Hulu Awards Week 5: Sam Christopher's List

We’re down to the finalists in the following categories:

Best Dramatic Short:
This was an easy choice for me. Evol was okay, I guess, but I really can’t figure out how Happy got here at all; it just wasn’t very interesting at all to me. One Down was interesting, if only because I kept thinking of Vincent Price in the role. The Ripoff was fun to watch but I really think it should have been in the comedy section more than anything else. Which left me with my first choice. The single most interesting and entertaining short I saw through this process was my original choice for best short and nothing I saw changed my mind. Still can’t explain it, but my choice remains:

Save the Children

Best Documentary:
Still a difficult category for me. Just don’t care very much about these nominees. Except for my first choice here which also made it through:

Cosmic Voyage

Best Horror Movie:
This was the toughest finalist cat. Once the obvious loser, When a Stranger Calls, was thrown out I was left with four pretty worthy candidates. Naked Lunch went next as I didn’t really find it scary so much as strange, followed by Christine which is all right but nothing special. So it came down, as I thought it would when I first saw this category, to John Carpenter’s The Thing and 28 Days Later. The Thing is a classic story with a masterful director who uses modern—in 1982—sfx to provide a visceral feel along with a truly terrifying premise that has a very Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe that is undeniably powerful in this age of ever-growing governmental obstruction and assimilation of the individual into a collectivist consciousness (I truly believe this is the reason for the rise of zombie films of late). 28 Days Later has almost the same vibe, along with a verve The Thing doesn’t have—an oddity here because I usually describe Carpenter’s films in terms of the verve he brings to often otherwise lackluster productions—and ruthless logic and sense of impending doom that accompanies the best of the Romero Dead series to me. At every turn in both these films one is never sure what’s going to happen to who, truly the mark of great horror, but I went with the edgier of the two:

28 Days Later


And now some of the final nominations:

Best Competitive Reality Show:
My first three choices made it so I only had to come up with two others. No long-winded explanations here; I’ll save that for the finals:

1. The Search for the Next Elvira
2. American Gladiators
3. Battle Dome
4. Last Comic Standing
5. Deal or No Deal

Best Non-competitive Reality Show:
Again, all of mine made this round, so:

1. America’s Most Wanted
2. Cops
3. Ghost Hunters
4. Ghost Hunters International
5. Queer Eye

Best Celebrity Reality Show:
Two of Samantha’s picks made it, along with another that I bumped for my only choice, which also made it. She picked the last one here, too:

1. Work Out
2. Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood
3. Tori and Dean
4. Kitchen Nightmares
5. The Girls next Door

And then the first rounders:

Best Comedy Movie:
The second round here is going to be a killer for me as I didn’t see much I really loved.

1. Ghostbusters - The last season of Buffy says it all. Buffy’s agonizing over who she can trust and Spike asks who she’s going to call. The two pause for a moment then smile. Spike shakes his head and asks, “Do you think that phrase will ever be useful again?” And how many among us do not wish we had been The Keymaster to Sigourney’s Gatekeeper?
2. Casino Royale 1967- Not bad, the best left.

Comedy TV Show:
A little easier.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - No idea how this gets into the comedy category but no way I could keep the best show on tv for the past 20 years or so out. Simply the best sf ever on tv besides The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. Many funny moments, too.
2. Major Dad - How is this not on DVD yet?
3. The Tick - Short, but hysterical, run.
4. The Simpsons - What is there to say about a sitcom that runs for decades on network tv?
5. King of the Hill - “Let go of my purse! I DON’T KNOW YOU!”

Comedy Short:
I frankly didn’t find many of these I watched to be very funny, but…

1. Stricteternum - This was funny, weird, sad, and New Wave-ish all at the same time. Lynchian.
2. Laid Off - Funny in a sad kind of way. I’d rather live—or die as the case may be—in the Dead Like Me-verse.

(Editor's Note: The general public can participate in the nominations as well. Go to the links above for any or all of the categories you are interested in and cast your vote for the shows you think should win. All of the general votes will be tallied up and count as one panelist in deciding the final winners. PSW)