2015 Emmys: ‘Homeland,’ ‘Masters of Sex,’ ‘Orange is the New Black’ stars face off

When we’ve done some past Emmy features, we really haven’t spent too much time talking about the guest-acting categories, mostly because there are hundreds of possible nominees and your head will start to spin if you spend too much time thinking about it.

Now, it is a little bit easier to navigate this category, since we’re looking ultimately at a smaller pool of nominees and therefore there is some more room for analysis. This is going to be a good race for Guest Actor in a Drama Series this year! There are several ways we can see the Television Academy vote here.

The nominees

Alan Alda, “The Blacklist” (NBC)

Beau Bridges, “Masters of Sex” (Showtime)

F. Murray Abraham, “Homeland” (Showtime)

Michael J. Fox, “The Good Wife” (CBS)

Pablo Schreiber, “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)

Reg E. Cathey, “House of Cards” (Netflix)

Who should win – There are a lot of different ways you can look at these nominations. You can go based off a one-episode performance, a whole season, or which show you think is the best. For now, though, we’re going based on who brings the most to the show, and we’re going with F. Murray Abraham. Dar Adal was essential the end of “Homeland” this past season, and he is brilliant in this somewhat-mysterious role. It’s not the flashiest, but we’re not sure any other actor could pull this off.

Who will win – If the Emmys are voting based on the present popularity of a given show, they will pick Schreiber who is very good. If they’re going with a recent favorite, Fox has it. If they really want to go for legacy, they’ll pick Alda. We feel like the likely favorite is Schreiber just because so many people love “Orange is the New Black,” but these categories are the toughest to call.