NBC
The latest episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is called ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Session’, and uses the wrapping device of a therapy session to have a kinda clever flashback story. Although not everything works about the flashback nor the timing of when it was supposed to happen, the way it integrated people singing out loud to replace the ones Zoey hears in her head were clever.
Danny Michael Davis co-opting ‘Pure Imagination’ with a dubstep interlude does feel very accurate to that sort of person, but the flashback also made sure to throw in Tobin’s cringe-inducing sexism because he’s the worst character in the show and has barely evolved. The show had Zoey annoyingly dismiss a dude singing out Miley Cyrus’ ‘The Climb’ in a way that I’m not sure was meant to be funny or ironic, but at least the lyrics matched. In other obvious lyrical choices we had Max and Leif sing-battle Ed Sheeren’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Uber driver Mo shout out ‘Shut Up and Drive’.
That’s all cute enough, although the closing number by Mitch of ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ by Doris Day is more of an attempt at a gut punch, although it’s clearly one to Zoey. Zoey tells her therapist the story of her first day at SPRQ Point as a ‘pre-hire’ trying to get the job, which coincidentally happened to be the same day that her mom is admitted to the hospital for a heart attack. The idea that Zoey keeps returning to is that it was the first time she was able to conceptualize the possibility of real loss, which may have had an impact on her personal relationships and concern when her father became ill.
In the flashback tale we aren’t strictly restricted to Zoey’s point-of-view, we see Zoey’s parents together in the car at first and David running into Emily in the hospital while getting an overwritten annoying nacho order for his terrible girlfriend Kersten. I suppose the idea could be simply that Zoey heard about these stories later, but it does break the wrapping device that it’s never addressed.
That said, I did appreciate how the show immediately showed Emily as kind and empathetic in addition to being charming, because I think at this point she’s just the best character on the show. Sure, they also had to make David’s current girlfriend cartoonishly terrible, as a one-off joke that probably will never be referenced again, which is lazy writing. At least some of the writing in the office was a little funny this time, that little coffee machine idea was amusing and the whole pre-hire nonsense felt realistic to that sort of Silicon Valley bro environment.
NBC
As with any ‘story within a story’ there is way more detail than anyone there could really remember, which is explained away by Zoey saying she always adds too many details. There is sort of an accepted understanding that it’s not really reflective of Zoey’s actual memory, but it does break the structure a few more times than really makes sense.
Ultimately we come to the point of the whole story, when the therapist oversteps by calling it a ‘love story’ with Max instead of a ‘loss story’ about her parents. It’s a far too cute writing tactic instead of really making sense for what a therapist might do — even if part of Zoey’s current issue is that she’s clearly regretting the idea of Max leaving, she only showed up because of her ‘hearing people sing’ problem.
And that one has a direct connection to her dad and Zoey’s response of testing herself (which still has never come back as a plot point), although perhaps that’s a mystery that’s never meant to be solved. Overall, there were things about the flashback that I liked, as it was nice to see stuff with Zoey’s family, clichéd bad girlfriend aside, and even some of the workplace jokes were decent.
Naturally though the show once again is trying to make me concerned about the Zoey/Max relationship, like I haven’t forgotten how poorly that went. I guess we’ll see how it all ends up in the season finale, which may be the last episode of the show (the ratings haven’t been great). I suppose I’ll think about the season as a whole then, but as an episode, this one was alright.
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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