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https://www.thenerdelement.com/2022/03/14/critics-choice-awards-tv-winners/
TELEVISION WINNERS FOR THE 27TH ANNUAL CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS
The 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards were handed out on Sunday. Succession came into the awards with eight nominations, leading all shows.
It was Ted Lasso that came out with the most wins though, winning for Best Comedy Series, Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
Succession had a good night as well, taking home 3 awards for Best Drama Series, Best Supporting Actress for a Drama Series and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Click HERE for a list of the winners in the film categories
Read on for the full list of winners. Winners indicated in red and bold:
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Evil (Paramount+)
For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
The Good Fight (Paramount+)
Pose (FX)
Squid Game (Netflix)
Succession (HBO)
This Is Us (NBC)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sterling K. Brown – This Is Us (NBC)
Mike Colter – Evil (Paramount+)
Brian Cox – Succession (HBO)
Lee Jung-jae – Squid Game (Netflix)
Billy Porter – Pose (FX)
Jeremy Strong – Succession (HBO)
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Uzo Aduba – In Treatment (HBO)
Chiara Aurelia – Cruel Summer (Freeform)
Christine Baranski – The Good Fight (Paramount+)
Katja Herbers – Evil (Paramount+)
Melanie Lynskey – Yellowjackets (Showtime)
MJ Rodriguez – Pose (FX)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Nicholas Braun – Succession (HBO)
Billy Crudup – The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Kieran Culkin – Succession (HBO)
Justin Hartley – This Is Us (NBC)
Matthew Macfadyen – Succession (HBO)
Mandy Patinkin – The Good Fight (Paramount+)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Andrea Martin – Evil (Paramount+)
Audra McDonald – The Good Fight (Paramount+)
Christine Lahti – Evil (Paramount+)
J. Smith-Cameron – Succession (HBO)
Sarah Snook – Succession (HBO)
Susan Kelechi Watson – This Is Us (NBC)
BEST COMEDY SERIES
The Great (Hulu)
Hacks (HBO Max)
Insecure (HBO)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Iain Armitage – Young Sheldon (CBS)
Nicholas Hoult – The Great (Hulu)
Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Kayvan Novak – What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Elle Fanning – The Great (Hulu)
Renée Elise Goldsberry – Girls5eva (Peacock)
Selena Gomez – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Sandra Oh – The Chair (Netflix)
Issa Rae – Insecure (HBO)
Jean Smart – Hacks (HBO Max)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ncuti Gatwa – Sex Education (Netflix)
Brett Goldstein – Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
Harvey Guillén – What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Brandon Scott Jones – Ghosts (CBS)
Ray Romano – Made for Love (HBO Max)
Bowen Yang – Saturday Night Live (NBC)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Hannah Einbinder – Hacks (HBO Max)
Kristin Chenoweth – Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
Molly Shannon – The Other Two (HBO Max)
Cecily Strong – Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Josie Totah – Saved By the Bell (Peacock)
Hannah Waddingham – Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
BEST LIMITED SERIES
Dopesick (Hulu)
Dr. Death (Peacock)
It’s a Sin (HBO Max)
Maid (Netflix)
Mare of Easttown (HBO)
Midnight Mass (Netflix)
The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime Video)
WandaVision (Disney+)
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Come From Away (Apple TV+)
List of a Lifetime (Lifetime)
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (Amazon Prime Video)
Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (Lifetime)
Oslo (HBO)
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas (The Roku Channel)
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Olly Alexander – It’s a Sin (HBO Max)
Paul Bettany – WandaVision (Disney+)
William Jackson Harper – Love Life (HBO Max)
Joshua Jackson – Dr. Death (Peacock)
Michael Keaton – Dopesick (Hulu)
Hamish Linklater – Midnight Mass (Netflix)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Danielle Brooks – Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (Lifetime)
Cynthia Erivo – Genius: Aretha (National Geographic)
Thuso Mbedu – The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime Video)
Elizabeth Olsen – WandaVision (Disney+)
Margaret Qualley – Maid (Netflix)
Kate Winslet – Mare of Easttown (HBO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Murray Bartlett – The White Lotus (HBO)
Zach Gilford – Midnight Mass (Netflix)
William Jackson Harper – The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime Video)
Evan Peters – Mare of Easttown (HBO)
Christian Slater – Dr. Death (Peacock)
Courtney B. Vance – Genius: Aretha (National Geographic)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jennifer Coolidge – The White Lotus (HBO)
Kaitlyn Dever – Dopesick (Hulu)
Kathryn Hahn – WandaVision (Disney+)
Melissa McCarthy – Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)
Julianne Nicholson – Mare of Easttown (HBO)
Jean Smart – Mare of Easttown (HBO)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE SERIES
Acapulco (Apple TV+)
Call My Agent! (Netflix)
Lupin (Netflix)
Money Heist (Netflix)
Narcos: Mexico (Netflix)
Squid Game (Netflix)
BEST ANIMATED SERIES
Big Mouth (Netflix)
Bluey (Disney Junior)
Bob’s Burgers (Fox)
The Great North (Fox)
Q-Force (Netflix)
What If…? (Disney+)
BEST TALK SHOW
The Amber Ruffin Show (Peacock)
Desus & Mero (Showtime)
The Kelly Clarkson Show (NBC)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (Bravo)
BEST COMEDY SPECIAL
Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix)
Good Timing with Jo Firestone (Peacock)
James Acaster: Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 (Vimeo)
Joyelle Nicole Johnson: Love Joy (Peacock)
Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American (Netflix)
Trixie Mattel: One Night Only (YouTube)
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Writer/Director Bill Posley’s Bitch Ass is just plain awful. In this predictable revenge horror/comedy, a group of teenagers is tasked to rob a house to be initiated into the neighborhood gang. Posley touts his film to be the first serial killer movie with an all-Black cast. Of course, it takes place in “the hood” and involves a generic “gang.” What the teens expect to be an easy heist turns out not to be the case because the resident serial killer Cecil aka Bitch Ass (Tunde Laleye), is at home. Bitch Ass easily picks off the teens one by one as he challenges them to various gory interpretations of games like Jenga and Operation but the rules are, if you lose the game, you lose your life.
