2021, Richard Shepherd (Dom Hemingway) -- Roku/Download
Season two ended, unfortunately the final season as the show was cancelled, with Zoey (Jane Levy, Monster Trucks) finally connecting with her long time friend Max (Skylar Astin, Pitch Perfect) not long after he father's death. Xmas is coming upon them and Zoey is doing her usual spinning out emotionally over it being the first Xmas without her dad. Everyone wants to go their own way, Mom (Mary Steenburgen, Justified) wanting going to Hawai'i with fellow widow Deb (Bernadette Peters, The Jerk), and her brother & wife spending the season with wife's sister. Zoey wants them to all stay and do a Perfect Dad Style Xmas. Of course, Zoey gets her way.
Yeah, while I am still charmed by Zoey and her musical antics, the secondary plot concept, in that Zoey is so fucking awkward and emotionally stunted, she often ends bullying people in directions she believes she needs to go, somewhat annoy me. I get they were distilling a possible season 3 into a single two hour Xmas Movie, but despite having plenty of tokens of charm and sweetness throughout, I was not as squee-ed about the whole as I hoped.
It starts off fine enough, with Zoey not so jazzed about Xmas but doing a trip to the mall with Mo, which ends up as an Xmas musical number, because of course. It was a perfect way to remind us of the show's conceit as well as highlight Xmas. But the centre plot involves the yet unresolved grief present at the end of the season.
Zoey's Dad (Peter Gallagher, Grace & Frankie) did the perfect Xmas planning, at least at the heart of Zoey's memories. And Zoey needs to recreate them down to every detail. So, amusingly so, we get some of the Xmas Hallmarkie tropes. We get a Xmas Tree hunting scene, where Mom meets a hunky Xmas tree lot owner Jack (David Jason Elliot, J.A.G.). And we get a terrible attempt at making Xmas Dinner all by yourself, not quite montagey but very familiar. Why do people who don't cook think they can do everything all on their own?
We also get the most touching scene reconnecting Zoey's Dad with her, after the terrible accidental destruction of their beloved family snow globe. Singing and dancing to the Judy Garland "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas", Zoey's Dad returns via her power, and the two interact in black&white, revealing the scene in the snow globe itself. Its these kind of scenes that I wish the show would more embrace, as it is the heart of Zoey's powers. Alas, the show seems intent on the discomfort prevalent in standard American TV, especially when Zoey's best friend Mo overpowers the Xmas Musical Play staged by the daughter of Mo's daughter. Mo is GOAT of musical numbers even when not in one of Zoey's heart songs, and he believes he knows what is best for the kids' musical numbers. He doesn't.
Eventually everyone, including Zoey and Mo, understand the true meaning of Xmas and all end up and Max and Mo's resto, which is open on Xmas Day for Mo's traditional Xmas day for LGBTQ friends who are all alone on that special day. I get it, as we have not been around any family for Xmas Day in a long long time, and we even used to host our own Orphan's Xmas Day for those without family. But it also gives us fans an excuse to drag all the characters of the show together for one last time, for one last "episode", as the show fades into the ether.
Bye Zoey...
She has powers?
ReplyDeleteNever seen the show, but I wants to.
i never answered this. yes she has "powers" in that she experiences song & dance numbers, in which the songs are usually metaphorically about something the person is going through, and the only way to stop recurring renditions of songs from the person, is to help them work through whatever the issue is. the fun thing is that even though they are usually well known pop songs, Zoey is not that into music (she's a science and computer nerd) so she needs help from her gender non-fluid neighbour to translate.
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