It’s funny how the show representation for women and men looks totally different. A lot of the shows that showed up in lead actress give way to new shows here, with actors giving the killer performances. For at least one, killer is very appropriate.

10) Kumail Nanjiani (Welcome To Chippendales) Hulu

9) Colin Firth (The Staircase) HBo MAX

8) Sebastian Stan (Pam and Tommy) Hulu

7) Jared Leto (We Crashed) Apple Plus

6) John Cameron Mitchell (Joe Vs Carol) Peacock

5) Domnhall Gleeson (The Patient) Hulu

4) Bobby Cannavale (The watcher) Netflix

3) Samuel L Jackson (The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray) Apple Plus

2) Taron Edgerton (Black Bird) Apple plus

1) Steve Carell (the Patient) Hulu

Those top three really are in a virtual tie. Three absolutely tremendous performances, all worth mentioning. There’s something even more haunting about Carell’s, as perhaps linked to how the show concludes, and the choices he makes. Perhaps that’s what gave him the edge, but watching Edgerton frantically trying to remember the map he had seen while in solitary, or Jackson and his mind fading in and out of reality were both equally powerful moments in TV this past year.