iZOMBIE
Based on iZOMBIE by Chris Roberson & Mike Allred
Developed by Rob Thomas & Diane Ruggiero-Wright
Starring Rose McIver; Malcolm Goodwin; Rahul Kohli; Robert Buckley; David Anders; Aly Michalka; Robert Knepper; Bryce Hodgson
Narrated by Rose McIver
Opening theme “Stop, I’m Already Dead” by Deadboy & the Elephantmen
It’s a bit weird reviewing a series that ran for five years and wrapped up two years ago. But I was already watching the engaging if wildly uneven Z Nation (one zombie show at a time seems to be my limit), and the premise of iZombie didn’t sound real promising: a police procedural. “He’s a pleasant but dim detective. He’s a medical examiner. She’s a zombie who can see memories out of the brains she eats. Together, they solve crimes.”
Put that way, it doesn’t sound like the sort of off-beat police procedural that’s going to going to make anyone forget Barney Miller or Due South.
If I can’t resurrect a show about zombies, then what dead shows can I bring back to life? True Blood, perhaps?
Luckily for the show, the writers brought a fair bit of intelligence and humor to the fore. The characters were tropes but not stereotypal. The Zombies were a refreshing change: as long as they had brains to eat, they had superior mental and physical functioning. Short of massive injury to the head, they were nearly physically invulnerable, as zombies usually are. When they ate someone’s brain, they would take on the personality elements of the meal, and have flashes of things the deceased remembered. [One brick joke is the elaborate recipes Liv uses for her brainfood.] It’s useful if you can talk to the victim of a murder crime and see the rationales said vic may have given to friends and associates. Detective Clive (Goodwin) has a theory: “It’s always the spouse.” This preconception may explain, in part, why he’s considered something of a joke of a murder detective around the precinct. He just isn’t genre-savvy.
Ravi ( Kohli) is the ME, a Londoner of Indian descent (as he is in real life) and brings a refreshing dose of science and humor to the show. Major Lilywhite (yeah, I know. Along with Liv Moore and Filmore /Graves) (Buckley) is the deposed boyfriend who slowly morphs into something much more than the eminence blanc he started out as. Blaine (Anders) starts out as one of the best villains you can imagine, both horrifying and engaging, and he, too, morphs into more as the show goes on. Those are the main characters, and they have a strong supporting cast.
Liv Moore (McIver) eats at least one brain per episode, and so plays at least seventy different personae during the series run, a Tatiana Maslany-worthy performance. Results vary from cringe-worthy (pre-school teacher) to brilliantly funny (drama coach whose main pupil is Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, who needs a drama coach in much the way Stephen King needs a copy of How To Write Good for Dummies.) Ravi gets zombified late in the series, and his performances are not to be missed.
The world-building is superb, a top-notch visualization of what a zombie outbreak in a major American city might really look like, especially one where the zombies are intelligent and with a little makeup and a wig, can pass for human. The show addresses a plot hole common to all other zombie shows—once all the human brains have been eaten, what are zombies supposed to ‘live’ on?
The show is good, much better than I expected, and I had a lot of fun in these strange grim times watching it.
Now on Netflix.