With seemingly thousands of nominations up for grabs, television's Emmy Awards ought to be a grab bag of smiles, applause and happy faces. So how come, time and time again, they seem to get it so wrong?

This year, both drama and comedy categories were expanded to include a seventh nominated show, yet there are still some stunning oversights. And while the actor and actress categories are bulging at the seams, some brilliant performances have been overlooked.

Herewith, Emmy's 10 (ish) most shocking snubs this year:

Lena Dunham and Girls
So, she kind of bugs me, but you know what, that's a good thing. And she has become, in a sense, the voice of her generation. So why on earth is Lena Dunham not nominated? More to the point, where is Girls, the television show she has hand-crafted into a powerful statement about gender politics in the big city? In one sense we get it – the Dunham demographic and the voting members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have little crossover – but seriously, either get it right, or give it up.

Empire
In an otherwise same-time-next-year television season, along comes a show that re-writes the ratings rulebook and makes a powerful statement about race in modern America, and there is just a solitary key award: Taraji P. Henson, in the lead actress category. She deserves it, but Empire deserves a little more love. There is no doubt the outstanding drama category is filled to overflowing, and in fairness it's tough to see what might be cut in favour of Empire (Downton Abbey and Orange Is the New Black, now that you mention it), but this is a staggering oversight.

Gina Rodriguez and Jane the Virgin
So, what does it take to have a crack at an Emmy nomination? Apparently it isn't enough to deliver a luminous performance in a show that speaks with breathtaking honesty (and great humour) about family and life in America's ethnically blended 'burbs. Gina Rodriguez landed the Golden Globe, though the Globes' voting bloc, largely journalists, are more responsive to trends than the older, slower-moving Academy. Not all winning shows are heavy, some excel with lightness of touch and unpredictable, brilliant humour. This is one of them.

The Americans
What do you do with a drama category so filled to overflowing that there's no room to move, or breathe? Most of the shows that made the cut deserved it, notably Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Mad Men. It comes as no surprise, then, that many great shows also missed out, but overlooking The Americans burns a little. Here is a show with sophisticated writing, stellar performances and powerful observations about modern American politics.

The Big Bang Theory and Jim Parsons
Okay, it's a network sitcom, but riddle me this: how do you go from being a nominated comedy whose star wins the best actor category last year to a show that doesn't appear in either the comedy or comedy actor categories? That's harsh. It hasn't been that bad a year. In truth, this was a case of shelf space, with several new shows pushing in (Transparent, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and a previously much-overlooked series, Parks & Recreation, getting a "final season" nomination from a sentimental Academy.

The Walking Dead
So, the Emmys are proof positive that you can be the biggest show in the world and still not make the cut. There is sometimes a consolation prize to be found in a lesser category, but The Walking Dead doesn't seem to be anywhere. (Admittedly, we gave up on page nine of what seemed an unending list of nominees.) The Emmys have a mortal fear of genre shows, aside from Game of Thrones, which leaves shows like The Walking Dead and Warner Bros' suite of comic book adaptations, such as particularly sharp The Flash, out in the cold.

Jane Fonda and Grace and Frankie
Fonda's co-star in this sharp, poignant Netflix comedy, Lily Tomlin, has been rightly recognised with a nomination, but where is Fonda's? Both delivered sucker-punch moments in this series, about two women left to restart their lives when their husbands leave them for one another, particularly Fonda, whose not-as-perfect-as-it-seemed marriage to Martin Sheen was played perfectly by the septuagenarian icon. Grace and Frankie excelled in small touches, not loud punchlines, and Fonda's performance was layered and beautifully played out across the season. The episode-focused Emmy voters need to widen their view.

Julianna Margulies
Do. Not. Even. Start. Me. What are you supposed to do when a performance is so excellent, so luminous, that overlooking simply leaves you speechless and scratching your head? Julianna Margulies' turn as Alicia Florrick has been layered, brilliant and slow-cooked from raw to so well done it simply defies common sense that it isn't recognised. This is a bugger of a category and it really is a tough lineup to crack – Danes, Davis, Henson, Maslany, Moss and Wright are all brilliant, and all so deserving of being there – but it simply isn't fair that an actress of Margulies' calibre, and a performance so brilliant, are left out.

The Good Wife
Seriously. Do. Not. Even. Start. Me. This is, without a doubt, the single largest blight on the Academy's record, and a powerful, and concerning, signal that the voters don't know what they're doing. It simply isn't enough to be a strong brand, or a show that has delivered great television but is now living out its twilight years in a cobwebby corner of the category. The Good Wife is not just a brilliant show, but a show that has matured its storylines and delivered its strongest material in the past two years ... and many more, too numerous to mention.

The rest
Where do we even begin? Masters of Sex? Brilliant show. The Affair? Amazing, and amazing talent in lead actors Ruth Wilson and Dominic West. Sons of Anarchy ought to be there, not just for being a brilliant show, but for delivering a brilliant final season that smashed us to pieces emotionally. Where is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's Ellie Kemper, the only person in that show who didn't seem to get nominated? And where is the dark and brilliant Penny Dreadful?

The only consolation is that the honour roll of Emmy snubs goes on and on, peppered with so many great shows and actors that it's almost an honour to be overlooked.