Annette Bening’s Priscilla Is The Performance Of The Week

THE PERFORMER | Annette Bening

THE SHOW | Apple TV’s “Lucky“

THE EPISODE | “Are We Bad People?” (August 5, 2026)

THE PERFORMANCE | Grief is a fickle b*tch. That’s exactly what Priscilla learned last week after a hellacious car chase and shootout left her son Cary dead. But Annette Bening turned tragedy into a triumph, as her character’s sudden loss teed the actress up for some of the miniseries’ best work yet.

After Priscilla witnessed the wreckage, Bening delivered a horrific breakdown screaming, “My baby, no!” as she was literally dragged away from the scene. This week, Bening’s body language and tone displayed signs of the exact opposite. Despondency. Exhaustion. And as she wondered if her boss Wayne would even show face at his own son’s funeral, the actress’ mouth twitched and her eyes went dead, as if all her hope and love were draining from her body in real time. It was one wild heel turn from what we saw prior, but this snapshot of loss and devastation was just as powerful nonetheless.

Despite hitting rock bottom, the rage returned when Dutch found the mob woman firing a gun in her backyard, seething in anger, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Did I kill him, Dutch? Did I do this?” she asked her second in command. After all, she was the one to pull her kid into “the life.” As she blamed herself, Bening continued pulling sympathy from her audience despite the fact that the character is a crooked mobster with blood on her hands.

When the day came to lay Cary to rest, of course Wayne didn’t show, so Priscilla unleashed her fire and feelings by smashing the boy’s urn in his office. She also b*tchslapped him across the face, a violent move that ended with a gun pointed at her. Bening’s reaction was pure fear, as she shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the end to come. Luckily, it didn’t. Otherwise, we would’ve been robbed of seeing more from an artist who isn’t afraid to bare her soul in order to show the humanity and reality of true despair. — Nick Caruso

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

For longtime fans of Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place,” Jennifer Stone’s return in the Disney+ reboot’s series finale was more than just a long-overdue reunion with an old friend — it was downright healing. Watching Stone effortlessly step back into the role of quirky, confident redhead Harper Finkle after 13 years felt like slipping on your favorite sweatshirt, the one you thought you’d lost years ago, only to find it more comfortable and better-fitting than ever. And even though Stone only appeared in one episode of “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,” she was given (and thoroughly crushed) a generous range of material. You want farcical comedy? Look no further than Harper’s visceral struggle not to spoil what she thought was going to be a romantic proposal. There was a nuanced humor to her performance, a far cry from the bigger-is-always-better mentality of most family sitcoms. While Stone’s comedic timing came as no surprise to those familiar with her past work, however, we were genuinely floored at her ability to pivot from comedy to drama on a dime. When Harper, with tears in her eyes, told Alex (Selena Gomez) that she misses their friendship, Stone delivered an authentically heartbreaking moment, relatable even to those who didn’t grow up watching the duo on screen. At the very least, Stone’s guest appearance should be a wake-up call to casting directors everywhere: Get this woman on a new sitcom, stat! — Andy Swift

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