For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. While vaccines are more widely available now than they were last year, for some plans still remain the same this holiday season, unsure about going to movie theaters. However, this shouldn’t stop us from enjoying holiday movies with friends and family.
During the month of December, therefore, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2021—a year that can still do with plenty of spirit. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch it.
Imagine having the ability to know what those around you are thinking and feeling. Could that power improve their lives or cause havoc in your relationship? What if the only way to sense these feelings was through song? Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas examines having this power from both sides of usage.
Following up from NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, this Christmas feature picks up shortly after the series was cancelled in its second season. As told through a humorous story to a mall Santa, Zoey (played by Jane Levy) gives a synopsis of the series for both Santa to understand her wish, and for new audiences to catch up with the story quickly. While helping her family take care of her father, Mitch (Peter Gallagher), who has a rare neurological disorder that has put him in a near paralytic state preventing him from even talking, Zoey worries about her recent migraines, relating them to Mitch’s condition. As she goes for a CAT scan to ease her fears, a mild earthquake occurs, momentarily causing a surge in the machine, and oddly transferring all of the hospital’s available streaming services’ songs into her brain. From then on, Zoey is able to sense people’s innermost feelings—happy, sad, and everywhere in-between—but only through song and dance (choreographed by show star Mary Steenburgen), like a Broadway show starting at random parts of the story. Although she finds this annoying at times, this ability allows her to communicate with Mitch and understand what he truly needs in life when he is unable to speak. With the help of her friends Mo (Alex Newell) and Max (Skylar Astin) she attempts to decipher how these “heart songs” relate to the people around her and solve what ails them. They realize, as George Harrison would relate, “it’s gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right, child.”
Already trying to reel herself back into life after Mitch’s death, the series ended with a shocking twist that Zoey’s boyfriend Max suddenly gained the same power to read others. For Max, the powers seem like a godsend, finding all songs to be literal and easy to fix. As Zoey’s first Christmas without her dad comes around, however, he realizes hearing her own innermost feelings means more than a quick quest.
While her family plans to go on their own adventures for the holiday, Zoey wants to honor Mitch by having a traditional family Christmas like those of her childhood. This involves convincing her brother, and especially her mom, Maggie (Steenburgen), who has already planned a trip to Hawaii with her best friend Deb (portrayed by Bernadette Peters, with a fabulous rendition of “Mele Kalikimaka”). Things take an even bigger turn when, after Zoey tries to prepare an entire holiday meal and decorate the house by herself, the family gets an unexpected visit from Jack, the owner of the Christmas tree farm whom Max believes is a good match for Maggie. Zoey, Maggie, and the rest of the family come to realize that even though they are not completely over Mitch’s death, they can gradually go ahead with their lives and start new traditions without completely forgetting the fun they had in years’ past.
The great thing about Extraordinary Christmas is that while it is a holiday movie, it does not rely strictly on Christmas music, something that cannot entirely describe one’s feelings—even at this time of year. Alongside songs like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You” and “We Need a Little Christmas” are more comprehensive “heart songs” like Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” (sung a bit off key by Levy) and Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.”
Although the series was cancelled by NBC (who also chose not to transfer it to their streaming app Peacock), Roku, one of the biggest television streaming devices on the market, picked up the existing two seasons and funded this project. Currently, the future of Zoey has not been announced; however, further movies in the series, similar to Peacock’s continuing Psych movies, would be an extraordinary way to keep the series alive. This is made even better on the Roku channel—available on all Roku devices and in the app store on other devices—by being free, something which is not the case with other streaming services.
For current fans of the series, as well as newcomers who want to binge the series or dig right into Christmas, Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas is a perfect musical journey into the holidays for all ages.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas is available to stream on the Roku Channel.
