Fall TV's 5 most valuable supporting actors

No star can carry a show alone for long.

Thanks to some combination of better material, shorter episode orders, and bigger paychecks, big stars have been flocking to TV of late. This season brings us Kiefer Sutherland, Billy Bob Thornton, Hugh Laurie, Kevin James, Matt LeBlanc, Ted Danson, Minnie Driver, Donald Glover and Sarah Jessica Parker, to name a few.

Some are shouldering the burden of keeping a show afloat more than others (and some stars, like the ensemble of This is Us, are sharing the burden equally), but none could do it without some help. Just as Lucy needed Ethel, these stars need supporting players. And here are five of the best so far this season.

John Ross Bowie, Speechless (ABC) 

Bowie plays Jimmy DiMeo, husband of Maya (Minnie Driver) and father of three — including a special-needs child wonderfully played by Micah Fowler.

There’s no doubt that Fowler, who has cerebral palsy, is a breakout star in his own right: His playful sense of humor stops the show from feeling maudlin and his acting talent — he can do more with silence than many actors do with words — stops his casting from feeling like a stunt.

Still, there’s just something remarkably, pleasingly eccentric about Bowie’s performance in a role that could have been your stock sitcom pushover dad. Softly and slyly, Bowie makes Jimmy a force in his own way: A man who supports his bulldozer of a wife but resists being run over by her, and a father who believes having a special-needs child has made him “bullet proof” when it comes to other people’s opinions. The performance is light years away from the funny but limited turn he’s best known for — playing Kripke on The Big Bang Theory — once again proving that good actors can surprise us if given the chance.

Lakeith Stanfield, Atlanta (FX)

Stanfield plays Darius, sidekick to aspiring rapper “Paper Boi” Miles (Brian Tyree Henry) and occasional thorn in the side of Paper Boi’s cousin and would-be manager, Earn (creator and star Donald Glover).

When it comes to praising valuable supporting players, we could just as easily be talking here about Henry. His on-point portrayal of a smarter-than-he-seems rapper who is constantly annoyed by the stupidity and venality around him is both a highlight and one of the show’s main story drivers.

So why go with Stanfield? In part because the character he’s playing is one of the show’s most original and unexpected. When we first meet Darius, he seems easy to dismiss: The kind of character who exists to spout silly conspiracy theories, idiotic philosophies, and puzzling non sequiturs. But as Earn has learned, there’s more to Darius than meets the eye, and Stanfield has done an excellent job of slowly revealing Darius' essential sweetness while making us wonder what more he’s hiding.

Nina Arianda, Goliath (Amazon)

Arianda plays Patty Solis-Papagian, part-time lawyer, part-time real-estate agent, who turns to Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton) for help with a case and gets in way over her head.

This Tony-winning actress represents the joy a good performance can bring to a subpar project. Everything about this David E. Kelley legal drama is outsized and ridiculous — Arianda’s character included. But she brings such energy and conviction to the role, along with some welcome moments of comic relief, that you may find yourself eagerly anticipating her next appearance. All by himself Thornton (who is as reliably excellent as always) is enough to make Goliath watchable — but when he's on screen with Arianda, the show momentarily crackles.

Yvonne Orji, Insecure (HBO)

Orji plays Molly, best friend to Issa (star Issa Rae).

Like Donald Glover's Atlanta, Insecure represents the vision of a singular artist, in this case Issa Rae. And like Glover, Rae was smart enough to realize that a 30-minute monologue from the star, as gifted as she is, might not be enough.

So we get Orji’s Molly, a beautiful woman who has some shallow desires but is not, herself, shallow. Orji walks that line masterfully, mining all the humor out of Molly’s desire to find a rich husband while also letting us see the pain and doubt that lies underneath. It’s a well-written, complicated role: Molly bristles at a young, black female attorney who doesn’t try to fit in at their mostly white law firm, but she objects to being told to help her fit in, and she doesn’t like seeing her told she doesn’t fit in.Like all of us, Molly's made up of many parts and shades, and Orji brings all of them to vibrant life.

Malcolm Barrett, Timeless (NBC)

Barrett plays Rufus, a scientist of ambiguous motives who pilots the three-person time machine.

Sometimes actors are valuable not just for how well they play a role, but for what their roles and performances allow the writers to do. This time-travel adventure is still finding its footing, but in Rufus, the show had a winner from the start. Humorously in the first outing, more seriously in the second, Rufus has served as a reminder that many African-Americans would not find zooming around American history a particularly rewarding adventure. He provides a depth and context the show would otherwise lack — and that’s an invaluable addition.