2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards Recap: ‘Black Panther’ And ‘Stranger Things’ Bring Home The Popcorn

The MTV Movie Awards remained the rechristened MTV Movie & TV Awards for the second year in a row, as the ceremony was held on Saturday, June 16, and then aired last night, Monday, June 16. Black Panther was the big winner of the night, with a trophy haul befitting one of the highest grossing films of all time. In addition to Best Movie, it also notched trophies for Best Performance in a Movie (Chadwick Boseman), Best Hero (Boseman again), and Best Villain (Michael B. Jordan).

On the TV side, Stranger Things 2 may have been a little less rapturously received than the original, but the MTV crowd was still enamored with it, as it took home Best Show, Best Performance in a Show (Millie Bobby Brown), Most Frightened Performance (Noah Schnapp), and Best Musical Moment.

As for the ceremony itself, it was a little more low-key and chill than usual. MTV awards shows of the early 2010s were frequently marred by excessive audience screaming that drowned out the audio mix. While the crowd was certainly enthusiastic this year, it thankfully did not get in the way of anyone speaking on stage.

Host Tiffany Haddish did not reinvent the awards show genre, but her confidence kept everything running along smoothly. Most of her jokes relied on simple references to the nominated shows and flicks, but her biggest laughs came when she offered observations that originated from some random portion of her brain, as when she called Seth Rogen her “favorite bearded white man since Abraham Lincoln.”

The pre-recorded shorts could not match the glorious heyday of the likes of Armagedd’n Sync, though they did offer a few laughs. Haddish employed the Billy Crystal technique of inserting itself into the nominees, but her biggest success was when she offered an alternate spin on A Quiet Place, wondering how it would go if the monsters were deaf instead of blind.

The full list of winners is below:

Best Movie: Black Panther
Best Show: Stranger Things
Best Performance in a Movie: Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther
Best Performance in a Show: Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things
Best Comedic Performance: Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip
Best Hero: Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther
Best Villain: Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther
Best Kiss: Nick Robinson and Keiynan Lonsdale, Love, Simon
Most Frightened Performance: Noah Schnapp, Stranger Things
Best Reality Series/Franchise: The Kardashians
Scene Stealer: Madelaine Petsch, Riverdale
Best On-Screen Team: The Losers Club, It
Best Music Documentary: Gaga: Five Foot Two
Best Fight: Gal Gadot vs. German Soldiers, Wonder Woman
Best Musical Moment: Mike and Eleven dance to “Every Breath You Take,” Stranger Things
Generation Award: Chris Pratt
Trailblazer Award: Lena Waithe