iZombie 1.05: Flight of the Living Dead

With a slew of cases already up its sleeve, iZombie takes things one step further by tackling something a bit closer to home with this episode’s case of the week. The result is another solid instalment that cleverly uses the show’s circumstances to expand on the character that Liv is starting to become, while also widening the show’s weird and exciting zombie underworld.

I’ve discussed it before, but this show’s biggest strength is how it uses Liv’s new abilities to explore different facets of her character, and how it uses her experiences of other people’s world views to make her grow and mature. This episode was a culmination of all that we’ve learned about what she can do, combined with the added personal connection to Liv.

Since she’s become a zombie, Liv has found that she can be more than the person she used to be. Holly, this week’s victim, was an old friend that she used to admire for her free spirit and rules-be-damned attitude. Eating her brains gave Liv the opportunity to live the way that she always wanted to when she was around Holly; free and uninhibited.

That’s not to say that she wouldn’t have been able to give things a shot with her new zombie hottie Lowell if she hadn’t been chock full of Holly at the time. I just think there would have been a lot getting in her way. Instead she was free to let this new person open up a whole other world to her, one that she thought was long since buried, along with her relationship with Major.

Strangely, we didn’t see a whole lot of interaction between Major and Liv this week. Instead he spent most of his screen time searching for Jerome. It’s great to see him off doing something separate from Liv, since so far he’s only been an extension of her old life. Pairing him with Ravi last week and now with Clive in his search for Jerome this week has given him a lot more of a reason to be hanging around.

The search didn’t yield much, but it did give us an idea of how far Blaine’s new circle is starting to spread. Though Blaine himself didn’t appear, it was great to see the show start to bring a lot of the pieces it’s introduced so far together. It can only get more exciting from here.

Plus

Loved Liv and Ravi’s food puns at the start of the episode.

Ryan Hansen! Our first official Veronica Mars cameo.

He Said, She Said

Liv; “Of everyone here, who would you eat first?”
Ravi: “I think first I’d ask if someone could spare an apple?!”

I’m glad that the show is being recognised for being as well written as it is. There are very few series that can use all their moving parts in such a seamless and fun way. ‘Flight of the Living Dead’ was just another example of that sharp writing that we’ve been growing accustomed to. Let’s hope for more of the same in the coming weeks.

8/10

Also posted at Doux Reviews.