iZombie 2.10: Method Head

iZombie has always had a natural ability to poke fun at itself. When shows with ridiculous premises and plots take themselves too seriously, the audience fails to buy into what is so desperately being sold to them. The team behind iZombie seem to know this, and never has that self-aware approach to writing been so evident in any of the past 22 episodes than it was here.

A murder on the set of Zombie High, a TV series about a horror filled high school, is the perfect opportunity for countless zombie jokes, actor parodies and tongue- in-cheek digs at iZombie’s own niche genre. My personal favourite was this exchange:
Zombie Extra: “You know what’d be fun? A zombie show, where a zombie’s the star.”
Clive: “That’s dumb.”
That was Supernatual levels of meta (i.e. very). The murder itself wasn’t all that interesting, but I don’t think it was meant to be. ‘Method Head’ was all about Meta. And it got seriously Meta. Case in point, see the above quote.

Even amidst all the not so subtle zombie mockery, there was still time dedicated to development of the show’s B plots. Most notably, Major playing Max Rager chief, Vaughn and his super bitch daughter and earning their trust. I’m still not all for team Major, he’s been a bit of a douche lately, even considering that he’s being blackmailed into murdering half of Seattle’s zombie population. That being said, his sleuthing here redeemed him a little in my eyes.

Elsewhere, the ramifications of Ravi’s discovery that the zombie cure is temporary started to come to fruition. I’m not sure what this means for Liv and Major’s relationship, or past relationship as the current case may be, but I do know that it spells doom for anyone in Blaine’s way. Can we fast forward to his second zombie transformation already?

Plus

Where did Major get a chip to plant in Vaughn’s wristband? They can’t be easy, or cheap to get.

Clive is back on Blaine’s trail after Dale followed a lead to the platinum blonde’s funeral home.

He Said, She Said

Liv: “To create a reality where the truth is fear of zombies, I would draw on a sense memory of something that scared me...like the time I went camping and saw a bear.”
Ravi: “Or the times you’ve seen actual zombies?”

Liv: “What’s up with you, why are you so twitchy?”
Clive: “Zombies kinda freak me out.”

There wasn’t a musical version of Liv’s zombie exploits (maybe if we get to episode 200?), but a zombie TV show is pretty close. When the Meta is in overdrive, it’s impressive to see that everything else is being given attention irrespective of how all-consuming a theme like this can be. ‘Method Head’ was one of iZombie’s most smartly written episodes to date, and I’m sure that intelligent writing will be put to good use in the coming weeks.

8/10

Also posted at Doux Reviews.