The title "Best in Sex: 2018 AVN Awards" is once again pretty fitting because it includes the name od the award show, tells us what it is all about and also the year when this was on television. The only thing you can argue against perhaps is if this is really the best the year 2018 had to offer in terms of sex. But that is nothing really to criticize because it is always a subjective matter, just like how only the fewest will agree every year that the Best Picture Oscar winner is their favorite film of the year as well. And with sex and the adult film industry, other factors plays a role too, other subjective factors like personal preferece, what you find attractive, what positions you're into etc. Let's be outspoken here because the subject makes it really easy to be. As you can see from my rating, I did not enoy this a lot, but at the same time I am writing in my review that this was not a disappointment (in other words). So yeah, I am somebody who is simply not familiar with the vast majority of people in here and I have not seen a single movire featured during the broadcast, probably not even heard about a single movie, so I can be no judge in decidingif the winners are more deserving than the nominees. But let's talk a bit about the things I liked. First of all, the host is Aries Spears. I watched the recent 2020 ceremony as well the other day I found him really uninspired and boring, but there is nothing negative I can say about him when it comes to the 2018 edition. He was funny, he was present and he was simply a good host that makes me think about what it would be like if hosted ceremonies seen by millions of people. I mean if they pick the terrible likes of Colbert and Fallon for those, then Spears would definitely not be any worse. I mean they are so bad that it does not mean something, but still. Okay, drifting a bit away now. Another thing I liked here was the running time. The duration was slightly under 1.5 hours, and some of the shows went for almost 2.5 hours, while other barely made it past the 70-minute mark (the one in 2020 and that was before corona), but the one they went for here seemed kinda right, even if I found it a bit disappointing how some categories still felt a bit rushed because the winners and nominees deserved better. One problem they still have is that in some categories they definitely pick too many nominees. I mean it feels and sounds as if everybody can get in (no pun intended) and makes a nomination nothing really special anymore. The best and probably most touching moment of the night was a brief tribute to a former AVN Award winner who committed not too long before the show and the reason was that she got bullied really hard by people online after a controversial statement that she would not be in a sex scene with a male who also does gay porn. Many turned this into a generalization that she is a homophobe which makes no sense at all because she is into girls as well as she stated herself and the most crucial message here is that it is everybody's own choice what to do with one's body. Apparently, to oh so politically correct liberals this applies only when abortion is the subject and this is why they unleashed on this poor woman. i think she said nothing wrong. She did nothing wrong and I hope she rests in peace. her husband's speech was really heartbreaking and I am truly glad they encouraged and supported him on several occasions. Her name is August Ames by the way and she is missed. Will be missed.
Alright, a few more aspects of the show I want to elaborate on. They always tend to gget kinda successful musicians here that are usually much more famous then the adult performers. And this could not be any more true with the 2018 edition because this time Lil Wayne was on board and you can say about him what you like, say about his pretty high voice what you like and I can see why it maybe does not appeal to everybody, but there is no denying he is a global superstar. Or at least was at some point. So really impressive that he was here and no surprise that they allowed him to perform two songs with one of the numbers closing the show. Besides, he fits in really nicely here because his explicit lyrics work incredibly well with the subject at hand here. On another note, the "cast list" here is truly gigantic. Huge really and so many people that even I am familiar with some. I guess they even included those that were just in the audience and the camera caught them once or twice. Lexington Steele is for example one of the most known male performers and I could mention many others here too because in adult film business, almost everybody has been in hundreds of films. If not thousands. Sadly, it is often very much quantity over quality. But hey, it is not the only branch by any means that is this much about making money. In one of the biggest categories, a male won who was clearly not American and he thanked Rocco Siffredi for paving the way for non-American performers. So yeah, there you can see how much of an icon Siffredi may be. Or may have been. But if we go by what the winner wants, then it is "may be". In general, I felt that, during some of the shows I have seen, the male winners frequently have an international background. Of course, this is true for many females too. I think they are more often going for American aliases though, so maybe it's more sexy for males to not be American than for females in the adult film industry. One main criticism here goes to Bree Mills and it's pretty cringeworthy how (s)he keeps rambling about how his/her films are such creative achievements with depth and not just sex because they are apparently dealing with human struggles more than others and (allegedly) more convincingly depicted than in others. I cannot really be a judge of that as I have not seen these films, but what I have seen feels certainly a bit like make-believe to me. Mills is definitely very much on the hipster pretentious side. Okay, what else? Oh yes, it happened so many times that they showed really, really long sequences from the winning movies, but I think they are going a bit away from this tendency lately, which keeps the shows shorter. I am undecided there what I prefer. Maybe longer sequences, but not super-long sequences, would make for a good choice. Then there is the usual kinkiness. The moment Spears (sadly not Randy) turned the Hard Rock Hotel into the Hard Cock Hotel was kinda funny, as simple as it may have been. Nice play on words there. In little pre-recorded videos we find out for example about the most unusual sex toys that can replace actual female genitals, such as special socks or a pillow with extra function and I can totally see why especially one of the women taking a look at it was so weirded out be the thing. So was I. I must say even if I think that Spears did a fine job overall this time, there his running gag on how Blacks don't need and don't use stuff like that because of their genital size and other reasons did feel a bit stale and not as funny as he intended it to be. But fetishes got their full share that night, there is also one short little video linked to latex and SM. During the latter, you could also see bare breasts, but I still felt that this was handled a bit more carefully this time and there weren't major sequences of nudity as it happened in the past with these shows, like the women in the audience exposing their nipples. Maybe also a consequence of #metoo or so. I mean it was such a big thing already in 2018, but then I again I am a bit critical there because with the girls here, you have seen them nude anyway in movies already. Or if you haven't, you easily could. So people should not turn this into a big deal as if it is super meaningful now, but of course everybody there should handle it the way they are comfortable with it. Which, in my opinion, should be the way they were comfortable with it before this entire #metoo movement started. Don't become a sheep. Okay what else did I like here? One brief little joke by a male performer about how he was in many of these women also stayed in the mind. Again, not utterly creative, but funny. So yeah, there were definitely some inclusions here that made me think if I could perhaps even give this award show three stars out of five and thus hand out a positive recommendation. But there are also negative factors, most of all Bree, and in the end I just cannot be more generous with my rating here. I still think it is easily among the best AVN Awards editions I have seen (and I have seen quite a few), so the way they handled the event here is one they should also be going for in the future. Close call, but it gets a negative recommendation again. And please don't tell me that there were really three months between when this happened in January and when this was on television in April. Please AVN, show it live next time and every time in the future. This event has far too much tradition for such a disrespectful delay.
