Sabrina's Emmy Pick for Jason

screencaps from 'Beyond Reason' clips

Jason Thompson has done some of his best portrayals of Patrick Drake as a man in love. And that’s not belittling his talent because he came out strong as soon as he started on the show. But it’s seeing him in love with Robin and how that love influences his character that is very telling of his talents. This couldn’t be an easy emotion to portray onscreen, so the fact that he does so with so much passion is impressive.

One thing that the month of April showed was how Patrick could regress to being angry if he lost everything that he’s managed to gain with his relationship with Robin. There was definitely a lighter side to Patrick once he admitted to being in love. It was like he allowed himself to breathe and relax as he opened up, and we saw a more natural side to his character. The same lightness that we’ve seen in Dr. Drake since falling in love was replaced by a closed off wall of hurt and anger once the situation with Robin and Nikolas kicked into gear.

When Patrick was lead to believe that Nikolas and Robin were in love, Jason Thompson was impressive in showing how this situation affected Patrick on many levels. It was like he stepped into another role, one that wasn’t the Patrick that has evolved on our screens, and yet, wasn’t quite the old confident Patrick. Everything he did was a half-heated attempt, and he seemed to shut down altogether, showing mostly an angry front. While the viewers probably wanted him to snap out of it and pick up on the signs of the lie, it can’t be ignored that Jason Thompson did a wonderful job portraying defeat. His eyes lost the spark, his voice lost any signs of happiness and content, and his bedside manner and interactions with the staff at GH even took a sour turn. Jason Thompson did a great job of showing how Patrick’s unhappiness affected everything he did, and everyone he interacted with. He wasn’t happy, so his bedside manner wasn’t the best. He was hurt, so he took it out on others. There was not one sign of happiness in him, and that’s how it should have been. And he definitely seemed to try to antagonize Robin during this situation. He wanted to pick fights with her, and to argue with her, and Jason Thompson did a wonderful job showing how passionate Patrick is about Robin.

This is represented in the episode from April 17, 2007. Jason’s portrayal of Patrick went from a man passionately in love and happy to being angry. Again, Jason brought out the passion when Patrick was arguing with Robin. What was impressive was his ability to appear angry with his whole appearance. Everything about him was tense, especially with his facial expressions. Jason didn’t portray Patrick as relaxed because he wasn’t. He didn’t portray a man who was calm because he wasn’t. He took Patrick to a darker place, which seems to be a difficult transition from someone who was just so blissfully happy. That’s telling of his talents and his commitment to quickly move into that role for the same character.