NBC
The final episode of the first (so far, anything further is unclear at this time) season of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is called ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Dad’, and it’s all about wrapping things up and keeping things going. One little plotline is that Joan gets hired to run the entire company for ‘six months’ but this was actually due to Lauren Graham getting hired to be the star of the new Mighty Ducks show which is now, of course, also in limbo. Fine, I suppose, Joan is a bit inconsistent (to be fair) in her management capability, but her absence does make more interesting potentials for the team left behind.
The episode starts off with ‘Bad Moon Rising’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival, but it’s only of Zoey’s mirrored reflection. It’s the first of that particular little conceit we’ve seen, and it’s not really remarked on much as perhaps it’s Zoey’s ‘inner’ self singing. She correctly notes that it’s an ill omen of the future, but it’s obvious (too much so really) that’s it going to be about her father, so her considering other situations don’t feel as honest.
The first of said situations is discovering that Max was fired, with a fairly cute little exchange about ‘smart pants’ with Joan. After that, when Simon sees Max and Zoey together, Simon sings ‘Jealous’ by Nick Jonas — not something I’m that familiar with, but certainly the lyrics fit. Simon maturely admits his jealousy and how he doesn’t want to hold things back anymore, which is keeping in the attempts at the show to keep the love triangle without any clear villain (mostly okay until Max went evil).
But Max getting fired is the best thing to happen to him or his character, because he’s not hate-able at all in this episode. His rapid fire switch of heart songs during his makeout session with Zoey was funny, but partially because it sure would seem frustrating for her to deal with. It’s sort of a callback of love versus lust from earlier in the season with the choices of ‘All of Me’ by John Legend and ‘I Know You Want Me’ by Pitbull.
Mo’s minor storyline (which still feels a bit limp) has Mo singing ‘I Will Follow Him’ by Peggy March (which I recall from Sister Act), and sure, it’s nice to see Mo reconcile with Eddie, but Eddie still feels like such a non-entity it’s harder to see what Mo sees in him.
The show gets a bit meta in the hospital when Zoey spots the magical MRI (as she calls it) and the doctor calls the machine ‘extraordinary’ and sings ‘I Got the Music in Me’ to himself. Certainly setting up more mystery with Zoey’s powers in the future.
NBC
As Zoey’s father slips away, we hear ‘Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)’ by Billy Joel, which wasn’t about death, it was for his daughter, but the idea of using songs about going to sleep to being about dying is hardly a new idea. This leads to the final appearance of Peter Gallagher in the show as he sings the 1931 classic ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ and dances with his daughter.
This whole ‘dancing’ thing is different than anything else we’ve seen before, but Zoey has experienced hallucinations before. It’s a nice coda to their relationship, the ending we knew was coming since the start of the season.
The last song of the show was a joint effort from all the named characters at the funeral, singing ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean, very well matched to moments in reality with the lyrics. It looks more like a one shot, fairly impressively done, and it’s an emotional song. It feels right that Zoey sings out loud afterward of her own accord, just because she feels it in her own heart.
This show was a bit all over the place; Jane Levy was always great, and elevated everything she did. Some of the comedy didn’t quite fly, but other moments really felt great. The pilot was really great and a killer emotional moment, and the show never quite got there again despite its best efforts. In the end of it, I still really like it, but I think there needs to be some tweaks if the show comes back, just so we don’t hate Max when we aren’t supposed to.
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