iZombie (Seasons 1 - 4)
I watch quite a few shows on the CW network, so many that it's likely my "most-watched" channel these days. This is, of course, do to all the shows currently in the "Arrowverse" -- shows based on DC comics. And since I watch so many of those, I hadn't watched many of the other shows advertised on that network.
One of those shows was iZombie, which had a catchy title, and whose commercials showed a chick young zombie girl, making a living. I'd thought of tuning in, and I'm glad that I didn't do it then. Better to start from the beginning, which I eventually did, and continued on through the end of four seasons.
It's not your typical zombie show. As it turned out, it was another show based on a comic, and they use comic tropes introducing scenes, along with some really atrocious puns that I only wish I could come up with. It also turns out that the Rob Thomas who produces it is the some guy from Matchbox 20 (and also the featured singer on Carlos Santana's "Smooth").
The puns are built into some of the character's names, and they lampshade some of them along the way. The lead is Olivia Moore, literally "live more", who gets turned into a zombie during a tragic Fourth of July boat party fire that she recovers from, waking up in a body bag. Realizing that she could infect other people, she breaks up with her boyfriend, Major Lilywhite (seriously), and abandons her dream of being a doctor, so she can work in the Seattle morgue, where there's a supply of brains. And this is where it gets creative for a zombie show.
Unlike Santa Clarita Diet, Liv can eat other foods, but it has no flavor and isn't satisfying. Everything gets covered in tremendous amounts of hot sauce -- even brains because, well, you're eating brains. However, eating brains also gives you flashes of the person's memories as well as some of their personality and abilities. This gets really exaggerated in later seasons, but even in the first few episodes, she has the skill of a black belt martial artist ... until she eats another brain.
Having these insights into a murder victim's mind also lends itself to solving murder cases. Not where you'd think a zombie show would go. A cop show with a zombie assistant. (Also, with the name iZombie, I expected a little more Internet or social media or something, but I didn't miss it.)
Liv passes herself off as a psychic who gets visions, because that's something that seems at least remotely possible. And it keeps the whole zombie thing a secret. And that's always the problem with shows like this: there's a big secret with the main character, and only certain people know it, but over time, others are bound to find out or be welcomed into the inner circle. However, for the first season, she's trying to hide this from her finance and her family. The family basically disappears in season 2 as the show changes direction. You have to think they find out sooner or later, but they don't come back.
The other thing, of course, is that Liv is worried about creating new zombies. She isn't, but someone else is. So now the secret expands to not letting the world at large know about the existence of zombies, and try to prevent more from being created. Meanwhile, Liv's boss in the morgue, Ravi, is experimenting with a cure, which you know can't be perfect without ending the show, so there are trials and drawbacks.
It's a fun show, and Rose McIver makes a cute zombie, so much so that in a later episode, when she goes undercover with a spray tan and a wig (ie, looking human), it looks very unusual. The option is open to her, but she'd rather look the way she is, which is good, because she's the focal point of the show. It would be like saying half the cast of a sci-fi show are secretly robots, but they all look human so you just don't know. You need to have one stand out.
If there's one thing that gets tiring, it's the cures and partial cures with people becoming zombies, getting better, and then relapsing. Sometimes I forgot who was one when.
I don't know if the show was originally supposed to wrap up after the third season, but it did have a hopeful ending to it. But season four came around, and the outlook was not as rosy as had been hoped. Nothing wrong with that, as it drove the season forward to a new end.
Fun show to binge. Watch with the family. Make lots of popcorn. But watch out if someone adds hot sauce.
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