SNAPSHOT
Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver) was a rosy-cheeked, disciplined, over-achieving medical resident who had her life path completely mapped out… until the night she attended a party that unexpectedly turned into a zombie feeding frenzy. Now a med student-turned-zombie, she takes a job in the coroner’s office to gain access to the brains she must reluctantly eat to maintain her humanity, but with each brain she consumes, she inherits the corpse’s memories. With the help of her medical examiner boss Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), and police detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), she solves homicide cases in order to quiet the disturbing voices in her head. (synopsis via TV Calendar)
iZombie was one of the breakout hits of last season, bringing a whole new imaginative take on zombies that really connected with people.
It didn’t hurt that Liv gave a delightful every woman spin to zombiehood, investing her plight with equal doses of angst, chutzpah and ready wit which found itself expressed in a steady steam of insightful, memorable oneliners.
Or that she was given allies almost immediately, reducing that painful sense of “we’re in on the secret but the rest of the cast is not” dynamic that can hobble some shows, and bringing a warm, rich camaraderie to proceedings.
Throw in a clever, damn near likable in Big Bad in the undead person of drug dealer Blaine DeBeers (David Anders), Liv’s weekly re-invention as the person whose brains she consumes – dead people from the morgue; she’s not one of those zombies – affects her personality, likes and dislikes, and a narrative arc that neatly ran alongside the cases-of-the-week and you had one of the most original, engaging shows to come on TV in some time.
And now it’s back for a second season, which is going to leap directly off events in the finale according to Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, who co-created the series with long time collaborator Diane Ruggiero:
“We kind of say what the big storyline of Season Two will be in the finale of Season One. There’s a moment with Vaughn Du Clark, the head of Max Rager, says to his right-hand scientist, ‘You worry about creating Super Max, I’m going to eliminate all of the Seattle zombies.’ If zombies were the aggressors in Season One, they’re put a little bit more on the defensive side and it will make very strange bedfellows of Liv and Blaine in Season Two. Getting those two in scenes together, which was tough in Season One, will be much easier in Season Two.” (source: Screenrant)
It’s an exciting direction, and provided the same winning mix of intense, introspective drama, witty wise cracking humour, and relational interaction holds fast, should ensure iZombie continues to win people over to the idea thta maybe zombies aren’t all bad.
Well, a few of them anyway.
iZombie returns to CW for season 2 on October 6.