Will ‘Fargo’ finally win Jon Hamm that elusive second Emmy?
“Fargo” is an Emmy favorite. Jon Hamm is an Emmy favorite. Put them together and what do you get? Well, we’ll find out in several months time. But the potential is there!
Season five of FX’s “Fargo” follows Juno Temple as a housewife thrust into dangers she thought had remained in her past life while Hamm co-stars as a sheriff who becomes embroiled in her drama. He plays a character you just love to hate and many critics noted it’s his best role since “Mad Men.” Hamm is central to the success of season five, which critics agree is a return to form after the disappointment of season four.
Alan Sepinwall (Rolling Stone) observed: “Hamm has long been good at playing villains. Roy Tillman’s specific brand of malevolence seems perfectly in tune with the ‘Mad Men’ star’s gift for playing macho avatars of a bygone era who are confused and angered by change. He’s at once menacing and pathetic, never more than in a delightful scene where Lorraine notes that Roy wants freedom without responsibility, then explains that only one kind of person on earth gets that: ‘You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.'”
Ben Travers (Indie Wire) noted: “Hamm, meanwhile, is having a ball. He’s so good at being smug and entitled — eight years playing Don Draper will do that — but even better at sliding an unexpected insult under the door (a credit to his comedic exploration in the years since).”
Bob Strauss (The Wrap) wrote: “Hamm lends Tillman the steady, superior persona only self-righteous/self-serving evil can project. But behind all of his certainty, sneering and very credible threats, there’s a low-boil hysteria that grows hotter with each setback. Hamm earns perhaps the greatest compliment that a villain performer can get: We can’t wait to see him thoroughly, agonizingly taken down.”
Hamm has already proven he’s got awards support for his turn in “Fargo.” He was nominated at both the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.
He is all but certain to reap an Emmy bid for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor. Aside from his terrific performance in the series, TV academy voters just love him. He has racked up a whopping 16 Emmy bids over the year.
Half of those were in Best Drama Actor for “Mad Men” — in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. He also has four Best Comedy Guest Actor bids to his name. They came in 2009, 2010 and 2012 for “30 Rock” and in 2015 for “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Plus, he was nominated for Best Drama Series for “Mad Men” in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. His sole Emmy win was in 2015 for Best Drama Actor for “Mad Men.”
Hamm’s extensive Emmy record shows not only how much voters love him but, more importantly, that he’s been cited for three different shows. This proves that voters didn’t just like him in “Mad Men,” they like him as a performer in general, so they’ll be much more inclined to nominate him for “Fargo.”
Hamm would join a long line of actors nominated for “Fargo.” To date, 11 of the cast have been nominated for Emmys for their roles in “Fargo.” Three of those were in Hamm’s category: Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton in 2014 for season one and Ewan McGregor in 2017 for season three.
Colorful, villainous roles tend to do well in this category. Evan Peters (“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”), Kumail Nanjiani (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Colin Firth (“The Staircase”), Hugh Grant (in both “The Undoing” and “A Very English Scandal”), Jesse Plemons (“USS Callister (Black Swan)”), and Darren Criss (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”) were all nominated for similar turns.
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