iZombie: a Perfect Meal of a Show Mini-Part Intro

Warning & Introduction

Warning—the following is a mini-part and the introduction to the full iZombie video which will be posted in September. This is just a brief background and overview that will introduce the larger project and video. In addition spoilers for iZombie will be throughout.

If life is like a box of chocolates then the perfect TV show is like a well crafted steak and veggie dinner—a whole meal. Shows can be good meals, bad meals, meals that start off good but make your stomach upset, and so on. Like with many other things it seems to be a personal theme that if I avoid something, when I eventually end up watching it I not only love it but kick myself for having wasted so much time not loving it. iZombie is a perfect example of one of those shows for me, a perfect meal I wish I’d tried sooner.

The Meal

Most meals start with the base, the ingredients and the plan, not much if it’s not transformed, a setting. In iZombie’s case that setting is Seattle, Washington; a known city still in the PNW like the comic book series but in a larger city that has tropes to play into without overpowering the story or playing too big of a role, like a New Orleans, LA, or New York setting. This serves as the vegetable and spice foundation, the oil or butter you’ll decide to use to get things going.

The source material, a DC Comic of the same name, tells Halloween-esq tales of a zombie and her supernatural squad from her perspective. Typically we anticipate zombie movies to be apocalyptic dystopias told through the eyes of the survivors, the humans who seek to eliminate the zombies and return to human life.

In iZombie however the zombie virus and thus zombie characters is transformed into something more akin to what we expect from vampire and werewolf characters. Rather than the only focus being brains it’s a part of the equation that can be influenced by the still-human parts. The infection although similar in ways like how it’s spread, has more limited impacts on the victim in iZombie rather than a death sentence.

The zombie virus is adapted to change people enough that they are undead but not enough that they are mindless killing machines that immediately usher in the apocalypse…unless they don’t get regular brains, then they definitely do all the aforementioned. The concept, which is drawn from the source material, is how the meal is started, the first transformation of ingredients and the approach to that process, something necessary but also something that can’t stand alone.

The POV being from a zombie’s perspective, her even narrating the show to provide us glimpses into her inner world, had been a unique concept. Generally we view zombies as sub-human, creatures rather than people anymore and definitely something to eradicate rather than understand but the show takes that notion and flips it a cute 90 degrees off kilter.

Because no one wants to eat only sautéed onions and spices, like a half-made idea...like Game of Thrones season 8, we add some more ingredients to the mix like the vegetables which in this case is the dark-horror-comedy genre and style. The comedic elements lighten the often dark subject matter and keep the show grounded in The CW’s universe of silver linings and attractive villains.

Obviously the subject matter is horror related in that it’s about zombies and a homicide detective but it also leans into horror elements by orchestrating gruesome action sequences, opting for a scary but still themselves version of a full-on zombie makeup and CGI, and the gnarly crimes that draw the team out to begin with.

Finally, we get to the meat of the show, which you would probably assume is the zombie portion but I’d argue the meat to this show is Liv and Team Z’s storyline and the way that they adapt to live in the still-human world and then the walled-off zombie-run Seattle world in the final season.

If that isn’t enough, which frankly it would be for most meals, we Get the stunning cast that has immaculate chemistry. Not only do they stay together for all five seasons, they grow and adapt and build history beautifully throughout and challenge you to love and hate all of their characters at various points in the series.

This is how that meat is cooked and I’d argue iZombie is perfectly butter based with sprigs of rosemary and a seared crust. In this universe eating brains as a zombie also provides the side effect of experiencing the consumed brain’s memories and adopting traits and abilities from the deceased—which allows for the week to week case format of the show. All of this makes for a well plated, balanced and garnished meal.

iZombie isn’t done however, it has created all the parts of a great meal but the execution is everything, which of course it sticks perfectly in seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 stands on it’s own as a whole piece but season 2 takes things to a higher level and solidify the essence of the show in a way that is hard to replicate.

This well served dish called iZombie, is based on a comic book series of the same name written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Michael Allred. Later in the series the comic books will be covered after season 5 and compared to the show. It inspired then head of development Susan Rovner when she needed a female-led CW show that would fit with the other big titles of the time like Vampire Diaries. She specifically approached Rob Thomas, creator of Veronica Mars, was specifically asked by her to write a show based on the comics that would be like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

At the time Rob Thomas had written another zombie show but around then in 2010 The Walking Dead premiered and it became the standard for zombies. He has said he felt it would’ve been redundant after TWD premiered and that this caused Thomas to cancel the series. Initially hesitant, he did agree to write the show and co-developed it with Diane Ruggiero-Wright. Although no one director is credited with iZombie as a whole two directors did direct a good portion of the episodes, Michael Fields and Jason Bloom. In addition to Ruggiero-Wright and Thomas writing episodes writers like Deirdre Mangan, Kit Boss, Bob Deadren, and John Enbom also contributed heavily.

As mentioned the cast has amazing chemistry, able to vibe and riff off one another naturally in scenes and stick some shaky comedy landings. Rose McIver is the show’s lead as Olivia “Liv” Moore, Malcom Goodwin plays her partner and Seattle Police Department Homicide Detective named Clive Babineaux, and Rahul Kohli plays Ravi Chakrabarti, Liv’s boss at the morgue and former CDC employee.

Outside of SPD Major Lillywhite played by Robert Buckley is a social worker and Liv’s ex-fiancee, David Anders who plays Blaine DeBeers, the person who turns Liv into a zombie and drug dealer, and Peyton Charles who is played by Aly Michalka, Liv’s best friend since college and roommate. All five of the main characters are extremely successful, young, attractive Seattleites who are at pivotal turning points in their lives wrought with touch decisions that could change everything.

While already facing life’s challenges they come face to face with the zombie apocalypse and often being the only thing standing between normalcy and hell-scape. Seventy-percent of the time they are solving homicides in Liv, Ravi, and Clive’s case, mentoring the youth and picking themselves back up in Major’s case, and reaching for justice amid threats and tribulations in Peyton’s case, all while the zombie thing is happening. The characters and the stories between them are interesting enough to have been a drama-comedy series without much zombie goings ons. The zombie goings ons however are so creative, thought provoking, and interesting in what they say about people and the brains. Both the expected and unique show elements exist in harmony and balance, in particular with seasons 1 and 2.

Following this intro mini-part I will be going over each season in detail including the meals that Liv makes with the brains in each episode, and the cases they are used to solve. I’m hoping to have this video posted before the middle of September. After the iZombie videos I’ll be posting a 2024 of Horror video on October 6th and will, as of now, briefly go over 69 different horror movies coming out this year including Longlegs, MaXXXine, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and short, spoiler-free reviews of the majority of movies that will already be out by 10/6.

All of these projects are part of Red Rose Horror, which is a review website focused on the genre mainly in article and video format by me, Rose. On the website are related topic deep dives, watchlists based on likes, taste, and platform, and article versions of videos like the American Horror Story review series parts. Every month of 2024 I'm posting a video, in part to grow my skills and also as a creative outlet, hence the project and end of month deadlines.

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