Bitch Ass begins with potential. Actor Tony Todd, the original Candyman, sets a cool vibe in his opening monologue that combines a bit of The Cryptkeeper with a little Vincent Price, but the film immediately goes downhill from there. Bitch Ass attempts to be a mixture of the 2015 horror/thriller Don’t Breathe and 2021’s Squid Games but completely misses the mark. The script is overwritten and filled with broad stereotypes, and most of the time, the dialogue feels like a dead weight falling out of the actor’s mouths.
There are a few unexpected moments where I believe I’m watching actual people. The gang leader Spade (Sheaun McKinney) and young Cecil (Jarvis Denman Jr.) both have some believable moments. However, for most of the time, I was watching actors who learned their lines, hit their marks, and waited their turn to be filmed saying their lines while working really hard to perform being funny in a film that was kind of attempting to be scary. One creative choice that was particularly annoying was having characters alone in empty rooms, speaking their thoughts out loud right before Bitch Ass grabs them.
Film is a visual form; couldn’t the character’s thoughts have been shown instead of spoken? In some cases, you can see Bitch Ass lurking around before he grabs someone. It wasn’t scary, it was awkward. Why are they talking to themselves out loud for no reason? There also was something off about the pacing of the film. Everything that was going to happen was telegraphed so obviously, the jump scares were cumbersome. If the film was able to pull off being camp, there’s a slim chance it could have been funny, but the comedic timing was way off in this movie.
All that being said, Steven Parker’s cinematography, Rylan Rafferty’s editing, Joseph Mohan’s score, created an effective backdrop for the characters to reside in. Grandmother’s house was filled with the right amount of eclectic things to set the tone. It’s too bad the writing didn’t live up to the cinematography and editing. The gore was adequately disgusting, the special effects team did their job well, and the costume, makeup, and hair departments were on point.
Bitch Ass intends to be an homage to horror films in the 90s like The People Under the Stairs, but Bitch Ass makes no compelling social commentary. The audience has no reason to root for or against any of the characters on screen. The “good characters” are bland, the “bad” characters are one-dimensional. It’s obvious who will be the next victim.
In the horror movie Don’t Breathe, the audience has empathy for the juvenile delinquents who break into the house because the writers immediately show the audience how bad the main characters’ home situations are. The characters are fleshed out, the stakes are high, so the audience is compelled to root for them to survive. The kids in that film also have that horror film element of being slightly annoying, and the Old Blind Man has enough character for the audience to feel guilty for admiring his skill in hunting the kids who are trying to rip him off while being disgusted in his brutal ability to kill.
The gang in Bitch Ass is generic. They aren’t shown terrorizing the neighborhood or doing anything that warrants Bitch Ass’ wrath. It just didn’t seem right or funny to watch Bitch Ass murder Black kids so brutally just because they broke into his house and lost some crazy games he forces them to play.
The film takes too much time hitting the audience over the head with flashbacks that show how Cecil’s being bullied turned him into a serial killer. With that much time taken showing how he was bullied, it’s strange that Cecil/Bitch Ass doesn’t get his revenge going after the people who actually bullied him. Instead, for most of the film, Bitch Ass just kills these random teenagers. It made no sense.
It made me angry that time wasn’t taken to flesh out more of the victims so that viewers could have an emotional reaction to the brutality these characters face. If you’re going to create a Black serial killer who kills Black young people, shouldn’t there be some kind of compelling hook? Shouldn’t it be so campy it would allow the actors to have fun just tearing into the characters, eating up the scenery, and making some kind of social commentary like in Tales from the Hood? Shouldn’t there be some kind of point for watching?
In his director’s notes, writer/director Bill Posley says: “Growing up in a white town in Massachusetts, I was obsessed with movies because it provided a brief window into my culture, but there was always a lack of representation. That’s why it has been a dream come true to write and direct Bitch Ass starring an all-Black cast, set in a Black neighborhood, that will actually make history by debuting horror’s first-ever Black masked serial killer.”
Yes, representation matters, but how are we choosing to represent ourselves? How are we deciding to make history? The fact that traditionally, serial killers have been white men makes a clear statement in connection to white dominance and location to power. In the Friday the 13th movies, Jason is a white man who kills everybody and comes back to life 12 times. Just think about that. White male serial killers can kill without consequence and are celebrated.
Placing a Black man as a masked serial killer in a horror film could be brilliant. This scenario could be terrifying, authentically horrifying, and hilarious on multiple levels while including a social commentary that utilizes wit to make a statement. It could even be satire that challenges us to consider why our culture seems to get off on watching white boys kill everybody (I’m looking at you Netflix’s You). Unfortunately, Bitch Ass doesn’t even get close to going there.
Bitch Ass premiered at the SXSW film festival on March 14, 2022.
Victoria and Keith go from one extreme to another as they look ahead to some future productions that are questionable, at best, and others that make them “cautiously optimistic.”
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