iZombie - Season 1

After neglecting to watch new TV series for the past few months, I decided it was time for something new. Something fun, not too heavy, to take my mind off of things. I came across ‘iZombie’ and got curious. I really liked the cast, and the story seemed very promising as well. A zombie story, but not like we’ve seen before, loosely based on a comic book series with the same name. The series just finished its first run which consisted of 13 episodes. I decided to give it a try and watched the complete first series in about a week. I loved it, and am waiting for the second season ever since…

When medical student Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver, ‘Once Upon a Time’) gets invited to a boat party by a co-worker, she doesn’t immediately say yes. After her fiancé Major Lilywhite (Robert Buckley, ‘One Tree Hill’) convinces her to go she has a change of heart. A decision which ultimately will change her life forever. The next morning she washes up shore, as a zombie. In the following months, she breaks off her engagement to Major, her relationship with room-mate Peyton Charles (Aly Michalka, ‘Hellcats’) changes drastically and she takes on a job in the morgue so she can eat the brains of the victims who come in there. This all happens within the first couple of minutes of the show. We later find out that Liv (temporarily) takes on memories, character traits but also skills of the person's brain she digests. This causes her to get into some pretty strange situations in her day to day life.

Even though ‘iZombie’ is a lot less serious and bloody than most other zombie stories, it still has its dark sides. We see Liv in quite a difficult ‘zombie-situation’ during episode three, and the finale is not what I expected, to say the least. I did need some time to get used to the whole horror feel of the show. I’m usually not that big of a fan of this genre, but this series has found a nice way to show not too much but not too little as well. The comedy aspect of ‘iZombie’ also keeps on getting better while the series progresses. Comments referencing to ‘Once Upon a Time’ and Tinkerbell, the series in which lead actress Rose played the role of this fairy, are a very good example of that.

Boss/colleague Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) is the only person in Liv’s life who knows her secret. He fully accepts her for who she is, and even works with her to find a cure. Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin, ‘Breakout Kings’) is a newly assigned detective for the Seattle police department, who works closely with the morgue during some of his murder cases. When he finds out that Liv knows some crucial facts about the cases he’s working on, they decide to work together. In order to keep Liv’s secret safe, she and Ravi convince him that she’s a psychic. And as Liv’s relationship with Clive progresses, she gets more and more involved in the cases she investigates. The person responsible for Liv’s zombie transformation is Blaine DeBeers (David Anders, ‘Once Upon a Time’), a drug dealer who will play a significant part in the lead characters' lives. But there’s also a time and place for romance, with a nice recurring role for Bradley James (‘Merlin’) as Lowell Tracy.

Every episode has a new police case in it. This makes it easy to skip an episode every once in a while if necessary. There is a main storyline however, which focusses on how one becomes a zombie and what role such people as Blaine have in this. Realism is not a term that can be used to describe this series. Zombies are a trend at the moment and credibility is not something that relates to this subject very well. Not that it matters, cause in this case everything that needs to be explained is explained. Questions about zombies and their lives are being answered as the season continues, and characters and story lines are being built up to an amazing climax. I loved watching the first season of ‘iZombie’! To my surprise I really got into this new story, with this amazing cast, great special effects and impressive fighting scenes. Because of that I am very happy that the CW has announced that they’re giving this show a second season. This means we get to enjoy a lot more of Liv’s adventures in the future, and I for one can’t wait to see what happens next!