Top 10 best performances by TV actresses in 2019, from Phoebe Waller-Bridge to Jodie Comer and Regina King
The TV landscape in 2019 brought in some power roles for women, some in which the starring actresses had a substantial contributing role to bring to the screen — not just as actors but also as writers and producers.
Here is our list of the top 10 TV actresses who hit the sweet spot in 2019, making us tune in just to watch them.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge — 'Fleabag'
'Fleabag' was hailed for its courage to portray a deeply flawed woman. The fourth wall breaking, messy, imperfect (and unnamed) protagonist played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge almost found love with the Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) in Season 2.
Even while portraying the intimate experience of falling in love, Waller-Bridge managed to convey two levels of reality — talking to us, the audience and him, the object of her affection. It was best conveyed by the whole "his beautiful neck" musings to us while she tried to have a coherent conversation with him.
It also used the merging of these two realities beautifully when the Hot Priest catches on that Fleabag constantly 'disappears' from their conversations to talk to us.
Olivia Colman — 'The Crown'
Part of the British invasion, Olivia Colman killed it on 'The Crown'. With the show portraying the Queen as a middle-aged matronly figure steeped in the old ways of tradition and rigid formality, Coleman found a way to humanize her.
Despite the veneer of ice-cold decorum and well-hidden emotions, there is always a moment of vulnerability that Colman employs in key moments that lets the audience into the (imagined) private emotional world of the Queen that made Season 3 of the TV series worth watching. Remember that perfect single tear?
Hunter Schafer — 'Euphoria'
Zendaya is obviously the star of 'Euphoria'. But even her brilliant turn as the troubled teen addict was overtaken by Hunter Schafer's depiction of a trans girl navigating adolescence and sexuality while transitioning.
Schafer played Jules, her character, as a ray of sunshine with a dreamy anime girl vibe but with a dark edge of recklessness when it comes to searching for romance and affirming her feminity.
Her bravura performance is so effortless that you wouldn't know that this was her acting debut after being a New York-based model.
Schafer transitioned when she was in early high school and has said that she finds it "preferable that a trans person plays a trans person — one, because there are enough cisgender actors in Hollywood, and two, because trans people can bring levels of experience to the trans experience that they might be portraying".
If 'Euphoria' is anything to go by, we agree with her!
Sarah Snook — 'Succession'
As the direct, demanding and outspoken Shiv, Sarah Snook shows how a woman in power can be just as ruthless as a man. Her scenes in Season 2 with Logan Roy (Brian Cox) as she goes head-to-head with him at a time when Logan's empire is facing a crisis have been a pleasure to watch.
While Season 1 saw her as the reluctant heiress, Season 2 sees Snook's Shiv start playing the game on her own terms, positioning herself as the best candidate to take over Logan's (Brian Cox) empire.
And Snook makes her character Shiv's confidence and unapologetic ambition come to life in key scenes like the one where she takes on the task of convincing a victim of sexual abuse to back off to save the family business.
Jodie Comer — 'Killing Eve'
We've never seen an assassin like Villanelle on our screens before. Described as "bewitching", "delightfully dangerous" and "addictive", Jodie Comer injects a playful free-spiritedness to her psychopathic killer character, making her an audience favorite.
Her performance blends villainy with friendliness and warmth with aplomb. It is exactly this contradiction that makes Comer, with her elastic mobile face and undeniable charm, so fascinating to watch and dare we say, relatable?
Comer has already won an Emmy for 'Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series' that just underscored her brilliance in season 2 as she brings Sandra Oh's Eve further under her thrall.
Regina King — 'Watchmen'
There has been no dearth of complex, powerful women this year on TV. But Regina King's Angela Abar deserves special mention. The Academy Award winner brought her acting credentials to the masked vigilante Sister Night grappling with the politically timely fictional spin on America's race wars.
Her performance has been key to the series' success. She brings the rage and the trauma to the surface in a portrayal that blends superhero cool with grounded realness that makes her the perfect audience stand-in, and taps into that empathetic vein King is known for.
Embodying sexy and cool, King is also great in scenes where she shows a more vulnerable and softer side.
Laura Linney — 'Ozark'
As Wendy Byrde in 'Ozark', Laura Linney is a mother and wife caught in increasingly complicated predicaments. The episode she submitted for Emmy consideration 'One Way Out', shows the range she is capable of.
In it, Wendy is kidnapped and fighting for her life and has to reign in her fear as she tries to negotiate with her captor. It depicts how Linney portrays her character — a woman in survivalist mode — as someone who is both capable and smart and yet vulnerable to events in her life and her own questionable choices.
Viola Davis — 'How To Get Away With Murder'
Viola Davis has made waves for 'How To Get Away with Murder' for six seasons now as the alcoholic law professor Annalise Keating. Her acting has raised the bar in what could be called a melodramatic soap opera.
She excels in playing a woman trying to keep an implacable surface as her demons rage just below the surface. She stayed true to the emotional reality of the character through all the dramatic twists and turns the show as taken through the seasons.
Kirsten Dunst — 'On Becoming a God in Central Florida'
The actress tore up the scenery and the screen as Krystal Stubbs who rails against the world that has left incompetent (her husband), dangerous (Obie Garbeau) or smug (her boss) men in charge who delight in thwarting her efforts to keep the roof over her child's head and the bills paid.
It is a crowd-pleaser of a role that allows Dunst to play a flawed yet likable woman who is determined to "never be poor again".
Her snark and fighter spirit are captured perfectly by Dunst, who at one point rides down the road on an ATV, hair blowing in the wind, baby strapped to her torso as she breezily smokes a triumphant cigarette. That's Krystal Stubs for you.
Laura Dern — 'Big Little Lies'
Go head to head with Meryl Streep and come out on top? Laura Dern's self-made lawyer character, Renata Klein does just that. Renata is a woman who enjoys her power and success until she is brought down low by her philandering and inept husband.
It is a role that Dern can put as a feather in her already plumed cap. Her best scene is, of course, the one where she plays of Meryl Streep's calculative Mary Louise Wright in a battle of polite barbs that hit home.
Dern plays the rising unease perfectly with a jaw clenched, wrinkled brow precision as her weak points are being exposed in quick succession as she tries to talk some sense into Mary.
Her second big scene in Season 2 of 'Big Little Lies' was when her car scene with her husband when she loses it, punching him while berating herself for marrying him. We watched with wide-open eyes each time she threw a tantrum.