Cody Fern, ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ (FX)

Initially, it seemed like Cody Fern‘s delicate, devastating performance as David Madson, the second of Andrew Cunanan’s murder victims, was going to be relegated to a mere tragedy of proximity. David was unfortunate enough to cross paths with this burgeoning killer at exactly the wrong time, catching his eye, earning his sinister intention, and ultimately reaping the violence that Andrew held inside him. Ryan Murphy and Tom Rob Smith’s production was far smarter than that, showing David in the crosshairs not of one madman but of a dehumanizing, unsympathetic society that left people like David exposed and uncared for. Into that elevated narrative, then, stepped Cody Fern, an Australian actor and genuine find, who played David not just with the doomed air of future victim but with the waxing and waning of someone trapped between choices he never wanted to have to make. As the season went on, we got to see more of how Fern played David’s faith in people — his parents, his friends, his neighbors — and how that faith would be broken and questioned. The way Fern plays David, wholesomely kind and talented, you can see why Andrew would have thought that attaining him would solve all his problems. But Fern also never let those haunted doubts behind David’s eyes go away. The ones that, in his final days, wondered if the shame of a son touched by sin wouldn’t be worse than the grief of a son lost forever. — Joe Reid

Darren Criss, ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ (FX)

It would have been easy for The Assassination of Gianni Versace to lean into the pulpy tone that defined Versace’s murder in 1997. Instead Darren Criss brought us a performance that was more complicated, nuanced, and sympathetic than any coverage of Andrew Cunanan has ever been. Criss’ Cunanan was unmistakably the villain of his own story, but through his shifting glances, fake smiles, and constant lilting lies, he captured the hero Cunanan saw in the mirror. More than once Criss forced audeinces to ask if this killer — who murdered five innocent men in cold blood — was actually a victim of his upbringing, societal homophobia, and his own disturbed mind. And yet the Versace season of American Crime Story was never afraid to pull back, showing us the monster Andrew Cunanan was beneath his perfect smile. Criss’ portrayal of a young man so enchanted by notoriety and enraged by jealousy that he would kill to obtain it is one of the most haunting roles ever brought to screen. — Kayla Cobb

Best Performances of 2018… So Far