From Ron Livingston’s portrayal of a recovering alcoholic in Loudermilk to Tatiana Maslany’s portrayal of a dozen clones in Orphan Black, there are a ton of great TV performances that don’t get the love they deserve. There’s so much good TV out there in this Golden Age of Television that a lot of the best stuff on the airwaves remains underappreciated.

There are a lot of incredible TV performances that have been rightly praised, and are still talked about today, like Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad, Jon Hamm in Mad Men, and Betty White in The Golden Girls. But some of the best TV acting is still underrated today.

10

Ron Livingston As Sam Loudermilk

Loudermilk

Loudermilk as a whole is a hugely underrated show. It’s a hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm-style sitcom about a curmudgeon challenging society’s unwritten rules, but it’s also a thoughtful meditation on addiction and recovery. Ron Livingston gives a career-best performance as the titular Sam Loudermilk, a music critic and recovering alcoholic, as he helps fellow addicts on the road to sobriety.

Livingston plays Sam with the same everyman charms and relatable angst that he brought to his breakout role as Peter in Office Space, but has much more time to dig into the character’s foibles and insecurities. Over the course of the series, Livingston captures Sam’s journey to becoming a better, more open-minded person beautifully.

9

Christopher Eccleston As Matt Jamison

The Leftovers

Damon Lindelof’s follow-up to Lost, The Leftovers, never garnered the audience it deserved. It was widely praised by critics and had a dedicated cult fan base, but it never went mainstream like Lost did. It’s a post-apocalyptic drama that’s more about the post-apocalyptic mindset than the actual physical devastation of the Earth.

The series is anchored by fantastic performances; Justin Theroux and Carrie Coon capture the psychological toll of an unexplained apocalyptic event. The standout of the cast is Christopher Eccleston as Matt Jamison, a reverend whose faith is shaken by a rapture-like departure that can’t be explained by the teachings of any religious texts.

8

Sam Richardson As Richard Splett

Veep

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ lead performance in Veep gets a lot of praise, but Sam Richardson’s supporting turn doesn’t get talked about enough. Most of the characters in Veep are ridiculously toxic personalities; they’re profane, they’re unscrupulous, and they spend all day snapping at each other with biting quips.

Richard Splett is the perfect counterpoint to this toxic energy. Unlike Dan Egan and Jonah Ryan and Amy Brookheimer, Richard is a sweet, kind, positive person who wouldn’t harm a fly. His genial nature and upbeat attitude are completely out of place in Washington, and Richardson plays into that hilariously.

7

Scott Ryan As Ray Shoesmith

Mr. Inbetween

Bill Hader’s darkly comedic turn as a hitman in Barry got heaped with praise (and deservingly so), but Scott Ryan’s portrayal of a similar character in Mr. Inbetween was criminally underrated in the same year. Mr. Inbetween follows the grimly hilarious and sometimes tragic day-to-day adventures of a hired goon in the suburbs of Sydney.

Ryan gives a really funny turn as Ray Shoesmith, reacting to every deadly situation with deadpan hilarity, but he also brought some unexpected emotional weight to the character. From his protectiveness of his daughter to his strained relationship with his dad, there’s a lot more to this character than just being a killer-for-hire.

6

Unshō Ishizuka As Jet Black

Cowboy Bebop

Since Spike Spiegel is a badass gunslinging bounty hunter and Faye Valentine has a tragic backstory that she’s trying to piece together, their characters and their voice actors’ performances get a lot more discussion than anyone else in Cowboy Bebop. But Unshō Ishizuka’s more nuanced portrayal of Jet Black deserves just as much praise.

Jet is the level-headed leader holding the crew of the Bebop together, but he’s dealing with his own history of heartache. He’s the strong, silent type, which isn’t easy to capture in a voice-only performance. Ishizuka was renowned for his deep, powerful voice, which allowed him to play older, mature characters with authority, and Jet is the epitome of that.

5

Lauren Ash As Dina Fox

Superstore

Superstore is an underappreciated gem that deserves to be in the same conversation as The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. There’s no dead weight in the show’s ensemble — everyone in the cast is funny, lovable, and interesting — but the M.V.P. is Lauren Ash as assistant manager Dina Fox.

Dina is introduced as Superstore’s answer to Dwight Schrute: the boss’ right hand who’s weird and lacking in social skills and self-awareness, but would defend the workplace with their life. But as the series went on, Ash showed that the character was using her aggressive bluster as a defense mechanism to cover up an underlying vulnerability.

4

Rhys Darby As Murray Hewitt

Flight of the Conchords

As hilarious as Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are in their band’s self-titled sitcom Flight of the Conchords, Rhys Darby stole the show as their manager, Murray Hewitt. Darby nailed the deadpan delivery of every line and played into the awkwardness of every comedic situation perfectly, but he also brought a surprising depth to the character.

We see that Murray’s unwavering belief in the band has taken a toll on his marriage, we see that he’s a lot more sensitive than he lets on, and we see that he’s a deeply lonely man desperate for human connection. Murray is one of the funniest TV characters ever created, but Darby also plays him as one of the saddest.

3

Tristan Wilds As Michael Lee

The Wire

There were so many great performances in the sprawling ensemble of The Wire — Idris Elba, Dominic West, Michael K. Williams, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Andre Royo, Sonja Sohn — that some of the show’s best actors were bound to fall by the wayside in the cultural conversation. Season 4 is widely considered to be the best season, and has some of the best acting.

This season takes a look at the public school system, and shows how wayward kids end up leading the lives of street dealers and addicts we saw in previous seasons. Tristan Wilds played a heartbreaking arc as Michael Lee, an angry young man who goes from protecting his friends on the schoolyard to training as a gangland hitman.

2

Pamela Adlon As Sam Fox

Better Things

Pamela Adlon turned her own lived experiences as a working single mother into one of television’s most authentic depictions of motherhood. Until Adlon created Better Things, Hollywood had either relied on unrealistic clichés of motherhood or refused to tell their stories altogether. Adlon eschewed those clichés and told the story of a single mother with a refreshingly frank approach.

Better Things won a Peabody Award for its raw, poignant, emotionally charged study of the frustrations and pitfalls of single motherhood. But the show still doesn’t get the love it deserves from audiences. Adlon’s performance as Sam Fox should be in the conversation of the all-time greatest TV characters, but it feels like she’s been criminally overlooked.

1

Tatiana Maslany As The Project Leda Clones

Orphan Black

Tatiana Maslany didn’t just give one of the greatest performances in TV history in Orphan Black; she gave five of them. Maslany plays every Project Leda clone with their own distinctive accent, personality, attitude, and motivations — a grizzled addict, a cold-blooded assassin, a frustrated soccer mom, etc. — and she never lets each unique characterization slip for a second.

There’s no other TV show where the entire lead ensemble is played by the same actor. Even when she’s tasked with playing off herself, Maslany fully immerses you in the scene. Her work in Orphan Black is so seamless that you often forget you’re watching the same person — she’s completely convincing as all these different characters.