THE PERFORMER | Sarah Goldberg
THE SHOW | Barry
THE EPISODE | “tricky legacies” (May 7, 2023)
THE PERFORMANCE | Goldberg has been wowing us for four seasons now with her work as ruthlessly ambitious actress Sally on HBO’s pitch-black hitman comedy. But this week, she topped herself by essentially crafting a performance within a performance as Sally took on a new identity and completely transformed herself into a frustrated mother drinking herself into oblivion.
Barry and Sally escaped their dire fates in L.A. by moving out to the middle of nowhere and reinventing themselves as “Clark” and “Emily.” Sally saw this as an opportunity to put her acting skills to work, putting on a brunette wig and adopting a Southern accent to play the part of Emily. Goldberg was nearly unrecognizable at first as Emily, but she allowed Sally’s simmering desperation to peek through as Emily slung coffee as a waitress at a local diner and swigged vodka straight from the bottle to numb the pain. Goldberg got laughs as a drunken Sally slurred her words at a family dinner with Barry and their young son John, but her hopelessness was no laughing matter. Emily even flirted with a sleazy diner cook just to feel something, but she ended up wrapping her hands around his neck and nearly suffocating him, and Goldberg was downright terrifying as Sally’s deeply repressed anger almost led her to choke a man to death. (A sleazy man, but still.)
Goldberg also made it clear that Sally isn’t cut out to be a mother, with Emily squirming uncomfortably in bed when John tried to cuddle up next to her. Sally traded her freedom for safety, but she’s already regretting that decision — and Goldberg did a fantastic job of showing us just how much she regrets it.
Scroll down to see who scored Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
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HONORABLE MENTION: Matthew Macfadyen
Image Credit: Courtesy of HBO Shiv and Tom’s marriage on Succession has always been on shaky ground, but the ground beneath them disappeared completely this week as they tore into each other in a brutally savage war of words, and Matthew Macfadyen was sensational as Tom shifted back and forth between cruelty and heartbreak. (We would honor Sarah Snook here as well, but we already honored her a few weeks back.) These two know exactly what to say to hurt each other the most, and Tom went right for the jugular, attacking Shiv’s relationship with her dad Logan and even her capability of being a mother — which was extra painful since he doesn’t know Shiv is pregnant. Macfadyen’s tear-filled eyes and strained voice, though, told us that Tom really did love Shiv, in spite of everything. It was a tough scene to watch, but seeing Macfadyen excavate the depths of Tom’s battered soul made it all worth it.
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HONORABLE MENTION: Johnathan Nieves
Image Credit: Paramount+ screenshot But of course Johnathan Nieves would deliver a knockout of a performance in Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’.” As the episode started, he slickly slid from spotlighting Richie’s heartbreak over blowing it with almost-girlfriend Jane to masking that same pain with party-animal swagger. But as the T-Birds’ day of carousing went seriously south, all thanks to Richie, the actor quickly sobered up his character to provoke his pals to “Hit Me Again” in a musical number that amounted to a gut punch. After he finally, tearfully admitted that he loved Jane, Nieves switched gears once more, allowing Richie to lay it all on the line for his would-be squeeze in a way that ensured that we knew exactly how much sparkle he brings to Paramount+’s underrated gem of a series.
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HONORABLE MENTION: Chris O’Donnell
Image Credit: Paramount+ screenshot With its third-to-last episode ever, NCIS: Los Angeles wrapped up the arc of Callen and his long-unanswered questions about Hetty and Drona. And while said resolution felt rushed — remember, Jere Burns’ Pembrook had been positioned as quite the bogeyman from Grisha’s past — Chris O’Donnell‘s performance sold us on how these reveals recontextualized Callen’s youth. When Pembrook first resurfaced, O’Donnell put on a steely face that communicated distaste, distrust. But when Pembrook revealed that Hetty pulled Grisha from Drona the instant she learned what the sinister shrink was up to, we felt how that bombshell hit Callen. Later, Callen tried to maintain that Hetty’s guilt doesn’t make up for what she did to him. But as Pembrook detailed how Henrietta only wanted Grisha to fulfill his potential, as the son she never had, O’Donnell had us wanting to give G. the hug that Hetty isn’t around to offer.
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in Comments!
This story originally appeared on TVLine
