Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
4 Pretzels
Hey gang. I have a couple of confessions to make. Not about all the crimes I’ve done. I’ll take those secrets to the grave. Whose grave, you ask? I’m not telling. My first confession is that I’ve really been feeling the winter blahs for a few weeks now. I’m feeling pretty “meh” about most things. The other confession is that I love musicals or really any situation where people are acting totally normal and then burst into song out of nowhere.
I love Grease 2 although I know in my heart that it is not a good movie and yet here I am. An ostensibly middle aged person who still knows all the words to “Cool Rider”.
I mean, I love Buffy in general but I listened to/watched the musical so often that I legit thought Smoky was going to murder me just to make it stop.
So naturally, when I heard about Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist I was psyched. I thought it might just be the thing to shake me outta my mediocre mood. Jane Levy plays Zoey and I loved her so much in Suburgatory that I knew I was gonna watch it. Then I found out that Lauren Graham plays her boss and Our Lady Mary Steenburgen plays her mom. THIS CAST! It also has a really fun premise.
Zoey is a profoundly uptight computer engineer who’s up for a promotion at work that she wants but isn’t sure she deserves. Her dad is suffering from a rare neurological disorder. Her neighbor wakes her up every day playing their groovy morning tunes. She’s got these weird headaches all the time. It’s just a lot and she’s worried that she may have the disease her dad has so she goes to get a CAT scan but a weirdness happens and all of the sudden she can hear people’s deepest feelings expressed through song and she hates it. So much.
This is more of a dramedy than a full on comedy but it’s bright and it’s fun and Jane Levy is a wonder. There’s true joy in watching Zoey suddenly become trapped in a large scale musical number and flee through the streets of San Francisco in a panic as she’s followed by a pack of singin’ and dancin’ strangers. The way her face wrinkles in bewilderment and mild disgust as one of her coworkers breaks into a bravado heavy performance of “All I Do Is Win” in the middle of what she thought was a normal conversation. The way she accidentally hears another coworker singing a heart wrenching song about grief and wishes out loud that she could report it to HR. It’s all very enjoyable.
The thing is they’re already introducing a love triangle between Zoey, her best friend, and the grieving coworker which is trite and not nearly as interesting as the love triangle that exists only in my head between me, Lauren Graham, and Mary Steenburgen. I really don’t want this to turn into some played out Hallmark movie storyline except with dance scenes and an amazing cast although I would love to see Danica McKellar make a cameo. I did fully weep at the end of the first episode so I’m obviously invested.
I also keep wondering what song I would perform if I met Zoey? What about my friends, family, that one woman at work who gives me the stink eye for no reason every time I see her? What would they sing? It’s a really fun game to play. I have a sneaking suspicion that I would do “Shadows of the Night” by Pat Benetar because it’s one of the best pop songs of the 80’s and it’s been stuck in my head for days. Since everyone is an amazing dancer in these things, though, so I kinda hope I would I would go with a real banger. Anywhoodles, I suggest checking this show out. Then tell me what your musical number would be. I’m hoping somebody does “Toxic”.
Speaking of Toxic, Smoky told me to be sure to include a free download to our first book, Fall: An Ermahgerd Merstery. So, yeah, here it is.
Holland + Harper Productions 