NBC
The most recent episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is called ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Glitch’, which is also the first one to have someone else (in this case Max) get bleeped out by the show’s title stinger. It’s an episode that legitimately pays attention to the meaning behind the song choices across the board, where the only singer is Zoey herself, affected by her own powers or mental issue (as the case may be).
As soon as we heard in the start of the episode that Zoey’s father was terminal, I knew there was a way things would likely go, and when Zoey stopped being able to hear anything it was clear. Zoey wasn’t acknowledging the truth of her father dying, which is understandable — it’s only human to want to ignore things and pretend they’ll go away on their own. I can relate to that in many ways — because who wants to feel pain, especially emotional, devastating pain like this?
So the first song is ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley, expressing Zoey’s inability to reconcile her mind with her body, a disconnect shown by being ‘crazy’. Unlike every other time, Zoey is actually singing and dancing out loud, while only thinking others are dancing with her. Next, with ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’, it was an obvious accusation that Leif picked up on, considering it’s about watching someone pretending to be someone else misinterpreted as adultery.
The arrival of the CEO for the ‘big presentation’ (a classic in this sort of thing, unusual in that it makes a certain sort of tech sense, but this show is better than most at understanding real tech places to some extent) who is Danny Michael Davis, quirky and with a kind of ‘Zuckerhair’ fro. This leads to Zoey singing Billy Joel’s ‘Pressure’, which obviously makes sense because that’s how she fails, and Max steps in to save her in a way that reminds of when Zach Morris saved Tori when she was late to their presentation in Saved by the Bell.
I’m not saying the show is copying Saved by the Bell. But I’m not not saying it isn’t either.
NBC
This leads to the recomplication of the love triangle where Zoey sings Jason Mraz’s ‘I’m Yours’ to Max, and Cheap Trick’s ‘I Want You to Want Me’ to Simon. Max explains this as the difference between love and attraction, which is debatable, but certainly the way Zoey sings and dances matches this sentiment: she’s cutesy with Max and leans her head on his shoulder, while with Simon she vamps and grooves her body near him.
No wonder he’s confused when she says it’s not her, ‘it’s her body’. Although this is yet to be resolved, I don’t have a problem with that. More interesting that way. Max points out the obvious, that Zoey needs to help herself, and do for herself in the ‘fix of the week’ she’s done for others.
So it all culminates when she sings unbidden ‘How Do I Live?’ by LeAnn Rimes to her father, and breaks down. Finally the show is back to the emotional intensity it was capable of, in a way that echoes and feels so personal. Jane Levy pulled off everything asked of her in this episode. She’s so talented it seems unfair, especially comparing her to everyone else in the show. She shines.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on NBC.
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