Hey, my wife and I just saw and really enjoyed the first episode of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. So why am I reviewing it? Well, I love music. I thought Smash (also on NBC a few years ago) was great, though I never reviewed it. I did review and liked, even loved, a lot of Nashville. And Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is ... science fiction. Zoey has a super-power - she can hear in the form of great songs what people around her are thinking - and there's even a scientific explanation for how she gets this power. She's listening to a playlist of music while she's having an MRI and there's a little earthquake. Not the most plausible science, but, in fact, more plausible than time travel, because it doesn't invoke any paradoxes.
And the music was outstanding in this hour, ranging from people in the street singing "Help" to a guy in her office singing "I Think I Love You." You don't usually get everything from the Beatles to The Partridge Family on any other show on television that I've heard of or heard.
And the narrative has some excellent turns, too. The best is Zoey's father, who is in some kind of catatonic state. But he's able to sing his thoughts to Zoey, or, rather, Zoey is able to hear them in song. I saw this coming, but it was still a tender, really beautiful interlude in the hour.
There's love, business, and other fun and more serious components to this story. The acting is excellent - Peter Gallagher and Mary Steenburgen play Zoey's parents. And Zoey herself is played by Jane Levy, who lights up the screen and every scene that she's in. And the voices range from ok to really excellent, my favorites being Simon's played and performed by John Clarence Stewart (who sang "Mad World") and Max's played by Skyler Astin (who sang and danced "I Think I Love You").
The pilot was last week. The show's due back in February. I'm hooked.
just up on Bandcamp, FREE - or get CD here
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