Saturday, July 25, 2026

Action TV nominees at the 2026 Critics Choice Super Awards


I'm concluding my series examining the nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards with the action television shows. Here are the nominated action programs from the press release.
BEST ACTION SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE

9-1-1: Nashville
Boston Blue
Dark Winds
High Potential
Hijack
The Lowdown
Task
Tracker
Boston Blue, Dark Winds, High Potential, Hijack, The Lowdown, and Task each have two nominations while 9-1-1: Nashville and Tracker both have one. Despite my using High Potential in the preview image, because it's the only nominee in this category running a campaign on Twitter, I think this will go to Task, the only nominee here with current Emmy nominations, six to be exact. As I wrote yesterday, "The critics are not the Hollywood creatives, but both still embody elite entertainment opinion, so they are likely to agree on Widow's Bay. As I usually write about awards shows but haven't written before in this series, electorates matter."

Follow over the jump for the acting nominations, which I'm recycling from 'House of the Dragon' vs. 'Paradise' for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy TV nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards.

I think this is a more competitive field. Brown could win this as well, but Idris Elba, Ethan Hawke, and Mark Ruffalo are stiffer competition than Farrell.
Both Brown and Ruffalo earned nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Gold Derby gives Ruffalo a marginally higher chance of winning.

Julianne Nicholson's character was more sympathetic in the second season of Paradise than she was in the first — she was nominated for Best Villain in a Television Series, Limited Series, or Made-for-TV-Movie last year — but I don't know if that's enough for her to win this award. Angela Bassett has won this award before and my wife and I really enjoy Kaitlin Olson in High Potential, but I won't call the winner, as I will revisit this category when I cover the action nominees.
Nicholson is the only nominee here who also earned a nomination for the same role at the Emmy Awards, so I now think she'll win.

I grumbled about the thriller series nominees in 'Dexter: Resurrection' leads television nominees at the Saturn Awards.
I won't complain about the quality of the field, but I'm making a note to myself to submit my own list of thriller and mystery TV series next December. If I had done so last year, it wouldn't have changed my vote or the likely winner, but I might at least know who the other nominees are.
The eligible nominees for action here that would work as thrillers at the Saturn Awards are Dark Winds, High Potential — both previous Saturn Awards nominees — Boston Blue, and Tracker from the program category, plus R.J. Decker from the actor category. I think Boston Blue and Tracker are a bit too conventional for the Saturn Awards and Tracker would work better as an action nominee. I also suggested Sugar as a thriller nominee when I examined the science fiction and fantasy nominees. It turned out to have been nominated as an adventure series for its first season, so it might end up in action/adventure, too.

Speaking of action/adventure, I think Ride or Die is the show nominated at the Super Awards that best fits that category, although it also makes me wish for the return of Best Genre Comedy at the Saturn Awards. Also, Paradise should earn at least three nominations, but it could just as easily be science fiction as action/adventure. As for the two shows in the 9-1-1 franchise nominated, I've submitted the main show before but it didn't get accepted and I'm lukewarm on 9-1-1: Nashville — it's too much of a primetime soap opera for my taste. My wife and I prefer SkyMed for that combination of action and relationship drama.

That's a wrap for the nominations. I plan on covering the winners the weekend of August 7th-9th. In the meantime, stay tuned for a return to the Emmy Awards as the Sunday entertainment feature.

Previous posts about the 2026 Critics Choice Super Awards
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