With Connie Britton's Golden Globe nomination Thursday, a first for Bravo, the network has what it presumably wanted from its based-on-a-true-story miniseries "Dirty John": some Hollywood street cred.
The NBCUniversal-owned home of "Real Housewives" and "Project Runway" now has someone competing for actress in a limited series or motion picture made for television in a category also populated by titles from HBO, Showtime and Netflix.
"Dirty John," based on a Los Angeles Times investigative series and podcast, is an adaptation of the story of Orange County businesswoman Debra Newell (Britton) and anesthesiologist John Meehan (played by Eric Bana), an online date who turns out to be a dangerous con man. The subject targets Bravo's audience demographic, to be sure, but Britton's performance helps elevate the piece from a routine woman-in-peril tale to something worth watching with full attention.
Britton, nominated once before for her work in "Nashville," is competing against Amy Adams ("Sharp Objects," HBO), Patricia Arquette ("Escape at Dannemora," Showtime), Laura Dern ("The Tale," HBO) and Regina King ("Seven Seconds," Netflix). Of those other actresses, three have won one or more Golden Globes and one has been nominated three times.
Talk about making it work.
"[I]t's Britton who does the heavy lifting of semi-willful obliviousness, and she's great. Her best scenes are when, as the evidence mounts against John, denial begins to color her measured words and freeze her expression, like the faintest hint of a captive fragrance," writer Robert Abele said in The Times' review of the miniseries' first three episodes.
The 76th Golden Globe Awards air on Jan. 6.
