In honour of a great week of TV watching, I thought it best to share some of my favourite moments show ‘n tell style. 

I have many TV guilty pleasures and I’ll own up to most of them. I do however find myself embarrassed to publicly proclaim my love for NBC’s The Voice.

The Voice can air for up to 6 hours per week and there are times when I gobble down all six of those hours. Sure it has the worst theme song on the planet (the only lyrics being “This IS the Voice,”) it has its share of cheesy contestant back story, and host Carson Daly could easily be replaced by a twig, but I love watching it cheesy bits and all. The show makes me so happy that I’m often moved to tears. It differs from its counterpart American Idol, in that it is so positive. The coaches Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera treat the contestants with complete respect and often adoration for their considerable talents. The show exists to showcase these artists, not mock them. If an artist isn’t chosen to compete on the show they are given constructive feedback and encouraged to keep pursuing their dreams.

Part one of the show is the blind auditions. The coaches face away from the contestants in order for the contestants’ voices to be the focus of critiques. While the “blind” part is gimmicky and for me doesn’t add much intrigue to the show, the “audition” part sure does. The contestants are (for the most part ) uniquely gifted and crammed full of passion. Here is one of my favorite auditions from this season:

If a contestant is invited to participate on the show they are mentored by a coach/judge of their choosing and a special guest chosen by the judge. In this clip the two contestants are brought to tears when brought face to face with their idol Patti Labelle. It is a beautiful moment that is better seen than described and you should watch until the end because the foursome do an incredible rendition of Lady Marmalade. The two young ladies in the clip are competing against each other for a spot on the show but are also bonded by this life-changing experience. As Patti says later on, “You are fighting for your dreams but doing it together”.

I feel I could go tediously on describing my love for The Voice’s positivity and respect for artists but maybe it’s better to finish with this clip. It is Hallelujah sung by last season’s winner Jordan Smith .

In my last blog entry I went on and on about my love for Gillian Jacobs’ performance in Love. I had so much to say about Jacobs’ face that I neglected to address the marvelous work of Claudia O’Doherty. O’Doherty has this unique ability to find subtle and hilarious notes in larger than life characters. She also does that in this weird and wonderful clip I stumbled upon on the internet this week.

After falling head over heels for Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, I will watch anything produced by Jason Katims. This love lead me Katims’ sitcom About A Boy which is based on the 2002 film. Like The Voice, About a Boy has its share of cheesy missteps, but the heart of show more than makes up for them.  About a Boy proclaims early on that being different is just fine. Young Marcus doesn’t fit in at school. He’s a little odd. He dresses differently, doesn’t care for sports and has no problem discussing his Lisa Loeb obsession. Marcus knows that these are the reasons he doesn’t fit with his classmates and yet he refuses to change himself. Sure he still wants to fit in, he will just find another way.

Speaking of my love for Jason Katims, THIS: