A quick review/summary of the IAWTV Awards

A lot of things can be said about the inaugural International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) Awards, but a bad production is not one of them. Outside of one troubling skit involving a house robbery that came off slightly racist due to a black man breaking the home of a white couple and attacking the white man, and an overly long skit with Kevin Pollak and Shira Lazar that severely dragged, the show looked and sounded great. There were a couple tech issues with videos, but they didn't stop the show and the presenters just laughed them off and kept things running smoothly.

What the show did lack was diversity. Not in terms of race, though it was rather heavily Caucasian, but in terms of the awards. I'm not saying the winners were of inferior quality to their competition, because it was a varied selection of nominees, but the fact that The Guild and its brethren Dragon Age Redemption and The Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour won all of their nominations reflects more on the voting body than it does the show.

Many excellent shows seem to have lost out because the awards seemed to go more by name recognition than actual quality. If it were a case of the cast and crew of these shows winning a handful of awards, or even a majority, it could be ignored, but that they won every single one of them cannot. This was a chance to showcase just how diverse and wonderful the web space is, and instead it became all about how big a name somebody has.

Nonetheless, some shining examples did show in that RCVR, which had a broad platform in Machinima's Youtube channel, won a handful of the Drama Awards, and indie darling Anyone But Me won best Writing in a Drama and Best Female Performance in a Drama. SyFy exclusive The Mercury Men nabbed a few as well.

The show is still undergoing some growing pains, as is the electorate process, and I'm happy to call the overall show a success, but hopefully next year the electorate will look for more than name recognition when voting.

In full disclosure, I am a voting member of the IAWTV, though I did not attend the ceremony itself but instead watched the Youtube livestream

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

It's been awhile since I've updated, which is why I included that disclaimer in the first blog post.

Today's show is commonly referred to as Awkward Black Girl, or ABG, and is about a woman named J who happens to be, well, black and awkward.

ABG thrives on a lack of political correctness, but at the same time is anything but stereotypical as everyone involved has at least two dimensions, and the more central a character is the more layers they're given. J, for example, writes violent rap lyrics whenever she is frustrated romantically or professionally.

At the heart is a rivalry with an evil and jealous co-worker, a budding friendship with an equally awkward co-worker, and a love triangle between J, a black man named Fred, and a white guy called White Jay.

Often diving headlong into audacity for comedy, the show looks like it would have a niche appeal but is surprisingly accessible. The characters are all engaging and the acting solid.

Awkward Black Girl can be found at http://awkwardblackgirl.com/ as well as Youtube.