THE INTERPRETER | Paddy Considine
THE SHOW | Dragon House
THE EPISODE | “The Lord of the Tides” (October 9, 2022)
PERFORMANCE | King Viserys may be dead, but Considine’s excellent turn as a decrepit royal in his final days will live on in perpetuity. Viserys dying was a devastating, decaying spectacle whose proximity to the grave was made all the more believable by the show’s top-notch makeup and prosthetics efforts, as well as the use of a body double in various scenes. A lesser actor could have been swallowed up by the combined and gruesome effect. But Considine’s genius lies in how he allowed Viserys’ physical decline to be the catalyst for the King’s emotionally stripped appeal to his fractured family.
In the dinner scene on The Monarch’s Last Night, despite Viserys’ hunched physique and raspy voice, Considine ignited the character’s fundamental spark in a final blaze. The king’s desire for a unified family became brilliant in its intensity, Considine excelling even as he slumped in his chair, groaning a little, showing us how much effort the dying leader demanded.
Though time and disease ravaged Viserys’ body, he was never more himself than in this plea at the last supper. So many props to Considine for making the conflicted and complicated man someone to whom words hooked us until the very end.
HONORABLE MENTION | The good fight this week, Ri’Chard Lane’s swagger dial dropped from eight to three as the company’s flamboyant new partner fought to get his ailing 11-year-old nephew a life-saving bone marrow transplant, and Andre Braugher took the opportunity to show us the human being behind the showman. Throughout the unusually short 40-minute episode, the Emmy-winning TV vet imbued his oversized persona with a rare vulnerability, Braugher anchoring Ri’Chard’s steely resolve with subtle hints of panic. and worry. And when the enraged egotist expressed his gratitude to his colleagues for participating in the seemingly impossible (but ultimately successful) mission, Braugher imbued the gesture with such genuine, heartfelt emotion that we found each other, for the first time. , to consider Ri’Chard as a – full member of the family.
HONORABLE MENTION | So far The patient, we only saw Alan’s son, Ezra, played by Andrew Leeds, locked in a bitter separation from his father via flashbacks. So it almost tore our hearts out this week to see Ezra dutifully putting up flyers in hopes of finding his missing father, with Leeds revealing that beneath all the resentment, Ezra still cares deeply for his father. Leeds also shone as Ezra shared his conflicted feelings about Alan with his wife, and he even picked up a guitar and sang a sweet, soulful rendition of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” – the same song his father sang with convict Elias a few weeks ago. The patient can be a daunting watch at times, but Ezra’s devotion to his father – and Leeds’ gently powerful performance – offered us a thin and much-appreciated ray of hope.
HONORABLE MENTION | In episode 7 of The Midnight Club, we saw a world in which Anya overcame her terminal illness. In what was eventually revealed to be a kind of dream state, Ruth Codd shone through as her character struggled with a nasty bout of survivor’s guilt that left her almost beyond repair. During an emotional phone call with a former friend, the actress’ lip quivered and her voice grew high-pitched, as we saw and felt her pain worsen. Codd never gave up, as Anya recounted the deaths of his former club members to his therapy group, and later listened through tears as those same members (who were actually still alive) feasted on a story of a happy future that would never be. The performance sparked a kaleidoscope of feelings — heartbreak, hope, despair, love and more — as Codd undoubtedly solidified herself as the star of the show.
Which performance(s) hit your socks this week? Tell us in the comments!