The Real Reason Jeff Daniels Won An Emmy For Playing Will McAvoy In ‘The Newsroom’

It’s hard to think of an event that was more inexplicable or rage-inducing at the Emmys last night than Jeff Daniels’ win for Best Actor in a Drama for playing Will McAvoy in The Newsroom. Daniels isn’t bad in the role, but the role itself isn’t very good. McAvoy has two modes: a full, monologuing bluster that he puts on whether he’s stoned, broadcasting the news, or proposing to a woman he’s castigated for two full seasons, and occasional contemplative silence breaks when something like his father’s death stuns him into inertia. If Daniels was transcending the material, saving The Newsroom to himself by sneaking more empathy, vulnerability, and self-awareness into Will McAvoy than Sorkin had written into the character, I could see giving him the trophy. But in a year when Bryan Cranston is doing superb work as Walter White on Breaking Bad and Jon Hamm is opening up new parts of Don Draper on Mad Men, Daniels is doing work that’s just fine in a much less demanding role