STAFF RESULTS
The Staff Choice competition, three stars from the same show, The Last of Us jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. In fact, none of the performers fluctuated from their starting positions. Ultimately, Nick Offerman took the top stop, followed closely by Pedro Pascal, and then Anna Torv. They out-distanced their nearest competitors by over 2 to 1. Nick Offerman’s performance as Bill in The Last of Us has received floods of accolades, and our staff’s valentine to his work is but one drop in the bucket of praise. When a performance is so wildly celebrated, describing the specifics of how well the actor executed their craft starts to feel reductive. Offerman brings such ease and contentment throughout the opening montage of Bill efficiently building his survivalist paradise, effectively selling his character’s celebration of the end of the world. If Bill wants more or ever wanted more, it’s concealed from the audience, at least until something more arrives. Sure, Frank (Murray Bartlett) is the one who falls into the pit, but Bill falling in love is the axis of the episode. And Offerman dishes it out. Some particularly lovely parts of his performance include that wistful stare towards the bathroom door after Frank asks for five more minutes, the way the unflappable Bill all but falls through the kitchen door when bringing Frank his meal, and the ever-so-subtle pride in how Bill rotates Frank’s dish to show off his immaculate plating skills. When Frank goes to the piano later, Offerman does some of his most poignant work in showing Bill’s conflicted attitude towards the piano and how much of his connection to it he should reveal to Frank. His hands clearly itch for the keys, moving in every direction, as Bill tries to not reach for the piano (and Frank and all that Frank represents). It’s much more than just playing a song, and Offerman lets us see Bill’s walls crumbling with each note. He is shaking, trembling, as he finishes playing. “I was never afraid before you showed up,” Bill tells Frank later in the episode (after a scene where Offerman drops the most wonderful, giddy sunbeam of a laugh that has ever existed). One could spend a long, long time talking about all the other things Offerman does well in this episode (the comic timing of “Which gun?”, the breathtaking, beautiful sorrow in the moment when Bill can’t bring himself to look at Frank for a second near the end, the proud smile when he reveals to Frank that he’ll be leaving with him). There are excellent performances, and then there are performances that surprise you by how bright and rich they are. Even though you expected something wonderful, from all the hype, it’s just that much better than the anticipation, like a post-apocalyptic strawberry. Nick Offerman is SpoilerTV's January Staff Choice Performer of the Month.
READER RESULTS
The race on the Reader’s side was much closer. Chicago PD’s Tracy Spriakados and
Please join us in the comments and on social media in celebrating winners Nick Offerman and Ruby Cruz as well as the incredible runner-ups. Both winners have secured a place in the 2023 Performer of the Year competition that will take place in January 2024. While the winners are no longer eligible for nomination, all the runner-ups are still eligible to be nominated in 2023.
Come back to Spoiler TV on Wednesday, March 1st at 12 pm ET for the start of the February round.
