Best Performances of the Week: Dexter's Debra and New Girl's Winston

Welcome to the very first edition of Best Male and Female Performances of the Week. This is a weekly update that will occur, for the most part, on Thursday’s – when I don’t forget – after watching and reviewing the past week’s worth of episodes, where I will single out one male and one female performance that I believe merits special attention for the week. This, like my reviews, will be based solely on my opinion of the shows I watch in a week, and if you don’t like whom I’ve picked, well that’s just too bad for you.

This week I only had to pick two performances out of Haven, Dexter, Bones, Sleepy Hollow, Under the Dome, New Girl, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. So anyone that is not caught up with this week’s episodes of Dexter or New Girl, please kindly step away from this blog. This is my weekly (*cough*two days late*cough*) update of Best Male and Female Performances of the Week, and there may be spoilers pertaining to the two aforementioned shows. I repeat, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Best Female Performance of the Week:

Jennifer Carpenter as Debra Morgan in this week’s penultimate episode of Dexter. While there weren’t many performances to choose from, this one, hands down, took the cake. Carpenter just managed to pull off Deb in a way that made me absolutely love her, a large feat from my absolutely not being able to stand in her in the beginning of the season.

There were so many significant moments in this episode for Deb. Just to name a few, there was the subtle way she acted around Quinn after finding the engagement ring in his drawer, the way she pulled the gun on Saxon and smiled as she left Dexter to him, and the way she played being shot in the end of the episode and called in for an ambulance. Every one of these moments just made me crave for a happy ending for Deb, especially with all the things she’s gone through the last two seasons alone. More so than even for Dexter, I want Deb to get her happily ever after, at least on the force and with Quinn.

Knowing that Deb may well be dead, or at least dying, I have to give Carpenter her due in this very first segment of Best Performances of the Week. Her performance, the writing, and the screen time she was given was just spectacularly done. I applaud her, and hope she goes on to do well in future projects, which hopefully includes television at some point.

Best Male Performance of the Week:

Lamorne Morris as Winston Bishop in this week’s season three premiere episode of New Girl. While Tom Mison’s performance as Ichabod Crane in the pilot episode of Sleepy Hollow, and David Boreanaz’s performance as Booth in the season nine premiere of Bones were both well acted, it was Morris’s performance as Winston that stole the show.

Just the very fact that he was given such a B storyline in an episode that was supposed to be more Jess and Nick centric, and made it totally his, that won me over. The whole ludicrous aspect of going crazy over a puzzle was hilarious. Sure, some might think of it as silly and stupid, but this is a sitcom, and sometimes it’s supposed to something ridiculous. I absolutely loved every moment Winston was on screen. He may appear to be the butt of the jokes, but he completely gives himself over to this character, and just made me laugh with ease.

Hopefully in weeks to come Winston will be given more screen time, because I’m almost at the point where I think Morris needs his own show, and all the other plots for Jess, Nick, and Schmidt can become the subplots. This man has fantastic comedic chops, and I greatly encourage the writers to use it as much as humanly possible.

That’s all for this weeks edition of Best Performances of the Week, check in next Thursday for week two of this update. But before then, check back in tomorrow for my reviews of Haven and Dexter. And yes, I’m a little behind, but that doesn’t mean you should enjoy my reviews any less. So stay tuned.