As a cop, Merritt Wever (‘Unbelievable’) deserves a Golden Globe for turning empathy into great acting
When actress Merritt Wever took home a supporting Emmy in 2013 for her role as bunny-scrubs aficionado and ER nurse Zoey Barkow on Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie,” she nearly rivaled the brevity of Joe Pesci‘s Oscar speech ( “It’s my privilege. Thank you.”) when he won his trophy for 1990’s “Goodfellas.” Her reaction: “Thank you so much! Um, I gotta go. Bye.”
The thing is, that is such a human response to getting your first prize for doing something you truly love. Droll, a tad loopy, relatable and utterly without pretense, Wever would outgrow her part as Edie Falco‘s sidekick on the medical show and go on to claim a more surprising supporting Emmy win as a determined and hard-bitten widow of a deceased mayor and sister of the town’s sheriff in Netflix’s 2017 female-driven Western “Godless.”
She has done films over the years, including 2014’s “Birdman” as well as show up in “Marriage Story” as Scarlett Johansson‘s supportive sister Cassie, even chiming in on the Sondheim song “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” together with their mom in honor of her divorce.
SEE Kaitlyn Deaver talks about her role on timely Netflix miniseries ‘Unbelievable’
But Wever’s emoting gifts seem to be best served by the intimate nature of the small screen. That is certainly true in her latest Netflix series, “Unbelievable.” In a role that is the source of her first-ever Golden Globe nomination — in this case for Best Actress for a miniseries or TV film — she plays a real-life Colorado detective Karen Duvall on the second episode of the show.
Her respectful and sympathetic handling of rape victim Amber (played by Danielle Macdonald of “Dumplin’ “) stands in stark contrast from what happened on the first episode three years before in Washington state. Back then, insensitive male detectives so badly mishandled the rape case where a masked intruder entered her apartment, the traumatized victim Marie (Kaitlyn Dever, who is also up for a lead Golden Globe) ends up being charged as a criminal for making a false report.
Vulture critic and Gold Derby Expert Jen Chaney got to the heart of why Wever’s soft-spoken and kind law enforcer makes such an indelible impression in contrast to the first case, which turns out to be tied to the second rape: “From the get-go, Amber feels supported, while Marie feels expendable.” She then adds an aside: “If there is a God in heaven and God is the first entity to greet you when you arrive, I sincerely hope she looks and sounds like Merritt Wever.”
Wever’s cop ends up pairing up with a more brusque and business-like female Colorado detective Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette, a nominee for a supporting Globe) who is investigating a similar attack and they turn into a “Cagney and Lacey” for the #MeToo era as they connect the dots and suspect that the perpetrator is a serial rapist. One interesting detail about Wever’s character is that she is a person of faith who isn’t sanctimonious about her religion. Instead, it causes her detective to see matters in a different light than Collette’s as they fill in the gaps in each other perceptions.
If you don’t count TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles,” with Angie Harmon as Boston homicide detective Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as a forensic expert for the same police department that aired for seven seasons starting 2010, “Unbelievable” is the first time since “Cagney and Lacey” that a pair of female cops were the lead characters on a series.
SEE Toni Collette’s 12 greatest films ranked worst to best
Like “Cagney and Lacey,” influential female talent is among the driving forces behind the eight-episode web effort based on a multi-state real-life investigation that was turned into a radio episode of “This American Life,” including director Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right”), writer, director and producer Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich”) and Katie Couric as a producer.
Right now, Wever’s main competition in the category is Michelle Williams in “Fosse/Verdon,” who in Gold Derby’s combined predictions odds stands at 82/25 odds of winning while Wever is in second with 19/5 odds. The Globe voters often like to stand out from other awards entities and choosing Wever would definitely be a way to achieve that since Williams won an Emmy for playing Gwen Verdon and is also up for a SAG honor against Collette.
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