Women of the Week

We love great women in TV so each week we highlight the best performances from last week in TV.

Ashley Johnson as Patterson on Blindspot
Nominated by Rueben: This week we saw Patterson hunting down a clue based on one of Jane’s tattoos that her late boyfriend David figured out prior to his death, leaving clues for her starting in a crossword puzzle. Sadly, her path lead her to a very troubled man who was going to sacrifice her the same way he did at least a dozen other woman. What she did to survive and escape was incredible to watch especially running barefoot through a snowy landscape and taking down the man who basically kidnapped her. She may be the IT genius of the group, but she’s definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Nominated by Melissa: Season 2 of the Netflix original series dropped on Friday, and once again Ellie Kemper shines like a shiny button. Probably a novelty button shaped like an ice cream cone or a strawberry. Possibly a rainbow. But I digress. This season Kimmy is dealing with her new life in New York with slightly less rose-colored glasses tinting her vision, and Ellie once again gives us glimpses of the person who was kidnapped in 8th grade and forced to live in a bunker as the “wife” of a lunatic for 15 years. It’s easy to forget this salient point when faced with Kimmy’s optimism and good cheer and sense of humor that hasn’t progressed beyond 8th grade, but Kimmy has layers and Ellie is able to part the curtains of that determined cheerfulness on occasion and show just how complex her character really is.

Tatiana Maslany as all the characters on Orphan Black
Nominated by Ange: For those who are unaware of the brilliance that is Tatiana Maslany, she plays more than half a dozen different clones on the show – each one completely different to the point that you forget that it is just the one actress playing all these characters! In this week’s season premiere not only do we meet a new clone, which adds to Maslany’s repertoire, but the episode was largely a flashback reintroducing clone Beth Childs, who was killed in the pilot. I’m applauding this amazingly talented Canadian actress for not only playing regular clones Sarah, Alison and Cosima this week, but also adding a new clone to the mix AND bringing back an old one that she has not played in a while but still portrayed effortlessly.

Asia Monet Ray as Jasmine on Grey’s Anatomy
Nominated by Ange: This young rising star guest starred on this week’s 2 hour event of Grey’s Anatomy and left quite an impression on me as she played a young girl named Jasmine whose parents were seriously injured in a car crash. The maturity that Asia brought to her character when she discovered that her mother had died and then put on a brave face for her two unsuspecting younger siblings was impressive. Then in the show’s second hour, she had me choking up as Jasmine told the doctors and her grandmother to let her seemingly brain-dead dad go when the time comes so he could be with her mother. This young star is only 10 years old and is definitely going to go places!