18 Powerful TV Moments of 2017

How much I like older Henry. Or really, the reboot of Once Upon a Time. I have read so much terrible reviews about this season but I think it is refreshing. I was never a fan of young Henry so you can imagine my surprise when I thought old Henry was actually attractive. I fully expected a season without Emma Swan to be a complete waste but it has actually been quite a fun departure from Storybrooke. Seeing all the actors portray new characters was also awesome. The only downside is Henry’s love interest Cinderella. Not only is she a complete whiner, there is no chemistry between them. I would gladly see him falling for Drizella and turning her good!

While it might make total sense from an in-universe perspective, the reveal of Earth-X's Prometheus as that world's Tommy Merlyn during the Crisis on Earth-X four part crossover event took me off-guard in a good way. Colin Donnell is a regular on Chicago Med, which is filmed quite a ways from the Vancouver studios of the Arrowverse. Even though he only appeared for a couple minutes, he still made an impact and elicited quite the emotional response from Oliver, who got to witness his best friend die again. (And that's not even remotely the most messed up thing Ollie ended up doing in the crossover, either!)

The Reagan family on Blue Bloods has endured more than its share of grief, to be certain, with the latest example coming in the tragic death of Danny's wife Linda after her actress decided to leave the role after seven seasons. While we wish Amy Carlson all the best, and killing her character was quite possibly the most understandable way to write her out, it still came as something of a surprise that Linda died off-screen between the seasons.

American Gods has impressive cinematography, but nothing prepared me for their sex scenes. How does someone portray a goddess consuming someone with her hoo-ha? Well, American Gods nailed it. They also had one of the most psychedelic, intimate gay sex scenes, and sadly, it surprised me that it was portrayed so beautifully.

I was expecting to hate this whole JJ shooting Theo storyline on Days of Our Lives. I'd gotten used to JJ getting garbage writing designed to manipulate viewers into hating the character (which obviously didn't work in my case). But this story is well done and allows viewers to make up their own minds and JJ is actually sympathetic!

ST: Disco has been a wealth of surprises in its first half-season. Breaking with established Trek form, it's been a dark and unpredictable war-time narrative focused on a main character with no rank within Starfleet. Of the many unexpected twists, killing off Commander Landry, an established senior crew member of the title ship in what was really the second episode (since the two-hour premiere was more of a prologue) was the first sign that no one (except maybe Burnham) is safe in this new Trek. The fact that she died provoking a giant space bug she'd named "Ripper" was really only surprising for its level of dumb.

I loved The Good Place Season 1, but the finale had me skeptical about where they were going to go with it. Were they just going to start all over? Well they did, hundreds of times, but they did it all in one hilarious episode and then went in a completely different and unexpected direction. The Good Place Season 2 has been a pleasant surprise, and I clearly did not need to be concerned.

I don't know what surprised me most, Jace and Maia hooking up in the back alley of the Hunter's Moon, or me actually liking it. Clary, who? If not for the fact that Maia and Simon are absolutely adorable together I would unapologetically steer the Jace and Maia ship myself.

The penultimate episode before the finale of Good Behavior ended with a bang or two, and not the fun kind (though it was one of those too). Letty is a truly flawed character, but the one line she never crossed was killing anyone. Until that episode. It's a complete game changer leading up to a finale that will be out of this world. I never expected the show to go there with Letty, not once, but twice. Seriously have my fingers crossed for a renewal!

There's the fact that I actually tuned into The Bachelorette for the first time ever, for starters. But the real surprise is that Rachel "chose" Bryan. We all know Rachel really wanted Peter, but for some reason, Peter was a commitment-phobe who signed up to be on a show where he was expected to propose to someone but he didn't want to propose. Then he kind of took the choice away from Rachel, so she sort of ended up with Bryan by default, but we're supposed to be convinced that he was her choice all along. Then the fandom actually wanted the known commitmentphobe to be the next Bachelor. Anyway, Bachelor Nation confuses the hell out of me and the finale was a surprise.

Apparently, Sheriff Keller from Riverdale does NOT have a dad bod underneath that uniform. The man looks like he benchpresses mack trucks in his free time. It was an oddly surprising tidbit to learn about him. Even more so than the fact that he's sleeping with Mayor McCoy. Who knew this man kept so many secrets?!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 ended with quite a twist, with the heroes about to willingly face the music for their actions... only to end up kidnapped -- to outer space, as seen in a brief flash-forward in the finale's stinger! The new season actually doubled down by the dramatic reveal that Team Coulson hadn't been sent to some distant world, but to the *future*, and Earth was little more than a large debris field and a memory. Oh, yeah, and the remnants of humanity were slaves to the Kree.

While there was a lot of shocking moments ON screen this year, I think the biggest shocker for me related to TV/Media was something that happened OFF screen. Warner Bros. TV announcing that they are launching a DC Comics-branded streaming service was something I did not see coming at all. The programming announcement of Titans and Young Justice didn't surprise me at all, but the streaming service did. I think it has a lot of potential for WB and its DC IPs for both television, films, and comics. I hope they do give us more details early in 2018.

Viserion not only dying on Game of Thrones but also being resurrected as a zombie dragon.

Rebecca taking a bottle of pills and drinking wine on a plane. Knocked the wind right out of me. I was speechless.

The moment during GLOW when we learned that the married guy Ruth was sleeping with was her BFF Debbie's husband. It did make for some excellent tension in the ring, though!

Here's the thing: SMILF sort of came out of nowhere for me, but as soon as I watched the first episode, it became apparent that it was the perfect show to pair with Shameless. It was hilarious, heartbreaking and well-written. They don't make many shows like that nowadays.

How well Downward Dog was structured. A series about a dog with thoughts could have been terrible, but it was so much more than a show about the dog's thoughts that it upsets me it was sentenced to the summer shift without explanation or thought on what they were sacrificing. It should have received more promotion, more commercial tie-ins, more everything. At least we got to see it in its entirety.