Best Performances of the Week: Revolution's Charlie and Nashville's Deacon

Welcome to the second 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 – or shortly thereafter – once I’ve finished 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 to whom I’ve picked, well that’s mighty big of you, for picking on someone’s opinion.

This week I had choices from fourteen separate series (and if you don’t know which series’ those are, go check out my reviews from the last week). For all those not caught up with this week’s episodes of Revolution and Nashville, please kindly step away from this blog. This is my weekly update of Best 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:

Tracy Spiridakos as Charlie Matheson in this week’s second season premiere of Revolution. This may be a bit of a controversial choice, being that I know a lot of people didn’t like Charlie last season on Revolution, but I really liked the strength she showed in this episode. Last season she was very much this naïve, yet strong-willed person, but this year she’s been through a lot, and that’s chipped away at her and made her an intriguing character. She almost seems to be a bit dead inside, and coming back from that will prove to be no easy task.

Last year was about saving her brother, and now that he’s dead, it seems this year will be all about finding and killing Monroe, seeing as he was what caused her brother to be killed. From the previews for next week, I can already see that this will come to ahead, and I’m just incredibly excited to see where all of this goes.

Damaged characters, I find, are people that can bring the most compelling storylines. Everything Charlie has gone through just elevates the places in which she can go. And Spiridakos has already proven that she can go there. Her acting has greatly improved over the course of just a year, and I’m very much looking forward to following her along through the rough edges she pours into this character.

Best Male Performance of the Week:

Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne in this week’s season two premiere of Nashville. Despite how well James Spader performed in the premiere of The Blacklist, it was Esten that stole this week’s performance for me. The amount of anger this man poured into his character, and the size of guilt we could see in his interactions with other characters was remarkable. I was really able to see his transition from defeated, to that slight glimmer of hope he had when he learned Raina had survived.

I don’t expect this quality from week-to-week, but I was happy to see where he had come from last year’s season finale, to this weeks premiere. The struggle this man has with alcoholism was evident to an extreme last year, as well as in the memory flashes Raina had while in her coma. I liked being able to see the glimmer of happiness in this man in the moments when he was with Raina in her memories, to the almost deadness he felt while speaking with his lawyer. The very moment when he sold it for me, was when he screamed at his niece for calling him a father figure for her, bringing to the surface the guilt he felt in being the cause of the crash, despite not driving.

Not having seen Esten before Nashville, I look forward to seeing his career throughout this series. The man has an effable ability to really become his character. The transitioning between emotions, and gruffness he brings to Deacon is just wonderful. As someone not a fan of country, I can see why some people adore the men. This character, and actor, is definitely someone to watch.

That’s all this week, but check back in next Thursday for my next update. In the meantime, come back tomorrow for my review of Haven, and then Sunday night is Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and possibly Betrayal, depending on whether or not I actually watch it. Have a good night!