Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on NBC is a pure delight. It is a show that is 1000% guaranteed to put a smile on your face, get your feet tapping and leave you humming a happy tune. I defy you to not be in a good mood after watching it.

The show has a streak of corniness, not surprising for a show built around mostly mainstream pop songs — “True Colors,” “Satisfaction,” “Mad World,” “Moondance,” “I’ve Got the Music in Me,” “How Can I Mend a Broken Heart?” But the performances balance whatever’s obvious in the script, and the musical numbers are energetic enough to distract you from any cognitive dissonances they create. ... Like pop music itself, “Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist” can be simplistic and undemanding even as it suggests something deep and meaningful.

If fictional TV characters Ally McBeal and Eli Stone had a love child, it would be Zoey Clarke.

Strange and ambitious concept? Absolutely. But when it comes to executing what is essentially "X-Men" telepath Professor X trapped in the "Glee" classroom, "Zoey" hits most of the right notes.

Light-hearted but not too whimsical, starring a heroine who solves low-stakes emotional puzzles with angsty pluck, and delivering entertaining musical numbers that supplement rather than dominate the story, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is certainly worth keeping on shuffle.

The cast is unusually good, with Mary Steenburgen as Zoey's mom and Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls") as her boss, who both get a chance to show off their musical pipes in later episodes.

A likably inspired musical dramedy boasting a strong cast led by a never-better Jane Levy and running the risk of being too quirky for broadcast and not quirky enough for cable.

“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” is at its most charming when it allows itself to be silly. ... So, in the end, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” is a solid dramedy that also happens to include Mary Steenburgen singing Van Morrison, Peter Gallagher tackling Cindi Lauper, and Lauren Graham nailing Katy Perry. You would need a real dirge of an inner song yourself to not at least smile a bit at that.

It’s filled with music and some high-energy dance numbers. But what comes between those highlights is often dull and without stakes. It’s the perfect show to do laundry to; it only beckons viewers to lean forward and pay attention during the occasional musical number.

Stick with "Zoey." Get past the treacle, network cliches, and force-fed emotions, and it does improve. Earworms, too.

On the one hand, it runs on corny plots and network rom-com clichés, which is irksome and disappointing. On the other hand, there’s sweet and lively entertainment to be found in the regular musical sequences, which play like pieces of a jukebox musical, the jukebox being filled with pop songs by the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Van Morrison.

The ambitions of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” seem, in its early going, more focused on assembling that legitimately impressive playlist than in making it really sing. ... The development of her family story over the show’s first two hours suggest a drama with a growing awareness about the most interesting way to use its premise.

At times, “Zoey” is lighthearted enough to get the audience to go along with such leaps of logic, but when the show tries to get deep — tackling everything from a parent’s suicide to a gender fluid individual’s relationship to God — the conflicting tones rarely mesh.

There’s a germ of something here. It’s never quite clear what it could be.

At times, Zoey creator Austin Winsberg makes potent use of the gimmick, particularly regarding Mitch. ... But the song choices themselves tend to be too literal-minded. ... The non-singing portions tend to be even more formulaic and literal.

Really, it looks like all of the actors are having a blast filming Zoey‘s big musical numbers... but that fun never fully translates to us at home.