Widest marital range: Connie Britton

In the fifth season of Friday Night Lights, Connie Britton informed her pretend husband Kyle Chandler that she had a great job offer in Philadelphia, and that taking it would mean abandoning the place that had been their home for five years and the coaching position that had made him a local demigod. Chandler’s Eric Taylor required a little time to wrap his head around this change, but he finally agreed that, after years of putting his career on the front burner, it was time to make some sacrifices for his wife. When Britton’s American Horror Story character tried to make it clear to her dazed therapist husband that she would prefer not to live in a haunted house whose ghost population includes the murdered student he had an affair with and impregnated, he booked her a room in the local nuthouse. As such, Britton deserves notice for convincingly portraying one half of the best and worst marriages on TV in the space of 10 months.

The AV Club:   The TV Club Awards 2011