8.6 /10 1 Votes
8.2/10 First episode date 17 March 2015 | 8/10 IMDb 96% Rotten Tomatoes Network The CW | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre Comedy-drama
Crime
Horror Based on iZOMBIE
by Chris Roberson
Michael Allred Developed by Rob Thomas
Diane Ruggiero-Wright Starring Rose McIver
Malcolm Goodwin
Rahul Kohli
Robert Buckley
David Anders Narrated by Rose McIver (as Liv Moore) Opening theme "Stop, I'm Already Dead"
by Deadboy & the Elephantmen Program creators Rob Thomas, Diane Ruggiero Cast Rose McIver, David Anders, Robert Buckley, Rahul Kohli, Malcolm Goodwin Profiles |
Izombie tv series title sequence
iZombie (stylized as iZOMBiE) is an American television series developed by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright for The CW. It is a loose adaptation of the comic book series of the same name created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, and published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint.
Contents
The series was officially picked up on May 8, 2014, for the 2014–15 season and premiered on March 17, 2015, with an order of 13 episodes. The series was renewed for a second season, which premiered October 6, 2015, and ran for 19 episodes. On March 11, 2016, The CW renewed the series for a third season of 13 episodes, which is set to premiere on April 4, 2017.
Premise
Seattle medical resident Olivia "Liv" Moore is turned into a zombie while attending a boat party. She abandons her career and breaks up with her fiancé, much to the disappointment and puzzlement of her family. She discovers that if she does not periodically satisfy her new appetite for brains, she starts turning into a stereotypical zombie, stupid and homicidal, so she takes a job at the King County morgue and eats the brains of the bodies she autopsies. Her secret is guessed by her boss, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti. Ravi soon becomes Liv's friend and confidant, and as a scientist, he is intrigued by her condition.
Whenever Liv eats a dead person's brain, she temporarily inherits some of their personality traits and experiences flashbacks of their life. Those visions are generally triggered by sights (events or objects) or sounds (repeated sentences). In the case of murder victims, the flashbacks offer clues about their killers. Liv uses this new ability to help Police Detective Clive Babineaux solve the crimes, passing herself off as a psychic, while Ravi works to develop a cure for Liv's affliction in the hope that one day she will be able resume her former life.
Main
A former medical resident who became a zombie when she attended a boat party that was attacked by people who had just taken a new designer drug called "Utopium". She now works as a coroner's assistant for the King County Medical Examiner's Office to have access to the human brains she must frequently consume to maintain her humanity and suppress her hunger. Without feeding, she becomes increasingly less intelligent. She experiences flashes of memories from the brains she eats, and temporarily takes on random quirks from her subjects—ranging from a fear of pigeons to a sudden appreciation for art to martial arts skills—and has demonstrated the ability to take a bullet to the chest with little damage. She graduated from the University of Washington. When Liv enters so-called "Full-on Zombie Mode" her eyes turn red and her strength is vastly increased. The change is triggered by intense stress (or hunger), and the zombie has very little control over the trigger.
A Seattle PD detective, newly transferred from vice to homicide when the series starts, who gets Liv's help to solve crimes. Liv and Ravi claim that she is "psychic-ish" to account for her knowledge of victims. Eventually Liv tells him she is a zombie and that her "psychic skills" are actually a side effect from eating the brains of the victims. She does this to get Major out of jail.
Recurring
Production
Thomas was approached by Warner Brothers to develop the show while he was editing the film version of Veronica Mars. At first he refused, but Warner Brothers was insistent, and he eventually took the job. Prior to iZombie, Thomas was attempting to pitch his own zombie television series; when AMC picked up The Walking Dead, it was "so similar to what we were doing, it just killed that project," according to Thomas.
Alexandra Krosney originally played the part of Peyton Charles. After the show was ordered to series, she was replaced by Aly Michalka, and the role was changed from regular cast to recurring. Michalka was later promoted to series regular for the show's third season. Nora Dunn was initially attached to play Liv's mother; this was changed when it was realized that her character was going to play a smaller role than initially envisioned. She was replaced by Molly Hagan. Thomas has stated that this move was a financial decision.
The opening credits for the series are drawn by Michael Allred, the main artist of the original comic book. The show's theme tune is "Stop, I'm Already Dead" by Deadboy & the Elephantmen.
On October 5, 2015, The CW ordered five additional scripts for the second season, and on November 23, 2015, the network ordered six additional episodes into production, bringing the season order to 19 episodes.
On May 22, 2016, it was announced that Aly Michalka was promoted to series regular for season three.
Critical response
The first season received positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a 92% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.7/10 based on 49 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "An amusing variation on the zombie trend, iZombie is refreshingly different, if perhaps too youth-oriented to resonate with adult audiences." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 74 out of 100 based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Amy Ratcliffe of IGN rated the pilot episode 8.4/10, praising the show's "casual take on zombies" and Rose McIver's performance as Liv. LaToya Ferguson of The Onion's The A.V. Club graded the series a A- and stated the show is better for diverging from its comic book origins. She praised the show for having same quick-witted banter as Veronica Mars and observed it measures up well against Pushing Daisies, noting: "Television can only be better for having the voices of Thomas and Ruggiero-Wright back on a weekly basis". Inkoo Kang of the Dallas Observer called the show, "dazzlingly, tirelessly witty" with an "acute attention to human relationships", and praised it as "the summer's most underrated series".
The second season has been met with positive reviews. It holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 reviews with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. The website's consensus states: "iZombie smoothly shifts gears in its second season, moving between comedy and dramatic procedural while skillfully satirizing modern society along the way."
Home media
iZombie: The Complete First Season was released on DVD on September 29, 2015. iZombie: The Complete Second Season was released on DVD on July 12, 2016. Along with every episode of each season; both sets include deleted scenes and the 2014 and 2015 San Diego Comic-Con panels, respectively.
It was also announced that starting July 12, 2016, both seasons would be made available on Blu-Ray through the Warner Archive Collection, due to overwhelming fan demand. Made to order, the Blu-Ray releases include all bonus features on the DVD versions of Season 1 and Season 2, respectively.