First of all, sorry this is so late. I was unable to catch the live airing and had to wait until it was on Hulu the next day. Anyway, iZombie has finally premiered! We have been blessed with another Rob Thomas TV show, you guys. Words cannot express how giddy I am at the thought. Sure, it’s on the CW, a network known for it’s minuscule ratings, but that network has been on a creative stride lately with shows like Arrow, The Flash and Jane the Virgin (I kid you not, that show is awesome). To give my excitement some perspective: Rob Thomas created Veronica Mars, my second favorite TV show of all time (the first would be Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Party Down, a hilarious Starz comedy about cater waiters. Both series were unfortunately canceled way too soon (though us Veronica Mars fans got treated to a movie last year that provided much-needed closure). I’m hoping the same thing doesn’t happen to iZombie, because it has gotten off to a very promising start. I’m getting ahead of myself though, let’s recap! (By the way, I’ve accepted the fact that my recaps will be very long/detailed. If you want to go straight to the review just click the arrow below and go to Page 2)
Recap
We are introduced to Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver, Once Upon a Time, Masters of Sex), saving a male patient. After a hectic day, she gets invited to a boat party by Marcy (her rival),but declines so she can go on a date with her fiancé (named Major Lilywhite, of all things). After telling him about the party, he pushes her to go. Cut in media res to said boat party, where the boat party has been attacked by a horde of zombies! Cut again to Liv Moore (get it?) waking up in a body bag with “a sudden desire to eat brains!” Cut to five months later (lots of time jumps in the first three minutes, no?) and Live is at the supermarket buying bottles of bronzer and a VHS copy of Night of the Living Dead.
After a pretty awesome opening credit sequence, we get to meet Liv’s roommate Peyton (former Disney starlet Aly Michalka), brother Evan (Nick Purcha) and mother Eva (Molly Hagan, Election), who apparently have no idea that she is a zombie. We find out that she traded her residency at the hospital (and broke off her engagement to Major, who is also there for some reason) for a job at the morgue. They comment about how Liv just hasn’t been the same since the night on the boat (no kidding). After a rather unsuccessful intervention, she heads to the morgue where we are introduced to Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), her new boss. After he gets called away, Liv prepares her lunch, a meal of noodles, hot sauce and brains. Ravi walks in on her while she’s eating, and it’s revealed that he knows she’s a zombie.
Turns out he’s known for quite a while, and he’s fascinated. Flashback to the boat party, and Liv is offered a fancy new drug called Utopia by Blaine DeBeers (creepy David Anders, of Alias fame). After turning it down, we cut back to the middle of the boat party, where Blaine has been zombified and knocks Liv into the water. Back in the present, Liv points out that if she stops eating brains, she gets dumber (a la a George Romero zombie) and can only taste things if they are incredibly spicy. They are interrupted by Detective Clive Babinaux (Malcolm Goodwin), who is working on identifying the Jane Doe whose brain Liv was eating earlier.
After holding up the fake handcuffs found on the Jane Doe’s person, Liv has a vision of Jane Doe’s life before she died. She is in what looks like a Vancouver gas station being arrested for shoplifting the day Obama was elected to office in 2008. After bringing this little tidbit up, Babinaux is noticeably skeptical. After searching arrest records, Ravi discovers that the Jane Doe is Stefani Germanotta. Ravi tells Babinaux that Liv is a psychic(ish), to get him off their case and Liv explains to Ravi that after she eats a person’s brain, she gets visions of their life.
The next day, Liv goes to help set up a children’s haunted house (because she promised her mother). After hearing someone scream, Liv has another vision of local weatherman Johnny Frost (Daran Norris, a Veronica Mars alum), strangling Stefani. She goes to Babinaux and learns that Stefani gave that name as a fake to her arresting officer in Vancouver, so now we’re back to calling her Jane Doe. Not to be fooled again, Babinaux proposes Liv go with him to confront Weatherman Frost.
At the news station, they show Frost Jane Doe’s photograph and he immediately recognizes her and reveals that he knows her as Tatiana, a role-playing hooker. Later, they go interview Tatiana’s…co-worker Tess, who speak Romanian, which Liv learns she can now speak fluently. After telling her that Tatiana is dead, Tess freaks out and reveals Tatiana’s last name: Corsa. They track down her apartment to find it ransacked. Liv has another vision of a man throwing Tatiana out her window to her death after asking her where she put his ring.
Meanwhile, Ravi is doing blood tests on Liv’s blood, revealing that he is trying to work out a cure for Liv’s zombie-ism. After realizing that she may have a chance at being human again, she goes over to Major’s place, where is is playing a zombie game (of course) with another woman. The next day, Peyton confronts Liv about how distant she’s been, to no avail. Over at the station, Babinaux is told he’s no longer the leading officer on the case, and is stuck playing second fiddle to Officer Pratt. After learning that Tatiana had “a bearded pig” (thanks to Liv’s translation), which Babinaux connects to Pratt (a bearded pig = bearded cop), who they deduce to be the murderer.
Cut to Pratt, who has two of the Tess and Monica (one of the other call girls) strapped to two chairs in a house lined with plastic. He interrogates him about the whereabouts of his wedding ring, which has been stolen and will cause his wife to become suspicious of him. Monica confesses to pawning it. Babinaux bursts in and Pratt runs upstairs and jumps out the window and shoots Liv and drives the car away. Liv jumps on top of the car and causes him to crash into a tree. Liv flies off the hood of the car and suddenly goes “28 Days Later zombie with a side of rage bomb” ( with very red eyes) and walks over to Pratt, who is now unconscious on the good of the car and nearly digs into his skull before Babinaux walks up. She suddenly morphs back into regular ol’ zombie Liv.
After Ravi performs impromptu open-heart surgery on Liv to get the bullet out of her chest, Liv goes to her mother’s haunted house dressed as a zombie. Later that night, Liv is finally able to sleep, only to wake up suddenly the next morning to a flashback of her own death at the hands of Blaine. Turns out Liv made it off the boat and into an alley, only to be attacked by Blaine! TWIST!
Click the arrow and go to Page 2 for my review!