If the Gotham Television Awards are any indication, the surefire way to capture the hearts of critics, audiences, and confused streaming executives in 2025 is still the same as it's been for the past two decades: find a sad boy, toss in a murdered girl, set it all to moody lighting, and boom — prestige television. Adolescence, the Netflix miniseries that dared to ask, “What if a child killed another child but also cried a lot about it?” swept the ceremony with three wins and one collective shrug from the ghost of every Britcom that died for this.
Let’s start with the headline: Adolescence took home Breakthrough Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Performance (Stephen Graham), and Outstanding Supporting Performance (Owen Cooper, in a tie with Jenny Slate because apparently the Gotham judges are as indecisive as the ending of The Sopranos). So congrats to Netflix — it turns out all those layoffs and canceled animations were totally worth it so they could funnel money into another gray-washed crime drama where a kid looks mournfully at a puddle while a haunting cover of a 90s pop song plays.
Gotham Awards: Oscars’ Indie-Loving, Slightly Tipsy Cousin
For those blissfully unaware, the Gotham Awards started out as the cool kids of indie film recognition — that one friend who pretended to only drink craft beer and watch Romanian documentaries. And while they’ve been giving film trophies out since 1991, TV didn’t worm its way into their tight jeans until 2015. Last year, the Gothams gave TV its own awards ceremony, presumably because nobody wants to sit through four hours of back-to-back acceptance speeches where someone thanks both God and their dialect coach.
This year, the awards were held at Cipriani Wall Street, where the ceilings are high, the champagne is overpriced, and everyone pretends they don’t Google themselves. If you were expecting the Gotham Awards to buck industry trends and highlight weird, risky, overlooked gems — you know, the kind of shows where no one’s beautiful and at least one person gets stabbed with a kitchen utensil? Sorry. Instead, we got Matlock, Dying for Sex, and Fantasmas. Welcome to the golden age of television, where everything is content, and content is just another word for “a brand extension with a script.”
Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper: Father-Son Cry-Off Champions 2025
Stephen Graham won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Limited Series for playing Eddie Miller, a character whose job description is apparently “stare blankly out the window while contemplating whether his son is a murderer.” If Graham looks familiar, that’s because he’s been in every gritty British drama made since 2007. You want a troubled blue-collar man who clenches his jaw and speaks in low-register Scouse? Stephen Graham’s your guy.
Owen Cooper, the 13-year-old playing Jamie Miller, took home (half of) the Outstanding Supporting Performance award. Cooper gave a chilling portrayal of what happens when you combine unresolved trauma, TikTok brain rot, and a British education system allergic to feelings. Naturally, critics were blown away. “He’s so raw,” said one review, which is code for: “There was an ugly cry in episode three, and we live for it.”
Meanwhile, Jenny Slate tied for the same award for her role in Dying for Sex, which is a title you can either giggle at or uncomfortably whisper while ordering oat milk at a coffee shop in Brooklyn. Equal parts whimsical and traumatic, the show proves that if you’ve got cancer, an existential crisis, and a wicked sense of humor, you’re one good therapist session away from winning a Gotham.
Other “Winners” Worth Mentioning So We Don’t Seem Petty
The show The Studio won Breakthrough Comedy Series, which is funny because nobody outside of the gothamawardssubreddit seems to have seen it. But don’t worry — your Letterboxd mutuals are already pretending they always knew it would win. The Pitt snagged Breakthrough Drama Series, a name so generic it could be a mining documentary or a high school football soap. Jury’s still out.
Social Studies took Breakthrough Nonfiction Series, because we’ve apparently decided to rebrand “educational trauma” as edgy television. If you’ve ever wanted to relive your AP Civics class but with better camera angles and a synth-heavy soundtrack, this is your moment.
And let’s pour one out for Pee-wee as Himself, which won Outstanding Original Film. It was either that or another tragicomic art-house film where someone smokes in slow motion while reflecting on their emotionally distant parents.
Kathy Bates as Matlock: The Legal System Has Never Looked More Terrifying
Kathy Bates took home Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series for Matlock, a role once played by Andy Griffith but now resurrected like a courtroom phoenix by one of Hollywood’s most terrifying grandmas. Imagine getting cross-examined by Kathy Bates. Now imagine trying to lie. You can’t. You’d spill your secrets, your PIN number, and maybe your childhood trauma.
Bates winning for Matlock proves that TV is just comfort food now. Want justice with a side of sass and a Southern drawl? Welcome to your new obsession. Matlock has always been boomer catnip, but now it’s prestige boomer catnip, complete with high production value and emotional arcs about elder law and dignity in aging.
Brian Tyree Henry Is a National Treasure and You Can’t Convince Me Otherwise
While most of the night was spent politely clapping for shows you sort of heard of but never finished, Brian Tyree Henry walked off with a Performer Tribute Award, which is fancy speak for, “We didn’t know which category to put him in, but we love him.” And rightly so.
Henry won for his role in Dope Thief, where he plays Ray Driscoll, a guy who robs drug houses by pretending to be a federal agent — basically a DIY DEA cosplay with a criminal twist. If you’re not intrigued, congratulations on your stable moral compass. For the rest of us, Dope Thief is the kind of morally gray, neon-lit drama that makes you consider life choices you’ve never even had access to.
Will These Awards Matter? Emmy Voters Are Currently Googling ‘Gotham TV Awards’
The Gotham TV Awards fancy themselves the new launching pad for Emmy season. Will they succeed? That depends on how much clout you think Cipriani Wall Street carries versus, say, an HBO lobbyist bribing Emmy voters with caviar and trauma.
With Emmy nominations just around the corner, we’ll see if Adolescence carries its moody little murder vibes all the way to the top. It has competition from the usual suspects — shows with dragons, sexy monks, and sad people in space. But Adolescence has the secret weapon of all award bait: child actors emoting with quivering lips while cellos swell ominously.
Streaming Is a Bloodsport and Everyone’s Wearing the Same Jersey
The real winner, as always, is Netflix — the platform that swears it’s cutting costs while still throwing millions at a limited series about sad British boys and their even sadder dads. For every animation studio it axes, Netflix seems to greenlight three more prestige dramas where nothing happens but everyone looks deeply affected.
And while streaming continues to be the modern equivalent of cable’s fever dream — where Pee-wee, Penelope, and Deli Boys can all exist in the same universe — it’s clear the Gotham Awards are at least trying to reward the unusual. It’s just too bad the unusual now looks a lot like “every prestige show made since 2015.”
Final Thoughts: In Praise of Sad Dads and Messy Teens
Adolescence won big not because it reinvented television — but because it stuck to the formula like a guilty teenager clings to a lie. Take one tragic incident, add a parent struggling with masculinity and grief, throw in a smart commentary on technology’s corruptive influence, and let it simmer in grayscale for six episodes. The result? Critical acclaim, audience tears, and three Gotham Awards. Rinse. Repeat. Reboot.
But hey, at least Matlock is back. Maybe the real innovation in television is not in the content itself, but in the creative ways we keep packaging trauma and nostalgia for awards bait.
And if that sounds cynical — well, you haven’t watched episode three of Adolescence, which critics assure us is “one of the more fascinating hours of TV in a long time.” Translation: there was probably a monologue, someone broke a plate, and then stared silently into a mirror. Art.
Snark Score: 10/10. Gotham Awards 2025 — Come for the trophies, stay for the trauma.