Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist PICK OF THE WEEK

TVNZ On Demand, from Monday

If the job of a TV show’s pilot episode is to make a strong first impression, then the pilot episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist can only be described as a huge success. How can you forget the visceral reaction you have when a character suddenly breaks into a pitchy version of DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win mid-sentence? This is one of the worst things I have ever seen.

Some context, if it helps: Zoey is a coder at a Silicon Valley tech company, who gains the ability to hear other people’s thoughts and feelings expressed through popular songs after an earthquake strikes while she’s in the middle of an MRI scan.

A lonely old spinster walks past her on the street and breaks into All By Myself. A group of women in activewear see a hot man and start harmonising to Whatta Man by Salt-N-Pepa. A whole chorus of maudlin San Franciscans perform Help, by The Beatles.

So when her work rival is all of a sudden screaming All I Do Is Win in her face, but she’s the only one who can hear it? Okay, we get it.

The whole episode seems like an exercise in selecting the most obvious song to go with each scene, then having the actors perform it with a kind of screeching theatricality that would make the cast of Glee cringe. It’s pure hell, the kind you can’t stop watching until you realise maybe you actually love it.

Hidden beneath the many long musical interludes are the foundations of what could just about be a decent show. It has a strong and likeable cast, and there are some affecting scenes involving Zoey’s family taking care of her sick father. If anything, all of this just makes it even weirder.

It’s so weird that we simply have no choice but to keep watching, trying to figure out exactly where this is all going.