The best performance of 2016
Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta
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There are enough great performances on Atlanta to fill half this list: Keith Stanfield’s stoner savant Darius; Zazie Beetz’s fierce, complex Van; and of course, Donald Glover’s deadpan yet deeply empathetic Earn. But if anyone deserves to be called a revelation from this quietly revealing FX show, it’s Brian Tyree Henry. As Alfred, better known as Paper Boi, Henry takes what could have been a warmed-over caricature—the flexing, flossing rapper trying to rise above his station as a drug dealer who slings his mixtapes on the side—and genuinely makes you feel for him while he chases the success he doesn’t seem all that certain he wants. Not because you pity him; with his linebacker frame, Paper Boi is far too intimidating to be pitied, and he has a tendency to respond violently whenever he feels slighted. Still, even when Paper Boi is at his scariest—or his pettiest, as when he’s engaging in Twitter wars or grousing about his VIP area at the club—there’s a base-level charm to Henry’s presence that makes him eminently lovable. It also doesn’t hurt that Henry can be as witty with a look of stone-faced exasperation as a drawled, mordant one-liner. While Atlanta finds its emotional center in Earn’s struggles to make something of himself, it’s Paper Boi’s effortless charisma that makes it worth hanging out on the couch with him while he does. [Sean O’Neal]
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The worst performance of 2016
Bobby Cannavale, Vinyl
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The single worst TV performance of the year—and arguably the worst to ever come out of HBO’s once-unassailable prestige-drama factory. Vinyl seemingly had everything it needed to be a critical hit: a rich, historical backdrop; the built-in erudition of record-collector geekery; the powerhouse production team of Terence Winter, Martin Scorsese, and Mick Jagger; tasteful nudity. Then Bobby Cannavale’s Richie Finestra came along to crush all those ingredients up and snort them, then scream about Bo Diddley as the camera zoomed in on his quaking, sweaty face. There were a lot of things wrong with Vinyl: its tired drug clichés; its office-party celebrity-impersonator versions of musicians like David Bowie and John Lennon; its pointlessly distracting murder subplot; those irritating, magical-realist musical interstitials. But all these flaws could have been… well, if not overlooked, then at least improved upon in the series’ scrapped second season, had its main character not been so one-note-of-piercing-feedback, it was a blessing when HBO finally turned it off. Granted, Cannavale wasn’t given a whole lot to work with, as Richie was an unsympathetic dick by design. But the actor—so good in small doses, as on Boardwalk Empire—was so wildly out of his element that it was almost morbidly fascinating, lacking the slightest shred of charm that makes even the most irredeemable antiheroes worth rooting for. Instead he radiated nothing but rage and smarm, and delivered every line like a brick hurled through a window. Our TV is in a better, more peaceful place without him, even if it means we’ll never enjoy the cheap laugh of watching him get all coked up and scream, “These guys are the truth!” at an ersatz Ramones. [Sean O’Neal]
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Best individual performances (Alphabetical order)
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Riz Ahmed, The Night Of
Louie Anderson, Baskets
Thomas Haden Church, Divorce
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Michelle Dockery, Good Behavior
Eva Green, Penny Dreadful
David Alan Grier, The Carmichael Show
Bill Hader, Documentary Now!
Freddie Highmore, Bates Motel
Toby Huss, Halt And Catch Fire
Katya, RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars
Katy Mixon, American Housewife
Kyle Mooney, Saturday Night Live
Thandie Newton, Westworld
Claudia O’Doherty, Love
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Issa Rae, Insecure
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
Liza Weil, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
Samira Wiley, Orange Is The New Black
Zach Woods, Silicon Valley
Outstanding guest performances
Dylan Baker, The Americans
Jason Mantzoukas, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Bella Ramsey, Game Of Thrones
BD Wong, Mr. Robot
Best ensemble performances
The cast of The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
The cast of BoJack Horseman
The kids of Stranger Things
The cast of Superstore
The “Jonah Ryan For Congress” team, Veep
Best performances by a duo
Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis, Black Mirror, “San Junipero”
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Grace And Frankie
Steve Zissis and Amanda Peet, Togetherness
Best performances by a duo playing characters wronged by Josh Pfefferman
Kathryn Hahn and Trace Lysette, Transparent
Special consideration for carrying an entire episode
Desmin Borges, You’re The Worst—“Twenty-Two”
http://www.avclub.com/article/best-t...es-2016-247126 
Queen. 
