Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Has the love triangle overstayed its welcome?

When Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist premiered in 2020, the series almost instantly established its main character’s difficulty in dealing with her own feelings. Unfortunately, despite early episodes that might have hinted at something new, Zoey Clarke is still failing in the romance department.

The love triangle between Zoey, Max, and Simon was an interesting, lighter side plot to follow while the series grappled with Mitch’s illness. Shipping is fun, and who doesn’t enjoy a good rivalry? (Emphasis on good.)

The problem is, at some point, a show needs to move the story forward. And while characters are allowed to second-guess their choices or have setbacks in their progress, retelling the same nonsense story over and over again isn’t a good look.

That brings us to Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2, Episode 8, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday.” Zoey’s love life is way too messy here and not in a “wow, that’s good entertainment” sort of way. It’s just…bad. We’ve already done all this before; it’s just worse now since we’re also not really seeing any movement in the series’s bigger arc either.

The Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist love triangle is way out of control

Zoey had to stand by and be jealous while Max sang a heart song to another woman. She had a really sweet moment with him that was a nice throwback to their “moment” (or, well, it would’ve been nice if everything else hadn’t happened). Then, she swerved back the other way and said she had feelings for Simon again.

If this sounds familiar, with maybe a few small tweaks here and there, it’s because most of what happened in Zoey’s “love” life during “Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday” already played by Simon’s engagement party in Season 1. All Season 2 brought to the mix was a different version of Zoey facing a huge public embarrassment: This time, it was Aiden singing a song to her that was clearly about wanting to rip her clothes off…after her own brother had helped him write it.

To recap because this is just confusing at this point: Zoey and Max have feelings for each other, but they “paused” their still-new relationship because Zoey was grieving her dad. So, now Rose has entered the mix as someone Max clearly wants to bang.

While we’re at it, Zoey wants to get naked with Simon, who’s also sort of casually been seeing Tatiana. Or, so we thought.

Adding yet another layer to this misery, Aiden wants in on some Zoey loving, too? (Writing all of this out is enough to give anyone a headache and maybe switch Max with Simon in a few places—which Zoey seems just fine with seeing them as interchangeable, so ok!)

We’ve gone from a love triangle to a love pentagon, to a love hexagon, immediately back to a pentagon. That’s just too much. It’s insane.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2, Episode 8 didn’t do anything new to establish exactly why Simon was suddenly the “one” for Zoey. The idea of Max being attracted to someone else during a “pause” isn’t exactly unexplored territory either: Not only did Zoey try to force him into something with Autumn while she was busy avoiding his love songs in Season 1, but this whole idea of “guy on a break wants to hook up with hot girl” was kind of already done on Friends.

Things didn’t exactly go smoothly with Ross and Rachel for their “break.” There’s no reason to believe Zoey and Max will come out of this “pause” looking good either.

To be perfectly honest, Zoey already kind of looks terrible at this point. Just like Max told her, you can’t make a conversation (or your behavior as it regards to your love life, for the record) “mature” just by constantly using the words to say it is.

Aiden should be glad Zoey rejected him outright. By the time this is all over, both Max and Simon might wish they’d had the same luck.

The worst thing about this entire love “triangle” plot is how much time and energy it takes away from what truly makes Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist great: the heart songs, the emotional connection it strikes with the audience, and the comedy. Like, let’s talk about the massive glow-up that happened when the food bar at SPRQ Point went from “keto” to a bunch of cute cookies and cakes made to look like Zoey’s killer wardrobe. It was such a sweet touch, and it would’ve been nice if Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2, Episode 8 had gone for more of those.

What about Mo’s hot new love interest? Or this new dynamic forming between McKenzie and Tobin? Those are both worth exploring…But instead, let’s put the spotlight on telling the same story that’s already had a clear beginning, middle, and end. Right? Sure.

Writing a less-than-stellar review of a beloved series is never fun. But it’s because we care that we just have to say it: “Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday” was anything but.

Are you tired of the Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist love triangle or still invested enough to see how it plays out? Drop us a comment!