Jason Isaacs, "Awake"

Nomination Status: Had "Awake" somehow been a hit, Isaacs could have been a strong player here. It was not.

In His Favor: I'm not sure if Jason Isaacs would make my personal Top 6 here, but he'd be REALLY close. One of the season's most complicated pieces of dramatic logistics rested on his capable shoulders and he never faltered. Playing a man balancing two different kinds of grief and coping in two different worlds, while also investigating a slew of baffling crimes and seeing penguins and whatnot, Isaacs' intensity was rarely allowed to wane. By the final episodes, when Michael Britten's sanity was either unraveling or else clarifying, Isaacs made his conflict astoundingly palpable.

Working Against Him: "Awake" was critically acclaimed and Isaacs' performance was the focus of much of that praise, but audiences didn't respond, giving the drama low ratings even by NBC's depressed standards. This just isn't a category that's going to be cracked by an already canceled network series, no matter how positively received.