iZombie: Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot
I really did not expect such a good show. The actors are all pretty much unknowns, but this is one of those series that prove that fame isn’t always a prerequisite for quality. Any show that takes a genre and turns it on its head is for me! This does that twice! Buddy cop shows and the now boring zombie genre are both challenged and renewed by this show. Admittedly, I’m only passingly familiar with the comic series from Vertigo, but I may take a deeper look since seeing this premiere.
Olivia, or “Liv” as her friends call her, was once full of life and ambition. Now, after attending a party that ended in a random zombie attack, she is undead. She is still capable of rational thought and activities, but she has become powerfully melancholy and craves human brain matter. When we see her, she is a few weeks into her new unlife and has left behind her dreams of becoming a heart surgeon to become an assistant medical examiner for the police department’s morgue. At this job, she has access to all of the “food” she needs. This is important as she has explained how the less she eats, the more savage and zombielike she becomes.
Her friend and boss, Ravi, has been monitoring her behavior and checking the bodies she’s worked on for weeks and has noticed that they are all missing brain matter. As a zombie enthusiast himself, it is extremely exciting for him when he walks in and catches her eating ramen that is mixed with brains and slathered in hot sauced. She says that she can only taste extremely hot foods so the sauce is necessary.
As it turns out, anyone whose brain she partakes in gives her visions of their memories and even goes as far as to transfer their knowledge and skills, evidenced by her sudden ability to speak Romanian. When rookie detective Clive Babinaux (What’s with black characters and french names? Is everyone haitian or creole or something?) shows up to examine the subject of her latest meal, she displays knowledge of the murder that she couldn’t have known. She and Ravi are forced to explain this off as her being a psychic.
This is when this show gets to be truly fun! The murder investigation takes all kinds of twists and turns before she eventually saves the day when she gets angry and completely zombies out. Her eyes turn red and her strength increases, giving us a hint of what she might be like when she doesn’t eat.
The thing that makes this even more interesting is the obviously damaged relationships between her and the family and friends she had before her change. Everyone is concerned about her lethargic, uncaring episode. The fact that she still has a personal life is interesting in the least, even if the “normal” characters aren’t nearly as interesting as Ravi or Clive.
What’s even better is how obviously they have decided to go in the complete opposite direction from The Walking Dead. Instead of never explaining the outbreak and having the show take place in a world with no zombie media, they hint at an experimental street drug being the cause and openly reference things like Night of the Living Dead and the rage virus from 28 Days Later.
I will be tuning in every week from here on out if this show remains this fresh. I’m curious to see what triggers the zombie outbreak in this series. I think I might have found my next show! This is what “Warm Bodies” should have been.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
