Kieran Culkin (Roman Roy) Funeral Scene on SUCCESSION - So he’s definitely winning an Emmy, right?
Picking only one Succession actor for this list is as tough as, I imagine, parents being asked to choose which child they prefer. Alright, hyperbole aside, Jesse Armstrong’s stellar HBO drama delivered top-notch acting work from everyone involved in the final season. Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, and Brian Cox are magnificent. However, Kieran Culkin outshone his peers in a way he hadn’t before season four. He completely rose to the occasion of portraying Roman’s descent into a dark abyss. The actor has always been captivating, of course, but he left no stone unturned for Succession’s big goodbye, pouring his heart and soul into his performance.
Rome starts season four as his usual irksome self—inflated ego, sarcastic humor, subtly pining for Gerri, etc. After Logan’s demise, he’s a lost puppy unsure how to process the loss, and it leads him down a dark path. This finally allows Culkin to display a range we hadn’t seen from him, from expressing rage on a mountaintop to cruelly shattering democracy to breaking down at his father’s funeral. He reaches a Serious Actor pinnacle here, the kind that, by the way, should win him the Emmy. [Saloni Gajjar]