Who deserves to win an Emmy this year?

It’s almost guaranteed that the team will have a good Emmys night, but oddsmakers say Annie Murphy is the least likely to win out of the Canadian comedy’s four acting nominees. Sure, chews up the scenery like no other, and the Levys are cementing a comedy dynasty, but no Schitt’s character evolved as much as Murphy’s Alexis. While the actress is technically nominated for the final season of the series, it’s a reasonable bet that many voters discovered Schitt’s within the past year and tracked from beginning to end. It would have been easy to make Alexis a caricature, but Murphy gave us a complex, nuanced woman who found herself even as her world crumbled around her more than once. Plus, I’m really hoping for “A Little Bit Alexis” will be played by the invisible orchestra on Sunday. [Patrick Gomez]

I’ve already shared and hopes elsewhere on the site, but I wasn’t really able to get into the Creative Arts categories. So I’ll use this opportunity to stump for Carmen Cuba, the casting legend who brought together the star-studded ensemble of FX on Hulu’s . As hard as it is to watch Mrs. America’s depiction of this setback in the women’s rights movement, the performances of Cate Blanchett—who, as Phyllis Schlafly, makes our blood run cold—and her castmates , Rose Byrne, Tracey Ullman, Ari Graynor, and esteemed character actress ground us in this tumultuous period in history. And Cuba played a huge role in bringing their chemistry to the small screen. [Danette Chavez]

Kenan Thompson already won an Emmy in 2018 for that sketch with Chance The Rapper, and while that was fairly well-deserved, he also deserves one of those make-up awards that shows like the Emmys and the Oscars give out for people whose actual best work wasn’t properly recognized when it happened—and by “best work” in this case I am obviously referring to the classic Nickelodeon teen sitcom . I’m not saying Thompson doesn’t deserve to be honored for his work on SNL this year, which he certainly does (they finally brought back “What Up With That?” during an , so they deserve as many awards as we can give them), I’m just saying that he should win Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series this year and that we should all agree to count it as a retroactive win for his work on Kenan & Kel. [Sam Barsanti]

’s incredible ensemble was shunned by the Emmys last year and the squares are making up for it by nominating the entire goddamned Roy family (sans Connor; we love you, Connor). A bit of an overcorrection? Perhaps, but each and every one of them—from Brian Cox to Sarah Snook to —deserves it for making the world’s worst people so damn fun to watch. If I’ve gotta hand it to anyone, though, it’s Jeremy Strong, who, as would-be usurper Kendall, spent the second season reconciling a withering sense of grief with a renewed closeness with his father, the very thing he’s been craving. His journey toward is a complex one, fraught with despair, self-flagellation, and reinvention, but Strong navigates each beat with care—few actors can quite like he can. Plus, he gave us 2019’s . How is that not nominated, by the way? [Randall Colburn]

As Patrick’s answer reminds me, this year’s Best Supporting Actress In A Comedy category is a competitive one: It’s stacked, with half the group receiving their (long-overdue) first-ever nominations. But the win I’d be happiest to see is Yvonne Orji’s, a deserved recognition for her years of stellar work on that has, unfortunately, been so good that some fans of the show seem to forget where Orji begins and where her character Molly ends. In its best-yet fourth season, Insecure explored the possibility that long-time best friends Issa and Molly may have outgrown one another; the nuanced arc really , projecting Molly’s steadfast, polished exterior while often revealing a mountain of anxieties with just the right panicked look in her eyes. Hopefully the Television Academy (and the show’s vocal anti-Molly fan base) saw Orji’s where she has a “conversation” with Molly—it’s a brilliant reminder of the character she’s brought to life, one who’s admittedly harder to like than the warm, talented actor who plays her. [Cameron Scheetz]

The Emmy for Guest Actor In A Comedy has one clear answer in my eyes, and his name is Eddie Murphy. Watching his stint as host from the past year of (finally, after all this time!) was nothing if not a reminder of his perpetual MVP status for that long-running institution. Whether reprising or delivering , Murphy demonstrated that his talent for live-wire charisma in the world of TV sketch comedy is apparently an endlessly renewable resource. Seriously, there’s no one better to of a polar bear breaking into Santa’s workshop and brutally devouring some elves. [Alex McLevy]

Not to beat a horse currently trapped in the middle of a dinner party argument about whether he should be alive or dead, but the idea that BoJack Horseman, one of the best TV shows of the last decade, might end its six-season run without a single Emmy win is tremendously depressing to me. Especially when the episode it’s nominated for, is such a perfect encapsulation of the misery, comedy, and weird Hollywood riffing that defined BoJack throughout its tenure. Assembling a rogue’s gallery (Stanley Tucci, Wendie Malick, Kristen Schaal) of the show’s best guest talent to talk through what might possibly be BoJack’s dying dream, the episode is touching, funny, and sometimes terrifying. Best of all, it never flinches from the dark realities of death—one of the key hallmarks of what made BoJack so great. [William Hughes]

From the department of fond farewells: delivered layered, award-worthy work throughout The Good Place’s run, and her performance in the final season was no exception. She submitted a particularly flashy episode for the academy’s consideration—the many-Janets-make-light-work-and-one- caper “”— but a win for Carden would also honor four seasons of impeccable punchline delivery, her role as the emotional anchor of the , and the unfailing charm with which she fulfilled the gambit of staking the show’s richest character arc to a corporeal Siri. , , but hopefully an Emmy winner. [Erik Adams]

If I’ve sounded like a broken record when it comes to extolling the virtues of Insecure’s stellar fourth season, it’s because I cannot overstate just how big of a risk the HBO comedy took by significantly shaking up its core friendship. Issa and Molly’s dynamic (whether they are totally gelling or in the throes of temporary drama) drives so much of the show’s success. , showrunner Prentice Penny, and their creative team understood as much and still gave audiences one of the realest platonic breakups we’ve seen in television—a storyline that propelled well-rounded, Academy-recognized performances from both Rae and, as Cameron rightly discussed, . The Outstanding Comedy Series category might be stacked with a few of my favorites, but big swings that work this well should be properly rewarded. [Shannon Miller]