Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas Trailer: Zoey's Back This December

NBC pulled the plug on the musical comedy series "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" earlier this year, but fans of the dearly departed show won't be left completely hanging: while it will be on a totally different network, a Christmas movie is coming out soon to presumably wrap things up for good. Now there's a trailer which showcases Zoey's desire to deck her halls for an old-fashioned family holiday celebration. But like "Christmas Vacation" protagonist Clark Griswold and so many other good-natured holiday lovers before her, she quickly gets in over her head and realizes that a big, family-spanning gathering is more stressful to achieve than it appears.

Here's the part where I admit that I did not carve out time to watch any of "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" when it was on NBC, so I can't speak to whether or not this looks like an adequate send-off for this beloved series. But I have seen plenty of Christmas specials, and this looks like it has the ingredients for one that will please its fanbase through and through. It looks like it features a nice blend of that classic "home for the holidays" feeling, a dash of heart with all of the references to Zoey's deceased father, and the big song and dance numbers that helped define the series when it was on the air. And of course, Christmas musicals are almost required to include familiar tunes like "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "We Need a Little Christmas," and it certainly looks like this movie will put its bubbly, optimistic spin on those standards. (It'd be kind of hilarious if they went in the complete opposite direction and did a slowed-down, super depressing version of those typically peppy songs, but I digress.)

The most important thing to know is this movie will be airing on The Roku Channel instead of NBC, since Lionsgate shopped it around after the show's cancellation and The Roku Channel – yes, the place that scooped up all of those dead Quibi shows – ended up coming out on top. If you know someone in your life who loved this show when it was on, you may want to give them the early Christmas present of explaining to them what The Roku Channel is and how they can get it even if they don't have a Roku device.

"Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas" premieres on December 1, 2021.