Emmy spotlight: Domhnall Gleeson is so good as a baddie in ‘The Patient’
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Domhnall Gleeson looks set to earn his first-ever Emmy nomination this year for his killer turn in the FX on Hulu limited series “The Patient,” opposite Steve Carell. The story follows Carell as Alan Strauss, a therapist mourning the death of his wife, who takes on a new patient — Gleeson’s unhinged Sam Fortner. However, Sam turns out to be a serial killer and he kidnaps Alan and holds him prisoner, forcing the therapist to help him overcome his murderous urges.
As Sam, Gleeson lets loose in what is a delicious performance. He clearly has fun in this role and matches Carell beat for beat. He is menacing, unnerving, pitiful, dangerous, and almost sympathetic. It’s a masterful performance from Gleeson and he never goes overboard into hammy territory, which would be easy to do with a role such as this. Critics have all praised Gleeson for his work here, too.
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Jen Chaney (Vulture) explained: “Playing a man whose life is defined by compulsions both dark (murder) and pedestrian (Dunkin’ Donuts coffee), Gleeson never fully relaxes. Through small tics — the clenching of his jaw, the plucking of loose flesh on his hand — he conveys how uncomfortable Sam is in his own skin and how happily he would shed it if he could just figure out how.”
Benjamin Lee (The Guardian) observed: “Benefiting from a script that tackles a difficult character with difficult empathy, Gleeson makes for an effective sparring partner, selling the character’s unpredictable creepiness while also reminding us of his humanity.”
Mike Hale (The New York Times) wrote: “Domhnall Gleeson’s more frontal, theatrical performance as the bollixed-up Sam. Gleeson is engaging enough to make us buy into the unlikely notion of the self-aware serial killer trying earnestly to cure himself.”
Meanwhile, the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “The arguably career-best work by Domhnall Gleeson and Steve Carell make this therapy session worth eavesdropping on.”
As such, Gleeson has landed himself in our predicted lineup of Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor alongside Murray Bartlett (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Young Mazino (“Beef”), Ray Liotta (“Black Bird”), Richard Jenkins (“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”), and Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”). This would be Gleeson’s first-ever Emmy nomination.
However, he has already proven that this specific performance can garner support from awards bodies. He was nominated for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor at both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards earlier this year, losing to Hauser (“Black Bird”) on both occasions.
This is a great sign for Gleeson, however. Two major awards bodies nominated him for this role, suggesting that the Emmys could be set to follow. This category is also a good one for those actors hoping to earn their first nomination. Last year, five out of the seven nominations in this category went to actors earning their first-ever Emmy bids: Will Poulter and Peter Sarsgaard for “Dopesick,” and Steve Zahn, Jake Lacy, and, the winner, Murray Bartlett, for “The White Lotus.” The year before that, all six nominees were first-timers: “Hamilton” trio Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, and Anthony Ramos, “The Queen’s Gambit” actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster, “I May Destroy You” star Paapu Essiedu, and, the winner, Evan Peters (“Mare of Easttown”).
This bodes well for first-time hopefuls like Gleeson, Hauser, and Mazino, but is a bad sign for their competitors Bartlett, Liotta, and Jenkins. Emmy voters clearly like to reward fresh blood in this category, so Gleeson should take heart from that. We should also take about the role itself. Murder and serial killer stories like this one are very much in vogue.
Peters stars in the “Dahmer” TV show, Elizabeth Olsen is in the mix for an Emmy for “Love and Death,” Colin Firth was nominated last year for “The Staircase,” and Hugh Grant was nominated in 2021 for “The Undoing.”
The Emmys also love a villainous performance in this particular category. David Thewlis was nominated in 2017 for “Fargo,” Alexander Skarsgård won the award in the same year for “Big Little Lies,” and Hugh Laurie reaped a bid in 2016 for “The Night Manager.” Emmy voters adore a bad guy in this category, and we fully expect Gleeson to make good on that pattern and land his first-ever Emmy bid here.
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