In predicting the TV winners at the Golden Globes, you might just as well flip a coin. Who knows what arbitrary agendas lurk within the membership of this odd group known as the Hollywood Foreign Press? Given the maddeningly unsatisfying nature of this category (no Friday Night Lights, Lost or The Sopranos, to name but a few), and how uneven many of the actual nominees were this year, I'll simply advise this: Break out the Brylcreem. AMC's hypnotizing '60s period piece about sex, sexism, cigarettes and advertising is the most satisfying and enthralling? show on this list. Still, if it's a popularity contest, Grey's could repeat. And if the Globes wants to shock us (as they have in the past), HBO's kicky Big Love could squeeze in. But they'd be mad not to choose Mad Men.

Should Win: Mad Men
Will Win: Mad Men

I'd love to see Pushing Daisies rewarded for its nonstop creativity and fabulousness, the way Ugly Betty triumphed in this category a year ago. A win for a show this offbeat wouldn't be out of character for the Globes. But 30 Rock, NBC's twisted satire about the madfolk who run a TV comedy asylum, hits closer to home for showbiz insiders like the Globes voters, so I'm thinking it's probably this show's turn in the spotlight, and it's at least as deserving. The choice might be tougher if the list had included Weeds (instead of Californication) or Curb Your Enthusiasm (over what may have been Entourage's weakest overall season), not to mention Scrubs or any of CBS' popular, populist comedies. (You'd think the Globes might take notice of the hip How I Met Your Mother, since no one else does.)

Should Win: Pushing Daisies
Will Win: 30 Rock

With seven nominees to choose from, each of them formidably big names (though none of them, honestly, worth mentioning in the same breath as Friday Night Lights' brilliant Connie Britton), I find it hard to imagine the Globes passing up a chance to honor the estimable Glenn Close for her crafty portrayal of a ruthless lawyer in FX's bloody legal thriller.

Should Win: Glenn Close
Will Win: Glenn Close

I'd be OK if either Mad Men's matinee-idol breakout star Hamm or Dexter's devilishly charismatic serial killer Hall won. I'm mainly hoping the Globes spreads the wealth beyond the always-deserving Hugh Laurie, who has won the last two years. New blood, please. And if blood is the criterion, then it's Hall hands down. While Hamm is my personal choice, for revealing dark new angles to what could have been a conventional leading-man hero, for originality I'm still betting on Hall — and the seductively twisted way he makes us empathize with such a damaged character. If the Globes exist to fix Emmy's oversights, Hall should start preparing his speech. Dark horse here: Jonathan Rhys Meyers as The Tudors' lusty young King Henry. The Globes loves a lavish costume drama, and his is the most classic lead performance in this category. Lamentably missing: Lost's Matthew Fox and, of course, Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler for his inspiring portrayal of a husband, father and coach.

Should Win: Jon Hamm
Will Win: Michael C. Hall

Last year was Ugly Betty's, and America Ferrera's, breakthrough. The year before, the Globe went to Parker as the soccer mom turned drug dealer. So I would like the award to go to this year's most original new character: Pushing Daisies' resurrected screwball heroine, played with pitch-perfect romantic-comedy glibness and grace by Friel. I'm afraid it may not be a showy enough turn, which makes me think the award is more likely to go back to awards-show darling Parker, given how much darker and wackier Weeds has grown over the last seasons. Keeping Nancy Botwin even remotely sympathetic is no small challenge. Omissions of note: Julia Louis-Dreyfus as CBS' flustered Old Christine and Cheryl Hines as Larry's newly independent ex-spouse on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Should Win: Anna Friel
Will Win: Mary-Louise Parker

In this category, Carell, Duchovny and Gervais make me squirm. Pace makes me sigh. And Alec Baldwin? Makes me laugh. Uproariously. In each and every episode of 30 Rock. He'd get my vote for a second straight Globe. But I'm betting the Globes, like the Emmys, will favor British wit Gervais, whose caustic skewering of fame and ambition on Extras goes even deeper than his groundbreaking work on the original Office. I'm sorry that Scrubs' Zach Braff, Earl's Jason Lee and Big Bang Theory's promising newcomer Jim Parsons aren't represented, but this is still a strong category.

Should Win: Alec Baldwin
Will Win: Ricky Gervais