10 Most Underappreciated Performances On TV Right Now
3. Ming-Na Wen - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has recovered from a shaky first season and gone from strength to strength, easily marking it as TV's most unfairly maligned show. All the main players are deserving of more praise than they receive, but Ming-Na Wen's performance as badass-in-chief Melinda May is often underrated even among the supporters that the show does have.
The stories might normally revolve around Coulson or Daisy, but it's Ming-Na Wen's stoic, fierce performance that anchors the show. By rights, there shouldn't even be room for Wen to impress - May barely talks, and often she's there to do little more than scowl and punch - but she has dismissive noises and cold stares pinned down to such a precise art form that the slightest variation or subtle difference speaks volumes.
Wen embodies her character so totally and so consistently that her smallest gestures and intonations express a world of emotion, and she's become capable of implying more with a single look or movement of the lips than some actors can convey in an entire monologue.
Plus, it's impressive as all hell that she's performing her own stunts in her fifties - that alone should put her in contention for some sort of award.