A nice constant shutout of The Leftovers over the past two years has ended. After a phenomenal final season got shutout of the Emmy’s, the Television Critics’ Association threw some respect to the show.
At the 33rd annual TCA Awards, Carrie Coon was honored for her role as Nora Durst. She was awarded the top TCA acting honor, winning the Individual Achievement in Drama. On a show populated with outstanding performances, Coon stood out. As the difficult, lost, rash, intense Nora, she delivered a pitch perfect interpretation of someone who is strong and unaffected on the surface while balancing the loss of everything with a yearning for answers. A lesser actor would have been perceived as a total bitch, frankly. Coon wasn’t. She was that good.
On top of that, she actually was honored for her role in Fargo as well. That was nowhere near as good as the Nora performance, but sure. She deserves all the praise, so it’s nice to see her receive it.
Winning for both roles is a history making effort. The TCA doesn’t separate male and females, nor does it separate limited series or TV movies from normal series. Everyone is together. So that makes the win even more impressive.
While The Leftovers didn’t get any hardware at last year’s Emmy’s and won’t again this year, I would like to say they deserved every award for the second season and deserve more for this season. Theroux, Eccleston, King, Coon, Leder, Lindelof, give them all the awards. They deserve it. The Leftovers is one of my favorite shows ever and deserved more attention and popular praise. Critics loved it, those that watched loved it, but for some reason it got nothing from the mainstream awards. A disappointment for sure, but similar to The Wire I’m willing to bet it becomes a huge “hidden gem” for those that missed it in the coming years.
You can read more about the TCA Awards at Variety.