Emmy FYC: Best Actress, Comedy - Gillian Jacobs in "Love"
Friday, June 17, 2016 at 10:16AM We're sharing Emmy FYCs as nomination balloting continues. Here's guest contributor Sean Donovan...
When Gillian Jacobs angrily shouts “Surprise! I’m not the cool girl!” to her semi-boyfriend Gus (Paul Rust) on Netflix’s comedy series Love, she is speaking as an actress in Hollywood just as much as she is in character as Mickey. Jacobs was introduced to most viewers as “the cool girl,” Britta in the cult hit Community, initially serving the role of a fantasy love interest: a gorgeous twenty-something with just enough problems to appear “complicated,” but not in any especially strenuous or taxing capacity for male viewers. The cool girl who’s fun at parties, has great taste in everything, and is just chill. She’s not like those other girls!
Jacobs eventually gnawed away at this stereotype purely through her own talent, as the Community writers discovered it was more fun to let Jacobs parade like a buffoon rather than be the show’s straight woman, a dynamic that perhaps reached its zenith in a ridiculous christmas display.
So when Gillian Jacobs was given the full leading role she deserves, in Love, she took the chance to shout down this brutal “cool girl” trap as hard as she could...
Mickey is frequently in bad shape in Love. She’s a manipulative liar, constantly abusing the patience of her sweet roommate. She struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol, and to love and sex, and possesses a singular inability to remove negative influences from her life. She even has sex with her boss as a way of controlling a romantic infatuation (on his end, naturally) she fears will come back to bite her. Mickey is a piece of work, and Gillian Jacobs presents a defiantly un-sanitized portrait. This is Mickey with all her flaws.
But Mickey is trying. Gillian Jacobs plays her role with a clear eye to the exhaustion and wearied strategies of a woman who’s been through this dance many times before, found herself chased by male dreams of women (and male dreams FOR women) she struggled to conform to only to abuse herself in the process. Love is the story of Mickey trying to break out of her worst patterns of conforming to men while an oblivious Gus waits along the sidelines.
I can’t say if Love would have nearly the impact it does if it weren’t for Gillian Jacobs. I can easily imagine a much worse version of Love where we feel that all of Mickey’s baggage is truly about to be cured over through the love of a good man. Jacobs’ powerful sincerity, and her ability to completely slay a close-up, never leave the heart of Love up to debate. Jacobs makes the true arc of Love Mickey’s strengthening source of self-definition, finding a way out in a world of guys determined to only see the cool girl.
Reader Comments (4)
I loved Gillian Jacobs in Community, but I hadn't even heard of this show until now. In fact, this FYC series highlights the key problem with the Emmy Awards. There are simply way too many TV shows out there for the Emmys to be a good representation of what the best truly is. The voters can't come remotely close to seeing all the eligible work. I think most voters don't even make an effort to seek out more than a fraction of what is out there.
nice image man
cash -- that's a good point. every year someone is pulling for someone from a show i've never heard of and it's not like i don't pay attention to entertainment. This is why i think blue ribbon nominating panels aren't a bad idea. (kinda like Oscar does with foreign film) Different committees for different types of awards so that these people can really see a good portion of what's eligible in their category and vote accordingly.
it also might be time to separate web series from actual tv series because nettlix and amazon and hulu and all of this... in a way it's a different format entirely and you get all the episodes at once and people watch them differently.
I am just fall in love with Emmy , Love you Emmy , here are some cute love quotes for her specially dedicated to you dear.