KELSEY
GRAMMER ON ‘BOSS’
Kelsey Grammer is many things. Most
famously, he’s Frasier Crane, the pompous, fiercely intelligent character from Cheers and Seinfeld. He’s a doyen of the theatre world. He was a surprisingly
good Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand. He’s a performer who can veer wildly
between likeable and unlikeable depending on the writing. He’s a Republican who
thinks his political affiliation has cost him any number of potential awards.
Most importantly, he’s a ridiculously good actor with an almost peerless
mastery of dialogue.
That’s why Boss clearly decided early in the writing process that the more
they built the show around Grammer’s corrupt Mayor of Chicago Tom Kane, the
better off they would be. It didn’t work (everyone on the show was far too
unsympathetic for the show to be particularly popular) but Grammer’s
performance is a thing to behold. The writing team gives him several eloquent,
blustering and profane speeches and he tears into them with reckless abandon,
always stopping short of indulgence of overacting. He’s a force of nature that
will make you forget all about Dr Frasier Crane, and since Boss has been cancelled and no one is going to miss it very much, his
performance is worth noting and remembering. Here’s hoping his next project is
as good.
Honourable
Mention: I don’t think he’s ever been within a
bull’s roar of an award, but Matt Czuchry is one of my favourite television
actors to watch. He’s a still, minimalist and charismatic presence on a show
that hasn’t worked out to use him properly yet.
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