Juno Temple Deserved The Emmy For Best Actress In A Limited Series, Not Jodie Foster

The 2024 Emmys have come and gone. Some of the awards were well-deserved, like the record-breaking wins for Shogun and the nods to the excellent Netflix drama, Baby Reindeer.

The latter won Best Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series, which Jessica Gunning absolutely deserved. Her performance was quite possibly the best this year. Her Martha was frightening, tragic, frustrating but also sympathetic. Gunning was simply astonishing in the role.

Baby Reindeer also won Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series and Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series and Richard Gadd absolutely deserved both these wins.

Two of the series that Baby Reindeer was up against were Fargo Season 5 and True Detective: Night Country. These were both nominated for many awards, but each only snagged one: Lamorne Morris won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Fargo and Jodie Foster won Best Actress for her role in Night Country. Both played police officers. I’m surprised by both wins.

Morris did a fine job as Deputy Witt Farr, but his character didn’t strike me as terribly instrumental to the plot. Frankly, of the shows I’ve seen in that category, I’d once again pick Baby Reindeer. Tom Goodman-Hill’s performance as a deeply creepy and malevolent predator in that show was riveting. His acting was as terrific as his character was horrible. I can’t imagine that was an easy role to play.

But I’m more bothered by Foster’s win, and I say this as someone who is a huge fan of her work in countless films. Her performance in Silence of the Lambs won her a much-deserved Oscar in 1991 (Anthony Hopkins also won for Best Actor). She’s great, usually, but she wasn’t great in Night Country. I’m not sure that was entirely her fault. The script was a mess. The dialogue was painful. Foster’s character was incredibly unlikeable, and frankly Foster was far from the top of her game in the role.

MORE FOR YOU
‘Diddy’ Arrest: 50 Cent, Charlamagne Tha God And Other Celebrities React
In Photos: See The ‘Supermoon’ Lunar Eclipse Light-Up The Sky And Set Up A ‘Ring Of Fire’
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Wednesday, September 18th

I had many complaints about Fargo’s fifth season as well, but it was a much, much better season of television than Night Country in almost every imaginable way. As I wrote at the time, I believe it broke some important “rules” when it comes to what makes Fargo tick, but one thing I had not problems with at all was the acting, and Juno Temple in particular was simply wonderful as Dorothy Lyon, a woman with a troubled past and some dark secrets finally catching up to her.

Foster deserves all the accolades she’s gotten over the years, but this was a moment for the Emmys to award someone new on the scene, who clearly put her all into an incredibly demanding role. For all my quibbles with the show, Fargo’s fifth season ended on a high note. Its final scene was brilliant, and probably the most emotionally poignant endings to any Fargo season. Much of that is because of Temple’s excellent performance. The ending of Night Country was cringe-inducing and laughable. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so busy glorifying suicide and perpetrating the “noble savage” stereotype at the same time.

I suppose this is no surprise. Award shows are generally ridiculous popularity contests. But I like to see scrappy underdogs win, and I’m pleased that Baby Reindeer and Shogun did so well. I’m just baffled that Night Country was nominated 19 times and walked away with such a prestigious award.