Alright, a few more aspects of the show I want to elaborate on. They always tend to gget kinda successful musicians here that are usually much more famous then the adult performers. And this could not be any more true with the 2018 edition because this time Lil Wayne was on board and you can say about him what you like, say about his pretty high voice what you like and I can see why it maybe does not appeal to everybody, but there is no denying he is a global superstar. Or at least was at some point. So really impressive that he was here and no surprise that they allowed him to perform two songs with one of the numbers closing the show. Besides, he fits in really nicely here because his explicit lyrics work incredibly well with the subject at hand here. On another note, the "cast list" here is truly gigantic. Huge really and so many people that even I am familiar with some. I guess they even included those that were just in the audience and the camera caught them once or twice. Lexington Steele is for example one of the most known male performers and I could mention many others here too because in adult film business, almost everybody has been in hundreds of films. If not thousands. Sadly, it is often very much quantity over quality. But hey, it is not the only branch by any means that is this much about making money. In one of the biggest categories, a male won who was clearly not American and he thanked Rocco Siffredi for paving the way for non-American performers. So yeah, there you can see how much of an icon Siffredi may be. Or may have been. But if we go by what the winner wants, then it is "may be". In general, I felt that, during some of the shows I have seen, the male winners frequently have an international background. Of course, this is true for many females too. I think they are more often going for American aliases though, so maybe it's more sexy for males to not be American than for females in the adult film industry. One main criticism here goes to Bree Mills and it's pretty cringeworthy how (s)he keeps rambling about how his/her films are such creative achievements with depth and not just sex because they are apparently dealing with human struggles more than others and (allegedly) more convincingly depicted than in others. I cannot really be a judge of that as I have not seen these films, but what I have seen feels certainly a bit like make-believe to me. Mills is definitely very much on the hipster pretentious side. Okay, what else? Oh yes, it happened so many times that they showed really, really long sequences from the winning movies, but I think they are going a bit away from this tendency lately, which keeps the shows shorter. I am undecided there what I prefer. Maybe longer sequences, but not super-long sequences, would make for a good choice. Then there is the usual kinkiness. The moment Spears (sadly not Randy) turned the Hard Rock Hotel into the Hard Cock Hotel was kinda funny, as simple as it may have been. Nice play on words there. In little pre-recorded videos we find out for example about the most unusual sex toys that can replace actual female genitals, such as special socks or a pillow with extra function and I can totally see why especially one of the women taking a look at it was so weirded out be the thing. So was I. I must say even if I think that Spears did a fine job overall this time, there his running gag on how Blacks don't need and don't use stuff like that because of their genital size and other reasons did feel a bit stale and not as funny as he intended it to be. But fetishes got their full share that night, there is also one short little video linked to latex and SM. During the latter, you could also see bare breasts, but I still felt that this was handled a bit more carefully this time and there weren't major sequences of nudity as it happened in the past with these shows, like the women in the audience exposing their nipples. Maybe also a consequence of #metoo or so. I mean it was such a big thing already in 2018, but then I again I am a bit critical there because with the girls here, you have seen them nude anyway in movies already. Or if you haven't, you easily could. So people should not turn this into a big deal as if it is super meaningful now, but of course everybody there should handle it the way they are comfortable with it. Which, in my opinion, should be the way they were comfortable with it before this entire #metoo movement started. Don't become a sheep. Okay what else did I like here? One brief little joke by a male performer about how he was in many of these women also stayed in the mind. Again, not utterly creative, but funny. So yeah, there were definitely some inclusions here that made me think if I could perhaps even give this award show three stars out of five and thus hand out a positive recommendation. But there are also negative factors, most of all Bree, and in the end I just cannot be more generous with my rating here. I still think it is easily among the best AVN Awards editions I have seen (and I have seen quite a few), so the way they handled the event here is one they should also be going for in the future. Close call, but it gets a negative recommendation again. And please don't tell me that there were really three months between when this happened in January and when this was on television in April. Please AVN, show it live next time and every time in the future. This event has far too much tradition for such a disrespectful delay.