The second episode of iZombie improves on some of the stuff that slowed down the pilot. It still has a way to go, but if the show continues to embrace the fun, ridiculous aspects of its concept it could really prove to be a winner. Right now, it’s offering just barely enough to keep us coming back week to week, but not much more.
This episode starts off with the murder of a popular artist, but that case is real just set dressing for the meat of the story. The real center of this episode is the introduction of Blaine DeBeers, also known as the zombie from Liv’s nightmares. David Anders (Editor’s Note: SARK! <3) plays Blaine wonderfully, making the character a blast to watch. He’s funny, charismatic, and devious. The moments he shares on screen with Rose McIver are so good that when the episode jumps back to the artist’s murder it’s a bummer.
The hands down best part of this episode was watching Liv be effected by the brain of the artist. The premise of the show is that Liv sees the visions and feels the urges of the person who’s brain see eats and this time around the results were hilarious. Under the effects of the artist’s brain, Liv sees love and beauty in the world. She is sexually attracted to just about everybody, boldly making moves on any attractive person in her line of sight. It’s hilarious and Rose McIver absolutely sells it. McIver is still the best thing about this show and the main reason to watch.
Much of the supporting cast from the pilot takes a backseat this week, with Liv’s mother and brother being complete no shows. Rahul Kohli and Malcolm Goodwin are fantastic, once again, proving that iZombie’s cast is really what makes it so damn watchable. It just seems like everyone is enjoying the hell out of themselves, which makes for a good time. Regardless of whether you like iZombie’s premise or stories, you can’t deny that this cast is superb. I just want to hang out with them all the time.
It’s the embracing of the goofy aspects of the premise that make this episode work and give us hope for the future. iZombie is much better at being funny and charming than it is at being an engaging crime show. Hopefully, the tone of this episode will dominate the series going forward. The whole case-of-the-week setup continues to be the weakest part of iZombie, but since this is only the second episode we can give it a pass. For now.
The issue that I have is how quickly the show moved…. Liv became a zombie in about 35 seconds so we don’t have the plot of her descent into eating brains… Then her secret is revealed to her partner in the same half hour so we lose the battle with secrecy plot… Now I’m fine with that… They are breaking sci fi rules which is cool but it makes the stakes for Liv much lower because we have missed all her hardest struggles. They are obviously going to have an over-arching plot line with the possible creation of a zombie horde, but I fear without the true emotional impact of Liv’s journey I may not care… I kind of hope they do a flashback episode because if it stays bad guy a week I may get bored
I hope Sark is here to stay!
I agree about the cast being characters you want to hang out with. That’s the same quality shared by almost all my favorite shows. However, I thought the second episode ascended to near Buffy heights of greatness. So much humor and tension, and even a bit of angst. As funny as “horny cop” was, it also highlighted how unfortunate Liv’s circumstances are and the ending really drove it home. And David Anders brought in a new energy that really helped elevate the second show, as well as an overarching story to add interest beyond the cases of the week.
The roommate was from ‘Phil of the Future’ right?
Yes
My favorite part was when Liv was in the interrogation room with the jilted boyfriend.