CW’s ‘iZombie’ actually made me like zombie shows

Welcome to No Shame November! This week we’re diving into the pop culture we love (or hate) that society tells us we shouldn’t.

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Until I discovered iZombie, the televised realm of zombies was something I carefully avoided. 

I know this is a genre some flock to, finding joy in watching virally-infected human beings ravage living, fearful human beings. I’d never found pleasure in these kinds of films or TV shows, instead mostly feeling bewildered as to why this subject was interesting at all. If I was presented with a zombie-themed story, my reactions oscillated between confusion (why do people like this?!) and fear (yeah, I’m not too good with the supernatural). Frankly, I found it all pretty ridiculous, even when zombies appeared on my once-beloved Game of Thrones. 

But iZombie, the CW show derived from Chris Roberson and Michael Allred’s comic book series of the same name, ultimately changed my mind. I started watching the series this year, though it ran from 2015 to 2019. One episode in, I was hooked: Move over lightheaded rom-coms, my new daily comfort show is a zombie fest.

The premise of the show is this: Seattle medical resident Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver) goes to a party and is unfortunately turned into a zombie, along with many others. To keep herself sustained and prevent herself from becoming homicidal, she takes up a job in a morgue with Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) (heart eyes). Every time Liv eats brains, she absorbs the personality traits and memories of the corpse whose brain it is, giving her wildly different alter egos in every episode. She’s embodied the brains of everyone from a grumpy old man to a stripper. With the power of other people’s brains on her side, Liv begins to work alongside Detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), while hiding her zombie identity from her former boyfriend Major (Robert Buckley) and best friend Peyton (Aly Michalka). 

Eventually, everyone discovers her zombie-ness. Over five seasons, the show explores the zombie takeover of Seattle; the various crimes that Liv, Clive, and Ravi solve; and the ranging impact of zombie-hood on each character. 

There’s a lot of magic to iZombie, but it can be succinctly represented by its ritualistic food preparation scenes. Let me explain. In nearly every episode (particularly the first few seasons), Liv takes brains found in the morgue where she works and concocts creative recipes incorporating said brains into normal human food. Each time, it’s something different, inventive, and topped off with a heavy amount of spice (it’s one of the few things zombies can taste, as she explains to Ravi). The show takes an undeniably gross concept — brains for breakfast — and films it in a consistently engaging and entertaining way. It’s hard to look away, what with the aesthetically-pleasing colors, the subtle ASMR in the background, and Liv’s display of her inner chef. I mean, a compilation of iZombie cooking scenes on YouTube has garnered over 6.6 million views.

iZombie takes the undead and really makes you empathize with them.

The strange allure of these scenes speaks to iZombie’s power. For one thing, I found myself thinking during every episode that Liv deserves to enjoy her food, even if she’s a zombie and she’s eating a bowl of brains. This thought will likely come from any iZombie fan, and that’s because the show’s creators have done such a brilliant job of humanizing Liv and the other zombies. It’s a testament to the cast, too, of course. I never thought I’d be tearing up at zombies bonding with one another, but everyone from McIver to Kohli just do such a good job at playing their respective characters. 

iZombie’s underlying themes, as hard as it is to believe for some, are love, care, and justice — things I never thought I’d associate with a zombie show. Take Liv’s efforts to save humans by turning them into zombies. She, along with a brave team, smuggle people into Seattle, most of whom are fatally ill. With just a scratch, they are instantly transformed into zombies, which gives them a chance at continuing to live, disease-free. 

With such narratives, the writers subvert the zombie stereotype, at least for someone like me who previously viewed the creatures as just terrifying and un-alive. Liv uses her zombie fate for good throughout the show, whether it’s the aforementioned human-to-zombie operation, helping Clive solve crimes by inheriting the memories of murder victims, or fighting off the evils of fellow zombie Blaine “DeBeers” McDonough (played by a very talented David Anders). It’s zombies like Liv that save the zombie name.

It’s not like the show was any less gory or zombie-centric than other pieces of work within this genre. There were blood-splattered, brain-strewn scenes that made my stomach squirm. But iZombie is so much more than its zombie premise. There’s romance and drama (Liv and Major! Ravi and Peyton!); comedic masterpieces (Major on teenage girl brain) (Liv on any brain); and heartwarming vignettes on friendship. These make the show as touching as any merely human-based comedy drama. 

Unlike so many other zombie works, iZombie takes the undead and really makes you empathize with them, wholeheartedly root for them, and fall a little in love with at least one along the way. I clearly did. 

Since finishing iZombie, I moved to an easy comedic transition, Santa Clarita Diet, which followed a similar premise and was another vaguely lighthearted, albeit grisly, zombie show. It took some Zombieland in between to finally make my way to Train to Busan, a blood-stained ​​zombie apocalypse film based in South Korea. 

None have really matched up to my original zombie show, but I certainly gave them a chance. The next time a zombie work hits the big screen or Netflix, I won’t roll my eyes. I’ll think of the iZombie gang, and give the genre another go.

iZombie is now streaming on Netflix.