BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
GILLIAN FLYNN: Ken, I think you and I are both crazy about Connie Britton's feisty, funny portrayal of football wife Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights — she gives TV wives a good name. And speaking of wives, Jeanne Tripplehorn blew me away on Big Love this season with her conflicted, anxious portrayal of polygamist wife Barb.
KEN TUCKER: Yay, Connie, indeed! I also think Glenn Close, in Damages, kept a show that always veered toward melodrama on the right track. And when she's given an episode to take center stage, Mary McDonnell is doing work in Battlestar Galactica that's the equal of any actress on TV.
GILLIAN I gotta disagree on both: I think Close and McDonnell simply did some fast-thinking work in shows that seem determined not to help them out with strong storytelling. I guess I can't get past some of the outlandish plotlines they were dished — and I admit I may be poisoned by my deep disappointment in this season of Battlestar.
KEN: I kinda know what you mean about Battlestar — as I've written in EW before, the show now suffers from TMS (Too Much Starbuck!) — but I still say McDonnell commands the small screen. And I'll throw in another sci-fi nomination wish from left field: I think Lena Headey, in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is doing a bang-up job as both an action hero and a complex mom.
OUR PICKS (clockwise from top left): Connie Britton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Lena Headey, Mary McDonnell
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