Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is the little comedy that could and did! A staple of NBC's comedy lineup, Parks never fails to be sweet and funny. This season saw Leslile Knope (Amy Poehler, who finally took home a Golden Globe for her work on the series) try and unite two bitter rival towns into one, deal with surprising personal news and juggle professional opportunities. Parks continues to serve up character growth and hilarious moments unlike no other comedy on TV today.
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order: SVU started its 15th season (yes, 15!) off with a bang. Olivia Benson, kidnapped and tortured, fought for her life as her squad raced to come to her aide. Hargitay proved once again why she's a powerhouse and the anchor of the long-running series by giving a nuanced performance the entire season as Benson dealt with the abduction, subsequent court battle and final standoff with the Beast.
Hannibal
TV's most gory and ghastly series is also one of its best and most beautiful, so it's such a pity that the genre favorite from the brilliantly twisted mind of Bryan Fuller will be ignored.
Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy
1. Did you see the scene in which (Spoiler alert!) Jax grieved over Tara's death?! 2. Shouldn't he be recognized for dropping out of Fifty Shades of Grey before it was too late?
Nina Dobrev, The Vampire Diaries
Same complaint, different year. The fact that the Academy refuses to acknowledge Dobrev's continuously stellar performance (or performances, as she took on three characters in season five) on The Vampire Diaries makes us want to go on an epic rant that would make Katherine Pierce (R.I.P., gurl!) proud. But hey, at least the CW is the prettiest of all the networks?
Jordan Gavaris, Orphan Black
Tatiana Maslany, force of nature that she is, earns most of the praise, rightfully so, when it comes to Orphan Black, but Gavaris doesn't receive nearly enough attention for his electrifying work as Felix, the "brother-sestra" and the heart and soul at the center of Clone Club. Gavaris' ability to have a completely different chemistry with each of Maslany's characters constantly amazes us and whispering, "Holy Tilda Swinton."
Bellamy Young, Scandal
She's cold. She's harsh. She's messy. She's complicated. She's wounded. She's fearless. She's captivating. Young is the bleeding heart at the center of ABC's hit and you can't take your eyes off of her when she's on screen. And she's never met a Shonda Rhimes monologue she hasn't absolutely crushed.
Ted Allen, Chopped
Go on, mock us for actually getting riled up over the Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program category, but come on, the Food Network vet is just so darn good and so darn underrated! Plus, he stands all day and never gets to taste any of the food! MARTYR OF THE CHOPPED KITCHEN, Y'ALL!
Natasha Lyonne, Orange Is the New Black
OITNB is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stellar performances, but when you look at Lyonne as recovering addict and inmate Nicky Nichols, the tragic comic relief, well, everything else just sort of fades away. Yep, this is the same woman from American Pie, pulling at your heart strings and making you laugh.
Emma Roberts, American Horror Story: Coven
Fact: Madison Montgomery was one of the best, if not the best, new TV characters of the season and Roberts was an absolute delight to watch, clearly loving every second she got to spend as the Regina George of New Orleans' witch community. ''Surprise, bitch!" is what we can only hope the Academy will say come Thursday morning.
Sleepy Hollow
We know, we know. We're crazy for even entertaining the idea of TV's most batshit-crazy-in-the-best-possible-way show being nominated, but that doesn't mean we can't be upset over it not being nominated. Sometimes it's nice just to be ridiculously entertained while watching TV and the Fox drama's 13-episode freshman outing is the most fun we've had in front of the small screen in a long time. So there.
Melissa McBride, The Walking Dead
It says something about the performance when a character goes from a background player to a main attraction and that's exactly what happened with McBride on The Walking Dead. As Carol, a character who (Spoiler alert!) is dead in the comics, McBride has given humanity to the series. She makes the hard choices and through her performance actually shows that they're difficult, even heinous decisions. You'll have a hard time trying to forget that scene with Lizzie.
Chris Messina, The Mindy Project
Danny Castellano is the most unlikely rom-com leading man who danced his way into Mindy's heart and onto our dream Emmy winners list this past season on the criminally underrated Fox sitcom. (Which of course also deserves to be nominated for every award ever. Including Outstanding Drama. And Outstanding Reality TV Program. Yes, we love it that much.) Messina oozes old-school charm and brings out the surprisingly vulnerable side of NYC's crankiest doc, who is really a senior citizen trapped in the body of a hot Italian (the most perfect combination, basically).