MEMORABLE GUEST STARS OF THE YEAR

Best guest stars of the 2012-13 Season

I’ve already picked my favorite Sons of Anarchy guest stars which included the BEST GUEST STAR IN THE HISTORY OFTELEVISION; but there were several other guest stars I loved. Here are my favorites of the 2012-13 season; they include teenage nemesis, senior nemesis, fairy grandfathers and more:

SARAH SHAHI – Person of Interest

Sarah Shahi has been on our TV screens for a while with the leading role on Fairly Legal and guest spots on shows like Chicago Fire and Psych. She usually plays spunky, carefree, flirty characters; so I never thought of her as an “action” star or someone who could play “dark” characters. She definitely proved me wrong. On Person of Interest she played an intelligence rogue agent, who was basically the female version of Reese (Jim Caviezel) and she absolutely nailed it! I was impressed that she was able to match Jim Caviezel’s quiet intensity, not an easy task to do. I hope we get to see more of her in later seasons. She sure has come a long way since her small guest-spot on Alias.

CHLOE MORETZ - 30 ROCK

This girl is going to be a huge star, I really hope she doesn't go off the rails in her 20s or something because I think she is superbly talented. She impressed me ever since I saw her on Kickass, where she truly kicked-ass at the tender age of 13. She was on 3 episodes of 30 Rock, the first one established her as the unlikely nemesis for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the second furthered their antagonism and in the final season she had to come back for a final showdown. I think it is hilarious how Jack’s biggest opponent turned out to be a teenage girl. She was wonderful at torturing Jack and bullying Jenna. In the end Jack beats her at their game of deceit. The episode is even greater because it has 3 other amazing guest stars: Steve Buscemi [in drag, no less], Megan Mullally and Will Arnett.

SHIRLEY MCLAINE – Downton Abbey

From teenage nemesis we jump to the opposite side of the spectrum: Senior nemesis. My favorite part of Downton Abbey has always been and forever will be Maggie Smith. I think the Dowager Countess of Grantham is the most bad-ass female character on TV. Many have tried and failed to stand up to her, including her son and daughter in law. So who could possibly give her a hard time? Shirley MacLaine seems like a good option. The elusive mother of Cora was mentioned ever since season 1, but it wasn’t until season 3 that we got to meet her. I never gave her much thought and I did not imagine they could cast such an incredible actress as Shirley MacLaine. There are probably a handful of actresses that have a big enough on-screen presence to stand up to Maggie Smith and Shirley is one of them. It was the old world vs. new world, a battle of the matriarchs. Epic one-liner exchanges, singing and an indoor picnic… outrageous! It had more intensity than all the fights of Banshee combined! OK, maybe not… but it was so much fun to watch. I was cheering since the moment Shirley got out of that car and almost made all her granddaughters cry. Bonus points for being pretty decent to Branson. I am looking forward to Shirley reprising her role and of course the introduction of Paul Giamatti who will play Cora’s brother. Exciting news that almost make me forget that Sybil and Matthew are gone… almost.

SETH GABEL – Arrow

I’ve loved Seth Gabel since Dirty Sexy Money and I was very sad that we didn’t get to see more of him on the last season of Fringe, so I was excited since the minute I found out he would guest star on Arrow. However, I discovered I was not prepared to meet “The Count”! Seth’s performance was so over-the-top insane! In a good way…  He usually plays the sweet, trustworthy guy, so I had a blast watching him take on the deranged comic-book character. By far my favorite Arrow character so far [besides Felicity]. Too bad he had to go, sadly no alternate universes on Arrow.  

RUTGER HAUER

True Blood is one crazy crazy show, and each year they cast an amazing villain: Michelle Forbes, Denise O’Hare and Evan Rachel Wood just to name a few. I was so excited when I saw Rutger Hauer was cast. For a moment we were led to believe he was evil vampire Warlow [which seemed very fitting at the time] but he was in fact Sookie’s fairy grandfather [which also seems fitting in a weird way]. He was also one of my favorite guest-stars on Alias, where he was positively evil and don’t get me started on how scary he was on Hobo with a Shotgun, which I watched for like 10 min only because Gregory Smith was on it. Rutger has the uncommon quality of being imposing and quite frightening, yet lovable. Who knew they could actually make fairies interesting again.

Other guest stars I loved this year include: Harold Perrineau on Sons of Anarchy, Ellen Muth and Gillian Anderson on Hannibal and Tom Amandes on Scandal, but mainly because Debra Mooney and Brenda Strong were also on that episode which made it a mini Everwood reunion!

Finally there is one guest star I got so excited about and I was probably the only person who did. I am talking about William Lucking on Switched at Birth. He played John’s father, the tough and headstrong Bill Kennish. So why was I so excited? Because he is Piney from Sons of Anarchy! Why is no-one else excited? Well, because I highly doubt many SOA fans would watch an ABCFamily show; but I do… what can I say? my TV tastes are very diverse.