Top 4 Reasons to Bite Right Into ‘iZombie’

When ‘iZombie’ first premiered I missed out because it clashed with another show I was watching. But I would see the trailers with the ghostly white female protagonist and it looked interesting. So when my tv schedule freed up a bit I decided to check it out and, my goodness gracious me, I fell in love with this show.

The CW series has ended its second season in April this year and has been green lighted for a third though no date yet when it will premiere. For those who missed the show first time around, or those who watched it and just want a reminder of how fabulous it is, here are four reasons to brain binge ‘iZombie’:

#1 Quirky creepy concept

‘iZombie’, loosely based on the eponymous Vertigo comic and co-developed by Rob Th0mas (yes THAT Rob Thomas), tells the story of Olivia “Liv” Moore, a morgue attendant and secret zombie who gains people’s memories when she eats their brains and uses this ability to help a police detective solve crimes. Now if that is not the best premise for a TV show I don’t know what is.

Liv not only gains flashes of the dead person’s memories but also some of their personality traits, and that makes for some very interesting situations. She has been a head in the clouds artist, a sexually repressed erotica  writer, a stern basketball coach and even an amateur superhero. And we still get a weekly police procedural with intriguing cases to solve and some zombie craziness thrown in the mix. With this set up she can eat any brain and the show can go anywhere. Think ‘Quantum Leap’ but with more gore and no Al.

#2 Superb cast

Rose McIver, who plays Liv, is amazing in this role. She is snarky, witty and slightly unhinged but you also feel her longing for the normal life she lost. She carries the show but that is not to say that the rest of the cast is dead meat…I mean dead weight. Malcolm Goodwin is rock solid as detective Clive Babineaux and Rahul Kohli is laugh out loud hilarious as Dr Ravi Chakrabati, a medical examiner, Liv’s boss and the first person to learn her zombie secret.

Special mention must also go to David Anders (‘Heroes’) who plays drug dealer turned zombie boss Blaine. He crafts quite the likable villain which is not easy when you commit the most unspeakable of acts.

#3 Gallows humour

One of the big draws of this show is just how funny it is and organically so I might add. Whether it’s Liv and Ravi joking about a dead body, Liv acting all weird because of a brain she ate or general zombie-based humour, ‘iZombie’ delivers the laughs.

Now if you are not in to dark humour, and it can get pretty dark on this show, you may not find it appealing but it fits well with the tone of the series and I just ate it up (no zombie pun intended).

#4 Rich zombie mythology

If there is any show I could compare ‘iZombie’ to is NBC’s ‘Grimm’ as both are police procedurals with supernatural elements. But while ‘Grimm’ has a host of creatures to play with you would think that ‘iZombie’ would get stuck in a rut with only zombies in their sandbox. Well you sir or ma’am would be dead wrong.

The show really builds up an interesting mythology on what is essentially a one note monster. You have the thinking, cogent zombies like Liv and Blaine and then you have the “Romero” zombies (your brainless flesh chomper) which is what happens when a regular zombie is starved of brains for too long. You also have “going full zombie” which gives a regular zombie superhuman strength. So kudos to the producers – you made a TV show about zombies interesting and fun and funny, which is a nice alternative to the downer that ‘The Walking Dead’ can be. But if you have not checked out the show yet I highly recommend it.

So have you seen iZombie? What did you think of it?

For more horror on TV you can check out my non-spoiler look at the phenomenal ‘Stranger Things’ here and for a comedic court case on whether ‘The X-Files’ should get another season you can click here. And for more darkly humorous TV reviews you can check back redmangoreviews for new posts Monday to Saturday or follow me on Twitter @suprememango012 for updates.

Julien is outie like a navel. l8rs