iZombie is a fun, lighted series that tells the story of Olivia Moore. She’s a medical resident turned Zombie, who uses her hunger to solve mysteries and fight crime. Pilot is the premiere, and it will absolutely hook you!
Enjoy the first few minutes where Liv (Oliva) is still human and has some skin color. It’s not going to last. As Liv leaves the hospital, she meets up with Major, her boyfriend. He encourages her to go to a party she was invited to. As he is convincing here, he curses her with the comment, “What’s the worst that could happen?”.
Well, the Zombie outbreak could happen buddy.
Waking Up In A Body Bag
When Liv wakes up she’s in a body bag, and she’s got a deep wound on her forearm.
We then jump forward five months, and Liv is trying to adjust to being a Zombie. That means a lot of bronzer, and dealing with her mother’s concern.
Liv’s mom is petrified that Liv is destroying her life. Liv has broken up with Major, quit her medical residency to work at the morgue, and has generally withdrawn. It is a completely different Liv.
The next scene opens with Liv showing up to work, and we are introduced to Ravi. He is the medical examiner who runs the morgue that Liv works at. Ravi is one of my favorite characters, and is a constant source of enjoyment. This is also about when we find out Liv’s reason for quitting her residency. She went to work at the morgue so she could get easy access to brains!!!
Caught
As Liv digs in Ravi comes back, catching her mid bite of brains, hot sauce, and noodles. Strangely, Ravi’s not scared, he’s intrigued. He was the medical examiner (ME) on duty the night of the boat accident, and he’s had suspicions ever since.
Ravi confirmed his suspicions after re opening an autopsy that Liv had closed on. He noted missing brain material, and then started to follow up on her until he finally caught her. Anyone else would have been horrified, but Ravi was just curious as to what, and how it happened.
As Ravi is examining Liv we introduced to another critical character, Detective Clive Babineaux. Clive is there to see what the ME has on his victim. As Clive is talking to Ravi, Liv chimes in with details that she shouldn’t know. The brains she just ate are giving her flashes of the victims life.
Clive’s face when Ravi explains Liv’s unexplainable knowledge as psychic powers is just epic. Clive thinks they are screwing with him, but Ravi immediately realizes that Liv is seeing what happened to her meals.
While Liv is struggling with her love life, not wanting to infect Major, while still loving him, Ravi is encouraging her to tell Detective Babineaux what she saw.
Struggling
Clive is struggling. He’s been in homicide for two months with no wins. His boss is breathing down his neck for results. When Liv tries to tell Clive what happened he isn’t too receptive, and makes her go with him to interview the newsman who she saw in her vision.
The interaction makes Clive a believer. He doesn’t know what he believes, but he knows something’s going on. He takes Liv with him to interview the other girl that the victim knew. This leads them to the victims apartment, where Liv sees the murder.
As Liv is helping Clive, Ravi has been using samples from Liv to test potential cures. This gives Liv a taste of hope, something she hasn’t had since she turned.
The best line of the episode goes to Clive when Liv tells him she can’t go with him on his next interview:
Clive: “Thought I had a psychic sidekick. I was working on the bit…Cagney and Pasty.”
Sadly, the hope that Ravi inspired in Liv leads her to visit Major. It doesn’t go well. He’s playing a Zombie video game with a new girl.
As Liv is dealing with the realization that Major might be moving on her Roommate, Peyton calls Liv out on her depression and basically tells her to step up.
The speech leads Liv to re-engage, and results in her being in the station at the perfect time to inadvertently learn who killed their victim. The reason none of the girls had records is because the man running the girls is a cop. Not only a cop, but the cop who works one desk away from Clive.
When Clive goes to confront the dirty cop Liv ends up in the line of fire. In the process of stopping the dirty cop from escaping, we find out that you really don’t want to piss Liv off.
Liv is just barely able to contain herself, and almost get’s caught tearing into the dirty cop’s brain when Clive shows up. She was shot, rode on the top of a car, and is no worse for wear.
Clive is happy that he has his first win as a homicide detective, and Liv has a new found purpose. With a new purpose in life, she goes to the community Halloween party and finally has some peace.
Pilot ends with Liv finally getting some sleep before she wakes up with a start, seeing the man who is going to become her nemesis.
Pilot Scoring
The season premier, Pilot scored a 90/100. It is a fun, fast paced Zombie Murder Mystery crime drama. This isn’t a show for hard core traditionalists when it comes to Zombies, but this is a great show that you can enjoy with a non zombiephile.
| Season | Episode | Episode Name | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 1 | Pilot | 90 |
| Season 1 | 2 | Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? | 70 |
| Season 1 | 3 | The Exterminator | 71 |
| Season 1 | 4 | Liv and Let Clive | 75 |
| Season 1 | 5 | Flight of the Living Dead | 71 |
| Season 1 | 6 | Virtual Reality Bites | 76 |
| Season 1 | 7 | Maternity Liv | 75 |
| Season 1 | 8 | Dead Air | 66 |
| Season 1 | 9 | Patriot Brains | 74 |
| Season 1 | 10 | Mr. Berserk | 77 |
| Season 1 | 11 | Astroburger | 72 |
| Season 1 | 12 | Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat | 73 |
| Season 1 | 13 | Blaine's World | 80 |
| Season 2 | 1 | Grumpy Old Liv | 80 |
| Season 2 | 2 | Zombie Bro | 80 |
| Season 2 | 3 | Real Dead Housewife of Seattle | 85 |
| Season 2 | 4 | Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues | 70 |
| Season 2 | 5 | Love & Backetball | 81 |
| Season 2 | 6 | Max Wager | 75 |
| Season 2 | 7 | Abra Cadaver | 85 |
| Season 2 | 8 | The Hurt Stalker | 90 |
| Season 2 | 9 | Cape Town | 88 |
| Season 2 | 10 | Method Head | 75 |
| Season 2 | 11 | Fifty Shades of Grey Matter | 85 |
| Season 2 | 12 | Physician, Heal Thy Selfie | 70 |
| Season 2 | 13 | The Whopper | 85 |
| Season 2 | 14 | Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind | 69 |
| Season 2 | 15 | He Blinded Me With Science | 81 |
| Season 2 | 16 | Pour Some Sugar, Zombie | 82 |
| Season 2 | 17 | Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be | 83 |
