And that’s probably a good thing.
Look, I went into this expecting to fall in love with Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which, if I’m being a fair, is usually a setup for failure. But I couldn’t help myself, I really couldn’t. I’m a show-tunes kinda person. If you look at my Spotify playlists you’ll find more musical songs than popular songs, and I will likely know the lyrics to all of them by heart. In fact, I have often wished I lived in a world where it was acceptable to sing your feelings, and I don’t even have a good singing voice.
Not that my lack of singing abilities have ever stopped me.
So, this show sounded like my jam. My absolute jam. An almost contemporary musical type show, with music driving the story? It’s like this was written just FOR ME and me alone.
Which is why I was mildly disappointed when I played it and it just …didn’t click. Now, taste is a thing, and not all shows click with everyone. That doesn’t make them necessarily good or bad. But for this show to not click with me, I thought? What in the world was going on? What’s missing? How do I make this the show I want it to …nay, need it to be?
Thankfully, I take this job seriously and I didn’t just quit after fifteen minutes of the “Pilot,” because a funny thing happened when I let the episode play out: I found myself enjoying it.
Not loving, not yet. The “Pilot” feels very much like, well, a Pilot, a show trying to find its footing, trying to figure out which dynamics to lean on and which only worked on paper. But that’s okay. Even shows with amazing first episodes can have their growing pains, and I’ll take an episode that grew over one that just didn’t try anything new, one that played it too safe for me to care.
Because the message behind Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, one about the inherent power in music to tell a story, well, that isn’t safe, and the way the show is handling not just who Zoey is as a person, but the way she relates to the people around her, and how music can help her become more in tune with what others are feeling …well, that’s not exactly something you see every day.
And it’s really and truly something I want to see more of.
Not to mention I just want to see each and every one of these actors get a chance to belt a tune. That’s kinda like the point, isn’t it? SING FOR ME, PEOPLE.
SING
FOR
ME.
So, are you excited for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist? What are you looking forward to the most? Share with us in the comments below!
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is set to premiere Tuesday January 7th, at 10/9c on NBC.
