As the 2012-13 season winds down, here are my top 10 TV characters, some of whom will be featured in season finales this month, and some of whom have already bid adieu for the summer:
10. Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster), “Bunheads” — Despite (or perhaps due to) coming from a theatrical background, Foster has joined “Gilmore Girls’ “ Lauren Graham in the exclusive club of leading ladies who can handle Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue while also developing a character.
9. Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs), “The Walking Dead” — Rick’s son should bring the nature-versus-nurture debate to the fore next season. My prediction is that Carl — who kills an enemy in cold blood in the Season 3 finale — will become a poster child for children whose traits are borne from the impact of their society (such as it is) more so than genetics.
8. Julia (Braverman) Graham (Erika Christensen), “Parenthood” — I found myself picking Julia as the “Braverman of the Week” a lot last season. Her relationship with Victor seemed to be an honest portrayal of the challenges of adopting a teenager while also holding down a high-stress job.
7. James Van Der Beek (himself), “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23” — The idea of playing oneself on screen has been en vogue for about a decade now, and no one has done it better than the former “Dawson’s Creek” star, who plays “himself” as a self-centered actor looking for any angle to regain the spotlight. (The show has been canceled, but ABC will post the unaired episodes online on May 17.)
6. Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb), “The Carrie Diaries” — I didn’t expect to like this prequel to “Sex and the City,” but — with a nod to the Eighties setting, which I am a sucker for — the ambitious, life-loving Carrie is the reason I kept coming back throughout the first season.
5. Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), “Hannibal” — This investigator of gruesome crimes might be the role Dancy was born to play. As the show’s tone and pacing get decidedly more off-kilter, Graham — not exactly the most stable person — is ironically “Hannibal’s” stable center for viewers.
4. Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein), “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” — All the characters will be missed, particularly those whose arcs were stopped short by Disney’s surprise cancellation of the popular show. But it’s Ahsoka who I and most fans will miss most. (At the very least, she’ll probably appear in the unaired episodes that are promised for future release, perhaps on the Season 5 DVD in the fall.)
3. Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), “New Girl” — Johnson has made an art form out of finding the funny side of low-grade anger and laziness, while also making up one-half of TV’s cutest couple with Zooey Deschanel’s Jess. Somehow in scenes where he’s awkwardly grabbing Jess’ boob, he conveys the fact that he loves her but can’t bring himself to say it. He demonstrates his range in flashbacks showing Nick as a brace-faced teen and a stoner college kid.
2. Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling), “The Mindy Project” — Throughout her run on “The Office,” I hoped for a Kelly Kapoor spinoff, but this is even better. Kaling (also a writer) is an unselfish leading lady, often coming up with quick-hitting, off-the-wall challenges for Mindy to be tackle before bouncing back.
1. Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), “Bates Motel” — I love the little inflections that Highmore has been peppering into recent episodes that channel Anthony Perkins’ performance in the movies. The latest episode found Norman repeating his mom’s advice verbatim as he stalked away from a girl’s house after being rejected. But he also can be fragile and sympathetic, and — no disrespect to Vera Farmiga as Norma — he’s the main reason why “Bates Motel” is so oddly irresistible.