2016’s newest TV shows highlight some great performances

With his wide eyes and neutral affect, Ahmed was the perfect lead for this show. You couldn’t easily tell whether his Naz — accused of murder — was a good guy trapped or a bad guy revealed. He walked the line with compelling expertise.

Pamela Adlon in “Better Things” (FX)

She was fierce and funny in her recurring role on “Louie,” and she was all that and more on her own show, one of the year’s best comedies. Adlon is the single working mother of three girls, and the only thing more enjoyable than watching her get frustrated with them is watching her deep devotion to them.

Ron Cephas Jones in “This Is Us” (NBC)

There are a number of big performances on this dramatic breakout show, which makes Jones’s quiet, moving turn as Randall’s birth father all the more powerful. He brings grace and texture to every scene he’s in.

Issa Rae in “Insecure” (HBO)

When you took at step back and looked at Issa’s actions in this rich comedy, you knew she was behaving terribly. But Rae brought such an enormous amount of humanity to her performance that you nonetheless understood Issa’s decisions. Also, Rae knows how to land a joke.

Sarah Paulson in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (FX)

I wasn’t as gaga about this series as the Emmy voters were, but I was in awe of Paulson’s Emmy-winning turn as prosecutor Marcia Clark. Paulson took the caricature created by the O.J. trial coverage and movingly remade Clark into a human being facing an onslaught of sexism in and out of the media.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag” (Amazon)

Waller-Bridge wrote this dark six-episode comedy, and then perfectly complemented her script with a heartbreaking performance as a woman salving her grief with random sexual exploits. She managed to break the fourth wall without breaking the show’s spell.

Connor Jessup in “American Crime” (ABC)

He was the emotional center of this very emotional season, as a teenager who was raped at a party. Jessup made every difficult moment his character experienced specific and clear, yet he simultaneously gave us a kid unable to articulate and fully understand what was happening to him.

Bryan Tyree Henry in “Atlanta” (FX)

As Paper Boi, he was a drug-dealing rapper and anything but a stereotype. In a show with a number of compelling performances, Henry stood out as an interior but always honest guy who was used to other people projecting their issues onto him.

Vanessa Kirby in “The Crown” (Netflix)

All the acting in this spectacular period drama about the career of Queen Elizabeth — written by Peter Morgan of “The Queen” — is strong, not least of all John Lithgow as an unforgettable Winston Churchill. But Kirby was a revelation as Princess Margaret, struggling with her problematic love affair and her sister’s will. She was as fragile as she was angry.

Ellen Barkin in “Animal Kingdom” (TNT)

As Smurf, she was the reason to watch this somewhat overcooked show that played a bit like “Sons of Anarchy” with surfers in SoCal. Smurf was the manipulative matriarch of a crime family of handsome hippie boys, and Barkin added in hints of incestuous flirtation to make it all thoroughly creepy.

Evan Rachel Wood in “Westworld” (HBO)

Wowser. Thandie Newton and Jimmi Simpson were very good as Maeve and William, but Wood blew my mind. She had to give us Dolores in a number of different timelines and remain consistent, no easy task. She succeeded beautifully, ultimately giving us a fully developed (rebel?) heroine.

Louie Anderson in “Baskets” (FX)

Anderson won a well-deserved Emmy for his role as wannabe clown Chip Basket’s mother. He never played the role for cross-gender laughs, opting instead to create a multidimensional woman who is both loving and passive-aggressive with her adult children.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.