TVLine's Performer Of The Week: Kyle Chandler

THE PERFORMER | Kyle Chandler

THE SHOW | HBO's "Lanterns"

THE EPISODE | "Pilot" (August 16, 2026)

THE PERFORMANCE | It can be tough for an actor to break out of his niche once he's played an iconic TV role, and Kyle Chandler certainly played one as the hard-nosed but sensitive high school football coach Eric Taylor on "Friday Night Lights." But Chandler is expanding his acting palette as grizzled superhero Hal Jordan on HBO's "Lanterns," channeling some of Coach Taylor's mentor mystique while finding a playful new spin on it. He hit the ground running in this week's series premiere, too, as Hal invited John (and us) into the world of being a superhero.

We first met Hal through a '90s TV interview, and even through the grainy footage, Chandler made Hal's earnest charm pop off the screen as he explained how he first became the Green Lantern. Decades later, Hal arrived to pick up his Lantern trainee John Stewart in a vintage muscle car blasting KC and the Sunshine Band, and Chandler instantly let us know that the rumpled, hungover Hal was anything but your typical clean-cut superhero. Hal wasn't exactly a warm and fuzzy father figure, either, with Chandler's voice gathering a tough edge as he told John, "The big blue bosses may think that you're hot s**t, but you're just a f**king substitute teacher, junior." He did give John the all-powerful ring... but then promptly bailed out of the car as it careened over a cliff to see if the kid could handle it. 

For a superhero, Hal is remarkably chill, and Chandler made great use of his laid-back charisma as Hal drank with locals at a seedy bar, using his magic ring to conjure up counterfeit money to play the jukebox. (We love a superhero you can have a beer with.) But he has a serious side, too, and Chandler added a rugged intensity to the mix when Hal faced down a macho militia leader and then interrogated an alien, cleverly quizzing him about Harry Potter to prove he's not from Earth and showing his years of experience are worth something after all. By the end of the episode, we were devastated to see Hal dead, because we got such a tantalizing glimpse of the fireworks Chandler could bring to the role. Let's just hope all these different timelines give us a lot more Hal in the weeks to come. — Dave Nemetz

Scroll down to see who got an Honorable Mention shout-out this week...

This week on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," a transporter malfunction turned the entire Enterprise crew into puppets — well, all of them except Spock, leaving Ethan Peck to deliver a hilariously befuddled performance as the only flesh-and-blood crew member in a sea of felt. Acting in a room full of puppets is a unique skill, but Peck played it beautifully, with Spock's deadpan logic offering the perfect contrast to the puppets' wild zaniness as he did his best to save the ship. (Peck wisely understood that the funniest thing an actor can do is take himself completely seriously.) He even managed to weave in a bit of romance, not even winking a bit as Spock planted a tender kiss on the puppet version of his Vulcan ex T'Pring. Let's see Daniel Day-Lewis pull that off! In the end, it was all just a dream, but it's one we won't soon forget, thanks to Peck's inspired work. — D.N.

Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!