Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Review: Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend (Season 1 Episode 2)

Control is the name of the game on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 1 Episode 2, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend.”

Unfortunately, the writers of this episode don’t have enough self-control to stop themselves from pulling their main character in multiple directions, and it’s the detriment of the overall story.

Let’s start with the good stuff.

Peter Gallagher is phenomenal.  

Portraying a man with PSP cannot be an easy undertaking, and he does it with incredible precision. That isn’t the impressive part of what Gallagher is doing, however.

During the opening number, which serves as a reminder to the audience of what this show is about (the series premiered back in January), Gallagher seamlessly transitions from the PSP version of his character into a soft, charming, charismatic dad singing and dancing along with his daughter. 

The moment his face turns is so brief, but so impressive that I watched it happen multiple times. 

It could truly be a study in facial control acting, actually, and it’s the best example of control in an episode that lacks so much of it.

Continuing to talk about the good aspects of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend,” Mo’s fascination with the music in Zoey’s head, and her commitment to figuring out how to control it, is the most endearing part of the hour. She’s even allowing Zoey to use her fancy noise canceling headphones!

Mo is a character who needs more screen time in general, and she could be a wonderful confidant for Zoey as she tries to untangle her feelings for Max and Simon. 

Zoey feels like a more relaxed character when she’s with Mo, as can be seen in the small moments they share in the hour. Mo is Zoey’s safe zone, if you will, an outside person with whom all of the drama can be stripped away for a debrief followed by introspection. 

Mo would also be a wonderful character to get to know through song via Zoey, because Alex Newell has an incredible voice and charisma for days, and has not yet been given a chance to shine on the show, whereas others have had multiple moments to blandly bust out a pop number. 

Which means it’s the perfect time to talk about the things that fall flat in, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend.”

Is it just me, or is Max the character equivalent of a bowl of oatmeal, lightly sweetened?

As a longtime fan of the underdog in a love triangle, I want to root for Max. I really want to. I just can’t find a single thing about him that isn’t bland, including the songs in his head.

Max and Zoey’s friendship is written as though its longstanding and they are fabulously close. There’s a mention by Max to the years he’s spent at Zoey’s family barbecues, and the proxy father relationship he has with her dad, yet these two characters feel disconnected from each other in such a significant way..

The way in which their friendship is written needs some more control, because right now, I cannot buy into it.

Why hasn’t Max seen Zoey’s father in months, yet suddenly appears with butterscotch pudding for him, not even knowing that Zoey will be there?

That doesn’t seem like a close friendship situation for these characters. It seems like a random happenstance fabricated to push a love triangle, and to get Zoey to see Max as a potential love interest.

Max’s crush on Zoey is bland and cliche. There’s no spark in him. He just exists alongside her hoping she’ll notice that he’s an option.

Considering that this episode is titled, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend,” I found nothing extraordinary about Max during this hour.

The entire situation with Simon vs. Max is also in need of a little more control from the writers.

They’ve made Simon a romantic option for Zoey solely based on her crush on him and their bond over their fathers. They’ve fabricated a love triangle situation.

Which it isn’t, truly, because despite promotional tweets from the show that ask if you’re Team Max or Team Simon, it’s important to remember that Simon has shown no romantic interest in Zoey (and he’s also engaged.) And Zoey has no interest in Max, at least not at the moment.

So what is this “team” stuff, exactly? What are the viewers supposed to be rooting for? Is it for a really nice guy to cheat on his fiance? Is it for Zoey to throw her friend a bone, even though she’s not into him? It’s unclear, and because the show has put somewhat of a heavy focus on it, there should be some sort of direction here.

Zoey’s workplace situation needs to be controlled a bit as well, and by “controlled a bit,” I mean, what are they doing with Lauren Graham’s character, Joan?

What’s her purpose here? She’s not exactly a mentor to Zoey. She isn’t exactly comic relief, though her line about keeping swag for interns so that they don’t have to pay them was funnier than I expected it to be. I hope that was intentional.

Most importantly, though I’ve seen multiple teasers of Lauren Graham singing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” for what feels like months now, there’s been nothing from her musically. I’m growing impatient. 

While I know this is only the second episode, it feels like a bait and switch to reel me in with specific things that make me, the target audience, excited, only to show me something very different. 

My big issue with this episode is the lack of self-control in cramming too many plots into one episode.

Zoey’s big problem during “Zoey’s Extraordinary Best Friend,” is that she can’t control her team, which when combined with her attempts to control her music super power, work very well as a solid narrative for an episode, especially as she learns that the best way to control things is to stop trying to control them. 

It becomes too much, though, when Zoey is a part of everything that happens to everyone. If the episode left it at those two things, this episode would have felt more focused.

Instead, Zoey also needs to control Max’s love life, have a weird power dynamic story with Max at work, and find a solution to what her dad is trying to tell them what he wants with his button. The more ingredients that are thrown into this episode, the less tight it becomes, and the more the audience potentially loses focus.

I’m hoping that as the show goes on, the writers do find a way to control the many directions they pull Zoey in, because I want to like this show, so very much. 

Unfortunately, right now, they’ve not yet sold me on it.

Music Notes:

• The coffee shop “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” was the best performance on this show, so far. It was beautiful.
• Peter Gallagher can sing “Moondance” on loop and I will watch it over, and over, and over.
• While “I’ve Got the Music in Me” was a fun ensemble number, the fact that it had nothing to do with the episode, and that it was all a dream, took some of the magic away from it.
• Was “Sucker” supposed to ignite something in me? I found it boring, like a weird adult Kidz Bop version, and all it did was make me dislike the song “Sucker.” And I love that song.

What did you think of this episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

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