10 TV Performances Way Better Than Anyone Expected

3. Emilia Clarke - Game Of Thrones (Season 8)

Unlike the others on this list, this isn't to praise Emilia Clarke for her entire performance in Game of Thrones. Not that it was necessarily bad, per se, but she came into it as an unknown (like so many of the younger characters did), so there weren't any expectations one way or another. But across the first seven seasons, she was, both by design and not, very reserved as Daenerys. There wasn't a great deal of expression from her, not a lot to be gleaned from her line delivery or physical performance.

And then Season 8 came around.

Fans may be split on the season as a whole and Dany's arc in particular, but what can't be denied is that Clarke absolutely raised her game tenfold during the final season. In the early episodes, we get a sense of her struggle to fit in at Winterfell, from a back-and-forth with Sansa to her learning the truth about Jon, we get to see her isolation grow.

Then, at the end of The Long Night and the beginning of The Last of the Starks, we get to see not only that, but combined with the grief over losing her beloved Jorah. The sight of her kneeling over his body is a defining moment, and yet it only keeps getting better from there: the shock and anger that comes in the next episode, which then manifests itself into complete rage and a desire to rule with fear, right down to her final moments. Dany's turn was foreshadowed, but it wouldn't have worked without this performance from Clarke. She sells absolutely everything superbly, and most impressive, she does it with very little dialogue, instead using that once inexpressive face to convey the full gamut of emotions.