Emmys 2023: Lead Actor In A Drama Series — Our Dream Nominees!

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Considine made the Game of Thrones prequel's monarch a conflicted, complicated man on whose words we hung until the very end. And we do mean the very end: Though Considine's portrayal was gripping throughout the HBO drama's first season, it reached its zenith in the episode in which King Viserys succumbed to his advanced physical decay. Considine kindled the character's fundamental spark into one last blaze as he rallied his family to forgive each other, the actor incandescent in his alter ego's final plea. Viserys was a man full of faults, but Considine's take on him? Near perfect.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: All four of Succession's Roy siblings unraveled in their own ways after patriarch Logan's stunning death, but Roman's emotional spiral was perhaps the toughest to watch — and that's a compliment to Culkin's series-best performance. In the days after Logan's demise, Roman flip-flopped erratically between boardroom bluster — firing executives willy-nilly, gleefully getting a fascist president elected — and a childlike aimlessness in the wake of losing his father. Culkin nailed every frenetic beat of his character's initial grief (sorry, pre-grief), culminating in a breakdown at Logan's funeral that was so raw, we could hardly stand to watch it.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Idris has always impressed as Snowfall's volatile drug kingpin Franklin Saint, but his raw and deeply unsettling turn in the FX drama's final season was a cut above the rest. As Franklin's desperation to retrieve his stolen money intensified, so did the actor's performance, offering up a searing portrayal of a broken man far removed from the promising kid we first met in Season 1. Franklin deserved his tragic fate in the end — aimlessly wandering the neighborhood he once ruled — just as Idris deserves to be recognized loudly for his truly outstanding work bringing the gripping story to a close.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Saul's masterpiece of a final season was a whirlwind of shocking twists, but the heart of it all was Odenkirk's indelible turn as the fascinatingly flawed Jimmy McGill, who transformed into slick huckster Saul Goodman, then into meek Cinnabon manager Gene and finally back into Jimmy again. The speech where Jimmy came clean about his past misdeeds and reaffirmed his identity as Jimmy McGill was the peak of Odenkirk's dramatic powers — and we'd love to see Emmy voters return a verdict in his favor.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Because, damnit, he made us cry while watching a TV show based on a video game about zombies! As the HBO drama's Joel, Pascal made us feel every toughened fiber of the character's resistance to caring about Bella Ramsey's Ellie... which caused Joel's eventual, albeit doomed, surrender to his fatherly love for the unique teen to hit even harder. Pascal's desperation during Joel's "I'm failing in my sleep" breakdown in the workshop? His ashamed confession in the finale about how Joel came by that scar? Trophy-worthy, all of it.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Honestly, Stewart could just put on a Starfleet uniform and say "Make it so," and we'd be happy. But Picard's final season allowed the classically trained actor to flex his thespian skills in a big way, with Jean-Luc getting hit by a photon torpedo to the heart when he learned he had a son he never knew about. Jean-Luc's heated confrontation of Beverly about their son gave Stewart some of his meatiest material ever on Trek, and his spry leadership as he reassembled the Enterprise crew proved that the 82-year-old Stewart might have more than one final mission left in him.

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: The final season was a blessing wrapped around a curse for Kendall Roy as he finally got the chance to call the shots at Waystar, but only after the untimely death of his father Logan, and Strong added even more depth and nuance to one of the past decade's best TV performances. Kendall's grief in the immediate wake of Logan's passing was devastating, and he showed a surprising killer instinct as he asserted control of the family company. Kendall will always be a mess, psychologically speaking, but Strong has a real gift for making him sympathetic amid all the bravado.

In one of Emmy season's more peculiar developments, Succession patriarch Brian Cox has decided to remain in the Lead Actor race despite appearing in less than one-third of Season 4's 10 episodes as Logan Roy. This will potentially put Cox in a head-to-head battle with onscreen progeny Jeremy Strong (who won in 2020) and, making his debut in the Lead Actor derby after three years in supporting, Kieran Culkin.

We'll stop short of spoiling which members of the Roy family made our Dream Emmy short list, beyond confirming that two out of three of them made the cut.

Scroll through the list below to review all of our Dream Nominees (remember, these aren't predictions; they're wish lists) and then tell us if our picks warrant a "Hell, yes!," "Um, no" or "How could you leave off so-and-so?!"

For the record, 2023 Emmy nominations will be voted on from June 15-26, and unveiled on July 12. The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled to air on Monday, Sept. 18 on Fox.

Scroll down for links to our previous Dream Emmy categories:

🏆 Outstanding Drama Series — Our Dream Nominees

🏆 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series — Our Dream Nominees