View from the Cheap Seats is kind of an extension of the newsroom. Whenever our three regular reporters, Calvin Daniels, Thom Barker and Randy Brenzen are in the building together, it is frequently a site of heated debate. This week: Who are the top male and female leads on television today?
Yawn
I'm going to be blunt here. This particular topic holds about as much interest for me as a colander holds water.
Who do I think are the top male and female leads on television today?
Do I watch much television, other than sports? Not really, so initially I had no idea what my answer was going to be.
Then it hit me. The following person gets my vote for the top male lead in a current television show. He's been on the air for 25 seasons and currently heading into his 26th one. Sure, his appearance has changed a little bit over the years. And maybe his voice sounds slightly different, but throughout a quarter of a century he has continually made people laugh at his idiocy and terrible parenting.
My choice for the top male lead in a television show that is currently on television is Drum roll, please... Homer Simpson!
As for female lead, this one really stumped me. Like I said, I don't watch that much television. However I eventually came up with one person who I could agree with myself on (and after all, to me, my opinion is the right one).
The woman who I chose as the best lead in a television show is a beautiful Italian-American lady who has had several of her own shows and has been asked to be a judge on several others.
And what's best about her is, while she's gorgeous; she can also cook up a mean meal. My top female lead in a television show tends to star on the Food Network. Giada De Laurentiis.
-Randy Brenzen
Tough calls
Sometimes when an idea gets kicked around for this column, usually on a Tuesday morning when already busy putting a paper through its production paces we agree on a topic without putting a lot of parameters on it.
Such is the case with the best male and female characters on TV right now.
As an example, Green Arrow is a beloved character from comic books and my youth, but actor Stephen Amell, even as a Canadian can't carry him to the top of the list.
No, for this column I am looking for that combination of great scripted character coupled with great overall performance.
On the male side there were a number to consider, Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, Canuck Yannick Bisson in the fine Canadian-produced Murdoch Mysteries, Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon on Hell On Wheels (shot in Canada), and the aforementioned Amell as the Arrow being a couple.
But ultimately it came down to three for me.
Honourable mention one goes to Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes on Elementary.
Elementary has done a fantastic job of modernizing a class character, and adding enough new elements to make it fresh, a female Dr. Watson, a female "Moriarty' figure, and a different take on brother Mycroft Holmes among them.
But Sherlock remains the compelling aspect of the series, and Miller is standout in the role.
Running a close two for me is Sean Bean as Martin Odum in Legends. The series is one of the best spy thrillers to be on the tube in forever, and Bean, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1983 and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and maybe best recognized as Boromir in Lord of the Rings, does a great job of the undercover agent who is so deep into his 'legends' he is not sure who he really is.
But, in the end the best of TV today is James Spader in his outstanding role as Raymond 'Red' Reddington on Blacklist.
I wasn't sure the premise of Blacklist could last over a long series, but it has, thanks in part to Spader's portrayal of a man with a past, a man ready to pull the trigger when he deems it is required, a man with a sense of morals albeit unique to him, a man with a heart that dhows through a rather dark persona.
An outstanding effort by Spader and great TV.
Now on the female side of things, I struggled mightily.
In most shows, at least those I watch regularly, the lead women in the series are still secondary to the male lead. Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson in Elementary is a fine example. She pulls off the role wonderfully, but still is overshadowed by Sherlock, relying on the lead role to exist as a complimentary piece.
That is not to say a smaller role cannot define a series.
Linda Hunt as Henrietta Lange greatly enhances and defines NCIS: Los Angeles.
The honourable mention is earned by Eliza Taylor's role as Clarke Griffin on the surprise hit scifi series The 100. Griffin is tough, smart, a leader and yes pretty, and Taylor pulls it all together effortlessly to create a believable character in a future that at times seems all to plausible. A series worth watching, in large part because of Taylor.
But in the end I went about as close to home as you can get as the actress is from Regina. Tatiana Maslany portrays Sarah Manning, along with a number of her 'clone sisters' characters' in the excellent Orphan Black.
The series is fantastic scifi-ish TV, and that Maslany carries off multiple roles, each rather different from the rest is outstanding.
-Calvin Daniels
Netflix rules
I don't know that I can speak to this topic with any authority since I have a limited number of television shows that I actually follow. Then again, this is the view from the cheap seats, not view from the expert seats.
The good thing is that since the Emmy Awards has broadened its reach from the networks to include other Internet-based services such as Netflix, it makes shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black available for consideration.
The male lead side is much easier for me. In fact, speaking of the Emmys, last year's crop of nominees were all from shows I am familiar with. Bryan Cranston (Walter White from Breaking Bad) took home the 2013-2014 award for best actor and I might have considered him except that show is no longer current.
House of Cards is, though, and it is pretty hard to argue with Kevin Spacey's portrayal of uber-corrupt congressman-cum-president Frank Underwood for best male lead on TV right now. I can't wait for Netflix to release season three in January.
I gave some consideration to Matthew McConaughy, who played the hard-drinking former homicide detective Rust Cohle in HBO's True Detective, but ultimately Spacey got my vote.
The female lead was more difficult. I was tempted to pick Robin Wright, Underwood's other half, but that was mostly out of sentimentality for her role as Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride, one of my all-time favourite movies.
Looking at the most recent Emmy nominees, I don't know any of the shows except House of Cards and The Good Wife, which I watched for a couple of seasons before losing interest. I can certainly see understand why Julianna Margulies who plays Alicia Florrick in that series would take home the prize.
I also briefly considered Kaley Cuoco, Penny from The Big Bang Theory, but although she is still one of the best things about that show it has gone so far downhill even she is looking a little tired in it.
So, I am left with the shows I actually do watch regularly and really, the crop of female leads is pretty thin, except for the ABC's new legal procedural with a twist How to Get Away with Murder and the Netflix series Orange is the New Black in which a preppy young woman winds up in prison with hardened criminals.
In How to Get Away with Murder Viola Davis is brilliant as the fearsome professor and defence lawyer Annalise Keating. Hardened, unemotional and brutally demanding on the surface, Davis nonetheless lets us see a more tender side to the attorney.
I am going to have to go with Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman in Orange is the New Black, however. She plays the character with such a perfect blend of naivety, compassion, intelligence and toughness it is easy to forget she is an actor playing a role.
-Thom Barker
