CarterMatt Awards 2016: Lee Pace, Andrew Lincoln, Jamie Dornan, Aidan Turner among Top Actor nods

We’re back with the latest edition of the CarterMatt Awards today, and we’re focusing here on a category in Top Actor that over the years has shown to be one of the most popular ones we’ve done with over hundreds of thousands of votes. Last year’s battle alone was particularly contentious, so we’ll see what shakes down this time around!

While we do tend to designate things a little bit different in the Underrated categories in terms of criteria, there are no limitations here in terms of other awards won and total popularity. We’re basing these strictly on some of the people who we believe were the best overall performers of the past year, and whose performances were either moving, funny, exciting, or everything in between. We do like to look at honoring people not frequently given enough love elsewhere, especially with some shows criminally overlooked as a whole.

Top Actor – The Nominees

Jamie Dornan, “The Fall” (Netflix) – Is there anything more terrifying than a monster who doesn’t know he is a monster? There were times when we asked that question regarding the character of Paul Spector over the third season, but we won’t explore this further for the sake of keeping things under wraps. What we will say is that Dornan gave a particularly stunning and haunting performance, one that covered a wide emotional range and has us excited to see anything that he does over the course of his career.

Andrew Lincoln, “The Walking Dead” (AMC) – We all know Lincoln can be a remarkable actor, but like we said when we chose to pick him as one of our ideal Golden Globe nominees, he especially made the most of his screen time over the past year. Take a look at what he did during his season 7 episodes to date, and how he’s transformed Rick Grimes into a broken man grasping at whatever he can in order to see the sunrise. We’ve seen brutality within him, but at the same time, we’ve also seen hopelessness.

Alex O’Loughlin, “Hawaii Five-0” (CBS) – 2016 easily was the best year for O’Loughlin to date, as we were able to see how Steve McGarrett was like with his life on the line, and also how he would have to rely on someone else to survive rather than taking care of the problem himself. This brought so much more vulnerability to the character, while not taking away some of the humor and heart we’ve come to know him for over time. Overall, we do also think that we as viewers / critics often do not take into account the amount of work and effort that goes into the more physical aspects of a show like this, which make his performance all the more impressive.

Lee Pace, “Halt and Catch Fire” (AMC) – Go back and watch the final two episodes of season 3 and tell us that Pace, the reigning champion in this category, was worth anything less than a nomination this time. This may have actually been an even better season for Joe MacMillan when you consider everything that he went through, whether that be his relationship with fellow young visionary Ryan Ray to meeting up once more with Cameron Howe to at one point even questioning his own mortality. Joe may be rather self-destructive at times, but we do think at his heart there is an idealist there, someone who wants the best in the world and someone whose uncompromising nature does at times cause things to fall apart.

Aidan Turner, “Poldark” (PBS) – The fact Ross Poldark continues to be such a compelling lead despite his many misgivings is a true testament to the sort of work that we see Turner put in. Ross is a flawed hero, a man conflicted by his past and present, and someone who wonders and cares for what he’s leaving behind on Earth. Can he ever measure up outside of in times of war? Can he be a proper husband and father? Turner brings confidence, but also a rich ability to humanize the character, through every episode we see him in.