Below you will find the Top 3 finishers for each side listed out in placement order. All of these graphics will be available on my Twitter account as well as the official SpoilerTV Twitter and Instagram accounts. We are happy for you to share them, but please share them from one of these official sources to ensure you are sharing the best quality version of these graphics. For the highest quality, please click on the slides to enlarge them.
STAFF RESULTS
The Staff side was far less unexpected than the Reader side was this month. Patrick John Flueger trailed behind for the first few hours of voting before surging to the top. Once he took that top spot nobody was ever able to even get close to him again. He ended with a considerable lead over his nearest competition. The battle for the second and third spots was far more heated. The two that held that spot changed several times. Tatiana Maslany and Yvonne Strahovski only secured their final placements in the last hour of the voting window.
Patrick John Flueger has been a longtime fan favorite on Chicago PD and it’s not without reason. Flueger is a well-versed actor with an impressive range. He is a performer that can capture intense emotional scenes and then easily transition to intense action sequences without losing a beat. While this episode he won for encapsulated all the usual action expected from this show, it was the more emotional moments that really made Flueger a standout in this episode. From the moments he got to portray Ruzek as a father to the moments he was in full professional mode trying to get much-deserved justice. Through it all, he captured the conflicting and overlapping emotions that come with being a father and law enforcement professional. It was a true tour-de-force performance for this exceptionally gifted performer. A truly hard-earned and well-deserved win for an impactful episode that left a lasting impression on both the characters and the audience, in large part due to the performance Flueger delivered so flawlessly. Patrick John Flueger is SpoilerTV's September Staff Choice Performer of the Month.
READER RESULTS
This was a remarkable round of voting for the Reader side. There are months when one can look at the list of nominees and make a reasonable guess about who has the strongest odds of winning. Then there are those months that come along and deliver a wonderful unexpected surprise. This was one of those months.
For only the second time in the history of the feature, this round of voting ended in a tie. It is an exceedingly rare event. This is also the first time that co-stars and primary scene partners have shared a win. Also the first time, to the best of my recollection, that a performer in their first major role has won. To keep the history-making momentum going this is also the first time that a series has met its 2 wins per year quota in a single round. This will also be the first time since we started honoring just the Top 3 that we will honor four performers in the Top 3 which is only fair since the top spot is being shared. It wasn’t just the top winners that put up a good challenge, Patrick John Flueger only trailed the winners by 11 votes in the end. Jane Leeves while she trailed behind for most of the voting round surged during the last day of voting to secure the final spot in the Top 3. All around it was a remarkable, historic, unpredictable round that made for one of the most exciting battles in a long while.
Let’s talk about our winning duo of Mia McKenna-Bruce and Rhian Blundell from the new Peacock series Vampire Academy. McKenna-Bruce portrays non-royal moroi Mia Karp. She knows just how to portray her character to make sure that Mia does not get lost in the expansive world these characters inhabit. When she is on screen the audience takes notice. This episode saw McKenna-Bruce take Mia through the tedious process of accepting her punishment for protecting Meredith in the prior episode as well as going through an extensive round of training to try to perfect her control over her magic. It was a deep and impactful episode for the character that gave McKenna-Bruce some remarkable material to work with. She shone in every scene, especially when Mia ran to the bedside of the injured Meredith. Mia’s confession that she was not afraid to face consequences if it meant protecting Meredith was a major moment of character evolution that allowed McKenna-Bruce to stunningly depict how deep Mia’s feelings run for Meredith. It was the tone of her voice and the sincerity in her eyes that sold the moment.
Then there is Blundell who has made a big impression in her first major role and despite not getting as much screen time as others in the cast she has made every single moment count as she portrays dhampir Meredith Beckham. Blundell showcases skills that it takes most seasoned performers decades to perfect. Her charismatic approach to portraying the character allows her to have a bigger impact when she is onscreen. It is this sincere way of portraying Meredith that allows the character to have such a major impact, not only on Mia, but on all those around her. This episode presented some strong material for Blundell to dig into and show her range. It showcased Meredith in her element as a guardian dhampir willing to risk her life for the moroi. The pain and anguish she conveyed when Meredith was injured was heartwrenching as the young guardian accepted her expected fate. She is as agile in depicting the action scenes as she is during deeper emotional ones. A skill she showcased during the recovery scene between Meredith and Mia, showing how easily she can transition her character between being a stoic dhampir and a love-struck young woman. When Mia acknowledged that she would do anything to protect Meredith the impact that had for a dhampir to hear that a moroi would protect her was profound and Blundell allowed all of those complex emotions to wash over Meredith. It was truly a strong episode for this industry newbie who certainly has a very bright and long career ahead of her.
Together their characters have engaged in a will they or won’t they courtship leading up to this episode both actresses won for. This was the culmination of what their characters have spent six episodes fighting for…each other. Through their individual performances and their shared scenes, these two wowed the audience and endeared themselves to fans of the show. Thanks to palpable onscreen chemistry and a clear trust in each other as co-stars they have already made an impact in just a few short episodes. Mia McKenna-Bruce and Rhian Blundell are SpoilerTV’s September Readers’ Choice Performers of the Month.
Please join us in the comments and on social media in celebrating winners Patrick John Flueger, Mia McKenna-Bruce, and Rhian Blundell as well as the incredible runner-ups. All 3 winners have secured a place in the 2022 Performer of the Year competition that will take place in January 2023. While the winners are no longer eligible for nomination, all of the runner-ups are still eligible to be nominated in 2022.
Come back to SpoilerTV on Tuesday, November 1st at 6 pm ET for the start of the October round.
