NBC
The latest episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is called ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Employee’ and although that title is ostensibly about the pure soul that is George, it’s really about what George represents. This episode focuses mostly on subplots involving Zoey’s family, which is great because their family dynamic is my favorite part of the show.
Less well done is the jumbled office scenes or the roller coaster nonsense of Max and Mo’s new terrible restaurant app idea. Zoey presents the initial conflict of the episode, trying to make the choice to be happy, which becomes a problem when the issues and stresses of the real world show up. There are multiple problems and multiple resolutions this episode, all paralleled and some work out better than others.
Zoey struggles with firing people, especially George (who I’d say was emotionally manipulating Zoey except that it’s not written that way), Maggie is conflicted about being asked out, Mo and Max are at odds again pointlessly, Simon is worried about a troublesome interview, David and Emily worry about David’s job and future, and most of those basically wind up in decent places.
The toxic, annoying energy of Zoey’s brogrammers continue to be frustrating, and if lines like Leif’s ‘she has an attitude problem’ don’t go anywhere, it’s a weird energy to have. Now, I’m a fan like any normal human of Harvey Guillen who plays George, but the character was always written pretty minimally. I guess they didn’t have him for long, because otherwise why waste the character like this?
At least we get a fun rendition of ‘Stronger’ by Britney Spears that’s delightful enough that Zoey bobs her head along. Simon’s interview subplot leads to a very easy solution — he simply does great offscreen and sings the self-worth anthem ‘Juice’ by Lizzo. The real point seems to be making sure that Mo randomly solves the Max/Mo conflict because Tatiana from Wired is so interested in him that she simply must write about their terrible new app idea.
No, I’m still not letting that go.
NBC
On the more interesting side of things, we get songs from both Emily and David, both well done — Andrew Leeds (who plays David) flexes with Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ about his desire to be at home with his kid instead of working at a job he hates. It’s a complicated issue, as Emily brings up, but they are being such a great couple that care about each other.
I admit that Emily’s performance of ‘I’ll Stand By You’ by The Pretenders did affect me, the first on the show in a while — just a combination of a great song already plus the performance and how the story was written. I’m also just glad that we’ve gotten more from the family, because they’re more interesting talking about the love triangle than the love triangle itself.
Best character Jenna also has a great episode with Maggie, building up their fun relationship and getting some great little details. The little ‘Never have I ever’ scene with them both revealing they were in jail was the highlight of the episode. The final moments are a clear callback to the ‘choice of being happy’, as Zoey chooses to hang out with younger Australian hunk Aiden. Well, why not, the whole Simon/Max stuff is getting old, shaking things up makes sense to me.
Overall, a real improvement of an episode, and the themes were tied together well with some pretty great song performances. A good sign for the future of the season.
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Tuesday at 8:00 PM on NBC.
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