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The most recent episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is called ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday’ and is about the potential birthday party of Zoey and some of the possible drama with it. The drama is ultimately pretty mild and the ending fairly expected, but as a basis for an episode set of conflicts it’s a decent one. Zoey is about to turn 30 (which is just a year younger than Jane Levy so it’s not that crazy) and decides to have a party as a sort of post-mourning attempt at changing things up.
Her dad is quoted as saying ‘Bigger moments, bigger memories’, although I wouldn’t say that it’s a hugely connected thematic point of the episode. The party is more about resolving (in one way or another) many of the potential couples we’ve been setting up this season. Max and his mutual Jewish summer camp crush Rose share a duet of ‘Need You Tonight’ by INXS which is just a song that is self-descriptive.
But oddly Rose doesn’t show up as a potential drama point in the party, which feels a bit of a wasted opportunity, although the actual resolution of the Max/Zoey couple storyline is a reasonably mature perspective of both moving on. Max’s gift of a poster of ‘America’s Songbird’ Kelly Clarkson’s ‘A Moment Like This’ is cute, and it’s the one explicit call back to the ‘bigger moments’ line.
The storyline that actually was the most interesting to me was the ongoing little sparked up romance between David and Emily because of his new excitement in the garage band. I really could’ve watched an entire episode where that was the primary storyline, because the final punchline of David gradually realizing he was singing backup to a love song about his sister is still pretty funny (if predictable, like all of the storylines this episode).
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Of course the least interesting remains the office drones, and what, are you saying that paper thin characters Tobin and McKenzie are interested in each other? Well, it’s so far uninteresting but maybe together they’ll make an interesting character. The episode had two big ensemble songs, one lighter as the office sings ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ by Thelma Houston to indicate that everybody wanted to go to Zoey’s awkward birthday party. The other was the classic ‘Kiss Me’ by Sixpence None the Richer where literally everyone in the party sang it except for Zoey’s mom and Simon.
That note was subtle enough to be effective, seeing reporter Tatiana sing it but Simon’s back remained turned away from the camera. Again, it was noticeable, but the show didn’t make it obvious, which I appreciated. The show is also trying to make a Max romance happen again, with a sort of opposite scenario — last time it was a dude unable to be serious but this time the fire marshall is divorced with two kids and Max is still on the younger side. The last storyline didn’t feel that well thought out, so hopefully this is a more interesting way to expand Max’s characterization.
At the better side of dealing with younger characters, Zoey immediately shut down the Aussie Aiden’s cheesy, immature lust and although there’s nothing wrong with potentially hooking up with them (he’s not a teenager), she really is in a different place in her life. So although it felt a bit of a waste of a storyline, it’s a decent resolution — this led more into Simon’s final song, singing Ariana Grande’s ‘Into You’ which is also super obvious.
After all, who wouldn’t be into Zoey, who looked (as Max pointed out) absolutely stunning this episode. The Zoey/Simon relationship has always made more sense to me anyway, so I don’t mind this potential direction for the show to go. Overall, the episode felt pretty light, but it zipped along and didn’t have anything particularly annoying, which is honestly a change (unfortunately). I’m hoping we see more from the family or better stuff from the office, instead of the lazy jokes — it can be redeemed if they really try, I hope.
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on NBC.
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