Izombie Season One
The Working Dead
released OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | dVd
Creators rob Thomas, diane ruggiero-Wright
Cast rose McIver, Malcolm Goodwin, rahul Kohli, robert Buckley
The Walking Dead changed so much. Ten years ago the idea of a zombie TV series was unthinkable. Now the concept’s so mainstream that “undead” can be the personality quirk for a detective, like Monk’s OCD or Bones’s poor social skills.
Because that’s basically what this adaptation of Chris Roberson and Michael Allred’s Vertigo comic is: a detective series, given added teen appeal by a female protagonist (now working in a morgue, not the cemetery of the comic) who uses the memories she gains from eating brains to help solve murders.
Sadly, these grafted-on cop show elements are the weakest part of these 13 episodes. The fact that nobody raises an eyebrow at a morgue assistant routinely taking part in police questioning is ludicrous, and the cases of the week are rarely particularly interesting, the investigations often perfunctory. You may find yourself wishing they’d dump them, the way Angel quickly downplayed the private eye business.
Fortunately in Liv (Rose McIver) and English boss Ravi (Rahul Kohli) the show has a couple of likeable leads, and the weekly personality changes Liv undergoes as those memories give her new abilities add interest; she’s kinda a zombie Joe 90. When the show focuses on the undead subculture and the machinations of Blaine, David Anders’s Spikelike, bleached-blond zombie drug dealer, it comes to life. It’s just a shame that in altering the premise, Veronica Mars’s Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright have lost the ghosts, werewolves and possessions that were part of the comic. Anyone who’s read that will have the constant nagging feeling that this show could be so much more interesting.
Extras Deleted scenes (seven minutes) and the 2014 Comic-Con panel. Ian Berriman
Anders got tips from James “Spike” Marsters on reducing the pain of peroxide. The trick’s to put sweetener in the mix!