Give Kaley Cuoco the Damn Golden Globe

This Sunday, February 28, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will tell us which shows from the past year represent the absolute best television has to offer at the Golden Globes. And typically the Globes are defined by eye rolls and deep sighs from critics and fans alike, especially this year. But for once, this awards show can use some of their ever-chaotic energy for good. They can give Kaley Cuoco a damn Golden Globe.

If you haven’t seen Cuoco in The Flight Attendant, do yourself a favor and remedy that entertainment oversight immediately. The Big Bang Theory star plays Cassie, a party-going flight attendant who wakes up next to the dead body of her latest one-night stand. As Cassie tries to figure out what happened, she also has to avoid the Thai and American authorities, dodge a slew of sketchy people who apparently hated this random man, juggle her own substance abuse problems, and pretend like nothing is wrong. Oh, and she balances all of these things poorly. Every single one of them. It’s a show that’s more than truly excellent television, it’s also a great time.

The Flight Attendant is exactly the sort of show that deserves wide awards recognition, but is poised to be ignored. The series is complicated, often walking the line between being a somber drama about alcoholism and internalized abuse, and an almost slapstick comedy. Half of it literally takes place in the mind of Cuoco’s character, a conceit that The Flight Attendant uses to wonderful effect, but can be off-putting to certain viewers. For an awards show that loves for its dramas to be serious and its comedies to be silly, that sort of experimentation typically doesn’t translate well.

But The Flight Attendant has one big ace up its sleeve: Kaley Cuoco. We all know that deep down the Globes not-so-secretly just want to hand out awards to their favorite stars. Though her work has largely been ignored by the Golden Globes and Emmys until now, Cuoco absolutely fits that bill. After being on The Big Bang Theory for 12 seasons, she’s a television staple and a household name. Giving her an award is absolutely in line with the Globes’ goal of handing out trophies to its favorites. And this time, that star-powered win will be earned.

It’s impossible to overstate how great Cuoco is in The Flight Attendant. She doesn’t merely flip between laud-out-loud one-liners and devastating self reflections. She holds both of these extremes, the tragic and the comedic figure, at once. When Cassie is at her funniest, exchanging one liners with Zosia Mamet’s Ani about Topo Chico, you can still sense her extreme guilt over the late Alex (Michiel Huisman) and her never-ending waves of self-hatred. Likewise, when Cassie is at her most gut-wrenchingly vulnerable, as she is when she’s reexamining her relationship with her alcoholic father, you can still see glimmers of the fun-loving, never-too-serious woman she is at her core. Cassie, like this show itself, isn’t limited by one category. She’s an endlessly complex person who is wholly incapable of extracting her self-destructive tendencies from her deep love of the people in her life. Cuoco captures that constantly shifting complexity perfectly.

Let’s also not forget to address the elephant in the room. This deeply complex antihero story isn’t about a man, but about several women. The Flight Attendant doesn’t just allow Cuoco to be messy. It lets the legally liable Mamet engage in deeply sketchy law dealings, Rosie Perez be a housewife turned secret spy, and Michelle Gomez haunt us all as a cutthroat killer with an unpredictable soft streak. None of these women fit any sort of traditional mold. They morph, grow, and make mistakes just like any one of us. Though their friends may shame them for their lifestyle choices, the series as a whole does not.

The Flight Attendant doesn’t care whether or not Cassie drinks all night or sleeps around with random men in Italy. It cares about whether she’s emotionally okay. Season 1’s entire arc revolves around Cassie slowly building up the courage to examine why she acts the way she does, and eventually facing her inner demons. That’s a courtesy that’s rarely extended to any character, let alone one as judged in our society as a party-loving single woman. The Flight Attendant never makes the argument that what happened to Cassie is her fault through some sort of moral failing. Rather it uses this explosive bottoming out as a vehicle for self-exploration, letting Cassie blame herself while showing us how baseless and deeply sad these moral accusations are.

Simply put, The Flight Attendant and Cuoco’s performance deserve awards attention. It’s time for the Globes to acknowledge it, give Cuoco that damn award.

Watch The Flight Attendant on HBO Max