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‘iZombie’ Needs More Zombies, Less Voice-over – But It’s Still Worth Your Time (So Far)

By Richard Spalding

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The CW’s new series lives up to its reputation as Veronica mars With Zombies – in a good way!

So zombies.

They’ve kind of over-stayed their welcome.  It’s not their fault, of course; in small doses – a movie here; a TV appearance there – they’re fine.  Better than fine – zombies have starred in some of the best horror films ever.

Any more, however, zombies are being sold in bulk.  The zombie market is being over-saturated, so I completely understand why so many people have told me that they just are not excited about The CW’s new show, iZombie.

After one episode, I don’t think I can describe myself as being “excited” about the show yet, but there are reasons to tune into iZombie ifyou have nothing else to watch at 908 con a Tuesday evening.

Pilot Review (Mostly spoiler free)

I don’t love to do recaps that just come across as Spark Notes for the TV show – if you want to watch it, why would you read a summary of it first?

Here’s what I will tell you about the opening episode of iZombie then: Liv Moore (Rose McIver – nailed the part!) is a super-motivated heart surgeon . . . who goes to a party, dies, and wakes up a zombie.  Bummer!  Ever since, she has become an apathetic loner who has taken a job in the morgue in order to satisfy her need for human brains.

One day, she gets caught chowing down on brains by her boss, Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), who is more fascinated and curious than anything.  Ravi keeps her secret, and provides some great comedic moments as he tries to wrap his brain around what makes his brain-eating co-worker tick:

Later, Liv gets sucked into helping Clive Babineaux (Malcom Goodwin), a not-so-gifted detective who visits the morgue hoping to identify a Jane Doe.  Liv winds up knowing a surprising amount of information about the dead person in question, since eating someone’s brains passes along some of their memories and personality traits to Liv.  Ravi tells the detective Liv is psychic, and suddenly, Liv has a reason to live more – yeah, I know.

One Complaint

I never watched Veronica Mars, and I’m sure that fans of that show are in their glory now that Rob Thomas has essentially re-animated that show’s main character in the form of Liv.  That’s all well, and good, the fact that this show strongly resembles Thomas’ other show . . . but man, I really am not sold on having Liv narrate each episode via voice-over.

It’s a personal preference, I know, but my experience has shown me that using characters to narrate often results in one of two undesirable elements: either the show comes across as trying too hard to be witty and hip, or the show uses the character to explain things that the audience should have picked up on their own, which is kind of insulting.

No, the voice-over was not grating during the first episode; more like unnecessary.  I know it’s not going to disappear – Thomas seems to be a fan of this technique – so I can only hope he doesn’t grow too fond of it, a la Grey’s Anatomy, which to me is the most horrifying show on television.

Lots of Potential

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While the first episode was much more of a police procedural than The Walking Dead, and from what I hear that is the route the show has decided to take, abandoning most of the supernatural elements that can be found in the Vertigo comic series, it ended with Liv having a vision of a zombie attacking someone – the same zombie who infected her to begin with.  Truth be told, I like the lighthearted feel of the show, as it provides a perfect balance to the relentlessly bleak atmosphere of AMC’s TWD,  but clearly, the show needs to become more than just Psych with a zombie.

The good news is that the show really fast forwards after the initial attack that turned Liv into a zombie, so there’s a lot of back story to fill.  And if Liv’s maker is still running loose, that must mean there are other zombies out there, as well.  I hope the show embraces a little bit more of its horror roots as it goes on, even if it never approaches hard core.

I enjoyed the first episode, due mostly to its humor and the strength of its cast.   It’s right at home on The CW, which already has The Flash and Arrow, so I expect it to earn a second season.  Whether it develops more of an edge and earns the “zombie” part of its title will determine how much of a devoted fan I will or won’t become, but for now it should be a fun way to wrap up your TV-watching on Tuesday nights.

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