This was a sweet (or should I say bittersweet) send off for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. It brought back the cast for one big Christmas celebration aka the first Christmas without Zoey's dad.

If you loved the series you will love this short film put together just where the tv series left off.

There was humor, truth and sadness and that was ok. It explored empathy, grief, gratitude, and selflessness.

What starts with a mall Santa ends with Carole-oke...you will understand, Mo is involved.

My favorite parts were the love shared between Zoey and Max...and the playful flirty banter between Lumber Jack and Maggie.

(And the actor who plays Max is still by far the best singer on the show.)

If you haven't watched the series Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist there simply is no reason to sit through Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas. It's a movie that builds on things you already know about the characters from the TV show, but if you liked the show then this is basically a must-watch. I love how the creative team behind this show/movie spends time working on matching songs to the moments and then choreographing great dance numbers to accompany them. It's the kind of thing you only see on stage nowadays, but I wish movie musicals would get back to the big toe-tapping numbers with great dancers. In fact, one of my biggest disappointments with Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas is the fact that they didn't close the movie with a big musical number with the whole cast despite the fact that they were all gathered together and could have shared one.

What truly sets Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas apart from all the other Christmas films out there, is exactly the same thing that I felt made the show special. This film caters to those who might be having a harder time at the holidays. It shows how complex grief can be, and how it can affect the way we feel around festive times of the year. Yet at the same time it still manages to be joyful and celebrate family. There were some of the subplots that got short shrift, and could have used more attention. If this were part of the show each of these little stories would probably get their own episode, but here they get minor screen-time only so we see all the familiar characters for a moment before getting back to Zoey's story. A bit more cleaning up of the plot would have been great, and a few more big bold choreographed numbers as well, but I still found enough to love that I could see myself watching Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas again in future years.

First of all, I do love the whole series and I sincerely hope it'll go on, hopefully as it used to be.

This Christmas closing/renewal/condensed season 3 has two halves: the first feels rushed, too quick and too overdone. The second one is like watching a totally different movie and basically that's what made me love the characters, the pace, the ideas. Depth, more grounded reality come to play.

It's just too many ideas packed into one, maybe because of the uncertainty of the show's future.

Luckily, the actors are still fantastic, Peter Gallagher is in his own league here.

So, being said, just bear with it, it gets to be a real Zoey's episode by the end and that worths everything.

And for the creators, producers: just keep this whole world open for all of us. It's a good escape.