‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ Review: A Musical Comedy And Drama

While many may be hesitant about watching season one of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, in my opinion, it's a show to check out. I watched the pilot episode that was released in early January, since it was being advertised constantly, and I remembered watching the main character Jane Levy from Suburgatory. I liked her in that show so I figured she'd be good in this one. Also, Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls is on this show. What's not to love about her.

I have to say, I wasn't completely sold on the pilot episode, and the next set of episodes weren't being released until mid-February. I honestly forgot about the show until about a month ago, and gave the next 11 episodes a shot.

The show follows the main character, Zoey, a woman in her 20s working for a successful tech company as a computer coder. As she goes in for an MRI scan, an earthquake rolls through the city and she leaves the office with an ability to see people singing and dancing their emotions through song. The catch, only she can see people performing. Everyone else around her are oblivious to these personal performances.

It navigates the struggles Zoey goes through as she becomes the manager of her coding team, falls for two different guys that work in her office, deals with stress related to her boss Joan, and tackles the slow decline of her father suffering from a neurological disease called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). It's a crazy whirlwind of emotions as Zoey seems to be all over the place with nothing really playing out positively for her.

I won't give away any big details of the show, but something I found interesting as I watched each episode were the chills I'd feel when the characters started singing. Let me clarify, these were chills of embarrassment for Zoey having to see everyone singing at her as life outside of the illusion was normal. People were still having conversations (in silence) as the person or person's danced and sang around her. The bright side to her seeing these musical displays of emotions is that she could work to solve issues with these people, or seek inner peace knowing how someone felt. On a few occasions, she was blessed to have her dad sing to her even though in real time, he could hardly move and couldn't speak.

If you make it through all 12 episodes, just know that you might tear up or need a tissue to get to the end. I'm not sure where they'll go for a second season, but I've already added this show to my watchlist on HULU for next year.