https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPfK4T-nN48
Tonight at 10p, we get a sneak peek of NBC’s new show Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and you don’t want to miss the best new show of the season. As much as I love Bob Hearts Abeshola, Carol’s Second Act, Evil, and Perfect Harmony, no new show has wowed me like ZEP. Once you watch it, you will see why it is so easy to fall in love with it.
Zoey (Jane Levy) is a coder who hates music. Her next door neighbor Mo (Alex Newell) plays and sing it as loud as he can, even though Zoey tells him to turn it down. Zoey needs quiet because she up for a big promotion at work. She has an interview with her boss (Lauren Graham), and she does not want to blow it. Thankfully, she has her work friend, Max (Skylar Astin), to give her the encouragement she desperately needs. Now, if only he can encourage enough to go after Simon (John Clarence Stewart), the guy she likes at her job. If that is not enough to handle, her father (Peter Gallagher) is dying from a rare brain disease that leaves him speechless and trapped in his own body. Zoey worries how her dad’s health is affecting her mom (Mary Steenburgen), who is his caretaker.
All of this stress is causing Zoey to have headaches, and she is afraid she might have what her father has. Therefore, her mom tells her to get an MRI. While she is in it, listening to some music, an earthquake rattles the city and the machine. Thus, it causes her to download all of the music that it is has to offer.
When she is out of the machine, she starts to hear people singing their thoughts to her, and she cannot make it stop. As strangers sing The Beatles’ Help to her, she runs home and seeks help from her neighbor. Zoey will now depend on Mo to help her understand what is going on. Mo knows music, and Zoey cannot escape it.
When she is at work, she will hear someone sing the saddest version of Tears For Fears’ Mad World, and it will give her an insight to what they are secretly dealing with, in their personal life. She will try to help them, and it makes her think maybe there is something good that can come out of this new ability. However, when the lightbulb moment comes, get the tissues ready because it will leave you with tears in your eyes.
It is a sweet moment, just like this show in general. Each week, Zoey is going to have to learn to deal with people singing their innermost feelings to her. Then she is going to have to figure out how to help them without letting them know what she can do. Sometimes she will get it right. Other times, she will get it completely wrong. Can she fix it, or will she hear another song? We will just have to keep tuning in after it returns on Sunday, February 16th, its regularly scheduled night.
When it comes to the song choices, they are songs that everyone will know. Some of the songs are even better than the original versions. There are some breakout singers in the cast like Gallagher and Steenburgen. Who knew they could sing? We already know that Astin and Newell can belt out a tune. What we didn’t know about Newell, is he can act. He is the best part of this musical dramedy, and there are many bright spots.
So many you are not going to want to miss it tonight or Sundays starting on February 16th.
