Despite some writer's best desire to drive viewers to tears, sometimes watching TV makes us so happy we can't stop grinning.
We've rounded up some of our favorite, most grinnable moments of 2017 in the gallery below.
Yes, grinnable. You may now feel free to use it about the world!
1. Mark Linn-Baker as the Mayor's assistant on Blue Bloods
I LOVED Perfect Strangers when I was a kid. It was one of the first shows I was obsessed with. So it's really nice to see one of the stars on a semi-regular basis again 30 years later.
2. Stevie inheriting the motel on Schitt's Creek
Stevie is a gem of a character who felt like she was running the motel, but wondered what she would do long-term. That's when her great-aunt passed away and left the motel all to her, and she joined forces with Johnny to help fix it up and make it a success. It resulted in some of the shows funniest scenes ever.
3. Joe coming full circle on the series finale of Halt and Catch Fire
When it was revealed where Joe had gone after Gordon's death, and the camera slowly panned around his office where he now took up residence as a professor and it held all the things he held most dear, I smiled so great my heart grew three sizes. Not only was it a retrospective of the best that was Halt and Catch Fire, it proved to all the non-believers how far Joe had progressed through the seasons. And he stood before a classroom of students as he did in the premiere saying the same words once again, as a completely different man, "Let me start by asking you a question." Amazing.
4. Mike Franks's comments from the peanut gallery on NCIS
In an episode where the team pondered the existence of ghosts, one might expect the reasonably-grounded NCIS to come down on the position that ghosts don't actually exist. Hilariously, the apparition of Mike Franks (in a delightful cameo by Muse Watson) also stopped by to offer his opinion on the topic to Gibbs at the end of NCIS Season 15 Episode 8.
5. The synergetic timing of The Orville and Discovery
There are those who think that the freshman Seth MacFarlane-led series The Orville is more Star Trek than the esteemed franchise's latest offering, Discovery. The Orville presents a dramedy that contrasts distinctly with the darker, more morally ambiguous serialized war story of Discovery.
However, it's clear from the rather energetic discussions and forum threads that many viewers actually watch *both* series; the fact that Discovery and The Orville both premiered around the same time provided an unexpected opportunity for an even more unexpected synergy between the two series, despite their obvious differences. It's a good time to be a fan of sci-fi.
6. Matt and Jessica's relationship on The Defenders
The relationship between Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones during The Defenders had me smiling from beginning to end. It's a pairing for the ages. Their humor matches one another and their begrudging respect for one another was reminiscent of two siblings who occasionally bicker but always have one another's backs when it counts. They made The Defenders a worthwhile watch.