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A newcomer you might have missed, Sarah Hay in Flesh and Bone (2015), and a veteran actor you might not know, Ben Mendelsohn in Bloodline (2015), both scored 2016 Golden Globe acting nominations in the Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category. Hay and Mendelsohn might not have much in common on their resumes, but their striking performances in challenging dramas share a dark physicality and vulnerability that deserve a rewatch. If you are seeking a master class in how actors use control of their bodies to physically express character, the episodes to watch or revisit are Flesh and Bone’s S01E06 and Bloodline’s S01E04.

Ballerina Sarah Hay plays Claire Robbins on Starz’s dark and gritty dance drama. Hay’s performance as the newly minted prima ballerina shifts from damp-eyed ingénue to tightly wound, emotionally crippled survivor as crisply as a turn on one of her battered toe-shoes. Hay, a real-world soloist with the Semperoper Ballett in Dresden, Germany, makes her acting debut here. But the role draws heavily on her training, as Claire’s storyline is demanding in all areas of physical performance, not just the intricate dance sequences.

Each episode of Flesh and Bone is titled using military jargon that serves as a thematic guidepost and not-so-subtle metaphor. Hay’s range is most on display in Season One, Episode 6, “F.U.B.A.R.” In this episode, it is Thanksgiving, and the company is looking forward to a much-needed day off. This episode provides viewers with the opportunity to see Claire in all of her different environments: her exhausting professional life with the company, the twisted fairy-tale world of her apartment, and her shabby and shattered home in Pittsburgh.

Despite being one of the main characters of the show, Claire speaks very little dialogue. Hay must deliver much of the subtext and emotion of the show through her face and body language. This is where her ballet career serves her so well—as a dancer, she understands how to express the meaning of scenes without the benefit of words. Most of the time Hay’s Claire looks as if she’s about to burst into tears, but in “F.U.B.A.R.,” the changing scenery breaks that cycle, allowing Hay to stretch beyond the frightened and naïve newcomer. At the studio, she is a marvel, coming into her own under the new choreographer, while in Pittsburgh, she falls into the habit of routine, no matter how damaging that routine might be. In each scene, both Claire and Hay seem to be discovering their power. “F.U.B.A.R.” is a turning point in the season for both character and actress alike.

By contrast, Ben Mendelsohn is hardly a newcomer, if he may be unfamiliar to many US viewers, nor is he a professional ballet dancer. But like Hay, he understands how to harnass the dramatic power of physical expression. Mendelsohn has had a successful career as a mostly character actor, and now his role as Danny Rayburn on the Netflix Original Bloodline gives him the opportunity to step into the lead for a mainstream US audience, working with a cast that includes heavyweights Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, and Norbert Leo Butz.

Mendelsohn’s performance is nuanced and complicated, like the show itself. In a televisual world where there are no clear villains or heroes, where everyone exists in shadowy greys instead of black and white, Mendelsohn’s Danny is particularly hard to pin down. Single episodes can take Danny from despicable and disgusting to sympathetic and sad. He is a strong foil for Chandler’s trademark self-righteous indignation and can match Spacek’s vulnerability beat for beat.

The Bloodline to rewatch is Part 4, and in particular the final scene of the episode: a meeting between Danny and his father, Robert (Sam Shepard). The two men are having beers on the beach, at one of those tranquil spots on the sand in the Florida Keys. Up to this point in the series, the troubled Danny has seemed to be making progress and amends with his family. Things change during this father and son sit-down.

Mendelsohn and Shepard perfectly express the complicated dynamic and history at work between the two characters—and they do so largely in their physical embodiment of the personalities, expressing their characters’ inner selves and their difficult relationship through controlled movement. Both use the false informality of the setting and the physical act of drinking to build the tension in the scene. Mendelsohn, throughout the series but especially in this scene, capitalizes on the fact that Danny is a smoker. The long, nervous drags on his cigarette and the resigned, slow exhales are excruciating and heartbreaking. We see all of Danny in this one scene, even if you don’t realize it on first viewing.

So watch it again. Pay attention to the pauses, the sighs, and the space in between the dialogue.