Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is reminiscent of Greg Berlanti's ABC musical dramedy Eli Stone

Paste Magazine

The two-season 2007-2008 ABC legal musical dramedy created by Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim starred Jonny Lee Miller as an ambitious lawyer who had musical hallucinations, specifically of George Michael performing "Faith." "Going back to the comparison between Eli Stone and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: While the latter notably hasn’t hitched its wagon to one musician specifically, the obvious light-hearted jukebox musical-drama setup brings forth comparisons," says LaToya Ferguson. "Especially with the case of the cast singing all of the songs themselves, which wasn’t the case for Netflix’s one-blink-and-you’ll-miss-it series, Soundtrack, where actors would lipsync the original recordings of its song choices. Unlike Glee or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, neither of these series are musicals first, though Zoey’s is perhaps more concerned with the musical aspect than Eli Stone ultimately was. Plus, there’s the fact that Zoey’s musical condition seems to be the result of technological mumbo jumbo—a CT scan merging with a literal music playlist—which gives her the ability to read people’s minds through song. Stone’s condition manifests itself in both musical moments and fantastical imagery (like his world turning into World War II, or the beach, or a dragon following him) and is, in fact, in favor of a higher power. While both series are earnest interpretations of a specific genre, dedicated to having a little heart in a world that’s forgotten it, Eli Stone was also clearly dedicated to a much larger-than-life concept."