Aside from Lincoln and Rhys, he will also face competition for the best actor in a drama series award from Kevin Spacey for House of Cards, Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Timothy Olyphant for Justified.
By humanizing them, as Lone Star's writers strive to do, these characters can be both, and viewers are allowed to care about them in spite of--or perhaps because of--their flaws, much as they do the stars of Emmy-winning cable shows like AMC's BreakingBad and Mad Men and FX's Damages.
That's hopeful news for Mad Men and the night's other ratings-challenged winners, including Glenn Close of FX's Damages, Bryan Cranston of AMC's BreakingBad and Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin of General Electric -owned NBC's 30 Rock.