Tvline begs the question in a new video from #SDCC. For those who are unfamiliar ‘iZombie’ is a comic book series created by writer Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, published by DC Comics’s Vertigo imprint beginning in 2010. The series deals with Gwen Dylan, a revenant gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon and her friends Ellie, a 1960s ghost, and Scott, a were-terrier. Gwen can pass for a regular girl, but she needs to eat a brain once a month to keep from losing her memories and intelligence. As a gravedigger she has plenty of access to recently deceased people; when she consumes their brains she “inherits” part of the deceased’s thoughts.
Except the show is a little bit of a departure from the source material. It follows Olivia, a morgue worker and zombie who has to eat brains to keep her sanity. The morgue setting while have her solving homicides and pushing into the procedural realm of television. While it’s a pretty large departure, from what I’ve see the tone is stylistically present.
Showrunner Rob Thomas is known for his work on Veronica Mars and that series is actually pure procedural gold. Yet, it’s hard for me to see why these changes were made to the story in order to transition to television. Haven’t we proven in years past that procedural case of the week shows are so much less interesting than one serialized narrative. Chris Roberson definitely thought so, and as the comic series pushed into its second and third volume the story reaching dizzying heights of awesome insanity.
I suppose we’ll find out once ‘iZombie’ hits this midseason on The CW.
