Photo: Courtesy of SHOWTIME

By Amy Amatangelo, TV Gal®

The Emmys are my night of nights. My Super Bowl and World Series. Forget Christmas, this is the most wonderful time of year. I still love everything about the Emmys — the red carpet arrivals, the gushy speeches, the upset wins,the bad outfits and the questionable hairstyles.

But after years of trying to accurately forecast the Emmys and failing rather miserably, I’ve realized that no matter how hard I try, I am pretty bad at Emmy predictions.  Seriously, you so don’t want to take me to Vegas.  Therefore this year, I decided to talk about the six nominees that I would really like to see win.

Outstanding Drama: Homeland

I’m still recovering from the stress that was watching “The Weekend” episode. It was one of the finest hours of television I’ve ever experienced – surprising, nuanced, and brilliantly acted. In its first season, Homeland turned every convention about an one hour drama completely around.  It was impossible to play predict-a-plot with this series. Did you ever think that Brody and Carrie would sleep together? Did you ever think Brody would confront Carrie in the middle of the season? At the end of “The Weekend,” I was convinced (kind of) that Brody was innocent, but I had this lingering thought: “What if Brody is actually playing the long, long game?”   Any show that can make a viewer vacillate convincingly between two equally believable scenarios is pretty amazing and deserves to be recognized.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Claire Danes, Homeland

This isn’t just the performance of Danes’ career; it’s the performance of the season. There’s a palpable intensity to Danes’ portrayal of troubled CIA agent Carrie Mathison. You can feel that this woman is precariously teetering between sanity and the pull of her mental illness.  In her performance, Carrie’s mistakes (really should you sleep with your target? I don’t think so.) make perfect sense.  If the role of Carrie had been miscast, Homeland never would have worked as a series. Danes makes the series.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

For all the reasons I stated yesterday, Poehler deserves this win. Plus it’s really the only way to reward Parks and Recreation which was the year’s best comedy.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory

I didn’t watch the show every week until Bialik came along. She so wholly owns the character of Amy Farrah Fowler. Everything about Bialik’s performance — from the way she walks to the way she speaks — transform Amy’s funny lines into hilarious ones.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Max Greenfield, New Girl

As I talked about earlier this week, this is the right role at the right time for Max Greenfield. But a character like Schmidt is so tricky because if an actor took the role too far, Schmidt would become a joke and a joke that the audience wouldn’t care about.  Greenfield makes Schmidt outrageous while still keeping him believable and vulnerable. One of the most interesting things that happened last season was how New Girl morphed from being about the adorkable Zooey Deschanel to truly being an ensemble comedy that often focused on the friendship of the three male roommates. Deschanel may have gotten most of the attention but Greenfield made the show.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Christina Hendricks, Mad Men

Last season might not have been Mad Men’s best but it was definitely Hendricks’ best. Hendricks has been nominated twice before and this is the year she deserves to win. “The Other Woman,” which found Joan sleeping her way into a partnership was devastating and heartbreaking. Hendricks’ performance haunted me for days.

Those are the six awards I care most about this Sunday. How about you? Which Emmy award categories are you most excited about? Talk about it below.You can get a complete list of Emmy nominations here.

Also I’ll be tweeting during the Emmys so make sure to follow me on Twitter at @amytvgal and let me know what you think about the show.