting the site where police assume Rooster’s motorcycle went over the guardrail and into the river, his father Beau (A Star Is Born’s Sam Elliott) knows his son is dead. Rooster’s brother Colt (Ashton Kutcher) won’t accept it, and after a confrontation with Colt, Beau breaks down in his backyard.
The usually stoic, sarcastic Beau begins reminiscing to his girlfriend Joanne about teaching Rooster how to ride. His guilt is uncontrollable, and his feelings seep out despite his usual efforts to keep every emotion except anger inside. By the end of the scene, he’s crying in Joanne’s arms.
The scene is compelling for a couple of reasons: it’s surprising to watch the usually apathetic father break down so quickly. Joanne does remind him, after all, that he doesn’t exactly know where Rooster is yet.
“You didn’t see what happened, you didn’t see that bike,”
he says, before breaking down. It just feels real. As viewers, that’s all we want from our favorite characters — some real, relatable emotion.
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What were your favorite TV performances this year? Let us know in the comments below!
*Additional contributions by Brianna Martinez, Sarah Fields, Lauren Busser, Nick Hogan, Maii Trueba de Buen, Janelle McCammack, Mary Misasi, Caralynn Lippo, and Ashley Bissette Sumerel.
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Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.